Chapter 19
Tasha
I stepped out into the waning sunshine, my only hope that a bombed pathophysiology final wouldn’t keep me from graduating. A fool’s hope, rang Gandalf’s sage voice in my head.
But that, as they say, was that. School was done and I couldn’t wait to stop going to class and get the hell on with my life.
Since my father’s heart-to-heart and my accepting the car, he’d made a call to Tony’s family. Mr. Fry wasn’t exactly receptive to the phone call. I’d overheard the tail end, my father’s warning of “Keep that scum away from my daughter.”
He cared. And that felt good.
Work had been going well, and despite feeling as if I might crumble at any moment, my life was moving forward. I’d indulged in a few clichéd ice cream and movie nights with Rena, who claimed Ben & Jerry were the best friends to have when going through a breakup. She didn’t bring up Cade, but I almost wanted her to.
Today I thought maybe she knew something and wasn’t letting me in on it. And I assumed the news was bad. Maybe she and Devlin had attempted to intervene and Cade had maintained that I was a rich bitch who didn’t deserve a second chance. If that’s what he thought of me…well, I didn’t see the point in being so in love with him I couldn’t see straight.
But I was.
My heart needed a lobotomy.
“Tasha Montgomery.”
What sounded like a speaker overhead called out my name, and my heart skipped a beat, fearing for two seconds I was in trouble.
“Has anyone seen the beautiful blonde who owns me wandering around?”
I cast a horrified gaze left, then right, before spotting a megaphone and the guy behind it. A guy with a trail of tattoos down his arm.
Cade stood on a park bench under a huge oak tree in the center of campus. The brick paths and walkways had been built around the tree to preserve it years ago. The moment Cade started speaking, students stopped in their tracks.
“Fox!” a guy shouted. Cade held up a palm and high-fived him.
Silver-tongued fox.
Still standing on the bench, wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt, Cade’s stance was casual with one hand in his pocket. Even from far away, I could tell his eyes never left mine.
“I figured you would respond better to a public announcement than a text,” he said into the megaphone, broadcasting to the growing crowd loud and clear. I gazed around at several people who dotted the walkways on all sides of the tree. Their eyes were on Cade, then on me.
“You’re wrong,” I called out. “Text would’ve been better.”
“No. I don’t think it is,” he announced into the megaphone.
“Put that down.”
“Not until I’m done.”
A few chuckles were punctuated by one whistle.
“I haven’t been able to find my voice for months, kitten,” he said, with the most perfect enunciation. “You found it for me. You uncovered it. You unraveled me. You ripped my chest open and climbed inside.”
I didn’t trust my voice. So I pressed my fingers to my lips and listened.
“I followed Brooke Clayton here because I loved her. She broke my heart in two and I was really pissed off for a really long time.”
“Hell, yeah!” some guy yelled in support.
“What a bitch!” someone else called out.
“Love sucks, man,” Cade said. “Especially when you majorly fuck up with the girl you’re gone for.”