The Exception (24 page)

With Cane in the shower, I had called my dad and told him I had dinner with Simon and that it had ended badly. Of course he was angry that I had been with Simon at all, thanks to Cane’s phone call. When I told him I was fairly certain that Simon wouldn’t follow through with the purchase of Solomon Place, he said he had received a phone call Friday afternoon from Simon’s lender. Dad wasn’t sure what was going on, but apparently Simon’s financial backing had fallen through.

So many things had happened so quickly. As I sat on Kari’s couch, a mixture of emotions rolled through me. I was still nervous about Simon, even though Cane assured me everything would be taken care of. I was excited and nervous about my relationship with Cane. I was grateful things didn’t end worse with Simon. And I was disappointed that I let myself get played by him in the first place.

I looked at the clock, feeling my stomach start to flutter. I had enough time to jump into a shower before Cane came over.

I made my way upstairs to change out of my work clothes, a silly grin breaking out across my face as my phone chirped.

Cane: Be ready in an hour. Wear the orange dress.

Me: What if I have plans?

Cane: You don’t.

Me: Maybe I do.

Cane: Cancel them.

I laughed at my phone, thinking up a response while another text from him came through.

Cane: It doesn’t matter. I will be there in 57 minutes. Be ready.

Me: What if I’m not here?

Cane: You will be.

Me: A bit arrogant, wouldn’t you say?

Cane: I’ve been called worse.

Me: You are impossible.

Cane: 55 minutes. Time is ticking.

I smiled and headed for the shower.

Fifty minutes later, I was standing in the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring. My heart began to race as I made my way towards the door.

“Who is it?” I called, standing on my tiptoes to see through the peephole.

“There better only be one man coming to take you out tonight,” Cane said from the other side.

He was standing on the doorstep, looking more handsome than I had ever seen him. A tight black shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, a white t-shirt peeking out of the bottom. His hands were shoved in the pockets of dark jeans and he wore white sneakers.

He looked young, carefree, and divine.

I smoothed out my dress before popping open the door. Cane slowly removed his sunglasses from his face when he saw me.

“Hi, beautiful girl.”

He reached his hand out; his fingertips lightly touched my skin right below my ear, sending shivers down my spine. He slowly let them drift down my neck, a wave of goose bumps following in their wake. He took a step forward through the threshold.

“I told you that you would be here,” he whispered in my ear. I leaned my neck over to give him access. He stood up and laughed. “Come on. You look beautiful and we have places to be.”

“Where are we going?” I was curious as to what he had planned. We had never been anywhere together and he had told me he didn’t normally take women to dinner.

“You’ll see.”

This should be interesting.

I grabbed my purse and shut and locked the door behind me. Cane held the door to his black Denali open and I stepped inside the cool, clean cab.

He got in beside me and grabbed his sunglasses out of the front of his shirt, sliding them over his eyes. He smiled sexily and threw the car into reverse and jetted through the neighborhood until he hit the exit for the freeway.

“Holy hell, Cane!” I cried as he zipped through the traffic. “You’re going to kill me! Stop! Seriously! Or I won’t get back in here ever again, I swear to you.”

Cane threw his head back and laughed. “Well, being as though we just got on the same page, I’ll behave. It’s too soon to have you threatening to leave me.” He slowed to a more agreeable speed and turned on the radio, Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock singing about pictures. I relaxed back in the seat, watching the cacti fly by, feeling completely at peace and reveling in it.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“I got a lot of shit done, if that’s what you mean. How was your day?”

I sighed. “It was good, I guess. I wasn’t quite as productive as you, apparently. I just still feel so, I don’t know. Off, maybe. At least when I’m alone I do.”

He scowled. “I hate that you feel that way, baby. I wish I could do something to show you that everything is okay.” He reached his hand across the console and grabbed mine, running his thumb over my knuckles.

“When I’m with you, I believe that. But for some reason, when we are apart—”

“I get it. I feel the same way.” The corner of his lips turned up in a grin. “It’s fucking crazy, but with you, I feel really … centered? I don’t know what word to use. I just feel like everything is in focus when we are together. I can concentrate at work. I know what needs to be done.”

Warmth blossomed in my chest. “I know what you mean.”

“Crazy, right?”

I nodded.

We rode in silence for a while, Cane stroking my hand with his before linking our fingers together.

Finally, Cane turned south towards the mountains and I became curious. I held my tongue until I couldn’t take it anymore. “Where are we going?” Everything you would traditionally consider as date material was getting farther and farther behind us.

“Patience is a virtue,” Cane said.

“A virtue I’m lacking.”

“That’s okay,” Cane said, pulling into a little parking lot. “We’re here.”

We were on the outskirts of the city next to a little cantina, as the sign described. It was a little stucco building, the size of a large bedroom, with a metal roof and a little overhang where you could walk up to place your order. There were picnic tables scattered around the structure beneath the massive palm trees and other makeshift tables with hay bales as seats. White lights were strung haphazardly around and I couldn’t help but laugh.

This was so quaint, so random, and not at all what I expected. And I loved it.

I looked at Cane, curious, silently asking him if he wanted to explain. He shrugged his shoulders and tucked his sunglasses into the front of his shirt before shoving his hands into his pockets; he looked a little embarrassed.

Puzzled, I reached out and took his hand and gave him a soft smile. I loved seeing this other side of him that I was sure very few people got to see.

He looked to the ground and toed a rock, looking a little sheepish. “I grew up out here and used to come here all the time when I was a little boy.”

The image of a little Cane with bright blue eyes flashed through my mind.

“The city didn’t come out nearly this far,” he said, his eyes soft in the setting sun. “It was really quiet out here. I would walk over here all the time for dinner.”

He looked over and waved at the little old lady behind the counter. Her face lit up like the sun. “Dad wasn’t much of a cook, so she,” he nodded at the lady, “did a lot of our cooking.”

The lady motioned for us to come to the counter excitedly and Cane blushed. “This place is as close to home as I can ever take you. I don’t know why I brought you here. I just thought, I don’t know, maybe you’d like it.” He smiled hopefully.

“I love it, Cane. This is perfect.”

We made our way up to the stand and the old woman’s smile grew. She leaned over the counter and kissed both of Cane’s cheeks. “¿Mijo, como estàs?” she asked, beaming at Cane.

Cane smiled back, obviously very fond of the lady in front of him. “Bueno. I’m good, abuelita. This is Jada,” he said, nodding at me. “Jada, this is Mrs. Munoz.”

We smiled at each other and I was unsure what to say. My Spanish was horrible and I wasn’t sure if she spoke English.

“¿Como estàs, abuelita?”

“Ah, bien, bien. Sentarse,” she said, nodding at the seats. “Voy a la comida.”

“Do you want to sit at a table or a hay bale?” Cane asked, his eyes dancing with laughter.

“Well, the hay bale does look inviting, but in this dress, I’m not so sure,” I laughed. “Why did you ask me to wear this if you knew we were coming here?”

“I love that dress on you,” he said quietly. “I won’t apologize for that.”

I swooned as he grabbed my hand and led me to a table. We got settled and within a few minutes, Mrs. Munoz brought us an entire spread of food.

“Hágamelo sí usted necesita cualquier cosa,” Mrs. Munoz said.

Cane looked so young, so respectful, as he watched the grey-haired lady return to the building with a fondness I had never seen in him before; it was endearing. I imagined this is how he interacted with his mother.

Watching their interaction reminded me of my own mother. It wasn’t something I liked to think about a lot.

“Please send Jada to the office, Mrs. Costa. She won’t be back for the rest of the week.”

I packed my things into my backpack and walked to the office with such trepidation I was almost sick. I knew, in the pit of my stomach, that something was very, very wrong.

I rounded the corner and saw Kari sitting in one of the stiff black chairs. Her hair was sticking to her face from tears, her eyes wide with fear. My father stood behind her, his hands on Kari’s shoulders.

I had never seen my father cry before and I had never seen him cry since. But that day was etched in my memory forever. Tears fell so quickly down his face that it looked like a constant stream.

And I knew.

Dad had never been to the school for anything. That was Mom’s job. And Mom wasn’t there.

I stopped in my tracks, my heart dropping to the floor with my backpack as I waited for the words that I knew were coming.

“Jada,” Dad choked. “It’s your mother …”

“So you used to live all the way out here?” I asked him, placing some sour cream on top of my quesadilla and trying to bring my thoughts back to the present.

“I did,” he said quietly, all of a sudden engrossed in his enchilada.

“Where?”

“Over that way,” he said, nodding his head across the street.

“Does your mother still live there?” I realized I didn’t know where his parents were or if he had brothers and sister. I knew so very little.

“No,” he said, swallowing hard. “She doesn’t.” He picked up his water and took a sip, staring off into the desert.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push.” I felt embarrassed and curious all at the same time, my cheeks heating.

“You’re not pushing. My father passed away a while back, as you know,” he muttered, his eyes betraying his cool exterior. He swallowed again. “Kellie, or my mother as my birth certificate shows, ran off when I was a little boy. She found someone worth more financially than my father. Just your classic gold digger.”

“Oh, Cane, I’m so sorry! That must have been awful! Were you an only child?” I suddenly felt very alone for Cane. I couldn’t imagine being by myself in the world. Even through my divorce and my feelings of loneliness then, it couldn’t compare to what Cane had to feel.

“Yeah, just me,” he shrugged, moving his enchilada around on his plate.

“Did you ever see your mother again?”

He shook his head. “Nah, she married the guy she left Dad for and had some other kids. Or so I heard.”

My heart broke for this strong man in front of me that, in that moment, looked so mortal. I knew he was trying to hide what he was feeling, but I could see the memories cross through his eyes.

“I lost my mother when I was fourteen,” I said quietly. “She was pregnant but didn’t know. She had an ectopic pregnancy and bled to death before my dad found her. So I understand what you feel like. I know how it feels to lose your mom, Cane.”

He sat his fork down on his plate, staring at me. He didn’t move for a few moments and then began to speak. “She left when I was really young, maybe five or six. I don’t have a whole lot of memories of her.” He looked out across the desert. “I do remember waking up one morning and she was gone, though. I kept thinking she was going to come back. I sat outside with my little Tonka trucks for days, pushing the sand one way and then pushing it the other. I’d jump up every time I heard a car, knowing it was going to be her.” He dragged his eyes back to mine and shook his head. “Dad carried me inside every night as the sun went down, kicking and screaming. I’d climb into my bed and bury myself in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sheets and cry myself to sleep.”

“That breaks my heart, Cane.”

“Don’t let it. What you went through was much worse. A whole different scale entirely. You probably loved your mother.”

“And I’m sure you loved yours, too,” I said softly. I wondered if Cane’s mother had loved him.
How could she if she left him? But how could she not?
I imagined a mini-Cane with messy blond hair, mischievous eyes, and his playful smirk.
How would you not love that?

I thought back to my mother and how much she loved Kari and me. I couldn’t fathom her willingly walking out of our lives. Even though I wasn’t with her when she died, I knew she would have been fighting to stay with us. She loved us with everything she had.

“My mom is a coldhearted bitch. I could never love someone like that. For a very long time, I wasn’t sure I could ever love
anyone
again.” He grinned.

I wasn’t sure if I should read into that, so I chose to ignore the last part of his statement. “But she was your mother. I’m sure you loved her then. Maybe not now.”

“I don’t love her now. I’m not capable of loving her now.”

“You’re capable of a lot more than I think you realize,” I smiled.

“Not that. She doesn’t exist to me anymore. The secret of moving on is to focus your energy on the future and not on the past. She’s the past. And I’m too busy looking ahead to remember her.”

“I love it that you told me about your family. I’m sure you don’t like to talk about it.”

“Yeah,” he said, picking up his napkin and wadding it into a ball. “I don’t talk about this shit. It worries me that I find myself running off at the mouth when you’re around.”

He smiled slowly at me and I got up, walked around the table, and sat on his lap, running my hands through his hair. I tugged his head back lightly and kissed him.