Page 17 of Suddenly Yours

Once the afternoon crowd hit full force, there was no room left in my brain for anything except coffee orders, boxed-up pastries, and making sure Ashley didn’t spend her entire workday taking pictures of cinnamon rolls.

But every time I had a moment to think… Cade was in the front of my mind.

Things had been changing between us even before the very-not-normal kiss in my kitchen last night.

By closing time, my feet throbbed, my head pounded, and the last thing I wanted to do was walk the single block home in the rain. I couldn’t wait to get home.

The streetlights were on all down Main Street, and the street seemed to glow. Serenity’s Attic had its brightly painted door propped open, and the scent of incense drifted out into the warm breeze. I thought of stopping in to get some bath salts that I loved but decided a hot shower was more in order tonight.

As I climbed the back stairs of Holley Hall, keys in hand, I replayed the kiss from the night before. How long had it been since I’d felt that… electric?

When I rounded the last corner to the top landing on the stairs, my heart jumped straight into my throat.

Cade was leaning against my doorframe under the small overhang, where he wouldn’t get wet. Waiting. His hands were in his pocket and his head was slightly bowed, as if he’d been waiting a while.

“Cade?” My voice came out soft, unsure. “What are you...”

I didn’t get to finish.

He pushed off the doorframe in one smooth motion, crossed the space between us in two long steps, and cupped my face gently, almost reverently, with his work-callused hands.

Then he kissed me.

Not tentatively.

Not questioning.

Not an accident like mine.

This kiss was sure. Warm. Slow at first, like he wanted to savor every second.

Like he wanted me to know he was choosing this, choosing me, without hesitation.

His lips moved against mine with a tenderness that made my knees bend dangerously. His thumb brushed my cheekbone, steadying me, grounding me as the rain fell over us.

I curled my fingers into the front of his soaked shirt, pulling him closer, not because I meant to, but because my body didn’t know any other option.

Heat pulsed through me.

Butterflies exploded in my chest.

Everything inside me melted into him.

He finally pulled back and rested his forehead against mine and breathed unevenly.

“That,” he murmured, “felt like something.”

I couldn’t speak.

Not a single coherent thought existed in my brain.

He smiled, a slow, devastating thing, and whispered: “Tell me it was nothing now.”

Chapter Five

Cade

I watched and waited for Missy to deny what I had felt the moment her lips had touched mine last night. For her to exclaim that it was all in my head, nothing more.