“Wow”—I sigh as we marvel at the sight—“my grandmother had a snow globe like this. It was a city scene just like this, and I used to love to watch it sparkle and shine. This almost makes up for the fact I broke the darn thing one year.” I pass him a burger and fries as we start in on our artery-clogging meals.
“That’s too bad. How about this, I’ll bring you up here as often as you like, and I’ll let you shake me.” He gives a dirty little wink as he takes a bite out of his burger.
“Sounds like a good deal.” I examine him like this, with the moon licking a blue line over his dark glossy hair, his eyes lit up ten times brighter than they’ve ever been before. It’s been easy to keep my face tucked to the left on the drive up here because that way I’m actually facing him instead of subjecting him to my imperfection, but dear Lord Almighty, Cade James doesn’t have a single imperfection to call his own. “Any luck on the unicorn front?” Not sure why I went there. Hell, I know why I went there. Cade James is perfection, and he deserves that in his counterpart.
“None so far, and you?” His gaze cuts to mine with a slight accusation in it, and my stomach bisects with heat. Cade James is alarmingly handsome, alarmingly sweet, and overall dangerously sexy. It feels as if I’m walking on a wire without a safety net below. Any moment now, he’ll meet up with his unicorn, and it’ll be much more than my body that will miss him.
I shake my head. “No unicorns my way either.” I look away, because for one, I can’t seem to say those words while looking into his angel blue eyes.
“You mentioned your grandmother. Are you close to your family?”
Cade is probing, hoping for some unreasonable clues as to what makes me tick, and a part of me wants to push my lips to his to stop him from going there.
“Close as I can be. Mimi and Pappy—yes, that’s what I call them—they’re back home with my momma. She lives with them.”
“So, you’re out here alone?”
“As alone as you are.” I lift a fry as if to toast him before taking a bite.
“I have my sister and my brothers.” He takes a long swig from his soda.
“I have a sister, too.” I’m not sure why I let that little familial nugget fly, but it felt good to give him something. As if all of my secrets were a wound festering on the inside, and that one tiny detail was the incision that helps get some of the poison out. I’ve spent my entire life filled with the toxins I’ve accumulated right after my father left. I’m not quite sure how to get rid of them.
“I’d love to meet her. Does she go to WB?”
“No.” A tiny laugh escapes me. “She’s not exactly the collegiate type. She’s more or less taking the world by the horns.” I shake my head as I pick up my drink. “Riding that bull.” For all to see, but I leave that part out.
“I get it. College isn’t for everyone. In fact, I’ll be glad when I’m done with grad school.”
“You apply?”
“Yup. Got in, too, right here at Briggs. It’s just an extra year, so it won’t kill me. Plus, I’ll get to hang out with you.” His lip tugs with a naughty grin, but he won’t give it.
“You’ll be snatched up way before then. I’m pretty sure I’ll be long off your radar by graduation. You mentioned you had a girlfriend once. Whatever became of you two?”
“She left me.” He closes his eyes a brief moment. “Actually, that’s not exactly how it went, but that’s over now. And how about you? Anyone lurking in your past?”
“Only a couple of morons that I’m more than glad to be rid of. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, right?”
“Amen.” Cade picks up my hand, and my heart flutters like a thirteen-year-old’s. On some level, it feels silly to have such a visceral reaction. He tips his head and openly looks to my scar, speaking without words, letting me know we’re going there again. “Can I ask what happened?”
The city lights below glisten and wink as if giving me the okay to do so.
“Let’s just say my daddy was a traveling man. He went out one night after a nasty fight with my momma, and I knew he was taking off for good.” A tight knot constricts in my throat until the next few words become too painful to push out.
Cade brings my hand to his lips and dots it with a kiss. “Take your time,” he whispers so sweetly I wish to God there wasn’t a center console locked between us.
I blow a breath through my lips. “He yelled and told me to get back inside. I didn’t listen. I watched as he melted down the road. I’ll never forget those taillights. I remember thinking they glowed like cherries in the night, and to this day, I’m still a little sad when I look at that haunting color.” A mean shudder runs through me. “Anyway, I met up with a pack of neighborhood thugs.” I wrinkle my nose at him. “Pack of dogs. They hadn’t been properly fed in days, and there I was looking like a steak.” I touch my finger to my cheek, ending that mystery for him. “I blacked out after that.”