Still, he had to know. “I understand a technicality is still a technicality, but there’s more to all this than just a marriage certificate, isn’t there?” Cade asked.
She nodded, brow pinched. A shadow of regret clouded her expression. “It’s…complicated.”
Man, he wanted to push that further. Crack that word open, see what lived inside. There was clearlystillmore to this story. But if she wasn’t volunteering the details, it wasn’t his place to ask.
So he inhaled instead, shoved aside the rest of the what-ifs, and gently touched her arm. “I guess we’ve never had great timing, have we?”
A semi-sad smile twisted her lips. “I guess not.” She took his hand in hers, squeezed, and then let go.
He should do the same.
They walked in a silence, the sun warm overhead. Cade opened his mouth, unsure what to say next, but feeling it was all still so unfinished.
He was about to crack a joke about the potholes when Rosalyn spoke first. “Thanks for keeping my secret, by the way. No one else knows about this, not even my parents.” She looked at her feet as they walked. “I can’t disappoint my mom that way.”
“I won’t tell, but…” Cade frowned. “I’m sure they’d try to help if they knew.”
“You don’t understand. There’s no way I can tell my mom her daughter is getting divorced before she even has a wedding.” Rosalyn shook her head. “It’s not easy being Rose Dupree’s daughter.”
“Oh, I get family pressure side, trust me.” Cade’s chest tightened. He considered telling her about the political shoes he was expected to fill soon, but it didn’t feel right. This was about her. “What do you think will happen if she finds out?”
“Nothing outwardly. She’s too poised for that.” Rosalyn took a breath. “Basically, my mom warned me about Blaine before I signed with him, but she could only source ‘mother’s intuition’ as her reason. I thought it was another control attempt, a way for her to say ‘told you so’ about my choosing aerial, so I disregarded it. But now…I guess she was right.”
Cade wanted to take her hand again, encourage her to keep talking. But he forced his hand sat his sides. “Right, how? Didn’t you say Blaine helped you get out of Saudi Arabia?”
“Yeah, but he’s gotten me into a pretty big jam, and I went with it.” Rosalyn squeezed her eyes shut. “It was dumb.Iwas dumb. But you’ve got enough on your plate without me adding to it with all that.”
“Never too busy to listen.” He’d stop right now and sit crisscross applesauce on the sidewalk if she’d tell him everything. But that’d be an odd look for a mayor-elect. “Look, I know this isn’t my business, but it sounds like a big enough to deal to tell your parents. Maybe they’ll surprise you.”
“You don’t get it.” Rosalyn’s expression tightened. “I can’t disappoint her again over being a bad judge of character.”
“Again?”
“It’s a whole story. But basically, Mom married into money. I never knew that until we went to my grandmother’s funeral when I was…I guess nine years old. Grandma’s house—the one my mom grew up in—was in this low-income neighborhood. Bars on the windows, overgrown weeds, high crime stats. Mom acted weird, but I didn’t care. I was just excited to see my cousins I never knew about.”
“Seems right for a nine-year-old.” Cade gently guided her off the sidewalk and onto the grass as another bicyclist pedaled by, a cat riding in the front basket. “Go on.”
“My cousins were older than me. Preteens and young teenagers. I thought we’d all play games while the adults did the post-funeral lunch prep, but they wanted to walk to the gas station down the street.” She scrunched her nose. “In hindsight, I don’t think I even asked permission. I assumed it’d be okay because I was with my cousins, and they were ‘old enough.’”
Cade slowed his pace, turning to give her his full attention.
“I wondered how we were going to pay for anything, but once we got there, they started stuffing candy bars in their pockets. Soda cans in their jackets. Gum, keychains, you name it. We probably stole a hundred dollars or more of junk.” Rosalyn shook her head, her brow pinched. “I didn’t say anything. I turned down their offer of a snack, but I didn’t try to stop them.”
He softened his tone. “You were a kid. It’s understandable.”
“I knew better. When we got back to the house and got caught with all the stuff, Mom said I’d humiliated her.” Rosalyn’s cheeks flushed. “I realized later, after eavesdropping on her and my dad, that she was embarrassed over her roots. She took a lot of pride in escaping that town and making a better life for herself, so she panicked when she thought I’d been pulled into that world. I was supposed to be different.”
Cade frowned. “Did you ever tell her you didn’t steal?”
“I tried, but my cousins lied and said it was my idea.” Rosalyn started walking again, giving him no choice but to follow. “Regardless, I stayed silent in that store when I should have spoken upthen. Mom told me I had bad discernment.” She shrugged. “And she was right—Blaine being Exhibit B. I shouldn’t trust myself.”
They walked in silence as Cade tried to process her story. “Is that why you were so driven in school? So determined to beat me, to be the best?” He could see it. “You were trying to prove you weren’t a bad person.”
“Maybe so. I already was the oddball in the family, having traded ballet for aerial.” She fiddled with the strings on her hoodie. “I guess I figured since I didn’t want to conform to something more traditional, then I needed to be perfect at everything else.”
“Perfect at the things your mom would be proud of. Would brag about.” He got it now. “Grades. Scholarships. College.”
Rosalyn stopped in front of a pothole on the corner of Village Lane. “What do you think about this one? Studio apartment?”
