Was I helping Cade because I believed it was the right thing to do? One hundred percent.
But was I also helping Cade because my feelings for him went far beyond my role as an assistant coach, or even a friend? Definitely.
Zane: Shit. Fair enough. Let me know how Caden’s mom and Caden are doing once you get there. Drive safe.
Cade stirred beside me in the passenger seat, so I quickly tapped out of my messages so he wouldn’t see the open conversation between Zane and me.
It had literally been a straight shot going northeast on a single highway between Belleville and Sudbury. Now that we were close, I swiped to open Maps, and as quietly as possible, set up the directions for the hospital.
Pulling into the visitor parking lot with Cade still asleep, I found a space and killed the engine.
After hundreds of kilometers on that endless dark highway, I felt closer to sixty than almost thirty. My eyes were scratchy with lack of sleep, and my joints hurt from sitting in one position for nearly six hours straight.
I needed to get my hands on whatever coffee the hospital had available to the public.
I allowed the tension in my back and arms to relax. I’d been hyper-aware of the forest on either side of the road the whole way, watching for any animal that might take its chances on crossing the lanes in front of me.
I’d imagined a deer, or a goddamn moose, making a pit-stop in front of my Jeep and getting stunned still by my headlights. The adrenaline from being focused on getting us up to Sudbury in one piece was now waning.
I wanted so badly to just close my eyes and lean my head against the headrest for twenty minutes, as if a catnap could help me clear my mind enough not to overstep with Cade any more than I already had.
Every cell in my body wanted to hold him close to me so he would know that he wasn’t alone in facing whatever awaited him inside the building, but I wasn’t allowed to.
I looked at him for the final time as he slept beside me, committing to memory the peace and softness of his features as he got the rest he’d so clearly needed.
Holding back a sigh, I reached over the console to delicately take hold of his left knee, remembering the flinch he’d given when I’d tried to give him a casual pat on his shoulder the first day we’d met.
If he reacted that way while awake, I didn’t want to scare him while he was completely out of it.
But you didn’t hesitate to kneel in front of him and hold his face in your hands, did you?
I kicked my inner voice back onto the sidelines.
The heat of Cade’s body emanating from under the sweatpants he wore had my skin tingling with awareness as I pressed my fingertips into the finely honed muscles just above his kneecap.
Cade didn’t wake. Instead, he emitted the tiniest hum from his barely open mouth.
Hating to wake him, but knowing that he had to get in there, I added my palm to the hold I had on his leg. The little divot where his thigh muscles connected to the top of his knee was way too fascinating to me, so I gave another quick shake to his leg before letting go.
Cade’s eyes blinked open. A disproportionate amount of pleasure filled me when he didn’t jolt awake. Instead, he yawned massively and stretched his arms above where his head rested against the car window.
The sliver of stomach that revealed itself when his hoodie pulled away from his waist had my whole body going hot and my dick half hard instantly.
Just below his belly button was a line of strawberry-blond hair leading into the waistband of his pants.
But that wasn’t even the worst of it. The skin of his lower abdomen was absolutely filled with a galaxy’s worth of pale freckles.
I looked away and had to bite the inside of my cheek to bring myself back to reality.
I was just overtired and crashing from the drive. I had never behaved inappropriately toward anyone I’d been attracted to, and I definitely was not going to do something stupid like kiss all the damn freckles on Cade’s face before devouring his mouth with mine.
He has something going with that girl you saw him with in the coffee shop that afternoon, remember? Get your act together, Landry.
This time, I leaned into the scolding my conscience gave me and concentrated on wrestling my arousal into submission.
“Ash?” Cade’s voice was hushed and hesitant.
Praying to the universe that I could keep my feelings off my face, I turned back to Cade, offering him a half-smile.
