The Exception(73)

“I like Max,” I said, falling back against the pillows. “He seems really good for my sister.”

Cane lay next to me on his side, stroking my arm lightly with his fingertips. “He is a good guy. The only person I really consider a true friend. Max isn’t from the city; he’s a country boy. A transplant. Country people are a different breed.”

“How did you meet?”

“We met when he moved here when we were twelve or so and we just hit it off. Well, I totally saved his ass and he still owes me for that.”

“Oh, really? What happened?” I smiled, happy to get some new insight into the two new men in my life.

“It was his first day at school. Coincidentally, it was my birthday. Anyway, he was the new kid, right? Well, if you haven’t noticed, women think Max is cute or something,” Cane rolled his eyes. “I mean, not as hot as me, but cute anyway.”

“No one ever said you were humble!”

He winked at me.

“Max’s first day was your birthday? When is that?”

“Yeah, some birthday present,” he laughed. “November 4th. Anyway, some girl at school liked him right away and her little boyfriend, or whoever he was, got mad. After school, that kid and his buddies jumped Max. They had him pinned against a wall and were talking all kinds of shit. I happened to be walking past and saw it. I essentially saved his ass.”

“Is that the same way Max would tell that story?” I asked, laughing. He was talking freely, his eyes shining. It was fun to watch.

“It better be! That’s what happened. So, because of that fateful day when I cleaned house for my man, he’s owed me.”

“You’re too much.”

Cane chuckled. “All joking aside, Max is the most loyal person I’ve ever met. He just has a different set of standards than most people. Even when your sister was being difficult, Max kept at it. I would’ve said to hell with her a long time ago.”

“Oh, really?”

“Really. Because she isn’t you,” he whispered.

I watched his face. He didn’t smile, didn’t smirk; his face was as serious as I had ever seen it and I realized how far we had come. I wondered how many people got to see this side of Cane Alexander, the sweet, disarming side of him that I had come to love.

My heart lurched in my chest as I replayed that last thought. Do I love him? Is that what this was?

“What are you looking at me like that for? What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

“Nothing.” I smiled shyly. “So, what do you do around here all night?”

“Well, normally I’d be working on a bid or working out. I hit the bag a lot at night. I started doing it as a kid to release some of my anger and it kind of stuck.”

“Were you a fighter or something?” The thought of Cane fighting brought back thoughts of Simon and I pushed them quickly out of my mind.

“No, not really. I was a wild kid; I’ve always liked to do things my way.”

“That’s so hard to imagine,” I said sarcastically.

“I know. It’s almost impossible to believe. Anyway, my dad boxed a little his whole life. I think he may have been pretty decent, but it wasn’t something he ever talked about. He had a heavy bag that hung in the garage and he got me to focus my energy on that in my teenage years. I loved it. I spent hours in the garage, working shit out in my mind by hitting the leather.”

“You talk about it like you love it.”

“Yeah, I feel really free when I’m at the bag. You can just be you. The bag doesn’t care who you are or how you feel or if it is right or wrong,” he shrugged. “It just stands in front of you and takes whatever you throw at it without judgment.”

“I don’t want to keep you from anything. If you need to work or whatever, that’s fine.”

“Hush, woman,” he said, clicking on the television and pulling me in close. “What do you like to watch?”

“Whatever you want,” I said, snuggling into his chest, thinking that it didn’t matter as long as I was next to him. “I don’t watch a lot of TV.”

“Yeah, I don’t either,” he said, shutting it off. “I think it’s a waste of time usually.”

“Time is a precious thing.”

“That it is.” He pulled me closer into him and I breathed in the scent that was Cane, a smell that was quickly making me feel at home. “Life really does just fly by. You have to reach out and take what you want or else it will be over before you know it.”

“What do you want out of life, Cane?” I felt him still so I scrambled for a better way to put it. “Where do you want to be in five years?”