I didn’t have any of the answers.
Despite the street being quiet, the restaurant had a low buzz of conversation. A quick glance around the room showed mostly groups of senior citizens out for an afternoon coffee and a few students with noise-canceling headphones, attempting to study.
My gaze froze on the corner of the room where Cade was sitting with a gorgeous young woman, their heads bent together. Her hands covered both of his as they leaned on the table.
I hadn’t known, until that moment, how many fantastical hopes I’d pinned on the possibility of something happening with Cade.
The punch of seeing him holding hands with someone else had nausea bubbling up in my throat. There was no way I was going to stay in this restaurant, grab a coffee, and pretend like I could deal with an innocent run-in with Cade and this girl. From the looks of things, if they weren’t dating, they were definitely interested. They only had eyes for each other.
Not caring if I looked like some weirdo who came into the coffee shop and ducked out again without buying anything, I turned and left. It was my turn to avoid Cade for once.
I hustled down the street in the direction of the river.
Now I had my answer. Nothing would happen with Cade. Maybe this moment was the universe telling me to get my mind focused on the things that should have been my priorities:healing my injury, taking time to rest, and helping Zane like he’d asked.
And, sure as fuck, staying away from the gorgeous walking conflict of interest that was Caden Kelly.
There was no reason a high-school-like crush should be able to affect me this way.
I needed to remind myself that I had enough on my plate this year. My feelings for Cade needed to be tucked away deep in the recesses of my mind until I could forget them completely.
I’d keep it to rehabbing my shoulder and coaching.
Simple.
fourteen
CADEN
This wasn’t how I wanted the new year to start.
Christmas had been a quiet couple of days back up in Sudbury. My first visit back since moving to Lakeside was made better by my dad spending less time at home than usual. He’d claimed he’d been invited ice fishing with an old buddy who “didn’t have anyone else at Christmas.”
The twenty-fourth had been our traditional Chinese takeout meal—“Who wants to cook big meals two nights in a row, Caden?”my mom always said—while Christmas Day dinner had been a small chicken I’d helped Mom cook. Between the two meals, I’d managed to make it out unscathed.
Now, on the third road trip since New Year’s, the thud of my steps echoed back at me in the empty hallway.
It was an eerie reminder that I shouldn’t be on the top floor of the nicest hotel we’d stayed at all season, when the rest of my team was in their rooms five floors below.
At 2:00 a.m., my teammates were all asleep, having taken Coach Wilder’s strict routine to heart. Not a single Hammerheads player wanted on Coach’s shit-list.
And here I was about to put myself at the top of that list.
“You can’t just leave without talking to someone. It’s the right thing to do,” I whispered to myself.
As if saying the mantra I’d been repeating since I got Kait’s text would make any difference to the shitstorm writhing away in my gut.
Kait: I know you’re in practice right now so I didn’t call. Your mom had a fall getting out of the shower. She couldn’t reach your dad, so she called me. It was lucky as hell she had her phone on the bathroom counter. She needs surgery first thing tomorrow. Not sure when they will actually get her in. You might have time to drive up tomorrow morning, but they won’t promise if it’s going to be 8:00 a.m. or 4:00 p.m. I’m staying with her in the ER. Drive safe and let me know when you are on your way.
Everything I’d eaten in the past twelve hours threatened to make a reappearance as I arrived in the doorway of Ash’s hotel room.
This was the last thing I wanted to do. Ash had been avoiding me for the past couple of weeks, and I couldn’t help thinking that it was my fault. I realized after my visit with Kait that my behavior due to my embarrassment had pushed him away. I’d been so embarrassed about falling asleep and waking up on his shoulder in his office that my brain had literally shut down.
The first week after, I could barely look him in the eye, but he’d kept acting as warm as ever. I should’ve said something, but Kait’s visit took over, and then by the time she left, it felt even weirder to bring it up.
Knocking on his door in the middle of the night was just another way to show him how fucked up I was. I’d already triedCoach’s room, but there was no answer. He told us on the bus ride to the hotel that he had a buddy in Belleville he might visit.
So, as much as I didn’t want to face the music with Coach, I would rather have dealt with whatever he had to throw at me instead of coming to Ash like a kicked puppy and telling him that I needed to get up to Sudbury as soon as possible.
