The Exception (26 page)

“All right. Well, go smooth things over with the City and I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I glanced at the clock.

“Don’t pull up here raising hell, man. Remember—flies. Honey.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Whatever.”

JADA

The following Saturday afternoon was blistering hot and Kari and I sat in her car outside of Cane’s house, the air conditioner blasting cool air. I picked at the hemline of my black bathing suit cover-up, while Kari checked her makeup.

I had lost a bit of weight since the Simon ordeal and my cover-up was a little looser as a result. My nerves were beginning to settle; I wasn’t looking over my shoulder as much as I had originally. The bruises had faded and every day felt like another day away from the craziness.

“Have you ever been here before?” I asked, looking up at the brown and ivory house sitting before us. It was a two story home with a fence coming off of both sides, encompassing the backyard. The landscape was clean and tidy, a sprinkler going off as I watched. It was just the kind of place I had pictured Cane would live in.

It was a gated community. All of the houses looked relatively new and all relatively the same. Cane’s house backed up to the golf course that meandered its way through the subdivision and I vaguely wondered if Cane played golf. He had never mentioned it and I couldn’t see his lack of patience faring very well on the course.

“Uh, no,” Kari said, looking at me like I was crazy. “Why would I have ever been here?”

“I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d been here with Max,” I sighed. “I have only been here once before and … I don’t know. What if it’s weird being here?”

“Why would it be weird being here?”

I shrugged.

“Well, he clearly wants you here, Jada. He asks you all the time to come and you always end up getting him to come to my house. So relax.”

I took a deep breath and exited the car, not sure why in the hell I was nervous about this.

“Stop fidgeting with that ring! You’re being dumb,” Kari said as she forged ahead and rang the doorbell. As we stood there waiting on them to answer the door, we could hear music playing inside.

“Seriously? What are they listening to?” Kari said, twisting her face in disgust.

“It’s Five Finger Death Punch. I heard it playing in Cane’s Denali the other day.”

“We’re going to have to fix that!”

The door flew open and Max stood there in a pair of camouflage swim trunks, sans shirt and shoes. A dark tattoo ran up his left side, a mixture of art and words. His left pectoral muscle had a tribal design, too. His dark hair was wet and looked like he had been running his hand through it, the one presumably not holding the red plastic cup. I stifled a laugh as Max smiled seductively at Kari.

“Hey,” Kari said in her flirtiest voice, giving him a megawatt smile.

“Ladies,” Max said, eyeing us for a second before bending down and kissing my sister. “Come on in. Cane is out back.”

I stepped through the doorway and glanced around the great room. The house was bright and airy. A black leather sofa and love seat faced a large flat screen television mounted on the wall, a pool table sitting behind the sofa. There was a selection of magazines on the coffee table, but not a lot of personal touches. Everything was very masculine, but organized.

We sauntered into the kitchen and I could see Cane outside, tending the grill. He had on a pair of white swim trunks with a blue checkered print that hung low on his hips and sunglasses. And that was deliciously it.

His body was golden brown and chiseled to perfection. He wasn’t too big and bound up looking, just athletic and strong. I couldn’t help but whimper a little at the sight; he looked like he walked straight out of a magazine.

Cane looked up and slowly removed the sunglasses. He scanned my body and a slow smile spread across his face. He raised his hand and crooked his finger towards me and I felt like Baby in
Dirty Dancing
. I exchanged a smile with Kari, who was sitting on a couch in the family room off the kitchen. I made my way to the back patio.

Cane wrapped me up in his arms and dragged me against him, his hands going up my cover-up and palming my ass. “For the love of fuck, woman! Forget the orange dress—this is my new favorite.” He bent down and kissed me roughly on the lips.

I giggled against his mouth and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Well, this is your best look. Clothes just detract from you, Cane Alexander.” I rubbed my hands down his chest. “Words don’t do you justice.”

“Words are messy, remember?” He winked at me. “And they are not necessary for what I have planned later. You will only need one, actually. My name. On repeat.”

“You aren’t burning that shit, are you?” Max asked, coming outside and breaking our moment.

“Oh, hell!” Cane laughed, turning to the grill and removing the steaks onto a platter.

I laughed as I went back inside to help Kari get the drinks. Max came in behind me.

My nerves had eased, replaced by a feeling of contentedness. I felt alive with Cane and comfortable in his home, not at all like the outsider I had feared. He didn’t seem to feel weird with me here either, which I had feared the most.

“I’m changing this music,” Max said, walking over to the deck and replacing Cane’s iPod with his own.

“What are you doing?” Cane yelled through the glass.

“This shit is giving me a headache!” Max yelled over his shoulder.

“I can’t help you have bad taste in music!”

“Ah, here we go,” Max mumbled before Florida Georgia Line began playing through the speakers. “He really loves this. He just doesn’t want to admit it.”

“No, I do not!” Cane shouted from the patio as we all made our way back outside. “Your music taste is about like your football taste—it blows!”

Max chuckled as he turned his head to Kari and I. “Not sure why I like him, really. He’s irritable, a total asshole, likes shitty music, and the San Francisco 49’ers.”

A tapping sound on the glass caught our attention. Cane’s face was close to the window. “I can hear you, you motherfucker.”

We laughed as we made our way outside and got settled around the glass table and filled our plates with the juicy steaks and potatoes that the boys had grilled.

“So what’s your deal with actual glass cups,” Cane asked Max, sipping on a bottle of water and nodding to the drink in Max’s hand. “Did you cut your finger or some shit as a kid?”

“Fuck off, Alexander,” Max said. “These are the perfect drink accessory.” He held his red cup in the air. “See this bottom line,” he pointed. “This is the ‘liquor line’. The second one is the ‘wine line’, which, I may add, no man should ever use. Now the top one is the ‘beer line,’ but you can live a little and go over it if you want.”

“Wow. You’re getting all cosmopolitan on me. Next thing I know, you’re going to want to add some color into your Sharpie tattoos.”

“Whatever. These tattoos were made with a needle,” Max said, drawing out the last word. “You’re too big of a pussy to actually get one.”

“No, I’m not. There’s just not anything that I want permanently etched on my body.”

“Speaking of you being a pussy, you’ve been drinking wine these days. No self-respecting man should ever drink wine.”

“You drink sweet tea! And you think wine is a bad thing?” Cane asked, barely containing his laughter. Kari and I couldn’t contain ours as we wiped tears away from our eyes with the backs of our hands.

“Don’t even start on sweet tea or I’ll kick your ass. It’s the lifeblood of the South. That kind of talk will get you killed where I’m from,” Max said, trying to keep a straight face.

“Remind me to never go there,” Cane muttered.

“You’re such a fuckstick.”

“Whatever. You haven’t been south of the Valley since you were twelve and you still won’t let go of this southern boy routine.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Max said, shaking his head. “When you are born south of the Mason-Dixon Line, it’s in your blood. It’s who you are.”

“It’s amazing that you can even function in society.” Cane grinned as he leaned back in his chair.

“Coming from you, the most asocial person I’ve ever met, that’s hysterical.” Max raised his eyebrows, fighting a smile.

“Hardly, Max. Everyone loves me.”

“Yeah. That was just how it looked yesterday with the City of Queen Creek. They loved you.”

A stormy look crossed Cane’s face as he narrowed his eyes and subtly shook his head at Max.

“Hey, is that your phone going off?” Max asked me, changing the subject with a quick glance to Cane.

“Um, yeah. I think so,” I said, digging through my bag until I located it. Heather’s name was on the screen. “I’ll take this inside.” I stood up and Cane stood, too. He grabbed some empty beer bottles and joined me in the kitchen.

“Hello?” I grabbed a seat on the couch. Cane tossed the bottles into the trash and threw some silverware into the dishwasher.

“Hey, Jada!” Heather said cheerfully.

“Hey! How are you?”

“Fabulous! I’ve been with Brian at rehearsals today! So fun!” I could imagine her smile through the phone and it made me grin.

“You really like him, huh?”

“I do! I didn’t think I would when I agreed to dinner, to tell you the truth,” she said. “But he is really fun and a total hottie. And a lot smarter than I thought he would be. Go figure that. Anyway, what’s going on with you?”

“Not much,” I said, watching the muscles in Cane’s back flex as he wiped off the counter. My mouth watered. “Um, can I call you back a little later, though? I’m at Cane’s having dinner.”

“Cane?” Heather asked curiously. “Who’s Cane?”

“Well, he’s …” I shuffled my eyes to him. He had turned around and was leaning back against the counter watching me. I turned away, blushing. “I don’t know who he is exactly,” I said warily. This was not a question I wanted to answer in front of him.

“Hmm. Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“Kinda. Kari’s here, too, so we are hanging out.”

“I see. I’m assuming he is right there and you don’t want to talk about it, so I will call you later and you can give me the dirty. I was actually calling for a legit reason. Do I have your most updated résumé?”

“Yeah, I sent you the most current résumé I have. Why? Is something wrong with it?” I scanned through my memory, confident I had sent her my latest version.

“No, it’s fine. Human Resources just asked me today. I don’t know if they have an opening or what, but they’ve apparently been looking at it.”

“Okay, well let me know if you need anything else,” I said, feeling Cane’s eyes on me.

“I will! I’ll let you go spend time with Cane. Don’t forget to call me and tell me all about the good stuff! Love ya, Jada!”

“Love you, lady! Bye!” I disconnected the call. I turned around and Cane was still leaning there, watching me curiously, a slight look of irritation on his gorgeous face.

“A couple of things …” he said, moving over to the counter. He poured himself a shot. “First, are you looking for a new job?” He slammed the liquor and made a face as it burned down his throat.

“No, not really.” I watched him carefully. He totally didn’t believe me. “My friend Heather lives in Chicago. When I got divorced, she wanted me to move there. I probably would have, but I didn’t have a job or anything, so I came here instead. She has been submitting my résumé around.” I shrugged, feeling errant all of a sudden. “Someone asked if it had been updated, I guess.”

“Chicago?” he asked, eyebrows raised, voice cool. “You still thinking about going?”

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear nervously. “No, not really. I haven’t thought about it in a while.”

“So, there’s a chance you aren’t going to stay here?” His voice was tight.

I thought for a minute and then turned, looking him in the eye. “Do you want me to stay?”

He shook his head, amused. “I always want you to stay.”

I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off of my face. “All right. Then I’ll stay.”

I expected Cane to react, but he didn’t. He just watched me closely.

“Don’t you think you should tell her that?” he asked finally.

I looked up at him as he strummed his fingertips against the marble, waiting to see what I was going to do. “Yeah, I probably should.”

Neither of us moved for a second, both feeling the other out. He was adorable and I was having a little fun watching him sweat.

“There’s no time like the present,” he pointed out, raising his eyebrows again. When I didn’t move, he tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure your phone has a callback feature.”

I couldn’t hide the huge smile that crept across my face. My heart swelled at his display. He really, truly wanted me to stay with him.

I unlocked the phone and hit the reconnect button, my eyes never leaving Cane’s. If he would put it out there so blatantly that he wanted me to stay, I would make sure he knew how certain I was that I wanted to.

“Hey, Jada! Everything okay?” Heather asked when she picked up.

“Yeah, everything is great, actually,” I said, smiling at the man across the room. “I’ve been thinking lately and I really think I should stay here.”

“What? No!” Heather pouted.

“I know. I’m sorry! But I have a workload with Dad now. And it’s really nice being back with him and Kari again. I really missed that, you know?” Cane pointed towards himself and smirked and I couldn’t hide my giggle. “And there’s this thing with Cane now. He’s amazingly hot, Heather. Totally sexy,” I said, as he stalked across the room towards me, his eyes hooded. “And I really just want to see where it goes.”