I opened the door and shoved Cate in. I knew what was coming next, and I didn’t want to show my true feelings in front of these pricks.
And one, two, three . . . there it was.
“Is that why you wanted to be traded?”
Yep.
I hustled over to the driver’s side and said, “See you all at a game hopefully,” and jumped in the cab.
“What are you doing here?” Cate’s gaze roamed my profile as I turned the key.
I ignored her question. “Where were you going?”
“Corner of Fifty-First and Pelican. There’s a small place called Steamers.”
“Oysters?” I asked, raising my eyebrow and throwing the truck in drive.
“Coffee. Now answer me.”
“I’m here for you.”
“Blane, I’m making a new life here, getting a degree. I’m going to be on TV, something I never thought I’d do. You’re going to be in New York, and you can have anyone you want. I don’t want to be some story or shit from your past.”
I pressed the gas pedal and pushed forward when all I wanted to do was brake hard and shake her.
“I got traded and I’m here. With the Magic. Not because I want you to be some goofy story of my past, but because I need to be near you while you conquer the world.”
“Stop the car!” she shrieked.
“Why? I’m not letting you run,” I said evenly, despite feeling anything but calm.
She tried to grab the wheel. Seriously, her short arm came across the center console, grabbing for it.
Fucking Cate. I forgot how pig-headed she could be. Although I wasn’t sure how—we’d just spent the last five months separated because of her stubbornness.
I veered over and pulled up to the curb as campus buses and cars whizzed by, honking at my abrupt maneuver.
“What do you mean? You were traded?” She turned to face me, her brown eyes dark with fury, her mouth tight and her arms crossed over her chest.
I ran my hand over her shoulder, sliding her shirt to the side to expose the tattoo on her shoulder. “I’m here for you. See that, the Stealer? You’re mine; that even says so.” I traced the outline of my nickname, causing her skin to prickle with goose bumps under my touch.
“You can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head. “Move here.”
“Don’t you care about me anymore?”
“This isn’t about whether I care for you or not.”
“That’s exactly what it’s about, Cate. So, you don’t?”
“No. Yes.” She shook her head again, frustrated. “Yes, I’ll always care for you, but this can’t be. We were friends. Had a few moments, but—”
“Cate, you’re right.” I grabbed her hand and held it tight in mine. “We were friends, and then more than friends. For more than a minute, if I remember correctly. And then we were nothing.”
She looked up at me, her eyes filled with unshed tears. “But what about what I did, what I’m doing?” she whispered, and dropped her gaze to the console.
I had to tread carefully. Somewhere along the line, she’d slipped into a protector role when it came to me. She was guarding my heart, but this was a team sport and we needed to share it.
In my mind, I conjured up the X’s and O’s of what I wanted to say and how to say it in a carefully constructed way so she didn’t open the door and run into oncoming traffic.
“I didn’t like what you did. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with it. Yeah, at first I was pissed and then jealous and then mad. But then I had to hear from someone else why you were doing it.”
“What?” She lifted her head as I squeezed her hand, making her dark curls fall over her furrowed brow, framing her face.
“Your friend Sarina came to talk with me.”
“What?” she shrieked.
“She did. She also knew you’d be mad when you found out, but she explained how you two met and what you were doing for her and the others.”
“Did she say how easily I’d been lured into making one?”
I dared to run my free fingers through the loose tips of her hair, and she didn’t pushed me away.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, I said, “Cate, honey, she explained how tormented you were over making them, but the money was what you needed. You were also smart enough to know you’d have to speak with some experience to give you authority when you wrote your book. She adores you, you know.”
Cate nodded.
“Sarina knew you wouldn’t explain this all to me yourself, so she told me.”
“I can’t believe it,” she murmured and absently ran her thumb along the inside of my palm. She probably didn’t even realize she was doing it, and I wasn’t going to clue her in.
“I would have come to you sooner, but you needed time to finish what you were doing—”
“And you had to win a championship. Oh my God, this whole time, I never said congratulations.” A smile lit up her face, transforming it.
“I know you were there.”
“Alex?”
“Bingo.”
Now came the part where I had to be ultra-smooth for my plan to work.
“Cate, I came to love you as a friend.”
Her smile flitted away, leaving a gutted expression.
“And as more.”