Heartless (Chestnut Springs, #2)(79)

“You’re a savage, Eaton.” I laugh lightly, before darting my tongue out to taste what he put there. “And I love it.”

“Good thing, Red.” He slips into the water, dragging me down with him to wash us off. “Because I’m going to haul your fine ass to my cave now. Keep you on your back, coming all night long.”

Then he scoops me up and carries me into the house.

Like a total savage.

One that keeps me coming all night long.





27





Cade





Cade: Luke’s birthday party is on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Talia: Can we bump it to noon? I have dinner plans that night and need time to get ready.

Cade: No, we cannot bump your child’s sixth birthday party to accommodate your dinner plans.

Talia: It’s only two hours.

Cade: Exactly.

Talia: I forgot what a stick in the mud you are.

Cade: Well, here I am. Refreshing your memory. If you can’t make it, please let me know so that I can prepare Luke.

Talia: Don’t be so dramatic. I’ll be there. I just might be overdressed so I can make it back to the city in time.

Cade: That’s fine. Luke won’t care.

Talia: What about you? You always did enjoy me in a pair of heels.

Cade: So did every other guy in town.

Talia: Fuck you.





“You’re acting weird.” I glance down at Summer, who is staring out over the back field, assessing it like it’s the Met Gala or something. She and Willa have been up since early this morning setting Luke’s party up in the hayfield, per his request.

There’s a bouncy castle and a tent with some weird fucking guy in head-to-toe khaki sitting under it who apparently brought snakes and lizards to show the kids. There’s another tent with a buffet-style table covered in things Willa has been baking for days. I know because I tested the icing by swiping it on her neck and licking it off.

It was fucking delicious.

She’s got lemonade with lemons and strawberries floating in it. It’s adorable. She’s got little plates with poop emojis on them that Luke picked out with her. The tablecloths match. Only Willa could take shit plates and somehow tie them into a beautiful outdoor birthday party for a six-year-old.

I wouldn’t have even let him get them, but she just laughed and tossed them in the basket. “Excellent choice!” she said, and Luke beamed.

“Yeah. I know,” I finally reply to Summer. Because I am acting weird. Willa and I have been sneaking around for a couple of weeks, and I don’t want to sneak anymore. I’m trying hard not to scare the shit out of her by being so sure about everything. But the fact of the matter is, I am sure.

I’ve made my mistakes. I’ve lived with the fallouts. I’ve spent years thinking about my life and what it would take for me to give someone a chance again.

And watching this woman plan what I meant to be a simple backyard barbecue for a kid and instead treating it like it’s the celebration of the century is just the cherry on top.

It feels fast, and yet it doesn’t. I wouldn’t have given in to this if it didn’t feel right.

“Cade Eaton.” Summer’s dark eyes are sparkling at me right now, and her jaw drops as she scans my face. Sharp as a tack, this one. I told Rhett once that I loved her because she was good for him but hated that she was smarter than me.

And this moment does nothing but prove that statement.

“You’re in love with my best friend, aren’t you?”

I cross my arms over my chest and look away. Love. I was never sure I could love someone in the way everyone talks about it. My heart has taken too many shit-kickings over the years. My mom. Talia. What Talia meant for the course my life took. All the things I missed out on, which I hate to even mention because I have Luke. But I’d be a liar if I said I never thought about what I might have done differently had life dealt me a different hand.

Maybe I’d be rodeoing. Or traveling all over North America, rolling in the cash that comes from selling top-of-the-line horses.

Maybe I’d be training all day and riding buckle bunnies all night.

All those maybes. But as I watch Willa put little weighted clips on the tablecloth so nothing blows away, I know that none of those maybes would have been right.

The hand dealt to me is what brought her to my front step.

“Yeah,” I grumble, still refusing to look at Summer.

She makes a satisfied little humming noise, and when I peek out of the corner of my eye at her, she winks and gives me a side hug. She’s so tiny that it’s awkward. She doesn’t have Willa’s height or long limbs.

“You should tell her.”

“Tell her?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. I think Willa would want to know that.”

I snort. “So that I can scare her away?”

Her lips curve up slowly. “I don’t think you’ll be able to scare Willa away,” is all she says before giving me another squeeze and walking in the opposite direction.

She drops a truth bomb casually and then just leaves me to overanalyze the hell out of it.





The party is already in full swing by the time Talia deigns to bless us with her presence. I don’t even have to turn to see her because I hear, “My baaabyyy!” in her high, sugary voice.