“Like you were visiting a zoo and somehow got stuck on the wrong side of the glass.”
“Nice analogy! And they say engineers are only good with numbers!”
Cade smiled, but his heart wasn’t in it. Aiden and his father had been on the wrong side of the zoo’s barriers at the alcohol counseling, but it was the side Cade had grown up on. And now he was heading to Aiden’s house, andhewas going to be the one on the wrong side of theglass, the wild animal loose among civilized humans. He wasn’t a tiger or a bear; he wasn’t going to hurt any of them. He was going to be more like that Internet video of a deer that had wandered into a shopping mall and panicked. His little hooves were going to skitter across the polished floor and there’d be strange faces yelling at him and he wouldn’t be able to find the exit—
“You okay over there?” Aiden asked, and he wrapped his warm fingers around Cade’s. “It’s just a house, Cade. If you don’t like it, we can go get lunch somewhere and then turn around and go back to your apartment. Okay?”
“I’m sure I’ll like it,” Cade lied.
And Aiden called him on it. “Yeah. I can see the enthusiasm pouring off you.” But he squeezed Cade’s hand at the same time.
They drove on and moved from the highway to an arterial road, then into an upscale commercial area full of boutiques and brick storefronts. Then into a residential neighborhood, and Cade had to fight the urge to slump down in his seat and try to look less conspicuous. The houses were well-shielded from the road, but he could see enough of them through the openings in the trees to know he was out of his league. Like, so far out of his league he wasn’t even playing the same sport as these people.
And Aiden was one ofthem.
“Almost there,” Aiden said. He was smiling, as usual, but there was a little extra excitement to him. He was happy to be going home, Cade realized. Even with his parents already gone out to Aspen, this place meant something to him.
He slowed down when they were beside a ten-foot-tall hedge, turned in through wrought iron gates, and drove along a tree-lined drive. They pulled up in front of a house that was as large as Cade had expected, but more modern. It was strangely blocky, almost like it had been built in sections and then joined together. Lots of windows, lots of long, flat stretches….
“It looks like it,” Aiden confided as if he thought Cade would know what he was talking about. “But it’s not an actual Frank Lloyd Wright.” He grinned. “But my mom says the architectwasone of Wright’s favorite protégés.”
Cade nodded. He really had no idea how to talk about architecture, and Aiden had turned off the ignition and was climbing out of the car, so luckily he didn’t have to respond right then. Aiden opened the trunk and grabbed Cade’s overnight bag and his own larger duffel. He was flying out to Aspen the next morning to join up with his parents and had convinced Cade to come up for one night before he left. He’d actually tried to convince Cade to drop him at the airport and take the Mustang down to West Lafayette, but Cade had been forced to admit that he didn’t have a driver’s license. Aiden had frowned as if the words made no sense to him, but he’d let the topic go. So now he was going to leave the Mustang at the house and take a cab to the airport, and Cade was going to take the bus back to West Lafayette. He’d thought he’d hitch, but Aiden had bugged him to take the bus and Cade had finally given in. It was the middle of winter, and there wouldn’t be a lot of people going to a college town while school was out, so hitching could involve a lot of cold waiting. The bus was a luxury, but Cade would consider it his Christmas present to himself.
Thankfully, he’d convinced Aiden to forgo a gift exchange between them. It would have been too awkward and too imbalanced. So they’d both picked charities and made a donation in the other’s name, without specifying the amount of money contributed. Cade’s twenty bucks might not mean a lot to the adult literacy program he’d found, but he hoped it would mean something to Aiden.
“You coming?” Aiden asked, and Cade realized that Aiden was halfway up the wide front steps while Cade hadn’t moved from the side of the car.
“Sorry, yeah.” Cade caught up and Aiden shifted the bags so they were both in one hand and he had the other one free to hold Cade’s.
“It’s not a dungeon, Cade. Just a house.” He stood there looking at the building as if for the first time, then said, “Pretty big, I guess. But over there? You see the shrub at the corner? It looks okay now, but for about five years when I was a kid, my friends and I would climb out that window there and then jump off the roof and use the shrub to break our fall. No reason for it. We weren’t grounded or anything. We could have walked out the front door without any complaints from anyone. We were being brats.”
“Kinda hard on the landscaping.”
“That shrub got the shit kicked out of it. I don’t know… that might not even be the same one, to be honest. My mom might have gotten the old one replaced. She always threatened to put in a rose bush or something that would scratch us up, but I guess she didn’t really mind that much. She let us be a little wild.”
“I feel bad for the shrub. Putting up with the little brats for so many years, and then getting dug up and thrown away? Seems like it should have been given a place of honor after all that.”
“Shit. NowIfeel bad for the shrub. Maybe thatisstill the same one, and they did a good job of rehabbing it. I’ll ask my mom.” Aiden squeezed Cade’s fingers. “But the point of that little story? This is just a house, Cade. A home. It’s not a trap.”
But right then the front door opened and they both swiveled their heads to stare at the highly polished blonde woman who stood in the doorway. “Are you boys coming in?”
There was no way that was a housekeeper. Cade jerked his head around to look at Aiden, trying to fight the feeling of betrayal growing in his gut, and was relieved to see that Aiden looked at least as surprised as Cade felt.
“Mom! Hey!” Aiden started up the stairs, dragging Cade behind him. “I thought you and Dad flew out yesterday!”
“We were scheduled to,” she agreed with a warm smile and a hug for her son. “But something came up at your dad’s office. Some crisis that simplyhadto be dealt with. So we postponed our flight. We’ve got something booked for this afternoon. And now that you’re up here early, you can change your flight and come out with us!”
“Sorry,” Aiden said. He stepped to the side and pulled Cade to the doorway. “Mom, this is Cade Martin. Cade, this is my mom, Nicole St. John.”
Mrs. St. John extended her hand and Cade managed to make himself grasp it. Good, he was still somewhat in control of himself. His body was following orders, at least. He even managed to mumble something about it being nice to meet her, certainly the biggest lie he’d told in recent memory. He stumbled inside and got out of the way as she shut the door behind them.
“Cade and I have made plans for tonight,” Aiden was saying. “So I can’t change my flight.”
Mrs. St. John’s smile got a little tighter as she directed it at Cade. “But you have him almost all year long! You wouldn’t mind sharing him with us for one extra day at Christmas, would you?” She was trying to sound playful, but Cade felt like a mouse being toyed with by a cat. Or a lion.
But Aiden wasn’t abandoning him. “Mom. It’s not Cade’s decision, it’s mine.Iwant to follow through on our plans. I’m looking forward to spending time with you and Dad in Aspen, but I’m spending tonight with Cade.”
She raised an eyebrow, but then a middle-aged woman in jeans and a sweatshirt stepped into the hall from the back of the house. “Aiden, sweetie! Good to see you! Percival’s figured out that you’re home and he’s about to dig his way through the door.” She redirected her gaze to Mrs. St. John. “Can I let him loose?”
