“I’ll take that as a yes,” Mark muttered. “Did he give you something?”
Cadence tensed. Suddenly she felt foolish.
“He let me borrow his lucky hat,” she said softly.
Mark tried to hide the grin. “Lucky hat?”
“He saw how nervous I was,” Cadence explained. “He was just trying to make me feel better.”
“I know.”
“He was nice, at least.”
“And I appreciate that. But I want you to understand his intention.”
“And what’s that?” she huffed.
“Ass.”
“Mark!”
“How old is he? Eighteen? Nineteen?”
“Probably something like that.”
“I rest my case.”
“So you don’t want me to be friends with him?” Cadence asked. “He’s in two of my classes.”
“I didn’t say that at all. Go be friends with him. Just be careful,” Mark replied.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be friends with him,” Cadence said.
“Sweet Cheeks, you can be friends with whoever you want. Okay? I’m just looking out for you.”
Cadence grinned. “I want you to be jealous,” she whispered.
“I know you do. And I will be if he lays a hand on you. But so far, you’ve painted him to be really honorable,” Mark said.
Cadence nodded. That wasn’t the complete truth. She didn’t tell Mark that Michael said he planned to steal a kiss from her some day. She thought she ought to, but she wasn’t ready to have no friends at school quite yet.
“When do you start class?” she asked. She wanted to change the subject.
Mark avoided her gaze. “Um, I’m actually starting next semester.”
She eyed him curiously. “Why?”
He sighed heavily. “I just can’t afford it right now.”
“I knew it. I knew this would happen.”
“You knew what would happen?” Mark asked.
“You gave me money you shouldn’t have, and now you can’t afford your own dream. It was your money!” Cadence cried.
“My money is your money.”
“Ugh! I’m dropping out.”
Mark looked at her evenly. “You’re going.”
“No. I’m getting the money back and giving it to you. You worked hard for it. You had to teach high school for Christ’s sake!” She jumped in her seat and slapped her hand over her mouth.
Mark shook his head, confused.
“I can’t believe I said that,” she mumbled into her palm. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”
“Said what?”
“I have to go pray.” She hopped up from her chair, and Mark followed her into the bedroom.
“Go away,” she said.
“Cadence, I’ll let you pray in a minute.” He wanted so badly to roll his eyes. “But first, we need to discuss this. Because you’re not getting any money back. You’re going to college. Period.”
“I accepted it because you made me believe you could still afford to go!”
“I thought I could,” he said, observing her bounce from foot to foot. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Oh my God! Are we done here? I need to pray!”
He cracked a smile then folded his hands. “‘Dear God, please forgive Cadence for taking your name in vain. She didn’t mean it, and she loves you very much. Amen.’ Now can we get back to it?”
“You are so disrespectful,” Cadence said. She wasn’t ugly about it. She actually thought it was funny, but she knew she couldn’t laugh. It would encourage him.
“I was praying!” Mark argued.
“You were being a smartass,” Cadence pointed out.
“You’re right. And I’m sorry. But you can’t just dump the whole ‘I’m not going to college’ thing on me and then run to the bedroom to pray. Kind of not fair.”
“What am I gonna do??”
“About what?”
“I feel like a leech! I’m sucking the life out of you! You pay for everything. You’re sacrificing your schooling. You—”
“Stop.”
Cadence closed her mouth.
“You give me no credit for making my own decisions. You know that? Is it, like, your goal in life to convince me that being with you is a terrible mistake? I’m totally loving my life, and you just refuse to accept that. Giving you money for school gave me a high.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah. A high. Why? Because I was doing something for you that I chose to do. I choose to take care of you, Cadence. And I love doing it. I love making you dinner. I love paying for your classes. I love making sure our electric bills are paid up so we can watch movies together. I love all of it. I love my life with you, so stop shitting all over it!”
Mark watched as she struggled with the need to argue. She chewed her lower lip. He waited. Her mouth parted, and it was all over.
“But you need to go to college! You need to be a professor!”
“There’s a big difference between needing something and wanting it. I need to make love to you all the time. That’s a need.”
She blushed.
“I want to get my Ph.D. That’s a want. And it’ll happen. I can’t start this semester. Okay. That’s cool. I’ll start next semester. No big deal.”
“Do you really need to make love to me?” she asked.
Mark burst out laughing. “You didn’t hear anything I said after that, did you?”
She shook her head. Well, at least she was honest.