Hard Edge

by Tess Oliver

  I pulled up a chair at the table. “Tanner needs an answer on his job offer. It’s good money and lots of traveling.”

  “Yep. Good money is great, but I have to admit, it’s sure nice having you around again, Caden. Of course, you need to make your own decision. Like you reminded me, you’re not a kid anymore. Although, you’ll always be a kid to me. That never changes.”

  I smiled. “I noticed. And I don’t mind, cuz you’re still my dad and that never changes either.”

  “What did you decide? Are you going to take Tanner up on his offer?”

  I rested back against the chair. “Nah. It’s a cool job, but I can’t sit on the sidelines. Not when I’ve already been on the other side, on the track, blowing around those curves at two hundred miles per hour. It’ll just eat me up inside to stand still and watch others ride. Does that sound crazy?”

  “Not at all.” He folded up the paper and placed it down on the table. “So you’ll be around here for awhile?”

  “Yeah. Is that all right?”

  “Of course. Caden, you know you always have a home here in Mayfair.” He chuckled. “Two homes, to be exact. I know you never liked the situation your mom and I put you in as a kid, but you had two families and two homes where you belonged. No matter what your perception might have been. You were equally loved in this house and in the one down the street.”

  “I know, Dad.”

  He crossed his arms and rested back, with a head tilt. “Speaking of sidelines, how long are you going to stand on them and watch the girl you love get away?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know I’ve been in sort of a fog lately, but I know what’s been going on and I know that when Kenna left here, you were brokenhearted. Just like you were when you left her at eighteen to go off to the army. How long are you going to deny yourself the love of your life?”

  I stared at him, not sure what to say.

  “Stunned you with that, didn’t I?”

  “Pretty much. She’s never been meant for me, Dad. We both know it.”

  “Bullshit.” He leaned forward and put his arms on the table. “You know, you and Grady never fought or competed like other siblings. You always had each other’s backs. And then there was Kenna, the pretty, smart and charming glue between you. I know, as teens, you both grew to love her, but it never came between you. Then you both had to watch her move on and nearly marry someone else. I think Grady would be relieved to know that Kenna ended up with the brother he loved and admired.”

  I looked at him. He’d gone through a life-changing experience and it had altered him physically. The emotional scars were permanent too. As a teen, I’d underestimated how much I meant to him and how much he meant to me, but now I was glad as hell to have him back in my life. “Dad, sometimes I don’t give you enough credit for being a great dad.”

  “That goes both ways, Caden.” He stood up from the table. “Well, I’m finished handing out fatherly nuggets of advice for now. I’ve got a Twilight Zone marathon taping in the next room, and I’m going to sit on that couch and watch the whole damn thing. Join me later if you have time.”

  Chapter 33

  Kenna

  I pressed my arm against my tender ribcage hoping to staunch the flow of pain as I entered the building. After a night of no sleep, listening to an endless argument in the apartment next door intermingled with the screeching sirens on the street below my bedroom window, I had climbed onto the crowded subway half-dazed and bleary eyed. When the subway car stopped unexpectedly, the woman standing next to me fell back into me. Her sharp elbow struck my ribcage so hard, I’d lost my breath for a moment. She’d hardly taken the time to mutter an apology before she stepped off at the next stop. I spent the rest of the ride in tears and ready to throw up from the pain.

  The walk from the subway to the high rise office building, where I was destined to spend another nightmarish day being insulted and ordered around by Voldemort’s twin sister, Ms. Bridger, had helped me feel better, but I was sure I had a big bruise.

  I stepped into the elevator, rested back against the polished wood walls and closed my eyes. Soothed by the music and movement, I nearly fell asleep.

  I groaned as the elevator reached the sixth floor. The doors opened. It took all of my will to step out. Two more unlucky suckers had been hired as interns. They were assigned the other two lawyers. I’d lost and ended up with the worst of the bunch.

  Ms. Bridger was already hovering around my desk like a vulture waiting to pick dry my bones. This morning, her questionable fashion sense had prompted her to wear a neon green blouse paired with a tight black pencil skirt. She had her hair pulled back tight, making her look even more severe. She wasn’t much older than me, but she wore all her years as if she’d rarely smiled or laughed through any of them.

  Her angry scowl snagged me as I walked slowly and slightly hunched over toward my desk.

  “Christ, Ken, didn’t anyone ever teach you not to slouch?” She looked at her watch. “You’re late.” She pointed to the files she’d piled on my desk. “I need you to enter these into the computer files for the Torkelson case. And hurry up because I have some errands for you to run.”

  I avoided looking at her as I circled around to my chair and lowered myself into it as if I was a hundred years old.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? I told you that you need exercise. You move like my grandmother.”

  I found it hard to believe that the woman had a grandmother or a mother or a family, for that matter. I imagined her just popping out of an alien pod in some dark, creepy place.

  If she’d been a normal person I could have relayed to her my morning sob story and gotten some sympathy and understanding. But she wasn’t normal or a person.

  “I’ll get right to these files.” I stuck my purse in the desk drawer and sighed with relief when she finally stomped away.

  It had taken two aspirin and a good three hours to get halfway through the pile of work on my desk. The boss had been in meetings all morning, which had been like a vacation. But all vacations had to come to an end. I cringed as I heard her snotty voice coming around the corner. Her phone rang just as she reached my desk. Instead of doing the polite thing and walking into her office to take the call, she turned and rested her bony butt against the front of my desk. She went right on with her conversation as if I wasn’t sitting behind her trying to work. I knew right away from the tone of the conversation that it was her equally rotten sister. Ms. Bridger had gotten her younger sister a cushy position as receptionist for the building. Ms. Bridger Junior sat behind the big round counter on the ground floor answering questions people might have about offices in the building.

  “Really?” Ms. Bridger asked enthusiastically. “Is he coming up to the sixth floor?”

  She paused. I could hear her sister’s excited voice on the other side of the conversation, but I had no idea what she was saying.

  “Ooh, sneak a picture and send it over.”

  I continued with my work, even with her sitting against my desk. She was like an annoying fly, and I wanted badly to swat her away. Or, at the very least, stab her ass with my letter opener.

  Even her cell phone made annoying sounds. She remained sitting on my desk and called her sister back. “Whoa, he is something. A little wild but I’m sure with a little effort, he could be tamed. He looks worth it. So is he heading this way?”

  My desk wiggled as she spoke animatedly about the poor, unsuspecting man who was heading for her giant web. I cleared my throat loudly and almost missed the sound of my own phone ringing in my drawer. It seemed like a good time for a break. I pulled out the phone and headed toward the break room. I answered it without even looking to see who it was.

  “Hello.”

  “You left without saying good-bye.”

  My feet fro
ze in the spot, but my heart raced on ahead of me. I moved my feet again to catch up to it and discovered that my knees had liquefied to jelly. I swallowed and took a breath. “You went back to the beach, back to your bathing suit model.”

  “What? No, I didn’t. I mean, yeah, I went back to the beach, but I had to let Mindy know that the place had been rented. I’d asked the owner if he could rent it to someone else, so I could get some money back.”

  “But you didn’t come back to Mayfair. I just figured you were—we were—” I couldn’t keep the waver from my voice. It had been such an awful day and I was tired. Hearing him made me instantly homesick.

  “I was brokenhearted, Kenna, and being around Mayfair made it worse. I slept on Tanner’s couch for a couple nights, to give you some space. I’d hoped that when I got back, we could talk things over. But you’d gone back to New York.”

  “I’m sorry, Cade. I’m sorry about everything.”

  “What’s wrong, Trinket? You don’t sound like yourself.”

  “I’m not.” A short sob burst from my mouth. There were too many people in the break room, so I rounded the nearest corner and took shelter near the water cooler. I’d been keeping it all inside, feeling sufficiently sorry for myself, but I wanted badly just to melt in his arms and tell him everything. Another sob.

  “Kenna?”

  I sucked in a shuddering breath. “My apartment is like Grand Central Station all night, and I can’t sleep. This morning, on the subway, a woman elbowed me so hard in the ribs, I nearly puked. And I’m working for a woman who I’m certain is secretly a member of some horrid alien society, who was sent here for the sole purpose of being cruel and demeaning to us little people. And she eats cardboard sandwiches, when she is actually eating. Which is never.”

  “Is she the stick figure in the bright green blouse?”

  “Yes, can you believe that col—” My gaze shot over toward the offices. Ms. Bridger was standing at the front desk with her attention firmly riveted toward the elevators. “Wait, how the heck did you—” My feet were moving before my mind had a chance to figure things out. I headed in the direction of the elevators.

  “I miss you, Kenna. I needed to tell you that . . .” Caden lowered his phone. “In person.” He looked completely out of place in the austere setting of the law offices, which only made him that much more breathtaking.

  Ms. Bridger, who had desperately tried to get him to notice her, twisted back to see what had his attention. Her harsh gaze landed like a sledgehammer on me. I was sure I saw a few sparks coming from her nostrils. “Ken, why aren’t you working? I need those files done by noon.”

  I walked right past her and into Caden’s arms. “You came. You came here for me.” Tears rolled down my cheeks. Nosy people had gathered around, but as far as I was concerned, we were standing alone. I lifted my face from his chest and peered up at him. “Take me home, Cade. I don’t belong here. I belong with you.”

  “Get your stuff . . . and hurry. I pissed off the nosy security guard, and I think he’ll be up here any second.”

  I raced back to my desk and grabbed my purse.

  Ms. Bridger and her bright green blouse loomed in front of my desk. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  “Home. With my boyfriend.” I stopped and grinned at her. “And there’s no damn way you would have ever tamed him. By the way, he thought you were a stick figure. So, good job with the fat-free, sugar-free and happiness free diet.”

  “You puffy faced twit,” she sneered, “I’ll make sure you never practice law.”

  “Ooh, big threat. And, by the way, you may pride yourself on being a horrid, wretched person, but just remember when you die, everyone will just remember you as a horrid, wretched person. That will be the legacy you leave behind. It might even be carved on your headstone.”

  Her heavily glossed lips twisted in a knot as I spoke, but it seemed for a change she was speechless.

  I walked toward Caden, and he reached for my hand.

  I glanced back over my shoulder at Ms. Bridger. “Why don’t you eat a damn cupcake every once in awhile. It might make you a better person.” Laughter rang out behind me as Caden and I reached the elevators.

  The elevator next to us opened up and an angry looking security guard popped out just as the doors in front of us slid apart.

  Caden pulled me inside and smacked the ground floor button. The doors shut on the guard’s angry scowl.

  “What did you do to make him so mad?”

  “He asked me who I had business with on the sixth floor. I told him I was here to see Trinket. He told me there was no one working in the building with that name and asked me to leave. But I told him he should do a better job of knowing who worked in the building. Then I told him to fuck off and jumped on an elevator.”

  For the first time, we stopped to look at each other.

  He stepped closer to me. I’d missed everything about him. But mostly, I missed how right it felt to be with him.

  “I’m sorry you had a bad day.”

  I shook my head. “It turned out to be the best damn day ever.”

  He took my face in his hands. “Where the hell have you been, Trinket?” His mouth covered mine, and we kissed until the ground floor.

  Epilogue

  Caden

  Three months later

  I looked up from under the hood of the truck. Kenna’s face was split with a smile as she walked across the street to my dad’s house. “Did you get my text? We got the house. The rent is reasonable, and it’s just four streets over. That way we can make the parents happy and still have time away from them.”

  “I’m excited. My mom and I figured out a work schedule around school, so I’ll be able to pitch in too. How was the lumber yard today?”

  “Good. The day goes fast because there’s so much to do. How was your first day at the new school?”

  “Fantastic,” she dropped her school bag on the lawn and leaned against the truck. “My advisor is extremely cool. And when she’s not working, she is the legal advisor for this giant non-profit organization that—get this—protects endangered species. She said she could get me an interview with them once I pass the bar. I might just be working with seals and dolphins after all.”

  I wiped my hands on my jeans and circled around to stand in front of her. I pushed a stray strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Sounds great. I know that’s always been your dream.”

  She reached up and took hold of my shirt to pull me closer. “I never told you about my life’s plan. I drew it up when I was nine.”

  “Already a lawyer at nine.”

  “Yes, and you were a part of the plan.”

  “Oh really? A good part, I hope.”

  “Good and integral to be exact. How are you at riding dolphins?”

  I raised a brow. “I’m not completely sure. Why?”

  “You’re going to need to learn because on our wedding day, we’re riding up to the beach ceremony on dolphins.”

  “I think I can do that.” I pulled her into my arms. “So, Trinket, I was part of your life’s plan?”

  “You still are, Caden Stratton.” She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

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