Page 26 of Follow Me to Your Heart
“Don’t try to turn this around on me. You only do that when you don’t want to say what’s on your mind. If you don’t want to talk about it right now, it’s cool. Just let me know.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it. It’s that I don’t know how to talk about it.”
“What you mean?”
Cage was giving me the floor. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to find the right words to say. Thankfully, we arrived at our destination. I squealed so loud that Nema woke up. My mind had been so occupied during the ride, I didn’t even pay attention to the direction Cage was driving in. If I would have, I would’ve known exactly where we were going.
“Cage!” I gushed, bouncing in my seat. “We haven’t been here in forever. I’m honestly surprised they’re still open.”
“I thought it would be the perfect place to end our week. A place that holds some core memories for us.”
“That, it does. We used to live here on the weekends. You think they still have the chili cheese pies?”
“Let’s go find out.”
I climbed out the car before Cage could come around to open the door for me. He scolded me for it, but I was too excited to create some new memories at one of our childhood spots. To me, it was the perfect way to end the week.
That was until we were about to walk inside and Cage’s phone rang. He removed it from his pocket, silently cussing underneath his breath. My stomach twisted as he held his finger up, answered, and I heard Red’s name spew from his mouth.
Whenever he called, it never meant any good.
“Come on, Red. This is a simple problem with an easy fix. We’ve been through this shit before, so why do you need me to come?”
I tossed my free arm in the air and scoffed. Leave it to Red to interfere with our night. Sometimes, I believed he did things on purpose to get Cage by his side. I understood it was Cage’s responsibility, but Red acted like he couldn’t make decisions without him.
Cage peered over at me with low, apologetic eyes. He didn’t need to speak for me to know he had to leave. I cuddled Nema closer to me, rolled my eyes, and headed toward his car. Ournight was ruined before it could even get started. I got in the car and slammed the door, trying my hardest not to allow the tears to cascade down my cheeks, but it was inevitable. My body grew hot to the point it felt like fire ants were biting me. My leg bounced, putting Nema straight to sleep.
While I waited for Cage to finish his conversation as he slowly treaded toward the car, I typed up a text to let Taylor know my night was a no-go. She would drop everything and leave Keith hanging, and I didn’t want her to do that. I didn’t want her to ruin her night because of mine, so I deleted the text and closed my eyes.
The car door opened. Cage’s presence overwhelmed me. He released an irritated sigh and called my name. I ignored him each time he did until he reached over, tugged my chin, and forced my face toward his. The petty part of me kept my eyes closed.
“Stop playing with me, Korren. Look at me so we can talk about this. I’m not about to have a one-sided conversation when we both need to be heard.” His finger trailed down my cheek, wiping the freshly dropped tear away.
A shaky exhale parted my lips. As badly as I wanted to continue being petty, the softness in Cage’s tone had me fluttering my eyes open. For a moment, we sat there, gazing at one another. It was something that seemed to be happening more often. The tension that started thicker than a bowl of oatmeal thinned to almost nothing.
“I love you, KoKo.”
“I know you do, bu?—”
“Nah.” Cage interrupted, never taking his eyes off mine. “Iloveyou.”
Before I could respond or even had time to process his words, Cage sealed them with a kiss.
A kiss that took my breath away.
A kiss that I’d longed for.
A kiss that assured me the feelings I’d felt weren’t one-sided.
My hand met Cage’s face, fingers gliding through his beard as our tongues intertwined. The rush I felt must’ve been like what people felt on hard drugs. A euphoric high like no other. Goosebumps pebbled my skin, and I never wanted the feeling to go away.
Nema whimpering caused Cage and I to break free from one another. Cage rubbed his thumb across my bottom lip with low, hazy eyes I couldn’t break mine away from. There was a gleam in them I’d seen before but never as strongly as I did then. It was as if he’d been waiting for that moment to allow it to fully emerge.
“How long?” I asked with no context, and Cage didn’t need any. He read in between the lines.
“A little over a year now. Maybe longer, but I truly realized it last year.”
“And why are you just now telling me?”
