The One and Only (Heart of Hope 7)

“No comment,” Cade shouted over the chatter, his voice firm and commanding.

I opened my front door and slipped inside as I heard Cade say, “We have no statement.”

Cade followed me inside and I locked the door behind us before slumping against it. I wanted to burst into tears.

Cade rubbed my arms, his green eyes warm and soft. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Laura?” Caitlyn called. She sounded worried.

I hurried into the living room to find her sitting on the couch with Drew, who beamed at me when he caught sight of us. “Mama!”

“Hey, baby,” I sat down next to him on the couch and hugged him tightly.

“What’s going on?” Caitlyn demanded, her eyes darting from Cade to me. “They’ve been trying to get into the house all day! I had Drew stay in his room and whacked a couple of them with my broom, that scared them off for a little bit. I called the police, too, but they said that they couldn’t do anything except tell them to get off the property. I had them do that anyway but once the police left, they returned. Even if they’re not at the front door, they can stand on the sidewalk. We can’t do anything.”

Shit. This would have been bad on any day, but especially today.

“They know about my connection to Cade,” I explained, avoiding being too explicit for Drew’s sake. “We had that argument at your gallery last night and someone caught it on video and uploaded it.”

“The person who uploaded didn’t know who I was,” Cade said, tapping away on his phone, trying to put out the fires. “But someone who saw the video recognized us and so the whole thing went from look at this crazy couple to holy shit that’s Cade Kirkpatrick.”

I heaved a sigh as Caitlyn looked outraged at the news instead of Cade, for once. “This is bull—”

She stopped herself from swearing in front of Drew and gestured her arms wildly in the air instead. “You know what I mean.”

I nodded.

“Mama?” Drew tugged on my sleeve. He looked both excited and scared. “How are we gonna get to the zoo today?”

“You were going to the zoo?” Cade asked, looking up from his phone.

“Yeah,” Caitlyn replied, giving him a full stare down. “For his birthday celebrations.”

“My birthday’s in a couple days but we can’t celebrate that day ‘cause I have school,” Drew explained in all seriousness, which was incredibly adorable. My heart beamed looking at him. “So we’re going to the zoo today! ‘Cause it’s Saturday!”

“Well, happy birthday,” Cade said with a smile.

Drew smiled back, and I winced, realizing that I was going to have to introduce them.

“Drew, baby, this is Cade. He’s an old friend of mine. Cade, this is my son, Drew.”

Cade crouched down and held out his hand for Drew to shake. “I’m sorry about the inconvenience. We’ll find a way to celebrate your birthday indoors today.”

Drew seemed delighted to have his hand shaken, treated like a real adult. That was a relief for me. I had no idea how Cade would be with children or how he’d handle meeting Drew, but so far it seemed to be going well. Though that was because I was comparing it with the absolute mess outside.

“There’s no way you could go to the zoo,” Caitlyn whispered. “The reporters would hound you the entire time. Zoos are public property, there’d be nothing to do.”

I held in a sigh. I wasn’t surprised that Caitlyn had voiced out my opinion exactly. But what was I going to do instead? Drew had been looking forward to the zoo so much, and I’d been grateful for that as I couldn’t really afford a huge party for him, or buy him a ton of toys. I’d been glad that this special activity would be able to make up for it.

But now I was stuck. I couldn’t leave the house. How was I supposed to give my child the happy day that he deserved?

Cade glanced at me. “I’m sure we’ll find another way to celebrate your birthday, Drew. Your birthday’s supposed to be about you, right? Not about all these annoying people outside.”

He winked at Drew like they were sharing some kind of secret, and Drew smiled. Cade’s charm was out in full swing and a part of me relaxed while another part of me tensed up. I was well aware of how charming Cade would be, and it didn’t surprise me that Drew was caught in his spell instantly.

But would Cade stick around? Or was that charm going to be superficial?

“I’m sorry about last night,” I whispered to Caitlyn. “Thank you for looking after him.”