“Are you going to open this? I need to hug you. I can hug you, right?”
“If you can climb that fence, you can do anything you want, baby.” He winked, his flirt voice on. I knew what he was doing—putting up his wall—and I hated it. I hated he felt the need to do that for me.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t treat me like you treat everyone. Don’t hide from me.”
“And you haven’t been hiding from me?” Now his voice had an angry edge to it.
“What do you mean?”
“That song. When were you going to show it to me? When it won the competition?”
“No! Of course not. I wasn’t going to enter that into the competition.”
“Why not? It was really good.”
“It wasn’t meant for anyone to hear. Especially not the entire school.”
“I think you mean, especially not me.”
I started to shake my head, but he was right. I was never going to show him that song.
“You still don’t trust me?”
“I do.”
“You still think of me as the guy who treated Isabel badly. As the guy who’s going to hurt you one day, too. You aren’t willing to be completely open with me.”
“No. That’s not true. Cade, I tell you more than I’ve ever told anyone.” My throat was tight. “You’ve actually helped me find my words. My voice. But I didn’t feel like the words to that song belonged to me. I didn’t feel like I had the right to them.” I retrieved the letter I had written him out of the waistband of my skirt and slid it through the bars.
He gave a breathy laugh. “Another letter?”
“You haven’t gotten one in a while.”
He picked it up from where it had landed in front of him. “Not from you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Someone else has been writing you letters?” When he didn’t say no right away, I gasped. “Wait. Your dad?”
His eyes snapped to mine and all the pain he’d been hiding since I’d arrived was burning there.
I lowered my voice. “Will you let me in, Cade? Please?”
He stepped forward and opened the gate. I rushed through and flung my arms around him.
“I was just about to read a letter,” he said, close to my ear. “You’re so clingy.”
I smiled. “Stop making jokes and let me be here for you.”
We sat on the patio overlooking the golf course. We each held a letter. I held one addressed to Cade from his dad, and he held the one I’d written earlier.
“I don’t have to read this,” I said again. “If it’s too personal.”
“I want you to. I need objective eyes on it.”
“Okay.” I took a breath, and opened the envelope.
I removed the single sheet of paper that was folded in thirds and carefully opened it. The handwriting looked hurried but I wasn’t familiar with his dad’s handwriting, so it could’ve been his best effort for all I knew.
Cade,
My son, good to hear from you. Life has been busy for both of us, I’m sure.
Already, it felt like his dad was diffusing the blame. I paused and moved one of my hands to Cade’s knee. He didn’t look up. His eyes were on the letter I had written. I continued to read.
A new job where I have to relearn an entire computer system is keeping my mind occupied and between that and family obligations, time seems to get away from me every day.
Ouch. As if Cade wasn’t one of those family obligations.
I’m sure you know how that goes seeing as how you’re basically a grown man already. How’s school? Baseball? Any prospects for college? I’ll have to see if I can get out your way sometime in the next year so we can catch up properly. In the meantime, I’m sure we can both be better about keeping each other updated. Love you.—Dad I closed my eyes for a moment, then waited for Cade to be done reading my letter. When he was, he gave me a smile and a kiss.
“I needed this,” he told me.
I refolded his dad’s letter and shoved it in the envelope before I gave into the impulse to rip it to shreds.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, handing it back.
“No. Don’t be. He’s right. I could’ve tried harder.”
“Don’t give him permission to pass the blame to you.”
“What do I do?” Cade asked with a sigh.
“Either call him out or let him go.”
Cade pulled me over to his chair and buried his face in my neck. He held on tight to me. I wished I’d been here for him earlier, hadn’t pushed him away for so long. But I was here now and there was nothing wrong with needing someone else to hold on to.
“Did you pull me over here so we could make out?” I asked.
“Yes, I did.”
He kissed me and I kissed him back.
“I think I might call him out,” he said between kisses.
I smiled. “Can I be there for that?”
I walked into the kitchen to see Cade staring intently at two necklaces on the counter. My dad sat at the table pretending not to be interested.
“Dad, no.” I grabbed Cade’s hand and pulled him away.
“He’s an impartial third party,” my dad called after us.
Cade yelled back, “Sorry, Mr. Abbott, I’ve been abducted.”