He navigated out of the pretty part of town and into the more run-down part, until we arrived at a destination familiar to both of us.
Alley Road.
The site of his accident. An accident I’d witnessed from far away, my blood turning as ice cold as the freezing winter wind. The second the accident happened, everyone had scattered. They knew the ambulance would arrive shortly. That cop cars would swarm. Nearly everyone had been drinking alcohol or had weed in their pockets, and most had placed bets. It wasn’t somewhere a college student wanted to be when the authorities arrived. And everyone had assumed Cade was either dead or headed to jail.
Miraculously, Cade hadn’t died or gone to jail. My chest swelled with gratitude so acute, I reached over and squeezed his arm.
In spite of twilight fast approaching, Cade wore his sunglasses. He pulled to a stop and parked not far from the fire hydrant that had damaged his voice. I waited for him to speak, threading my fingers through his. We sat in silence for so long that when he spoke, it surprised me.
“I was try-trying to save him,” he said softly. Tightness pulled his mouth into a flat line.
“Who?” My eyes followed his gaze to the fire hydrant.
He took off his sunglasses and threw them onto the dashboard. His light brown eyes flicked to mine. “Dad.”
“By street racing?”
He nodded.
I figured Paul had needed the money, since he’d been gambling at the time.
“Well. He’s not gambling anymore.” I didn’t know that for sure, but it seemed like the right thing to say. “He’s doing well, isn’t he?”
“Y-you tell me.” Cade rubbed his fingers together, the universal symbol for money, and I knew he was talking about the envelope Paul had offered that I had refused. Embarrassed, my cheeks warmed.
“I didn’t take it.”
Cade’s mouth pulled into a small smile. “An-and your dad?”
I smiled back at him. “I didn’t let him scare me off either. I liked doing things with you, so I wasn’t about to stop.”
“I l-like doing things with y-you.” He spoke carefully, working through each syllable. “T-Tasha.”
My name came out on a whisper as he lifted his hand and brushed his knuckles along my cheek.
My life was better since I’d started spending time with Cade. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d even enjoyed the moments when he wasn’t talking to me and we’d sat in silence in his bedroom. Who would’ve thought, back when I was visiting the hospital room and sitting at his bedside, that the guy I hated would become someone I…liked.
Liked a lot.
You never hated him.
I hadn’t, I realized now.
“Did you t-talk to him about me?”
“Paul?” I asked, confused.
Cade corrected with a shake of his head. “Dumbass.”
“Oh, you mean Tony.”
A low laugh came from Cade’s chest and gooseflesh cropped up on my arms. I loved his laugh. Loved the way his mouth smiled and his dimple appeared. Loved the way the sound eased the tension in the air between us.
Well. Not all the tension. There was a lot of sexy tension in the car.
I looked at my hands. “I didn’t correct his assumption that you and I were…you know.”
Cade lifted my chin. His smile faded as his gaze burned into mine.