“Okay, obviously you’re not going home by yourself!” Aiden’s irritation was gone, replaced by concern so strong it was almost fear. “I’ll come with you. Cade, I—”
“I don’t want you to come with me. I want to… Ineedto…. Fuck, Aiden! I need some time. Please.”
“Cade, I don’t—”
“Do I phone the airline? Is that how I change tickets? And then is there a bus I could catch? Or I can hitchhike. Maybe you could drop me at the highway, if that’s okay, and I could—”
“Cade,ifyou’re flying home on your own, of course I’d drive you to the airport. But I don’t think you should fly home on your own. Not when you’re whatever you are. Upset.” The word was too light, but Aiden didn’t have time to find a better one. “Okay, I’m trying to figure this out. You were okay the first night. I mean, a bit overwhelmed, but you and Sarah were getting along. We were all down here on the dock, and you were… I don’t know, you were stillyou. And then we went back to the party, and you got weird.” He frowned, trying to sort through it all. “And then before we went to the fort—okay, that was hot—I like the outdoor lovin’. But it wasn’t really your style, was it? I mean, it was a bit risky, for you. You seemed a bit—desperate.”
There should have been a joke in response to that. Something about AidenwishingCade was desperate, or maybe something better. Something funnier. But Cade didn’t say anything. He just stared at the ground by Aiden’s feet.
Aiden had no idea how to handle something like this. It wasn’t how people were supposed to act. If there was nothing immediately wrong, people should be happy, and if therewassomething wrong, they should be working to fix it. They should be recruiting other people tohelpthem fix it. If the problem was somehow unfixable—hard as that was to imagine—then they should be sharing it and gathering sympathy andopening themselves up to let everyone else help them deal with it. Cade was just… leaving?
“No,” Aiden said. At least that made Cade look at him. “You shouldn’t go without me. If you don’t like it here, or if… if something else has happened… shit, Cade, this is stupid! I can’t help when I have no idea what the hell is going on!”
Cade went back to looking at his shoe. “I need to figure some stuff out.”
“Stuff that doesn’t involve me? Stuff that I can’t help you with?”
“Fuck, Aiden!” Cade’s face was twisted as if in pain, but his voice was angry. “You don’townme! Not every single thing about me is your business, okay? This is… I’m sorry it’s happening at your cottage. I know this is a big sacred place of family and happiness. I get that, and it’s why I’m trying to get away!” He shrugged and the sudden burst of energy drained out of him almost visibly. “I’ll change my flight. You should stay here.”
Because Cade didn’twantAiden to fly home. Because in times of crisis, whatever the hell this crisis was, Cade didn’t want Aiden at all. He didn’t trust him, didn’t need him, couldn’t stand to be around him. Aiden had no idea what that meant, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t good. “You can call from the cottage,” he said numbly. “I’ll let my parents know. And I’ll drive you to the airport. Okay? Can you at least… will you let me do that much?”
Cade nodded slowly. “I’m sorry. Thank you.”
It was old Cade, Aiden realized. Cade might as well have been staring at the sandwich he was making and wishing the annoying frat boy would leave him alone. All the hesitation—all the barriers Aiden had worked so hard to strip away were back. And Aiden had no idea why.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aiden’s momsprang into action as soon as she heard about the change of plans. All the solicitousness and organization in her power was on display, and it would have been touching to see her working for Cade’s benefit if it hadn’t all been directed toward getting Cade the hell away from her family. She had the flight changed, Cade’s bag packed, and was putting together snacks for the road when Uncle Warren wandered into the kitchen and saw the preparations.
“You boys going on an adventure?”
“Cade’s not going to be able to stay the full week,” Aiden’s mom said quickly. “He has to go home a bit early. Aiden’s going to drop him off at the airport as soon as Andrew gets back from running errands with the car.”
There was another strange moment, then, Uncle Warren looking at Cade almost… was it anger on his face? But the expression was gone too fast to be sure what it had been, and then Uncle Warren’s laugh made it clear that he wasn’t upset about anything. “Well, that’s a lucky coincidence! I was just reading e-mails, and I thinkIneed to get back to the city a bit earlier than planned as well. That deal I was telling you about, the one in Shanghai? There’ve been some problems. I was going to try to sort it out from up here, but it really would be better to do it from the home office. So if Cade needs a ride down to the airport, I can take him.”
“Oh, Warren, you just got here! You wouldn’t leave Andrew and Aiden and me all alone with each other, would you? And we haven’t really talked about everything that’s going on, you and Suzanne and the divorce.”
“Well, there’s not much to talk about, really. And you’re hardly alone, not with everyone else still up here. If I cut this visit short, maybe I can justify another quick hop up later in the summer. We’ll have to check our schedules. And we really should see more of each other in the city. But, for now, yeah. I think I have to be a responsible adult and take care of business.” He turned to Cade. “What airline are you flying? I’ll see if we can sit together.”
It shouldn’t have been a big deal. Sure, Cade was flying economy, so maybe he’d be embarrassed about that, but Aiden had alreadyexplained how easy it was to get upgrades when you flew a lot. Hell, Aiden’s dad’s company did enough business with the airlines that the St. Johns could make pretty much any requests they wanted. Cade knew that. So the way he was staring at Warren made no sense at all.
And it lasted far too long. Cade staring at Warren, Warren staring back. Then Cade turned and looked at Aiden. His expression was twisted with a strange, yearning sadness, as if he was embarking on a long voyage and knew he would never see home again. Then he turned back to Warren.
“No,” he said. He didn’t look sad anymore. His gaze was almost feral, with a fierce intensity. He clearly thought the word would mean something to Warren.
And it did. Aiden caught the quick twitch of the man’s jaw before his whole face contorted as he laughed. “Okay, Mr. Grumpy! Sit by yourself, then!” He shook his head like he was amused by a little boy’s temper tantrum. “It doesn’t matter where you sit.”
Cade was still staring at Uncle Warren. “It matters,” he said quietly. Then he turned to Aiden. “We need to talk.”
Finally. Aiden tried to keep the relief off his face. “Okay. Yeah.”
But before he could ask where Cade wanted to go, Uncle Warren jumped in. “What time’s your flight? You don’t want to miss that. Aiden, run up and grab my laptop, will you? Cade, come on into the dining room and give me your flight details. We’ll just—”
“No,” Cade said. He sounded like he was amazed by the word. “It’s over. Forget it.”
There was a long pause before Warren shook his head. “Cade, think about this. You’re playing with fire, and there’s absolutely no reason for it. I don’t know if….” He looked apologetically at Aiden’s mother, then Aiden himself. “I’m not sure where Cade’s confusion starts. I’ve suggested that he deal with it, because, well, because it seems like the sort of thing that could….” He turned back to Cade, his voice gentle. “It’s the sort of thing that could hurt you. Saying things like that? Making up lies about other people? Come on, Cade, think it through. Think about what you stand to lose.”
