Page 15 of November's Bad Boy: Kacen
“Barely. Raising cattle will kill a man slower than whiskey, but with the same outcome.” He claps Kance on the shoulder and pulls him into a quick hug, the kind that says we go way back, even if we haven’t talked in a while.
I hang back for a second, watching, unsure.
Kacen nods toward me. “You remember Natalie, right?”
Slade tips his head. “Course I do. Mustang Mountain’s best cookie maker.” He winks at me, then lowers his voice like he’s sharing a state secret. “You did not hear me say that in front of Lily, though. I’ll never live it down.”
I laugh. “Your secret’s safe.”
Slade turns back to Kacen. “So, what’s the deal? You home for good, or just passing through?”
“Feels like I’m staying,” he says. “Helping my brother with his PR stuff. Getting my hands dirty.”
Slade's eyes widen a little. “You? Working a real job, in PR, really? Man, you really have changed.”
Kacen chuckles. “Trying. Kingston keeps me in line.”
“You needed it back then,” Slade says, but there’s no bite in his tone. Just truth and a grin. “Glad to see you back, though. We could use more people who know what the hell they’re doing.”
“Appreciate that.”
Slade glances between me and Kacen. Something flickers in his expression, but he doesn’t say anything. Just gives a nod that feels a lot like approval. “Well, I’ll let y’all get back to it. Tell your brother he still owes me a beer.”
“Only if you want to listen to him talk about financial security and spreadsheets.”
He snorts. “That’s what whiskey’s for.”
As he walks back to an open booth, I lean closer, voice soft. “He likes you.”
Kacen shrugs. “We weren’t always tight, but I helped him dig his truck out of a ditch once during senior year. Guess that sticks.”
We eat in silence for a few minutes, but it’s not awkward. It’s something else. Something tentative and full of weight I can’t name yet.
When I glance across the table at him, I don’t see the boy who once humiliated me in the hallway. I don’t see the reckless guy I swore I’d never trust again.
I see a man who came to fix something that didn’t belong to him because he wanted to make it right. I see a man who stood up without making a show of it. I see someone I might not know at all, but want to.
Once back at my place, he heads out, and I sit in my car for a minute too long. I watch him disappear down the road, then lean my head back against the seat.
The problem with seeing someone clearly for the first time is that it makes it really hard to keep pretending you don’t care.
And I don’t know what scares me more.
That I might want to believe him.
Or that I already do.
CHAPTER 5
KACEN
The house smells like rosemary and roasted something with a hint of vanilla that’s probably coming from whatever candle she lit in the hallway. I shouldn’t be nervous. It’s just dinner. We’ve eaten together before, talked more than we probably should’ve, exchanged barbs and truths, and everything in between. But this feels different. Because tonight she invited me. Her house, her cooking, her terms.
I shift the six-pack and the folder of Friendsgiving notes in my hand as I knock, even though she said the door would be open. Old habits, maybe. Or maybe it’s that weird pressure in my chest again. The one I can’t name but keeps showing up around her.
She calls from inside. “It’s open.”
Pushing the door open, I step into her world again. Everything is warm and soft and quiet in the way only her house can be.
