Page 23 of Confusing Cade
I didn’t get up from my chair. “The final renderings?”
“I still have some final decisions to make on the site.” He gestured at the architectural model. “Not a lot, but a few. And I think it would be good to have your input on some of the final decor.”
I raised my left eyebrow. “Really?”
“It would be nice for the crowd to hear that you participated in the process too. Everyone would appreciate it.”
I let out a strong sigh. There it was—the truth. This wasn’t Cade being kind. It was him being political. “Right. Everyone.”
“Me too.Iwould appreciate it, Bella.”
“I don’t believe that.” I closed the folder and pushed it away.
A tight smile pulled at his mouth. “Despite what you might think, I didn’t hate your father.” He paused. “I respected him.”
I leaned forward.“What?”
“I thought he was a worthy adversary for my dad, and there’s a certain kind of satisfaction in that.”
“My father was a good man,” I insisted, feeling the familiar rise of defensiveness that reared its head whenever anyone talked about my dad too much. I wasn’t dumb; I wasn’t blind. I knew the truth about how my father really was, but he was also mine. And family loyalty counted for something.
Maybe everything.
“I only knew about him secondhand. Why don’t you tell me about him?”
I frowned.Does he genuinely want to know?
“Please,” Cade pressed.He really wants to know.
Dad had been gone for seven years, but it was rare for a day to pass when I didn’t think about him. Didn’t wish I could call him and listen to his deep, comforting voice, telling me about his day. He’d always been such a busy man, and yet, I’d never doubted his love for his family.
“He cared a lot about Lilly and me. And he might not have had a lot of time to spend with us, but he made it count.” I laughed once, recalling some of my better childhood memories. “Like when I was in fourth grade, and I was elected to the student council as the classroom representative. He picked me up from school that day and said he was so proud of me. We went to The Gardens Mall and got Chick-fil-A, and he let me buy anything I wanted at Nordstrom.”
“A ten-year-old girl’s dream.”
“Yeah, it was.” Cade leaned back in his chair, sipping his sparkling water, his eyes steady on me. “I heard about your dad’s struggles, you know. The drinking, the drugs.”
Stunned, I sipped some water to steady myself. “You... you did?”
“I didn’t realize how much he kept hidden from you until after he was gone. He must’ve been one hell of an actor to shield you like that.”
I shook my head, caught off guard by his quiet admission, and glanced out at the overwhelming view of Palm Beach. The sunset was almost upon us, casting a golden glow that glimmered off the boats, homes, and fancy hotels. Even after knowing this place my whole life, it still took my breath away. I choked back an unwelcome sob, the sting of regret surfacing.
“I would have helped him if I could,” I managed. “If I’d known, I would’ve tried to save him.”
“You’re helping him now. Being part of this is one way to honor his memory.”
“No pressure, right?” I looked back at him, taking in how the soft glow of the setting sun illuminated his strong jawline and the stubble on his cheeks.Damn it, there it is again, Cade’s unexpected sexiness.“Nobody knows how much my father fell short of his public image. They... they think he was something that he wasn’t.”
“I know how that feels.” Cade’s fingers brushed the edges of his portfolio, sorting through a few pages with a soft rustle. His thumb lingered on a corner, bending it slightly as he glanced down. “My dad was that way too.”
“He was?” My voice came out sharper than I meant.
“The man I knew at home wasn’t the one people saw in the business world.” His shoulders shifted, as if he were brushing off a weight I couldn’t see.
I froze, my jaw dropping a little, my breath catching in my chest. I’d never even thought about that. All this time, Gary Weston loomed in my mind like some cartoonish supervillain. I thought of him as a cold, ruthless towering shadow whose sole purpose was to grind my dad under his heel. My fingers tightened around the edge of my blazer sleeve, tugging at the fabric. It hadn’t crossed my mind that the Gary I’d built up in my head might not have been the real one at all. What else had I gotten wrong? “How?”
Cade’s gaze softened, drifting somewhere past me. “Kinder. Not as rough.” He shifted in his seat, his hand flexing open and closed. “He loved deep-sea fishing. When I was old enough to go with him, he’d take me out on the boat. I can still feel the spray hitting my face, the way the deck rocked under my feet.” He stretched his arms wide, mimicking the size of somethingmassive. “We caught a swordfish once, and it was bigger than me. I thought it’d pull me right over the side.”
