Page 76 of Offside and Off-Limits
“You’re such a thoughtful person,” she says as I resume my position at her side.
“Give the people what they want, that’s what I always say.”
She smiles, her eyes brighter than they were only a fewmoments ago. “I think I’m just tired out, that’s all. I don’t have that crushing fatigue I’ve suffered with in the past.”
I settle back onto the sofa, lifting her feet onto my lap once more. “That’s good to hear. Tired out we can deal with, right?”
“I also know what brought this on. My ex turned up yesterday.”
“Was it his turn for the kids?”
“No. He wanted to talk with me.” She pulls her lips into a line. “He told me he wants me back.”
My whole body stills. “He wants you back?” I repeat as my throat tightens, thoughts pinging around my brain like balls in a pinball machine.
He’s the kids’ dad.
Clara was in love with him before.
She leans forward and places her hand on my arm. “Cade, I told him I was done.”
Relief floods my veins and my face breaks into a grin. “You had me worried there for a sec, Triple.”
She shakes her head. “Trust me, there’s nothing to worry about. I am well and truly over him, and what’s more, he showed his true colors yesterday.”
I narrow my eyes, my body tensing. “He didn’t hurt you, did he? Because if he did?—”
“No. Nothing like that. It turns out, he’d been manipulating me, pretending to be someone else online, someone with whom I had become close.”
A sharp tension coils within me. She’s close to someone online? A man? A man who was in fact her ex?
I’m not quite sure how to feel right now.
“But it was a lie. He’d tried to catfish me to prove that we were meant to be together.”
My jaw clenches as my blood heats in my veins. “He didwhat?” I grind out through clenched teeth.
“He pretended to be a man with CFS, someone who needed me to support him on his journey.” She looks down at her hands. “At one point, I thought I had feelings for Warrior—that was the name he used. But that was before…? Well, that was before I met you.” As she lifts her gaze to mine once more, I see the sincerity in her big blue eyes, and all the tension, the anger I felt only seconds ago, drains right out of me.
Her features lift into the most beautiful smile, and I know that my time has finally come.
I’m going to tell her how much she means to me.
“Clara,” I begin, my voice hoarse. I shift closer to her, her knees now in my lap. Resting a hand on them, I look into her eyes and say, “I’m totally out of my depth with you."
She swallows hard, and I can see something shift in her expression as she gazes back at me. “You are?” she asks, and there's a note of such vulnerability in her voice that it nearly undoes me completely.
Here I am, a guy who's made a career out of reading plays before they develop, of never getting in deep with anyone, and I can't even figure out how to tell this woman that she’s completely changed my way of thinking, my way of life.
That it’s her I want, and her alone.
“The old me wasn't looking for anything real. I was young and living the carefree, single life. You heard the stories. But I grew tired of it, of never having anything real with anyone. When the opportunity to come to Maple Falls presented itself, I jumped at it as a chance to start afresh, to reinvent myself,” I tell her.
The words are coming easier now, like I've finally found the right play to call. “Now? I'm older. Wiser. Hopefully.” I can't help but smile at that last part, because let's be honest, wisdom is still a work in progress where I’m concerned. “I hoped over time I might meet someone, someone to laugh with, to connect with, to get deep with.” I take a breath before I say what I’ve wanted to say for some time, ever since I first began to feel it. “Clara. Triple. I've found that in you. As short as it’s been since we met, I’m falling in love with you.Amin love with you.”
There it is. The words I've been carrying around like a puck I couldn't quite get a clean shot on. Out there in the open.
My heart is hammering, my insides doing a triple axel worthy of Olympic gold
