My face went hot despite the cold, and I had to look away.
“Go.” I flicked my fingers toward the field of trees. I waited for him to take the hint, to wander off into the sea of green and leave me to pull myself back together.
But Cade stayed rooted where he was, grinning that wide Cheshire-cat grin that had gotten me into trouble in the first place.
He knew precisely what he was doing. Exactly what that line had done to me.
And for one stupid, unguarded second, I let him have that victory. No deflecting. No barbed comeback. Like New Year’sEve hadn’t blown our entire friendship to pieces. Like I hadn’t been dodging him ever since.
Just the smallest pull at the corner of my mouth.
For the next hour, Cade would wander over to Harrison’s table, then back to me. Move away to chat with someone he knew from the harbor, then come back. Take a moment to study Holly’s wreaths with intense focus, then—you guessed it—return. Every time I glanced up, he was in my line of sight. He wasn’t demanding my attention, necessarily. He was just relentlessly, infuriatingly present.
By the time the sky shifted from pale gray to bruised lavender, my shoulders ached from tension.
“He seems really invested in your company,” Holly observed when she wandered over to collect the vases she’d decorated my table with.
I shot her a look that sent her retreating, palms up in surrender.
The next time Cade approached, I was done hiding my irritation.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked when he stopped in front of my table again, that same faint smile on his face.
“Just enjoying the ambiance.” He rocked back on his heels, that easy grin still in place. “It’s nice out here.”
“It’s thirty-two degrees,” I pointed out with a skeptical lift of my left eyebrow. “And you hate crowds.”
“Yeah, butyou’rehere, and I like you.” He shrugged one shoulder, like it was the simplest truth in the world.
The casual way he said it—like it was obvious, like it wasn’t the thing that kept me up at night for the past eleven months—made my throat tight. Goosebumps rose on my arms despite my thick sweater.
I crossed my arms protectively over my chest. “You’ve tried all three of my beers. Twice. So if you’re not picking upa growler, maybe go try Harrison’s cheese samples and let someone else enjoy theambiance.”
His brows shot up. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
I let out a short, graceless snort of a laugh. “Yes.”
He blinked, appearing genuinely confused. “I thought we were hanging out.”
“We arenothanging out,” I snapped. “You’re hovering. There’s a difference.”
He rolled his shoulders back, his posture straightening, the smile slipping from his face. “What is your problem?”
“You,” I said.
He blinked again. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” I replied, anger flaring in my chest. “You are my problem.”
He stared at me, his brows drawing together. “What did I ever do to you?”
The guilelessness of the question nearly punched the air out of my lungs.
You kissed me like you meant it. You put your hands on me and made me feel—God, you made me feel everything. And then you slipped out of my loft the next morning like it had meant nothing.
I set down the glass I was holding to keep myself from tossing the beer into his stupidly handsome face and gripped the edge of my table with both hands.
“The fact that I have to point it out is reason enough for me to be angry.”
