Page 64

Cade leads me to the cafeteria, and I peer around like a deer in the headlights until he brings me to the loudest table, then I’m more like a fainting goat under fluorescents. “Sit here. I’ll go get us breakfast.” He places his drink at an empty seat next to me, and I sit on wobbly legs. “Guys, Charley. Charley, guys.”
I wave, and what seems like most of the players on the football team wave back. When Cade said we should have breakfast together, I wasn’t expecting this. I’ve only been around a few of them at a time before. Except at practice, of course. But at practice, they’re a little preoccupied.
He pats my shoulder, and then he’s off.
“Cade’s girl, huh?” Cavanaugh asks next to me. I believe he’s the safety—whatever that means.
“Yeah, the girl at the café thought she was being cute this morning.”
“Looks like you are his girl,” Aidan says from across the table, motioning to his throat.
My hands follow suit, fingering the number dangling from my neck.
“Well, look at that. He put his number on you,” Cavanaugh says.
“Is that some sort of football thing?”
“You could say that.”
“They’re all a bunch of apes,” Bailey calls out from a few seats down the line.
Aidan grins. “You love it, babe.”
We all talk for a bit until another player I recognize but don’t remember his name sits at the farthest end of the table and starts griping about how the table is being overrun by player girlfriends.
“You’re just jealous,” Aidan calls out.
“Yeah, because I really want a girl around all the time.”
I sink into my seat.
“Don’t mind him,” Cavanaugh whispers. “He and his girlfriend broke up. She cheated on him.”
“Oh. Well, that’s awful.”
I search the room for Cade and find him at the end of the line, paying for our food. He’s having a conversation with the student running the register, and I watch him, that devil-may-care smile lighting his face. He turns toward the table with our trays, and I swear he finds me staring at him within a nanosecond. His smile widens from charming to downright sinful.
There’s something about Cade. Why he’s interested in me is a question hanging above like a dark cloud that could rain at any moment, but in times like this—when he’s staring at me like I’m his world—it’s easy to forget those things. It’s easy to make up apast where Cade and I aren’t that different. To believe that I’m normal like him and everyone else sitting at this table.
“I see you eyeing me,” he whispers in my ear as he sits to my right. “Like something you see?”
I hiss in a breath. “I don’t know. I’d hate to bruise that ego.”
“Well, if you did, I’m sure we could think of a way to make it up to me.”
Cade and I eat and talk. The bigger crowd fades away, but I’m more comfortable now anyway. Kenna even stops by when we’re nearly done, West in tow.
We talk for a bit until I have to get to class. Cade takes my hand, walking me in the direction of the building I’m headed toward. The table behind us erupts, catcalling the two of us, and I nearly jump.
“It’s okay,” Cade soothes. “They’re joking around about me holding your hand.”
“Oh.” I try to remove my hand from his, but he holds on tight.
“I don’t think so, Sunshine. Let them talk. I want everyone to know we’re together.”
“Everyone?”
“Don’t sound so horrified.”