Page 56 of Love, Hate, Love

I stopped eating and just stared. He was bulldozing my shed? What happened if I had another breakdown? I didn’t even have a cold shed now. Shed life as I’d known it was officially over, and that alone was sending me into a bit of a panic.

I was going to eat and leave. I couldn’t risk another breakdown, and my body was untrustworthy at the moment. It didn’t help that Kade seemed to be more intent on watching me than eating his breakfast.

“Leah, I want you to know if there’s something wrong, something more than what I’m seeing with your current situation, you can tell me. I’ll help you any way I can.”

He was staring at me with a straight face, as if he believed what he was saying wholeheartedly.

It was like a gift from the fates, exactly what I needed to shore that wall back up nice and strong.

The last time I had really been looking for someone, anyone to help me, I hadn’t been able to get more than a few words out before he shut me down.

“I can always call you?” I said. “If I remember correctly, that’s what you had said to me before I left here ten years ago, and I remember how that went. I think I’ll pass on the offer. It’s easier than counting on you.” The hurt of that day still ran deeper than I could handle thinking about at this moment. No matter how many times I’d tried to forget, tried to get past it, I’d never been able to. His cutting me off, his words short and cold. It had been like getting freezer burn on my heart, and it had left one hell of a scar.

“When did you ever call me for help that I turned you down?” He froze, his face contorting as if he were trying to piece together what I was talking about.

He didn’t even remember.

It dragged me back into reality, the one where Kade didn’t even care enough to remember crushing me.

I shouldn’t have even brought it up. What was the point? Clearly it hadn’t been a blip on his radar.

“Forget it. I never called you. My mistake.” I tossed down my napkin, getting up from the table.

“Leah, when?” His voice was soft, almost like the way he used to talk to me, back when I thought he’d cared.

“Leah?” Missy’s voice rang out as she appeared at the door, breaking the moment before it could swallow me whole.

“I have to go. I have things to do.” If he couldn’t remember, I wasn’t going to tell him. This had been reminder enough for me why I couldn’t trust him.

Chapter26

Kade

I shouldn’t have letLeah walk away without answering this morning. Now all I could think of was that conversation. She’d reached out to me for help and felt rejected? I never in a million years would’ve done that to her. Not her. Not if she’d needed me. But the pain I saw in her eyes had been as real as anything I’d ever seen. She wasn’t making this up as a taunt.

When she walked in tonight, she’d barely looked at me. So much for the truce.

My phone buzzed where it was sitting on the kitchen counter, John’s name flashing. The sound of the shower was still going, but there was no way I’d risk taking this call with her in the house. I grabbed it and headed outside. I grabbed a beer, too. Considering what I might hear, I had to be prepared.

I popped the beer and took a gulp before I called him back, walking out toward my truck.

“What do you have?” I asked.

He let out a sigh. “I heard something concerning.”

“What?” I asked. I took another gulp, waiting for details that seemed slow to come. I didn’t typically have to pull information out of John. He wasn’t this dramatic.

“I’m hearing some rumblings and just want to check in that you aren’t being mean to the princess.”

I checked the name on the phone again. Had he really asked me that?

“Huh?” It was the best response I could muster.

“I heard you’re not being nice to her,” he said, his normally gruff tone sounding way off.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not being mean to her. Where did you hear otherwise?” Did no one mind their own business anymore? They didn’t know our past or what was really going on.

“You told me to dig around. Stuff gets leaked. Occupational hazard that there might be some gossip flowing. Ihaveto let people talk.”

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