nerve and headed back down. I hadn’t seen or talked to Caden since Grady’s and my high school graduation when he’d come home for two days, looking even more heartbreaking than usual in his army fatigues.
I moved to turn around, convinced Caden didn’t want to talk or be bothered.
Then the leaves crunched beneath his feet as he stepped out from the trees. He had filled out, and, as my mom had noted, he’d added a lot of tattoos. Heavy black beard stubble covered his chin, but I could still see the familiar determined set of his jaw. The innocence of youth and living in a small town had been completely erased. And my heart still melted at the sight of him. My secret crush, a crush I couldn’t even tell my best friend about. Especially my best friend. The guy who I’d spent too many hours daydreaming about, too many hours trying to impress, was standing in front of me looking about as lost and sad as I’d ever seen him.
Caden stepped into the circle of benches and stared at me a long moment. I saw his throat move with a hard swallow. Then he spoke. “Where the hell have you been, Trinket?”
My body shook and the tears fell as I plodded toward him with heavy feet and an even heavier heart. I couldn’t look at his face as I pressed into his arms and buried myself against his chest.
Chapter 4
Caden
My arms wrapped around Kenna. I held her tightly and realized it was the first time I’d taken a solid breath since Mom had called me with the news. I gazed down at the top of her blonde head, and it occurred to me that I’d never had her in my arms like this. There’d been times, while we were messing around as teenagers, when I’d picked her up to toss her in a pool or help her down off a tree limb or wall, but I’d never actually had her tucked against me and in my arms.
I’d been in Mayfair three days wandering aimlessly back and forth between my parents’ houses, trying hard to console my dad and Sally, but doing a fucking pathetic job of it. I was in too much pain myself to be of any comfort to them.
Relatives and friends had been in and out of my dad’s house, neighbors bringing flowers and food, aunts and uncles who’d come to town for the funeral, but I’d hardly said a word to any of them. Kenna was the person I’d waited for, the one person I needed to see.
Without thinking, I leaned down and kissed her forehead. She lifted her face to mine. Her brown eyes were glassy with tears.
I brushed her long bangs back. “I figured you’d know where to find me.” I could have held her like that for hours, for days, right through the damn funeral and right until she walked onto the plane to fly back to New York. Only she wasn’t mine to keep.
I lowered my arms. She wiped at her tears and stepped back.
She glanced around at the run-down circle of benches. “Guess the city doesn’t have this place on their budget list anymore. It sure looks different than when we used to hang out up here.”
“Shit, I feel like I’ve lived a thousand lives since then.” I walked over and sat down next to my bottle of whiskey. I picked it up, took a swig and held it up to Kenna.
“I don’t normally start my whiskey drinking until noon.” She reached for it. “But what the hell.” She took a swig and then scrunched up her button nose and swallowed as if she was chugging down a handful of gravel. “That’s truly awful. I’m pretty sure that is what jet fuel would taste like.” She took another drink and handed it back to me.
She sat down on the bench next to me. The sun was lifting higher in the sky, reaching well past the shade provided by the surrounding overgrown trees. I took another drink. The whiskey had dulled my senses some, which was exactly the effect I’d been going for. But the ache in my bones and my chest and my head was still as strong as ever.
“How’s the leg?” Kenna asked.
“Hurts when the weather is cold, but I can’t complain.” I looked over at her. She still had the spray of freckles across her nose and those curly lashes and plump lips that made her look