Page 141 of The Broken Note

“Serena, I have good news.” Cadey turns to me and the brightest grin I’ve ever seen crosses her face.

Damn. She didn’t smile when I gave her a ring worth thousands. Or when I brought her breakfast. When I canceled her work service. Or when I took her sister to the amusement park.

But right now, she’s glowing like the sunshine. Like something too pure, too innocent for a monster like me to touch.

Hell, I’m going to touch anyway.

But I still know I don’t deserve to.

“What news?” Serena asks.

Cadey is practically bouncing in her seat. “You’re coming back to Redwood. Tomorrow.”

“What?” Serena shrieks.

Cadey makes an equally girly sound from her mouth. “Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes,” Finn says in exasperation. He rolls his eyes. “Let’s try to use cohesive sentences from now on.”

“Screw you!” Serena shrieks from the phone. And then she pauses. “Who was that?”

“Finn.”

“Finn? As in Finn Cross?” Serena croaks.

I chuckle and take over. “This is Dutch.”

“Oh my gosh.”

“Our lawyers went after the police and got them to wipe everything off your record. We can’t stop gossip but, as far as the government knows, you have nothing to do with this fire and it’s not going to come up later.”

Sniffles sound on the line.

Finn meets my eyes. “Is she crying?”

“Serena, are you okay?” Cadence asks.

“I’m happy. I’m really happy.”

I glance at Cadence and see tears filling her eyes too. Why the hell is she crying? My heart is about to burst looking at her tears.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper, pushing her hair back.

“I’m just happy.” Cadey sniffs.

Aren’t tears supposed to mean ‘sad’?

I don’t get women.

Suddenly, there’s a loud and persistent knock on the door.

I’m too busy worrying about Cadence to get up. Sol doesn’t either.

---