Cage chuckled. Luke did too, but his was condescending.
“Here.” She tossed Luke the keys. “Go warm up the car. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“One minute.”
“Go.”
“Oh … have you talked to Dodge and Lilith?” Cage asked.
Luke shook his head. “Who’s that?”
“They live in the first unit of the development on the North side. Jillian does some odd jobs for them and watches Lilith several days a week. She has some health issues. She and Jillian are close. Maybe they might know more.”
Luke nodded. “Thank you.”
After the storm door shut behind Luke, Lake gave Cage her best apologetic look. “So I’d say I’ll see ya around or I’ll see you later, but I somehow think this is it.” She tried to hide her disappointment behind a forced smile.
He stepped out the front door behind her, shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets. “It’s been fun. I needed you today.” Cage grinned. “I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. I felt pretty shitty when I woke up, but now …” He lifted his shoulders. “Not so shitty.”
“I’ve had a shitty year, but after today …” She mirrored his shrug. “Not so shitty. Thank you.”
He had a sexy smile, the kind that she could feel. “Bye.”
Lake nodded. “Bye.” She turned, her heart begging with each pounding beat to say something—do something—anything to ease the disappointment of ending the best day of the entire year.
“Give me your phone number,” he called.
She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment, wanting to just savor the feeling. Then she turned. “I can’t.”
Cage deflated. “You can’t or you won’t?”
“Both. No, really just … I can’t.”
“So you’re just going to leave me with nothing.”
Her mind screamed “screw it.” She walked back and grabbed his face with both of her gloved hands, pulling his cheek toward her lips. At the last second he turned and his lips pressed to hers. She wasn’t going to kiss him on the lips. He did it. He turned into her kiss. Neither one of them moved. It wasn’t a passionate, open-mouthed kiss, but it wasn’t a peck either. Their lips simply locked, idle like a statue, neither one wanting to end the feeling because it was The. Best. Feeling.
However, life was … life. Time didn’t really ever stand still. And just as quick as it happened, it ended with yet again, the honking of a car horn.
Dammit Jones!
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Knight
It took begging and insinuating a possible life or death situation to get Maddie to Ryn’s for dinner on a Saturday night. She arrived with an annoyed frown plastered to her beautiful face. Ryn couldn’t remember the exact moment her little girl became so bitter. It seemed to happen in a blink. One day they were each other’s everything and the next Ryn was the unstable woman who ruined her marriage and her daughter’s dreams.
“Who’s dying?” Maddie stabbed her fork into her salad.
Ryn was too nervous to eat. She pushed her plate away and rested her crossed arms on the table. “How are things with your professor?”
Maddie shrugged. “Fine, I guess. I have a shit grade in the class, but I’m going to pass. Please tell me that’s not what was so urgent. We could have had this conversation over the phone.”
“If I moved what would it take for you to come with me?”
“I’m not moving.” Maddie laughed as if the idea was absurd.
“Why?”
“Why? Are you serious? I’m in college. I have friends. Dad is here.”
“But what if I weren’t here?”
Maddie shrugged. “I’ll come visit you when I can.”
“Is there anything I could say or do or … give you to make you come with me?”
She flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder. “What, like a bribe?”
“No. Just an incentive.”
“Nope. I’m not leaving.”
Ryn’s heart ached. The crushing reality left her fighting back emotions.
“Maddie … do you hate me?”
“What? Why would you ask me that?”
“Just answer the question.”
With a roll of her eyes, she shook her head. “No, Mom. I don’t hate you. God, you’re so insecure.”
“Shut up,” Ryn said. It was nothing more than a whisper, a leaked emotion not meant for Maddie’s ears.
“What did you just say?” Maddie leaned forward.
Ryn shook her head, years of defeat bearing down on her.
“Did you tell me to shut up?” Defense escalated in her voice.
“I just want to feel your love, but I don’t feel it—ever.”
“Well, I’m not feeling your love either. Wasting one of the few Saturday nights I have off, to ask me to leave my life, then adding ‘shut up’ on top of it is not the best way to feel my love.”
Ryn clenched her teeth, breathing slowly through her nose. “I gave you life, and then I gave you mine—completely. Do you get that? Do you have even an inkling of what my life has been like? No. You don’t. Because I’ve given everything to protect you from the truth, from the ugly, from the nightmare that has been my life.”