And he would be ready. Because he was going to wake up.
The only person I could think to text was Cade and not for any other reason than to get rid of his goons.
Me: Your men here are unnecessary.
Cade: Look at them as company.
Me: I don’t want company. Lucas wouldn’t either. We need privacy.
Cade: Privacy for what?
Me: He’s fighting for his life in there. Do you even care?
Cade: Well, I sent my men there, didn’t I?
I scoffed. He didn’t understand that sending a stranger to witness someone’s private agony wasn’t helping.
Me: You saw him lying there lifeless and didn’t even come to the hospital.
Cade: His vitals are strong. They’re running bloodwork to see what happened with the drugs. He’ll be fine. The doctor’s charts say so.
Me: Did they call you?
Cade: No.
Me: Then how do you know?
Cade didn’t respond to the question, and he didn’t have to. He’d probably breached the hospital system to find that out. I envied how good he was, and my heart melted a little that he’d checked.
Me: If you want to see how someone is doing, you can come to the hospital to see, Cade. You don’t have to hack the hospital system.
Cade: I’m working.
Me: Fine. I’ll see you at work on Monday, then.
I silenced my phone and shoved it back in my pocket. I needed to be present for my friend.
Not more than an hour later, though, I heard a voice I wasn’t expecting. “Here,” Cade grumbled as he shoved a box of candy canes in my face.
“What?” I whispered, my heart racing even as my eyes started to tear up. “What’s this?”
I knew what it was. It was Cade making a freaking gesture.
It was him bringing what he knew both Lucas and I needed most of the time. He acted like he didn’t watch us, like he didn’t care about others, but there was so much in him that was good, and this was proof of it.
“What’s it look like? They’re candy canes,” he said as if I were the most dense person he’d ever come across. Then he shook them in front of me, an invitation to take them.
I grabbed them and hugged them close. I was still in my black dress and felt ridiculous in that moment. My hair was a wavy mess, and my clothes were utterly wrinkled from a night out and sleeping on a couch.
My jaw dropped when Cade lifted a bag he had in his other hand and pulled out a baggy T-shirt of mine that had Boyz II Men on it, my favorite mom jeans, and flip-flops. “You should go change.”
“How did you get my clothes?” I murmured.
“Do you really want to know?” He rolled his eyes and then rubbed them like he was tired of everything. “Go change, dollface.”
I snatched the clothes and ran to the bathroom before I could burst into tears in front of him.
Cadewas quickly becoming the person who wasn’t the enemy and instead the man who saved me from my burning dumpster fire of a day. And as I got changed in the hospital bathroom stall, I realized that my heart squeezed and almost fell apart whenever I saw him. People didn’t break down in tough situations unless someone else was there whom they trusted, whom they could lean on, whom they knew would have their back as they broke. It scared me that my soul trusted him, that I was happy he was here instead of anyone else.