The Bad Boy Bargain (Suttonville Sentinels #1)(44)

“You? Girl trouble?” A snort. “Since when?”

“I’m serious, man. There’s this girl I really like, but I keep screwing things up. I want to do better for her.” God, he sounded stupid. “I need advice.”

“What girl?”

“Faith—”

“Gladwell. So the rumors are true.” Cade’s tone hardened. “You better not screw her over. She’s a sweetheart.”

“Exactly.” Kyle sat up. “That’s why I need your help.”

“Okay, this is going to take longer than I have right now. Do you mean it?” Cade sounded doubtful. “That you want to do better?”

“Yes. I mean it.”

“You know what, I believe you,” Cade said. “Step one, be there for her. We’ll work out the rest when we talk on Monday.”

Kyle’s stomach twisted. “That might be easier said than done.”

“No excuses. I’ll find a way to help you, but you need to own this, or we’re done. Got it?”

Funny enough, he did. “Yeah. And thanks.”

“You bet. I’ll see you Monday. Be good until then.”

“I’ll try.”

Cade hung up, and Kyle stretched back out in the grass. Who knew. Maybe taking a step back to who he was could help him take a giant leap toward who he really wanted to be. Nothing else had worked so far. It was time to see if Cade could work a miracle.





Chapter Thirty


Faith


“It’s time to work our behinds off, people,” Mr. Fisk said. “This could be the best production we’ve had.”

Faith was sure that if the lifts worked, everything else would. She glanced at Josh, the boy playing Jud. He was a pretty good dancer, but she was so worried about him trying to pick her up. He was her height, and thin. Maybe he was stronger than he looked.

“Mr. Fisk?” Cade, the AV boy, asked. “Did you see my email about sepia lighting for the dream sequence?”

“I did. Loved it!” Their teacher looked around at the other principals: Ado Annie, Curly, Jud, Will, and Aunt Eller. “I think we’ll be ready to go in two weeks. Your parents will be thrilled.”

He had a point—it was a good group. Still, a nagging pain kept tugging at her heart. She’d slept badly last night, but even with Dad saying everything would be better in the morning, it wasn’t. Nothing about what happened with Kyle made sense. It was like…

Like he felt guilty for making out with her. But why? She’d kissed him. It wasn’t like he coerced her into it. The whole thing had been so weird. And a little humiliating. Had she been wrong about thinking he was into her?

That couldn’t be right, though. Not with the way he looked at her.

This was going to drive her crazy.

“Faith? You with us?”

She looked up, and everyone was staring at her. Mr. Fisk shook his head. “Faith, I asked if you’re comfortable with the choreography.”

She blinked to refocus on the people around her. “Oh, yeah. Fine. So long as Josh is.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, giving her a suspicious look.

“All right, then. Cade, I’ll see you and the lighting crew at the performing arts hall in an hour. The rest of y’all rest up this weekend—and no stupid activities. If any of you goes mountain biking and shows up with a broken arm next week, I’m going to lose my sh…sanity.”

They all laughed and stood to go. Faith bent to check her phone, and when she looked up, she noticed Cade had hung back.

“Need something?” she asked, smiling. He was a nice guy, but they weren’t close.

“Can I ask you a question?” He took the seat next to her. “It’s kind of personal.”

Oh, no. He wasn’t going to ask her out, was he? She wasn’t ready for that. “Um, sure.”

“What’s with you and Kyle Sawyer?”

Not him, too. “Why would you ask?”

He frowned. “I thought I heard something, about Dolly’s—”

“We were together, but not anymore.” She sighed. “He said he didn’t want to anymore. I don’t know why.”

“Huh.” Cade’s frown deepened. “Forget I asked. It was kind of rude of me to pry. Guess I’ll see you Monday.”

He stood and mimed tipping a hat before loping out of the restaurant. He was tall and stocky—the kind of guy who gave great hugs and laughed a lot. Just talking about Kyle made her head hurt, but the look on Cade’s face set off an alarm in her head. Something happened to drive Kyle away. She just didn’t know what, and she was too tired to keep trying to figure it out.

She drove home in her Bug with the top down and the wind in her hair. She really should go to the studio and practice, but the thought of dancing brought back too many feelings. Waiting a few more days would be better. Instead, she drove to Violet’s, taking time to enjoy the canopy of trees on the road leading to her house.

Vi flung the front door open before Faith had the Bug in park. “Okay, so what’s up with Sawyer?”

That seemed to be the question of the day. “If I knew, I could probably broker world peace.” Faith gave Vi a quick hug and followed her inside. The downstairs of her house was wide open, with big picture windows overlooking the lake. She needed this, a moment to recharge. Too many intense things had happened in the last week—not even a week, actually—and it was time to take a step back.