I chuckled. “Don’t mention it,” he said. “You got anything else in the car?”
“No,” Cade said. I had the feeling he was trying really hard to sound like he wasn’t dying inside from embarrassment. “Just this.”
“You brought a lot of stuff,” I laughed and watched his face fall even further.
Shit.
“Uh, I probably didn’t bring enough,” I said quickly. “Oh, you brought books and stuff, huh? I didn’t think of that. I guess I’m used to just watching TV or whatever in the evening.”
Cade finally set the rest of his bundle down on the other bed, narrowly avoiding having one of his bags fall off onto the floor even then. I set the two I’d caught down with the others. “I don’t think there’s a TV here.”
I glanced around the room. He was right. “Huh. I guess I’ll have to find something else to pass the time.”
Just saying those words made me think about what the others were doing. All of those couples out there had an easy option, and I got the feeling that Xavi and Ace were friends from before or something. They both knew Keaton, anyway. And I thought I remembered they were both gay from when Harvey was giving me the inside track on everyone. They probably had enough to keep themselves entertained in the evening, too.
Which just left me and Cade stuck with nothing to do while everyone else was calling it an early night to have sex in their cabins.
Or, just me, since he obviously had his books.
There had to be a way I could convince everyone to stay out late, all of us in the same cabin and cozy, to stop this from being the most disappointing trip of all time.
“You can borrow one if you want,” he said, and it took me a minute to realize he meant the books.
“Oh, right.” I nodded. I shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really read a lot, but yeah. I mean, outside of textbooks.”
“What are you studying?” Cade asked. There was a kind of tone to his voice like he didn’t really want to ask, but he knew it was polite.
“Physiotherapy,” I said, swinging my arms together to loosen them a bit after the long drive. “I wanna stay connected to sports after I graduate.”
“You’re not planning to carry on playing football?” Cade asked, cocking his head to the side slightly.
I laughed. “Nah. I’m not as good as all that.”
“Oh,” Cade said, his face going red again.
“It’s okay,” I promised him quickly. “I know what I’m good at, you know? Hey, aren’t you a college student, now, too?”
Cade nodded. “Just started in the fall. I’m majoring in architecture.”
I nodded, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, cool,” I said. “I have no idea about architecture whatsoever.”
Cade chuckled. “Most people don’t,” he said. It came across as self-deprecating, not scornful.
He’d had a bad time – that was what Caleb had said. Was that why he was so awkward? I held myself back from going as far as asking it. Caleb had told us to lay off, right?
“Well, maybe I’ll get bored enough to quiz you all about it,” I said, flashing him a smile.
“Haha, maybe,” he said, with an obviously forced laugh. The look on his face was slightly hurt.
Shit, I just put my foot in it, didn’t I?
Cade started to unpack his bags, a task that coincidentally left him turning his back on me. My shoulders slumped. I couldn’t stop saying the wrong thing.
That was kind of par for the course for my whole life, but I felt like even more of an idiot when it was with someone new. Cade hadn’t had time to get to know me enough to know what I was like.
If I wasn’t so dumb about shooting my mouth off all the time, I would probably have a girlfriend to bring along like everyone else.
If I had a girlfriend to bring along, I wouldn’t have to share with someone’s lame little brother that I never even met before.
