Page 8 of Cade

“Why?” There was definitely fear in her voice, which made him feel like dirt.

“Because if we just go back and tell them we don’t mesh, Kayla will look and see why.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” April said.

“They will look at our chats. Kayla has all the access and I assume she’s who set you up with me?”

“I specifically asked her not to let it be one of Evan’s friends. I really didn’t know.” All the confidence in her voice was completely gone, only an apology. He did this to her, and he would never forget it.

“I didn’t think you did, April,” Cade kept his tone soft. “I’m saying if they look through our chat logs, they will see that we figured each other out and then want to know more.”

“Oh,” she replied.

“If we don’t want them to know about our past, then we need to go on one date and then we can come up with some reason not to go on more.” Cade was already thinking about how to get them out of more dates.

“You can tell them I was too dull. It will be believable, and then we can be done after just one.”

Cade sighed heavily into the phone as he listened to her meek voice. He didn’t want her to be to blame for any of it. She wasn’t now, and she wasn’t then.

“April,” Cade started. “You aren’t dull, so it’s not believable. We can come up with something, but we don’t need to do it tonight.”

“I don’t think that it’s unbelievable, but as long as whatever we say doesn’t cause issues between anyone, then I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“I’m sorry,” Cade admitted to her. It was long overdue. “I didn’t explain then what happened, and I think I owe you an explanation.”

“You really don’t,” April assured him. “It was a long time ago and nothing we can do to change it.”

“I’d like to. I think clearing the air between us might make things easier when we see each other.” Cade also just wanted to tell her it wasn’t her fault at all.

“Cade, please don’t. I’m honestly not sure what I did, but I don’t want to hear about it now. It’s been a long time and I don’t want to figure it out now. I’ll leave you alone and try not to be around you aside from this.” He heard the quiver in her voice and he broke.

“You did nothing wrong.” He told her, needing her to believe him. “I know it sounds so cliché, but I promise it wasn’t you, it was me.”

April snorted. “Okay.”

“My father was going to stop paying for Catherine’s school if I didn’t cut ties. So I did what he wanted and broke things off to date the person he wanted me to.”

“You should have told me,” April whispered.

“I was trying to protect her,” he told her.

“Always protecting everyone. Who was going to protect you, Cade?” April asked.

Recognizing that it didn’t need an answer, Cade continued forward. “So, I broke things off between us and went on to do what he wanted. I never meant for you to think it was your fault or that there was anything you could have done differently. I just wanted to keep you safe.”

“What did her threaten you with?” April asked. Her voice was still quiet, but more caring.

“I already told you,” he answered.

“No, you said how he threatened your sister, but what did he threaten you with?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cade said by way of explanation.

“It does,” April insisted.

“We can set the date up soon and then call it good after that,” Cade changed the topic.

“Okay.”

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