Page 65 of Worthy

“They won’t disapprove of us sleeping together when I’m leaving?” For a second I swear he winces, but when I focus on his expression it’s the same sheepish one he always wears when talking about his past.

″I’m no saint, remember?” He brushes a strand of hair back from my face. “Besides, they’d probably rather have me sleeping with you than with a bunch of random tourists.”

Oh wow. That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of before, and it kind of knocks the wind out of me. I don’t care about his past, though I do care that people might make assumptions about me because of it. Especially his parents.

″Your parents know your…history?” I swallow.

″They don’t know details.” He rolls his eyes. “But it’s no secret I spent lots of my time with the visitors who came through town.”

″Won’t they think I’m another visitor?” I regret the question as soon as it leaves my mouth. We haven’t had any conversations about what’s happening with us, and it sounds like I’m fishing for confirmation I’m somehow different. Even though I know I am, at least in the sense that I’m a man and he’s spending time with only me, I wasn’t trying to push him for anything more. Not deliberately anyway.

Do I want to mean more to him than the people he’s been with before? Yes, without a doubt. But this is Cade we’re talking about, so there’s a good chance I already do even though we’re nottogethertogether. I have to be content with that, no matter how much I’m starting to envision a different outcome once the summer ends.

″You’re…I…Maybe this is a bad idea. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.” Cade’s eyes drop to the floor.

″You didn’t.” I sigh heavily, hoping I didn’t just push him away. “My first instinct is still to worry about what people will think instead of living for myself. It’s a byproduct of always feeling like the black sheep in my family. I’m working on it.”

″Cool.” His wary expression eases into a smile. “And don’t worry about my parents. They won’t think anything one way or another. They just don’t want to be the only people who haven’t met the sexy guy I’m sleeping with.” He arches his brows suggestively.

″Well, when you put it that way, what am I worried about?” I roll my eyes.

″Exactly.” Cade leans in to kiss me, more tenderly than I expected given the way he was just teasing me, then heads out to meet his dad, giving me some much-needed time alone. Not that I’m tired of having him around or anything, the opposite actually, which is why it’s good for me to have a little space to sort things out.

He hasn’t said anything specific, but between his actions at the bike race, breakfast in bed, and now dinner with his parents, I get the sense things have taken a more serious turn. I mean, small town gossip aside, if I was just the summer fling would he really bother introducing me to his parents? My gut says no. But if I’m not a summer fling, what am I?

I know I’m putting my heart at risk by immersing myself in him so completely. But I can’t seem to pull back, which is why dinner with his parents scares me.

Cade wouldn’t go through with dinner if I was just a fling, but just because I’m not a fling doesn’t mean he’s falling for me the way I’m falling for him. After all, this is the guy who’s never been on a date, who I’m not even sure has been with the same woman twice, sobelieving he could actually fall for the firstmanhe tries a relationship with is a stretch.

He may care about me in a way he didn’t let himself care about the women before me, but as much as I want to believe that makes this thing with us real, unless he says otherwise I have to operate under the assumption Cade is simply living in the moment. That he isn’t reading anything into the fact he’s stayed here every night for the past week, or that he’s going to introduce me to his parents. He’s simply making the most of this experience while it lasts, because we still have an end date.

***

I’m tense as we make the drive to Cade’s parents, but not because I’m about to meet them.

Well, not entirely.

I still think meeting his parents is kind of a big deal, though what really has my mind spinning is something Cade himself told me, about not worrying what other people think. Granted, we are talking about his parents, so it makes sense they’d be the exception to that mantra, but the Cade I’ve come to know doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do, so if he’s bringing me to meet them, is there some part of him thatwantsthis?

Part of me thinks the answer is yes. The question is why.

We pull up to a ranch-style house on a flat plot of land next to a stream carrying the snow melt off the mountain. It’s clearly an older house, though it’s well maintained, and with the wide walkway up to a large porch it looks inviting.

″You grew up here?” I ask as the truck rolls to a stop.

″Yep. This was one of the first houses Dad built here, and Mom loved it so much she claimed it as hers instead of letting him sell it. Come on.” He exits the truck and meets me at the front of the cab like he always does, then guides me to the front door.

From the front entry, you can see straight through the house, past the living room to a wall of windows framing the mountain range in the distance, and I immediately see why Cade’s mom fell in love with this house. Right now, the view is a lush green dotted with reds and yellows and purples from all the wildflowers. In the winter, I imagine it’s a pristine white surrounded by a rich blue sky. It’s breathtaking.

He takes my hand and leads me through the living room to the deck out back where his parents are lounging on a couch. A coffee table holds a few plates of snacks, and a grill sizzles off to the side with what smells like burgers.

Cade’s parents turn to look at us as we enter, and I notice right away he’s the spitting image of his dad. An inch or two shorter and slightly thicker, his dad has the same strong jaw and blue eyes that first drew me to Cade. His mom is also tall and slender, her sandy brown hair matching her son’s, perfectly. Both of them have lines around the mouth and eyes, the kind you get when you smile often, which puts me at ease.

They rise off the couch to greet us as Cade makes introductions. “Maddox, these are my parents, Charles and Jessica. They go by Chuck and Jessie.”

″It’s nice to meet you.” I shake their hands. “Thank you for having me.”

″It’s nice to meet you too,” Jessie says. “Can we get you something to drink?”

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