Rae of Sunshine (Light in the Dark 1)

“Marty!” Cade cried when we walked into the restaurant. I stood awkwardly behind him as he addressed the older man I assumed was Marty. “Long time no see. I’ve missed you.” Cade slung his arm around the man’s shoulders and turned to introduce me. “Rae, this is Marty the owner of this fine establishment. Marty, this is Rae.”

“A girlfriend?” Marty’s fuzzy gray brows shot up so far they disappeared beneath his bushy gray hair. “You’ve never brought a girl here before.”

“I’m not his girlfriend,” I growled.

Cade gave Marty a sad look. “Unfortunately the lovely Rae here doesn’t like me that way. Such a shame, right? We could be great together.”

Marty chuckled and looked at me. “I can understand not liking this goon. He can be a bit much.”

“He can,” I agreed.

“Go sit down,” Marty ordered, “I’ll send someone over to get your drink order.”

“Come on,” Cade nodded towards the corner of the restaurant that wasn’t as busy.

The place seemed a bit shady from the outside…and the inside too. The walls were crumbling and the floors looked dirty. I had to admit the food looked delicious—at least what I’d seen in passing.

Menus were already on the table and I picked one up, looking it over.

“Everything is good,” Cade told me, not even bothering to look, “you can’t go wrong.”

I pointed to the menu and leaned forward a bit. He leaned in too and there was barely any space between us. Up close I could see flecks of gold in his blue eyes. “It looks like everything is not one of the items on the menu.”

He bellowed out a laugh. “Joke number two. This night is shaping up to be very interesting.”

“If that’s what you call interesting,” I sat back, “then you really need to look up the definition of the word.”

He smiled, scratching his jaw. “You’re not like other girls, Rae.”

“No, I’m not,” I agreed. I wasn’t most like people. Not anymore. My innocence had been stolen a year ago when I ruined everything.

“So, where are you from Rae?”

I squirmed. Why did he have to ask that question? “Not anywhere near here.” I answered vaguely. Vague was always good.

“I figured that.” He stared at me, waiting for me to say something. I knew I needed to give him some kind of information, but I didn’t want to lie. Lying only made things worse and my life was already fucked up enough as it was.

“What can I get you to drink?”

The sound of the waitress’ voice was akin to angels singing. I was thankful for the reprieve.

“Water for me,” Cade said.

“Water for me as well,” I smiled at her.

“I’ll give you a minute to look at the menu and I’ll be right back with your drinks.” She tapped her fingers lightly against the wood tabletop and then she was gone.

Cade’s eyes seared me when I looked up. “Why don’t you want to tell me where you’re from?”

“Because it’s not important.”

He sighed and I felt kind of bad for sounding like such a bitch. “Look,” I placed my hands on the table and leaned forward, “there are things that happened there, bad things, and I just don’t want to talk about it. Okay?”

He absorbed my words and I thought for a minute he was going to protest. “Okay,” he agreed.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“What can I ask you?”