“Hey, baby girl!” Dad bellowed. “You’re outside! That’s a first.” He came toward me, dropping a kiss on top of my head.
“Yeah.” I forced a smile. “Needed some fresh air.”
“Nothing wrong with that.” He looked toward the door. “Where’s your mom?”
“Inside. I think she’s getting dinner ready.”
“Good.” He rubbed his belly. “Starving.” He rubbed the top of my head, like he used to do when I was younger, then walked to the door. He smiled back at me once before going inside and shutting the door behind him. I stayed in the chair, watching cars drive through the neighborhood. After a while, I read over the letter again. And again. And another time. I read his letter a total of eight times, absorbing his words. His anguish. His guilt and regrets. The drunken script and how he stretched some of his r’s and e’s.
Before I knew it, dinner was ready, and I ate. I smiled at Dad’s corny work stories, and even shared dessert with Mom, who was surprised by all of it. She looked at me suspiciously, but it wouldn’t have been like her not to wonder what was going on. She knew when something was up with me, so when I went up to my room, and she came in several minutes later, I prepared myself for her questions.
“What did Lora stop by for?” she asked, sitting beside me.
I refused to lie to her. “She gave me a letter from Cane.”
“Oh?” She blinked twice. “What did it say?”
“Just…stuff. How he misses me. Also that he’s leaving tomorrow to move to Charlotte.”
“Oh.”
I looked down. She did the thing I did, running her thumbnail over her cuticle. “Are you thinking about going with him again?”
Sighing, I said, “I don’t know, honestly. Even if I wanted to, I’m too afraid.”
She laughed softly.
“What?” I asked, looking at her.
“Nothing—nothing. It’s just…well, that sounds familiar.”
“Familiar how?”
“Well, your father asked me to move here, to his hometown, right after I graduated. It was so sudden, and I had just finished law school, so of course I didn’t have a good job. Your Nana insisted that I shouldn’t do it, but of course I didn’t listen. Still, I was terrified. I mean, we were dead broke, and when we moved here, your dad had to work at this crappy restaurant at first, just to pay the bills. He was still in training to become a cop. We stayed in this horrible box-looking apartment on the other side of town. It was just awful.” She looked up, eyes shimmering. “But we were happy, and no one could tell us otherwise. We had each other, and to me that’s all that mattered. Not the piled up bills. Not what my mother was telling me. Just us, and eventually we proved everyone wrong.”
“That’s good.” I focused on my lap. “Cane mentioned in the letter that he called you.”
“He did. I updated him about your recovery, told him you’d been waking up in the middle of the night because of nightmares.”
“Did you tell him about what the doctor said?”
“No,” she responded quickly.
“Good.” I swallowed thickly. “I’d rather tell him myself…when I’m ready.”
She pressed her lips together and bobbed her head. She then leaned in to kiss my temple before wrapping an arm around me and holding me. “Think wisely, Kandy. I don’t want what happened last time to happen to you again.”
“I know,” I murmured, and honestly, it really wasn’t Mom I was worried about. It was Dad.
Last time I left, he refused to accept it. After what had happened, I was convinced that he was never, ever going to accept me leaving to be with Cane again, no matter how much I loved him and he loved me. I had to think wisely about this one. I loved Cane so, so much, but was he the right choice for me? Did I want to make the same mistake twice? What if the outcome was worse than last time?
I held my mother for a while, and when Dad called for her, I finally let go. She kissed my forehead before leaving, and when I heard her going down the stairs, I pulled the letter out again, reading it over and over.
I fell asleep with it clutched to my chest, and when I woke up at 4:00 a.m., my decision had been made.
Chapter Ten
CANE
I’d been eager all day, hoping that I’d receive a text from Lora saying she was on the way with Kandy, but knowing Lora, she wouldn’t have told me upfront. She liked having a surprise to throw at me, something to catch me off guard. It was well past ten, and I still hadn’t heard from her.
I sat in my new office on a teleconference, hardly listening to Mr. Tribble go on about how he wanted Tempt to sponsor one of Charlotte’s local events. I kept eyeing my cell phone while his dull voice droned in the background.