Page 79 of Counting On You

“I’ll try,” I mumble. Telling him, that is. The controlling my alcohol intake part won’t be too difficult because I hardly ever drink.

He stands and begins to busy himself with clearing the table. As he turns around, I get a few more seconds to look at him. There is another tattoo on his back, spreading across his upper back almost like wings.

“Still staring.” He turns around and refills his mug, then mine.

“Not really,” I lie. “I was just wondering what your tattoos mean. I’ve never seen something like it before.”

“This one?” He points at his upper arm. “It represents the countless times I made mistakes. Patterns tend to repeat themselves. To break a habit, you need to step out of the picture and listen to what others have to say, even if you don’t want to hear it.”

“That’s one long-winded explanation.” I frown. “Are you making it up as you go along?”

He laughs. “You caught me. In all honesty, it represents all the crossroads I’ve been at in my life and the times I had to cut ties to achieve something.”

I think I’m beginning to understand him and his motivations. With Kade, it’s all about change. “Like the ex you told me about?”

He looks at me, interest striking his face. “Out of all the things you could have remembered, that’s the one you chose to retain?”

He’s so right about that. “You said I’d forget, and I just couldn’t let you be right.”

He sits back down opposite from me, and stretches out his long legs, nudging my foot. “What about you? Do you have any tattoos?”

His eyes brush the front of my top, lingering on my breasts. “You tell me. You’ve already seen me naked.”

“I didn’t look.”

My lips twitch. I don’t believe him. “Not once?”

He shakes his head, his eyes feign innocence. “Nope.”

“You expect me, in all honesty, to believe that you didn’t look?”

“I swear.” He crosses his fingers in front of my face. “On my Scout’s honor, I promise that’s the truth. I didn’t look at you while you were naked.” He lifts his mug to his lips, eyeing me with an amused grin.

“You were a Boy Scout?”

“Yeah.” He laughs. “If you want, I can show you some cool things.”

I narrow my eyes, not trusting him one bit when he smiles that lopsided grin of his. “Like what?”

“Like how to build a tree house.”

“Here?”

“On the island, yeah. Obviously we’ll have to go with a miniature version of it.”

I shake my head, both to signal that I’m not interested and also because I realize his words have stuck with me and I’m pissed.

“You didn’t look?” I ask.

“I didn’t take advantage of your drunken state,” Kade says, misinterpreting my sudden irritation.

“Why didn’t you?” I hold his gaze.

“Because you deserve someone who cares about you. That’s why,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’d feel like I violated your privacy, and to be honest, I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship.”

“Our relationship?”

“Yeah,” he replies, cocking his left eyebrow. “The relationship between two friends.”

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