Page 47 of Easy Reunion
“You mean I explain why I hurt her without…”
He finishes my thought. “Going into the details about everything that happened to you? Yeah.” Grunting, he grabs his drink and tosses it back. “Though if this goes the distance, I suspect you’ll end up telling her everything.”
I shake my head emphatically, not at the idea of Kelsey and me, but at the thought of baring my soul that way. Cade gives me a half-amused, half-sardonic grin.
“We’ll see. Now, what’s your plan?”
“Talk to Lisa. Convince her to help me get in the same room as Kelsey.”
Standing, Cade tosses a wad of cash on the table. “Then let’s go find your sister.”
* * *
When we get backto my house, Lisa’s car is gone. “Come on in and hang out for a while. You can catch me up on what’s been going on with you.”
He shrugs. “Not much.”
I walk over to the fridge and pull out a couple of beers. After I hand one over, we make our way into the living room. “You still with…” But I’m stuck on the name. Cade flies through women like they’re diapers on a newborn baby.
Before I can even try to think of the name, Lisa’s voice floats out from the kitchen, “Don’t strain yourself, Ry. You work your brain hard enough at the office.” Cade’s eyes flare at the sound of Lisa’s voice, but he doesn’t say anything to the blatant smackdown. Instead, he calmly lifts the bottle to his lips and sucks back some of the dark ale. She pokes her head in briefly to smile at me. But the look she gives him would filet his skin off if it were possible. She sniffs as if she’s smelled something terrible before turning her eyes back on me.
Cade’s words from the pub crawl insidiously through my brain. No one should have the kind of pain we’ve lived with in their heads. But how long have I been locked in my own that I haven’t been able to see what’s staring me right in the face? The way Cade and Lisa circle each other with one holding a chair and the other a whip, it’s so obvious she’s holding him at a distance to avoid being hurt.
After tonight’s conversation, I feel like an idiot for just now seeing what’s been in front of me for years. Like me, Cade’s been so wary around someone he cares for—my sister—because it’s a lot harder to expose your ghosts to someone who matters.
A reason as similar as the one that keeps me screwing up my chances with Kelsey time and time again? Complete and utter fear?
“Hey, Lisa,” I call out. Footsteps pause in the hall. “Come here for a moment.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Cade hisses as my sister makes her way back into the room.
“The same thing you just did for me a few hours ago,” I mutter to him as I stand and pick up my beer. Walking to where Lisa braces herself in the entrance of the family room, I pass a hand over her dark hair before tipping her face up to meet mine. “Maybe you both should just work things out,” I tell her softly. “I’ll be in my study trying to figure out a way to get Kelsey to talk to me.”
It takes a moment for my comment to penetrate. When it does, her small frame goes rigid. Her eyes go immediately to Cade, whose head is dropped beneath slumped shoulders. It’s a defeated posture I know well as I’ve recently sat for hours in precisely the same position wondering if the darkness that’s surrounding me will ever lift.
Brushing a kiss on the top of my sister’s head, I head down the hall.
Along the way, I hear my name called. Without turning, I call back to her, “I wouldn’t leave Cade alone, Lisa. He might leave.”
“You realize you just gave me the okay to go after your best friend?” She sounds like she’s questioning my sanity.
I turn around and lean against the wall. Crossing my arms and my ankles, I give my sister a one-sided smile. “I can think of no one else in the world who I’d trust your heart with. And I can think of no one else who can find his.” Pushing off the wall, I walk back in her direction. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Cade staring at us both like we’re insane. “He’s the best man I know, and you’re…you. I’m just sorry I had my head up my ass so long I didn’t see it before now.” Sincerity rings through my voice.
Indecision flickers across her face before she blurts out, “Stop texting Kelsey tonight. Promise me.”
My brows lower in a V. “But Lisa, I’m…”
“I’ll bring you to the center tomorrow. I think you need to hear what she has to say, Ry.” Placing her hand on my bicep, she squeezes it. “You need to hear what it was like from her, not from your own perspective. Maybe then you can find the right words to say.”
“When did you become so wise?” I ask her.
Her head turns, and she locks gazes with Cade. “Right around the same time I realized that a broken engagement was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Cade lets out a quiet, “Damn.”
I smile. “You said it yourself, buddy. If this goes the distance…”
“Fuck you, Perrault.”
