“I’m getting a cat,” I tell him, kicking my legs out in front of me, to rest on the coffee table. “Or a dog. Maybe both.”
He eyes me, dark hair covering his forehead.
“I take it you still haven’t called Oliver back?” he asks, ignoring my announcement.
I shake my head, then rest it on his shoulder.
“I have to get a job.”
“You already have one,” he replies.
“A full-time job. I’m cut off.”
“Is that why you’re upset?”
“No. I’m not upset. I’m…angry and sad. Angry-sad.”
Caiden chuckles and I lift my head to scowl at him, before settling it back on his shoulder.
“Life’s too short to be angry-sad, babe. Trust me. Take the time you have with the people you love before it’s gone.” My chest aches, and I rub a fist over my sternum. I know he’s speaking from experience and my heart breaks for him.
“I don’t think I can forgive my father. Not just for the blackmail, but for all of it. He raised me to be honourable and trustworthy, and yet he was committing these crimes all along.”
Caiden ruffles a hand in my unwashed hair. “You don’t have to forgive him. Doesn’t mean you don’t love him. But what about Ollie?”
I shrug.
“He’s sad too, you know?” Caiden adds. “I know you wanted to handle the whole Floyd situation on your own, and that’s why you’re angry at Ollie. But I’m glad he did what he did. Where would things be now if Oliver hadn’t gone to confront Floyd, or called your dad?”
I don’t honestly know. I’d like to think I would have called it quits on my own, but I can’t be too sure. I was so adamant I wouldn’t fail my father, no matter what it cost me. It’s only now, when I’m looking in like an outsider, that I know it was never my job to protect him. It was his job as a parent to protectme,and he is the one who failed.
“Sometimes being part of a couple means letting the other person take the reins. Even if you think you should steer the horse,” Caiden says.
I grin, biting back a laugh. “That was bad. You need to work on your metaphors.”
“It sounded better in my head.”
“Oliver thinks he ruined us,” I admit.
“You’ve ignored him for two days. What do you expect him to think? Did he ruin things?”
“No.”
“Then stop moping and go tell him. Oliver chose to put your safety above everything else. He had to have known you would be pissed at him, and yet he did it, anyway.”
Of course he did, because he has since the day we met. Put me first. Loved me.
He chose me.Fuck. How did I not see that?
I slap a hand over my face, groaning. “Ugh, I’m a terrible person and an even worse boyfriend.”
Caiden chuckles, low and warm, as he wraps me in a side hug.
“You’re not. You’ve had a hard few months and a really shit, emotion fuelled forty-eight hours. No one can blame you for feeling the way you do. But it’s time to move forward, D.” Caiden drops his arm from around me, jumps up and kicks my ankle – not hard, but enough to sting.
“Ow! What the hell, Cade?”
He smiles. “I once sat in this exact spot and you kicked me and told me ‘enough is enough’, so now I’m doing the same. Get off the sofa, babe.”
