Page 17 of Blindsided By the Enforcer

“Mom, I need to go. I’ve been away from the table for too long.”

“Sure. I’ll see you in a couple of days,” she says, but her enthusiasm has dried out like a desert.

“See you soon.”

We end the call.

“You really don’t need to come home with me.” That’s the first thing I say.

“Are you okay? What just happened here?” Cade asks instead of responding to my statement.

“Things are complicated with my family,” I relay, not wanting to divulge too much to a guy I barely know.

He snorts. “More complicated than mine? My dad left the table to go sign autographs at the entrance.”

I pinch my lips together. “Damn.”

“I think he may have gotten our waitress’s number too,” he adds.

I wince. “I’m sorry, Cade.”

“This isn’t new. I’m used to my family acting this way. Dad acts badly. Mom sweeps it under the rug and acts like everything is okay.”

“That must be tough. My parents don’t have the best marriage either,” I share, since he is opening up to me. He also just helped me calm down through my panic attack.

“I want to hear what happened with that phone call, but my mom is probably sitting at the table alone,” he says.

“Oh yeah, of course. We should go sit down. Your mom is so sweet and she’s gorgeous,” I say as we walk through the restaurant back to our seat.

“She really is. It makes me angry how Dad treats her, but he is who he is. He’s a star. He loves the attention,” Cade grumbles.

“I don’t think he liked me.”

“That’s because you didn’t get excited over who he is,” Cade states, surprising me.

“Right, you mentioned autographs, but I was so worked up I didn’t ask you why he’s famous? Is he an actor or something?” I ask.

Cade laughs.

“He’s retired now, but he was one of the best enforcers in the NHL. He wants me to be like him,” he says like he has a sour taste in his mouth.

“You’re not. . . like him,” I say. “I don’t know you all that well, but I can tell.”

“Thanks, Annie.” His amber eyes swirl with warmth.

“Sorry, I’ve never watched a hockey game in my life so, obviously, I didn’t know who he was.” I shrug.

“It’s refreshing, trust me,” he answers, confusing me.

We make it back to the table. Cade apologizes to his mom and so do I.

“No worries. I just didn’t want your food to get cold. I had them place a cover over it. It looks so good. I may need to have a bite.” She winks to Cade.

We all dig into our meal. Mr. Price returns. “Sorry about that. The call took a little longer than expected.” He smiles to his wife. She smiles back. I see a little of myself in Lily. I was once that girl who put up with all of Ford’s stupid behavior. My resolve to keep Ford out of my life strengthens because there is no way I want to see myself excusing his behavior twenty years from now.

“So, tell me about your family farm, Annie,” Lily smiles as she eats her eggs Benedict.

“We are a dairy farm. We mostly deal with cows that produce milk, but we also have goats, sheep, and a few horses. My grandad ran a strong business but once my dad took over, he changed a lot of the old ways. He turned the farm into an organic farm. We had to get rid of some of our cows because of spacing. That was hard because we’ve had the same lineage of cows for years,” I explain.

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