The Bad Boy Bargain(30)

She sighed. No matter how frustrated he made her, she couldn't stop caring. "Is he okay?"

Cade laughed again. This time there was a wry quality to it, like he was letting her in on a joke. "No, but after I'm through with him, he might be."

He hung up, and Faith dropped her phone on the bed, feeling like pieces of a puzzle were falling into place, but also knowing she might never have the whole picture.





Chapter Thirty-Four


Kyle

Kyle was nearly home when Cade called. "Where the hell are you?"

He pulled into the long driveway leading up to their house, but stopped. "Home. Why?"

"You were supposed to come over. You're not getting out of this." Cade sounded more steamed than Kyle had ever heard. "My house. Fifteen minutes."

He hung up before Kyle could give him an excuse. Kyle rested his head against the steering wheel. Why couldn't he trust himself enough to open up to Faith? What was wrong with him? A corner of his heart beat out her name over and over and over, and he knew what he should do, but he couldn't figure out how. No, that wasn't right-he didn't know how to do it without pain. Without saying, outright, that he'd lied to her.

Sighing, he backed out of the driveway. He'd wanted a miracle, right? Time to suck it up and see what his old friend had in store.

Cade wrenched the door open as soon as Kyle set foot on their porch. He was frowning. "Can you be honest with me? Before we go through this, are you really going to talk to me, or are we gonna dance? Because I gave you some specific instructions and you didn't listen. In fact, you made things worse."

Kyle's bones ached, and he was tired all over. What was it his grandpa always said when he was being a cagey bastard? The truth will set you free. Yeah, it was time to lose his burdens. "I'm here to talk."

Cade nodded sharply. "Step into my office."



Cade's mouth was hanging open. They'd stolen a bag of Chips Ahoy, a gallon of milk, and two glasses from his kitchen, and gone straight to the game room. When Cade asked why Kyle had walked out on Faith, something broke inside him. Cade had the kind of face that begged you to tell him your troubles, and the sum of four years of pain had come pouring out. Kyle had thought he'd feel ashamed, telling someone other than Grandpa, but Cade hadn't mocked him, not once.         

     



 

If anything, he looked like someone had bashed him in the face with a two-by-four.

"Wow, dude. That's … that's … " Cade shook himself. "Okay, you know me, right?"

Kyle snorted. "Yeah, I know you. I wouldn't share this tale with a random stranger, not even if he brought cookies and milk. Thanks for the snack, by the way."

"You looked … hungry when you got here. I had no idea why, but now things are making some sense."

"I skipped dinner, too, you know."

"There's more to it than that." Cade tapped a finger against his chin. "You know what I think you need?"

"If you say, ‘to get drunk,' don't bother. My gramps already tried that."

Cade's face lit up in a big smile. "I've missed that old man. He good?"

A pang of guilt hit Kyle in the chest. Why had he pushed Cade away? To make himself into something he wasn't? What kind of douche did that? He huffed out a breath-the same kind of douche who dropped a girl for the same reason. "He's great."

"Excellent." Cade settled back against the leather couch, where the two of them had watched superhero movies and played video games for hours in another life. Today, he was wearing an Arrow T-shirt and plaid shorts that clashed magnificently with both the shirt and his carrot-red hair. Yet Kyle knew Cade was the only guy comfortable enough in his own skin to dress this way. Unlike him.

"You were saying something about what I need?" Kyle said. "You know I have to remind you because you never finish a thought, man."

Cade laughed. "True that. Okay, what you need is to try to get back together with Faith. Like, really try. Let nature take its course."

"Oh, is it that easy? I'll rush right out and try that," Kyle muttered. "News flash-not going to happen. I've lied to her and everyone else for four years. Plus her ex hates me and he's already making her life harder because of it. We stay together, he'll keep it up. I'm the worst thing that could ever happen to her."

"That's bullshit, and the fear talking. You know it, I know it." Cade stood abruptly. "Let's go to my room."

"On the first date? I'm flattered."

Cade waggled an eyebrow. "Ha, you should be."

"Oh, really?" He followed Cade down a hallway full of framed photos. A six-year-old Kyle peeked out of a fort next to Cade. A nine-year-old Kyle beamed with Cade in front of a comic book store. A thirteen-year-old Kyle hunched his shoulders and stared blankly, while Cade held up a fish in triumph on his dad's fishing boat.

That's when it had all changed.

Shaking off his dark mood, he went into Cade's room. Aside from a plain blue bedspread replacing the Iron Man comforter on his bed, it wasn't much different. Sure, the posters had gone from Dragon Ball Z to manga and high-concept Marvel comic drawings, but the room was totally Cade.

"Sit." Cade pointed at a chair by his desk, then shut his bedroom door.

"You aren't going to steal my virtue, are you?" Kyle asked.

"You wish." Cade went to his nightstand and pulled out a book without letting Kyle see the cover. "Now, this might surprise you, but I've slept with three girls. Three, Kyle. And all of them told me they enjoyed it. One went so far as to say I was, how'd she put it? ‘Very generous with both my hands and my time.'"

Kyle's eyebrows raced for his hairline. "Are you shitting me? God, you're the real player of Suttonville High. Jesus, man."

Cade smirked. "Come to think of it, one of them called on Jesus a few times."

Holy hell. Kyle dropped his face into his hands. "If you're trying to make me feel better, it's not working. If anything, I feel worse."

"That's not why I told you." Cade sat on the foot of his bed and kicked Kyle's ankle. "Look at me, young padawan. Teach you the ways of the Force, I will."

"I don't think Yoda read the Kama Sutra, dumbass." But he laughed. "So what are we really doing?"

"I'm providing you with free psychotherapy, if you'd just shut up."

Kyle shook his head, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. "Just because your mom is a psychologist doesn't mean you're qualified to mess with my brain."

"I'm taking college-level psychology at UTA this semester," Cade said softly. "And my mom's been helping me with case studies. I might be more qualified than you think."

Shit. One more thing he didn't know about Cade. He was such an asshole, and the only way to stop being an asshole was to stop being an asshole. Kyle sat up straighter. "Okay, let's hear it."         

     



 

"You lost your mom early," Cade said. "So you've always been a little wary of girls because you had no familial exposure to them. You always shied away from the girls chasing you on the playground in fourth grade at Summit, while I was trying desperately to let them catch me. On the rare occasion that they bothered to chase me at all." He chuckled. "By the time we were in middle school, I thought you might be gay, because you looked uncomfortable with everyone and everything, and I wanted to tell you it would all be okay, but you quit talking to me. Then all these rumors started in high school and I decided maybe you were overcompensating for being overlooked before. A late bloomer maybe."

"This is pretty damn embarrassing to hear, you know," Kyle said frankly.

"I'm not judging. Get that through your head-I don't judge you. I never have." Cade glared at him. "I'm your friend. You may've stopped being mine for a while, but I didn't."

TKO to the guy in the Arrow T-shirt. Kyle stared at his hands. He'd done so many things wrong. Now, maybe, he could get some things right. "I'm sorry. Really. I should've been … better. At everything."

"I don't blame you one bit for morphing into ‘Kyle Sawyer, bad-boy wonder. King of the hoodies, duke of badassery.' You had your reasons, and they were logical. Painfully understandable, to be honest." Cade shrugged. "Besides, I figured you'd remember the real you at some point and come back. Shall we continue?"

"Oh, what the hell. Sure."

"So now you've built all of this-meaning girls and relationships and sex-up in your head until it's an Event, capital E. You're scared to fail because you've been taught-cruelly-that failure leads to humiliation. That being sensitive, smaller than other guys, and dyslexic made you a target. Even though a lot of that's changed, you're still afraid to be hurt, so you either avoid relationships, or you end them before you can get your heart broken."

Now it was Kyle's turn to let his mouth hang open. "So you're saying my hang-ups are Cameron's fault?"

"And all the other bullies. And your teachers, not having your mom, and always being told to suck it up by your dad and your grandpa. I really do like that old man, but he's pretty old-school. His solution to all this hurt you in the long run. Turning you into something you aren't isn't the best way to solve problems even if it protected you from the worst school had to offer."