Page 53 of The Life We Left Behind

Cade giggled, climbing onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar. “And then this old man had to come and help her up, and she nearly knocked him over, then he accidentally grabbed her…” He gestured to his chest area, trying to hold in the laughter and failing.

Cade fell about in laughter, and I lasted all of two seconds until I saw the look on Blake’s face and joined in. “Oh my god, how do these things happen to you?”

“I don’t know,” she stressed, looking upset enough to make me feel bad for laughing at her. “He looked like such a fancy businessman too. I think I might have caused a town scandal.And then Marie from the bakery came outside and went, ‘Jasper, did you just sexually assault that young lady?’ I think I might die from—Wait, why does your face look like that? Why aren’t you laughing at my hilarious demise?”

My mouth hung open in shock, and Blake moved closer in concern before her eyes darted to Cade.

“Cade, can you run up to the bathroom and see if there’s a Band-Aid under the sink or something in there?”

He looked between the two of us, clearly knowing we were about to talk about something we didn’t want him to hear. But then Cade just shrugged and jogged out of the room, chuckling in amusement as he went. I knew he’d be ages. I might love the kid to death, but even I could admit that he couldn’t find a mountain even if he was standing at the base of it.

“Tell me,” Delaney said seriously.

“That was Trace’s dad.”

“Of course it was. Of course, I fell over and then publicly humiliated the one man in the town who could make life a living hell for you. Well, it’s official. You’re going to have to tie me up in the town square and have them throw tomatoes at me or something. Save yourself, Lanes. There’s no coming back from the social purgatory that I’ve just sentenced myself to.”

“Are you quite done?”

Blake thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Did he say anything to Cade?”

“No. Not apart from laughing with him about how ridiculous I was. If you mean did he realize who Cade was, then no, he didn’t.”

I sighed in relief. “I knew it was going to be difficult, but I didn’t realize it would be like this.”

Blake squeezed my shoulder in comfort, and I glanced up at the clock. It was way too early for wine.

“I take it the talk with Trace didn’t go so well.”

“Well, he threatened to sue me and then left.”

“He what?” she screeched. “Tell me where he lives because I’m about to go and show that man the error of his ways.”

I smiled at the outrage on her face. Blake would always have my back, even if I wasn’t convinced she’d ever be up to telling someone off to their face. Well, no, that wasn’t true. If it was for someone she loved, she’d absolutely rain holy verbal hell down on someone. She was good like that.

She’d hate herself afterward, of course, and probably send them a muffin basket as an apology, but in the moment, she’d always have your back.

“It’s fine. Well, it’s not fine. But it was only because I told him that we might not want to sell the land, and he was being pissy about me backing out of the deal. We didn’t get around to talking about what we needed to talk about.”

“Ah, right. Okay, maybe I won’t go and throw down with him just yet.”

“As much as I’d love to see that, it might be for the best,” I quirked.

“You know,” Blake said as she moved over to the kitchen cupboards and started randomly opening and closing them. “It’s kinda nice in town. Like nicer than I thought small towns were supposed to be.”

“How many small towns have you been to, Blake?”

“One,” she said in outrage as she turned around.

“And by one, you mean this one, right?”

“Well, itisa very nice one. And it’s not like if I fell over in the street in Manhattan, someone would help me up. And I know this because it’s happened numerous times to me. I’m just saying it’s nice here.”

“Okaaaaay. Yeah, it is nice here.”

“And it must have been nice to grow up here.”

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