“Good to know,” he replied with a lopsided smile, “but I think we should skip all that for tonight.”
She nodded, giving in to his better judgment right now, but she couldn’t look away from him, and he still held her hand.
“How about I help you get tucked in?”
She shook her head vehemently. “No, I don’t want to be alone.” The thought made her shiver and cold returned to her extremities.
“Okay,” he murmured, tucking a strand of her messy hair behind her ear. “How about you get settled in here, I’ll get you a blanket, and then make us some of your herbal tea? That sound good?”
She nodded. She could do that.
He squeezed her hand and then went to complete his self-appointed tasks.
By the time he returned with tea—for her but none for him—she’d wrapped the blanket from the couch over her legs and the new one he’d brought around her shoulders. She’d pulled her hair into a messy bun and then hunkered down in the warm cocoon she’d made.
“This should help you warm up,” Cade said as he held out a steaming mug for her to take. She wrapped her cold hands around it and sighed as the heat began to bring life into her fingers again.
Cade sat beside her and stretched his arm along the back of the couch behind her.
She snuggled up close to his side and glanced up at him. “This is okay, right?”
Why did she feel so indecisive about everything right now? It’s not as if anything really changed, but she couldn’t shake the cloak of vulnerability that seemed to cling to her.
A small smile curled Cade’s lips and he nodded. “Yes, honey, it’s okay.”
His hand brushed over her shoulders and pulled her more firmly against his side. His endearment and actions warmed her more than the tea he’d brought.
They sat quietly for several minutes while Addie sipped her tea. The slow swipe of Cade’s fingers over her upper arm sent tingles through her body while comforting her at the same time. He seemed content to hold her, to lend his strength, and to help her recover from the shock of trauma.
But he’d said he didn’t want to get involved, which to Addie had meant that he didn’t want to get close.
If that’s true, this was not the way to do it.
Addie finished her tea and set it down on the coffee table. Then she curled up against Cade’s side and rested her head on his chest. His arm wrapped around her and he settled back into the cushions as if content to hold her as long as she needed.
She listened to his heart beating strong and even. The sound calmed her further, and warmed her, too.
She didn’t think he was the kind of man who would lead a woman on. So did his sudden solicitousness mean that something had changed? Or was he just being a kind, attentive friend? She could call him that, a friend. They’d known each other for a little while now and they seemed to like each other’s company. And she trusted him. Isn’t that enough to call him a friend?
But she still knew so little about him and she wanted to know him better.
“Cade,” she whispered, the flannel of his blue shirt tickling her lips.
“Hmm?” he replied.
“May I ask you a personal question?”
His body tensed, the slow sweep of his fingers on her arm ceased, and she feared she had read too much into his kindness…friendship…intentions.
“Sure,” he said quietly as his fingers returned to swirling up and down her arm, but the tension in his muscles remained.
“Why don’t you talk to your brother?” She’d been wondering about that since the first time he’d mentioned his family.
Beneath her ear, his heart stuttered and then picked up its regular beat. He sighed and some of the tension in his body eased.
“We had a falling out a few years back,” he said quietly.
“What happened? If you don’t mind my asking?”
He remained quiet for some time, but then he sighed again and started to speak.
“I met her in college and fell in love, but I didn’t see the kind of woman she was…not until I brought her home after graduation. We had all these plans to improve the ranch, but I didn’t find out until sometime later that she wasn’t interested in hard work.” He shifted slightly and his muscles hardened once more. “I hadn’t known what she’d been doing behind my back with other men. That was, not until my brother told me she’d been in his bed.”
Addie gasped. She couldn’t help it. No wonder he was so gun-shy about getting involved. Draping her arm over his chest, she gave him a little squeeze of comfort and sympathy. “I’m so sorry, Cade.”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug and his voice sounded gravelly when he spoke again. “I let myself be fooled. That’s my fault, but I never expected my brother to stab me in the back like that. It was…painful.”
“Were you two…close? Before, I mean.”
“Yes.” He seemed to choke on the word. “We were very close. I guess that happens when you share a womb.”
“He’s your twin?”
“Yes.”
“That must have been so…hard on you.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“But I’m sure he still loves you, Cade.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“But it does.” She sat up to look at him. “He’s your brother. I’d give almost anything to have a sibling.”
He frowned, but she didn’t let that stop her.
“My parents had been older when I was conceived. A miracle baby, they’d called me, but they were never that lucky again. I grew up with lots of love and attention, but I’d been an independent, very lonely child. And now, I don’t have any family left. I’m…alone.”
“I’m sorry for you,” Cade said stiffly, “but forgiving
