Page 44 of Finding Forever

Gideon whistled, a long, drawn out sound that drew all eyes to his face.

“Duuuude,” he said, on a soft inhalation, less containers in his arms after he’d taken his wife’s advice and offloaded a couple onto the counter. “And you were doing so well, man.”

Cade blinked at his siblings, all of whom were expressing some form of outrage, before he diverted hiswhat did I say?glance back at Fern, who was still striving to hide her own feelings of affronted hurt and chagrin at his thoughtless words. She was, however, surprised and gratified by her in-laws’ equally horrified response to his comments.

“I just meant she might need some guidance or something,” Cade said.

“Fuck, juststopNiall before that hole you’re so assiduously digging takes you clear to the other side of the planet,” Nox muttered, his voice wry.

“Why do you all call him Niall?” Fern asked. “I thought he preferred Cade.”

Fern was desperate to deflect the spotlight from her and—since it was his horrid comments that had thrust that unwanted attention onto her—she felt just petty enough to shift it firmly onto her thoughtless husband.

The question dropped into the room like a lead balloon…

Or maybe like a flailing dying snake, one that was writhingon the floor right in the midst of the group, but nobody dared approach it for fear of envenomation.

Fern, whose gaze hadn’t left Cade’s face, felt a dull swirl of panic in the pit of her stomach at the instant frigidity of his gaze. She’d clearly stepped into a minefield here, one she hadn’t even known existed.

“Whoa, little mouse, plunging right in there with the hard questions,” Nox said after an appreciative whistle.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Fern immediately and sincerely apologized, panicking as she studiously avoiding Cade’s lethal glare.

She wasn’t usually so impulsive… She’d learned that keeping her head down and her mouth shut was usually the best way to avoid nasty repercussions. She couldn’t allow her emotions to dictate her every response like this. It was too dangerous, the outcome too unpredictable.

“Now hold on a second,” Beth said, head tilted as her eyes bounced from one face to the other. “Why is that a hard question? I’m curious too now. Do youreallyprefer to be called Cade? Why didn’t you say so?”

Cade—Fern ascertained after slanting a quick glance at him—looked seriously pissed off with that dark glower and those thinned lips.

“It doesn’t matter, my name is Niall Caden Hawthorne. I’m fine with either.”

“And now I’m thinking m-maybe that’s not true,” Beth said astutely. “What is it with you Hawthornes and misnaming people? Is it some kind of weird, rich people, power trippy thing?”

Kenny had been studying Cade’s face closely throughout the entire back and forth, eyes narrowed in concern.

“Niall?” she prompted in a concerned whisper.

“Fuck, this is… it’s ridiculous.” He ran an irate hand through his hair, looking more flustered and uncomfortable than Fern had ever seen him before. He clearly hated being the center of attention like this. More comfortable lurking on the sidelines, being the silently protective big brother. “Fern doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about, okay? You’ve all be calling me Niall for the last two decades, it’s fine.”

“Only for the last twenty years?” Beth asked, her eyes wide. “But what did they call you before that?”

“We called him Cade,” Nox said, his voice quiet, eyes somber.

“I don’t under?—”

“Beth, drop it, please,” Cade said a soft gentleness in his voice that belied the murder in his eyes when he looked at Fern. “It’s not important. Let’s get the food going, aye? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starving.”

Gideon who’d remained quietly watchful throughout the entire uncomfortable, fraught exchange, cleared his throat and remembered his role as host, as he urged everyone to grab a drink and follow him out to the patio.

His siblings all complied, with Cade—after a final glower at Fern—trailing behind the rest. That left Beth and Fern in the kitchen.

“That was so…” Beth took a deep breath and shook her head before saying, “Bizarre. It was bizarre, right?”

Fern nodded, her stomach in knots because she’d clearly upset Cade. She’d unwittingly ventured into forbidden territory and she didn’t know what pitfalls awaited her there. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she fretted. “It’s none of my business.”

Beth patted her arm reassuringly. “Nonsense, they can’t all be calling you an honorary Hawthorne one second and then turning on you for unearthing one of their unhinged family secrets. And why is it such a taboo topic? How can you call someone one thing for the first thirteen years of his life and then just switch it up for no good reason? I love my husbandand I’m fond of his siblings—well I’m still on the fence about Nox—but the Hawthornes can be a bit strange. I’m willing to bet good money that this has something to do with their father. The Old Man can be manipulative and sneaky and just…a lot.”

Fern noticed that once her shyness wore off, Beth didn’t stutter much at all and she was happy that at least one of her new family members liked her enough to relax around her.

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