Something in me eased at the tenderness of the gesture. The edge of that panic subsided, and I wrapped my arms around him. “Talk to me.”
Caden’s heart thumped against my chest. “I feel like I hurt someone no matter what direction I move in.”
My arms tightened around him. “Like who?”
“My mom, mostly. I ran into her after my meeting with Gabe and my dad the other day. I told her I wasn’t sure I could keep working for him.”
I straightened. That seemed like a good thing to me, but the look on his face told me it wasn’t.
Caden squeezed the back of his neck. “She begged me not to quit and to let her try to fix things.”
“Hasn’t she tried before?” I knew Jocelyn Shaw well enough to know that she would’ve tried anything to keep her family together.
He nodded. “I’ve never talked to her about quitting before, but I know she’s talked to my dad about how he treats Gabe and me. But it’s useless. Every time I try to have an honest conversation, he brushes me off or mocks me for wanting to talk aboutfeelings.”
Anger flickered to life somewhere low. “It’s not fair for her to ask you to stay in a toxic situation.”
“I think she worries she’ll lose me if I leave the company. I hate the idea of hurting her, and I hate the idea of walking away from Clara’s favorite place on Earth and leaving it to Gabe. He’ll ruin it just to spite me.”
“Clara doesn’t live in The Peaks. She lives here.” I pressed a palm against Caden’s chest. “You carry her with you every single day.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I feel like I’d be betraying her if I leave.”
“She wouldn’t want you to be miserable for any reason. She’d want you to go out and live your life to the fullest. To be happy.”
Caden’s hands came to rest on my hips, pulling me closer. “It feels like I’ll lose a piece of her.”
“You won’t. I’ll make sure of it. We’ll keep her memory alive every day. There are a million other spots in and around Cedar Ridge where I have memories of her, so I know you do, too.”
“The secret spot at the lake…”
I grinned. “She was the first one off those cliffs and into the water.”
Caden chuckled. “How a ten-year-old talked more shit than Law, I’ll never know.”
“She put you all to shame.”
His fingers tightened on my hips. “You always have this way of easing the worst of it. How do you do that?”
“Because I see you. Even when you try to hide from me, I see you.”
Caden traced a finger over my lips. “I don’t want to hide anymore.”
“Good.” I closed my mouth around his finger and sucked deeply.
“Gigi…”
I nipped his fingertip.
He growled, pulling his finger from between my teeth and lifting me onto the counter.
I let out a surprised shriek as Caden shoved his computer aside and hooked his hands into my tank top.
He lifted it up and over my head, letting it fall to the floor and moving to my bra. “Missed you.”
“And whose fault is that?”
As my bra joined my shirt, Caden’s head bent, and he latched on to my nipple.
