Cade stared straight ahead. A party. His head throbbed faster.
“I didn’t mean to spring this on you, but I knew you’d be swamped today and the news spot came available last minute. Obviously, I had to jump on it.” Dad picked up his designer gold pen, a gift from the town during his fourth term as mayor. “So, what did you want to talk about earlier?”
“Um.” Cade cracked his neck to one side. This was it—his last window to say what he came to say. He opened his mouth, shut it. The past ricocheted around his head.You really owe your dad after this one, sport.
“Let me guess.” Dad raised his eyebrows. “Is it about Rosalyn Dupree?”
His face must have answered for him.
Dad pointed. “I’m not blind, son. You like her.”
He swallowed. “Yeah, I do.” It felt good to admit the truth. “But she’s not available right now, nor is she planning to stay in Magnolia Bay, so…”
“Available?” Dad frowned. “She seeing someone else?”
“Sort of.” He couldn’t tell her secret. “It’s complicated.” Not to mention, despite her protests, he wasn’t fully convinced she didn’t still harbor some lingering feelings toward Blaine. At some point, she’d trusted him enough to give him access to her finances, even go so far as to marry the guy to escape a hospital.
And there had been that kiss he’d witnessed in Dallas…
Maybe that was the part he had trouble getting past. Afraid to believe there wasn’tanothersecret still hanging out there she didn’t want to share.
Dad cleared his throat. “If she chooses to go elsewhere, that’s her loss. You remember that.” His smile reappeared. “She could have been with the future mayor of Magnolia Bay.”
So much wrong with that statement he didn’t know where to start. “Uh, thanks, Dad. But?—”
“I’m proud of you, by the way.” Dad’s eager smile sealed Cade’s fate. “Not sure if I mentioned that part.” He rubbed his goatee. “I haven’t told you the whole story, I suppose.”
There was more? Cade bounced one leg.
“Part of why I’m retiring early is doctor’s orders.” Dad tapped his pen against his open palm.
Cade’s leg stilled. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing serious.” Dad released the pen. “Apparently my blood pressure is high. And I need to eat more salads.” He gestured to the paperwork on his desk. “Doc thinks some changes would be good, prevention-wise. Meaning less stress. Of course, once your mother heard that, the gavel slammed.”
He winked, but for the first time, Cade noticed the thin lines etched across his face. The grooves on his forehead. The sunspots on his receding hairline.
His dad was getting older.
Cade shifted, hooking one ankle over the other. He widened his eyes, forcing the walls back into their place in the room. “It’s okay, Dad.” He drew a deep breath and released it with a smile. “I’ve got this.”
Somehow, he’d find a way to make that statement true.
twenty
She’d done it.
Rosalyn sat on the packed floor in the quiet circus tent that evening, gazing up through the dim lighting at the red and white striped ceiling the way someone might gaze at a sky full of stars.
She’d actually run away to the circus.
She drew a deep breath of slightly musty air that offered a faint hint of peanuts and popcorns from the machines lining the side of the tent and pulled her knees up to her chest.
Outside, muted activity bustled around the grounds as Magnolia Days carried on, but the tent wasn’t open to the public until later in the week. She’d come in to rig her silks, learn the layout, make a plan for where she’d enter and begin her floor work before mounting the fabric.
But her first performance wasn’t until Wednesday night, and now, she wanted to stop. Take a moment. Soak it all in.
See what was left when it all dried up.
