No one needs to take any blame. It was just...a crazy few minutes.”
Crazy awesome few minutes, but she couldn’t let herself dwell on that. That would just make her sick to her stomach again. Instead, she latched onto what Cale was trying to say. Attempted to excuse what she knew was inexcusable.
“We got caught up in talking about sad things....”
Cale nodded. “We crossed a line we shouldn’t have. It was a mistake.”
“Huge.”
“It won’t happen again.”
She breathed out and nodded slowly. Absolutely right it wouldn’t happen again. Between the look of remorse on his face when he’d pulled away last night and the toxic guilt that had been so overpowering that at times she felt as if she might keel over from it ever since... No. Not going to happen again.
“I wouldn’t mind hanging out sometimes, though,” Cale continued, and Rachel turned her head sharply toward him. He shrugged. “It’s taken me a while to be social again.” He gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “A long while. Over a year. But it’s still tough to go out and act happy some nights, you know?”
“So you want to hang with me and be unhappy?”
He laughed again, this time more genuinely. “I don’t feel like I have to act around you.”
Something about the intimacy of that statement made her heart constrict. She wasn’t well seasoned in the art of friendship, with males or females, so it was easy to convince herself that was what the flutter was about. “You don’t.”
“It’s comfortable,” he said, sounding a little unsure of himself, and that made Rachel want to reach out to him.
She didn’t, though.
“I get it,” she said as the coil inside her that’d been tightened until it was about to snap slowly unwound. She hadn’t realized it until now, but in addition to everything else she’d been feeling all day, she’d been terrified she’d scared him off by bumbling right over that line he’d mentioned. She couldn’t have what she wanted with him—for too many reasons to count—but she hated the thought of not having him in her life in some capacity, even if it was just as someone she could sit next to at planning meetings for a few weeks. Anything more would be a gift.
They stood there watching the bay darken for a few minutes, the silence between them almost, like he’d said, comfortable. The small bit that was tense was all her doing—she had no doubt. And she could deal with that.
“I promised your mom I’d get you home,” Cale said once the light had completely disappeared from the surface of the water, turning the bay into a dark abyss. “Ready?”
“I honestly planned to walk.”
“Not happening.”
“Have you forgotten the Culver stubbornness?”
“Are you chicken to be alone with me now?” Cale’s tone was light, and it was obvious he was joking with her, but the word chicken hit a raw spot.
“I’m just going to pretend that doesn’t sound in the least bit egotistical,” Rachel said, throwing it back at him. “Bring it on. Give me a ride, Sir Gallant.” She turned and walked toward the parking lot.
“Careful. That kind of sounds dirty.” Cale fell into step next to her, and Rachel lightly smacked his arm.
They rode with the windows of the Sport Trac down all the way, the temperate night air blowing through the cab and making it tough to talk. But that was okay. Rachel didn’t feel the need for mindless chatter, anyway.
Cale pulled up behind Rachel’s mom’s Lexus, which sat in the open garage.
“What’s your work schedule this weekend?” he asked.
Rachel’s heart stumbled. Had she misunderstood everything he’d just said? No way was he going to ask her out...
“Um...”
“I have a favor to ask,” he said in a rush, as if realizing what she was thinking.
“I work Saturday night. I have tomorrow and Sunday off. What’s the favor?”
In the darkness, she saw him close his eyes briefly and then gaze out the driver’s-side window, away from her.
“I need to go to my condo,” he said. “To take inventory on all the work that needs to be done. It’s time for me to start moving toward living there again. Past time.”
He didn’t have to remind her that he’d been there only once since Noelle had died or how he’d reacted to it.
“You want me to go with you?” she asked.
Cale finally turned to look at her. “Would you? Maybe Saturday morning before your shift.”
“Sure. I can do that.”
From what he’d said before, there would be no physical sign of her sister in