The Exception Page 20

  “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?”

  He pursed his lips together, his brows furrowing. “I’m not sure,” he said, clearly mystified by my question. “Is it bad that I don’t think I’ve ever really looked that far into the future?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “I’ve never thought about it before but I didn’t care. Each day was a day to get through. There was really no point in looking any farther unless it was something for work. But now that I think of it, I have been thinking ahead a little more, wondering what we will do a few days from now, what we will do next weekend. But five years is a lot different than a few days.”

  He sat quietly, pondering my question. “Where do you see yourself in five years, Jada?”

  “I’m not sure. I had thought I would have a home of my own, complete with a little white picket fence. I figured I would be sharing my life with someone, starting a family maybe. But obviously that got blown out of the water.”

  A hint of sadness wiggled its way inside my chest. The dreams I had for my life since I was a little girl seemed so far out of reach. I was afraid I would never be able to grasp what I wanted out of life.

  “You can still have that.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I don’t really even know. My life has changed so much.”

  “Life gets better with change.”

  “Sometimes,” I said, considering his words. “But sometimes it doesn’t.”

  “Look at me,” he said, smiling nervously. “I changed the way I live. And if I hadn’t, you never would have had me. Change is good.” He ran his fingers up my arm. “I didn’t plan it, but you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. Do you know that?”

  “Oh, Cane,” I said, his words causing me to choke up. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

  “You could say you feel the same way,” he said, shrugging his shoulders casually, making me grin.

  “I do feel that way.”

  Cane wrapped one arm around my waist. “I haven’t felt this content in a long time. Probably since my dad died.”

  “What was he like?”

  His chest fell quickly as he blew out a breath.

  “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”

  “No. I want you to know me.” His hand stilled and cupped my waist, pressing my body against his, like he was afraid I was going to pull away. “My dad was a great dad. He was reliable, even-keeled. And he was the hardest worker I’ve ever known. He wanted me to step up at Alexander Industries—to really throw myself into it.”

  “You seemed to have done that.”

  Cane stilled. “I was dating a girl after college named Ashley. She moved back to Providence. I thought I loved her.” I could feel him shake his head. “Anyway, Dad wanted me to stay here and I didn’t. I just followed her across the country.”

  “That’s kind of romantic.”

  He snorted. “That’s all kinds of fucking stupid, that’s what it is. So I get there and see the real her. She’s around her family, her friends, and she isn’t the girl I thought I knew. I complained about it to Dad and he wanted me to come home. He was looking at this property in Queen Creek to buy to build a subdivision on and he said he needed my help. Well, one night Ashley and I went to a bar and some things happened and I realized I had made the wrong choice. So I called him up that night, it was a Saturday, and told him I was coming home.”

  Cane’s body stilled, his heart picking up speed beneath my cheek.

  “He was thrilled. So I was supposed to go home on that Tuesday. But on Sunday Ashley told me she was pregnant with my baby.”

  I pulled my head back in shock as my stomach fell to the floor. I pushed a swallow down my constricted throat, the thought of a baby Cane running around Rhode Island making me sick. “Really?”

  He laughed menacingly. “Really. So Dad calls me Monday night to go over my travel plans and stuff and I told him what Ashley said. He was really disappointed, angry, all that stuff.”

  Cane adjusted his position but made sure I didn’t leave his side. “He had finally decided to buy this property in Queen Creek that belonged to this widow lady, even though it was a mess. There was a guy that owned a small piece of land next to this parcel that wanted it, too, and he was driving potential buyers away so he could end up getting it for a cheaper price.” He brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “That other guy was Simon’s dad.”

  “Did he go ahead and buy it?”

  “We were on the phone. He was telling me he had made an offer and how I had messed up by knocking Ashley up. That I should be there learning from him, helping him. All of a sudden, I could hear a change in his voice and he said he needed to get off the phone. He said he thought he was being followed and the car behind him had begun driving really erratically. So we hun
g up. And an hour or so later, Max called that my dad had died in a car crash.”

  All the air left my body. “Cane! What happened?”

  He nudged my head back down to his chest. I wasn’t sure if he needed me close or didn’t want me to see his face as he recalled the tragedy, but I leaned against him.

  “Well, of course I thought of Simon’s dad, Lee’s his name, immediately. The police originally ruled it an accident, but I came home right away and hired a private investigator. Nick worked on it for a few months before it was proven that it was Lee that did it.”

  He bent down and kissed my head. “And, for the record, the baby thing was a boldfaced lie. So there is no little Cane running around.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I am so sorry.”

  “Yeah, well this is my burden to bear, not yours. I hate talking about this. I just thought it was time for me to try to be open with you, you know?”

  “Thank you, Cane.”

  He pulled the blankets up over us. “Sleep now, beautiful girl.”

  “Are you awake?” Cane nudged me in the side as I lay next to him.

  “I am now,” I answered sleepily.

  “I have a craving.”

  “Cane!” I laughed, wiping my eyes to help me wake up.

  “What? Oh, you thought I mean for you?”

  “I’ll play along. What do you have a craving for, Mr. Alexander?”

  “Chocolate chip cookies,” he whispered.

  “Are you serious?” I glanced at the clock. “It’s one in the morning.”

  “I can’t help it. I want chocolate chip cookies.”

  I fell onto my back and sighed. “Do you have some Chips Ahoy or something?”

  “Nope.”

  “I’m sure there’s a grocery open around here. This is a major metropolitan area.”

  He leaned in close and whispered, “I want us to make them.”

  “You want us to make homemade chocolate chip cookies right now?”

  He nodded his head eagerly like a child.

  “Do you have the stuff to make them?” I yawned again.

  He shrugged. “Probably. We can always improvise.”

  “Cane, you can’t ‘improvise’ when baking. You have to follow the instructions.”

  “I’ve never been good at that,” he said stubbornly. “Come on.”

  He hopped off the bed and dragged me across it by my hand.

  “Cane!” I shrieked, laughing at his ridiculousness.

  He held onto my hand and led me to the kitchen, flipping on the light.

  “Okay,” I said, letting my eyes adjust to the brightness. “Do you have a recipe book or something?”

  “Yeah, I’m looking at it,” he said, cocking his head at me.

  “Heaven help me,” I muttered, throwing my head back in exasperation. “I’m sure there’s an app for this. Where are our phones?”

  “Yours is dead. Shocker, I know. And mine is upstairs somewhere and I’m not going to look for it.”

  “Cane. How are we supposed to do this without a recipe?”

  “Have you never made cookies before?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Yeah, a few times. But—”

  “Nope. No but’s. What do we need?” He looked at me expectantly. “You know what? Fuck it. We will make our own recipe. It can’t be hard. I’ve watched some of those cooking shows. They have no idea what they’re doing. Except the hot Italian one. That chick can do whatever she wants.”

  I had never seen Cane so spontaneous, so playful. Where is this coming from? He was typically so controlled, so scheduled. To see him like this—carefree and excited—was quite entertaining.

  “You’re insane,” I sighed. “Okay. We will need flour, sugar, chocolate chips and eggs. Probably vanilla and some salt. And baking soda so they’ll be fluffy.”

  “Baking soda? Who has baking soda lying around their kitchen?”

  “People who want to make cookies,” I deadpanned.

  “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just say that,” he growled as he pulled out the flour and sugar and sat them beside the vanilla and salt. “Are you going to help or you going to watch? The chocolate chips are in the freezer.”

  “Um, this was your idea, so I’m totally okay with watching. And why are the chocolate chips in the freezer?” I rolled my eyes as I made my way across the room.

  “Have you ever had a frozen chocolate chip?”

  I shook my head no.

  “Then don’t knock it until you try it, woman.”

  I grabbed the chocolate chips out of the freezer and tossed them next to the other items. “Grab a bowl. I’m going to need a big one,” I instructed him.

  He burst out laughing. “Oh, I have a big one, all right. But let’s make the cookies first, okay?”

  “You are incorrigible. Since we are refusing to use a recipe, I have no idea what measurements to use. So we are going to have to guess.”

  Cane grabbed the bag of flour and dumped some into the bowl. “That looks like a good start.”

  “This is going to be a long night. Give me some sugar.”

  I felt his breath hot against my neck as he pressed his body up behind mine. “I have your sugar right here,” he whispered, kissing up and down my neck.

  “Cane,” I whispered breathlessly. “Can we just forget the damn cookies?”

  He smacked me on my behind and I yelped.

  “Sugar,” he said, handing me the bag. “Now what?”

  “Baking soda,” I demanded as I dumped some sugar into the bowl, my annoyance obvious.

  He smirked as he silently handed me the canister and I plopped some of it into the bowl. I added a bag of chocolate chips.

  “Ah, is someone frustrated?” he asked teasingly.

  “Me? No.” I grabbed some butter out of the refrigerator. “I’m going to melt some of this. Put an egg or two in there.”

  I threw a stick of butter into a bowl and popped it into the microwave, glancing at the clock. This is ridiculous, I thought, as I stopped in my tracks. “Cane!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”

  “Putting a couple of eggs in here.” He tipped a carton of egg whites into the bowl.

  “I don’t think you can use that!”

  “This is my recipe, so I can use whatever I want.”

  “Whatever. I’m not eating any of these.” I removed the butter from the microwave and added it to the bowl. “Stir.”

  He grabbed a spoon and roughly stirred everything together. I watched his muscles ripple with every motion and my thoughts quickly turned away from the cookies. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his middle, letting my fingers slide lazily down his abs.

  “Don’t try to distract me with your wicked ways. This is serious business.” He laid the spoon on the countertop and stuck his finger in the bowl. Turning to face me, he held his finger in the air.

  “It looks good,” he smiled. “Now let’s see what it tastes like, shall we?” He brought his finger up and popped it into his mouth, sucking the dough off.

  “Mmmmm,” he said, letting his eyes roll to the back of his head. “This is really good. Do you want some?”

  I shook my head and he jutted out his bottom lip, giving me puppy dog eyes. “Come on, Jada. You’re hurting my feelings.” He dipped his finger back in the bowl, holding it in front of my face. “Just a little taste?” he asked, wagging it in front of me.

  “Just one.” I was going to use that little opening to get what I wanted. I grabbed his hand with both of mine and slowly inserted his finger into my mouth. I wrapped my lips around his finger and let my tongue lazily caress it. His eyes widened as he caught on to my game. I pulled his finger out through my lips and licked it clean. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he watched.

  “That is good,” I said, smiling at his reaction to me as I dropped his hand. “Can I have more?”

  He grabbed my hips and lifted me up, sitting me on the counter.

  “What, exactly, do you want more
of, Ms. Stanley?”

  “Cookie dough, of course.”

  “Sure.” He scooped out a small bit and licked it off of his own finger. Smiling, he grabbed the back of my head and leaned in to kiss me. I tried to pull away, laughing, but he pressed his lips to mine. His tongue passed my lips and I could taste the sweetness in his mouth.

  He scooted me closer to the edge of the counter and I wrapped my legs around his waist, cinching our bodies even tighter. His body was hard against mine and I pressed myself against him, wanting every possible inch of my skin to be touching his. He was a walking aphrodisiac.

  We kissed long and hard, our mouths moving against each other in perfect sync. My body was firing on all cylinders as all rational thought left me.

  He moved his hands beneath me, cupping my ass in his hands, and lifted me up, never breaking our kiss. As he turned, the bag of flour fell to the floor and a cloud of white dust went up, engulfing everything in the vicinity.

  “Cane!” I laughed, pulling away a little.

  “What?” he growled, kissing up the side of my neck as he bent on his knees and laid me in the middle of the mess on the floor. He picked up the hem of my shirt and dragged it over my body, sitting back on his knees.

  “You are so damn beautiful, Jada,” he said, admiring my body. Although he had seen me naked before, I still blushed at his unadulterated view.

  He leaned forward and palmed my breasts, bending down and sucking on one nipple as he rolled the other with his fingertips. The sensation had me panting with need, the ache between my legs becoming too much.

  “Cane,” I begged, grabbing his hair and pulling his face up to mine. “I need you.”

  He pushed his shorts down with one hand and kicked them off. He grabbed my legs behind both of my knees and wrapped them around him again before sinking slowly and deliciously into me.

  JADA

  The sun was hot and I was sweaty and ready for a shower.

  “How far have we walked? Ten miles? Twenty?” I asked, panting at Kari’s side.

  “Two. You have walked two little miles around our subdivision.” She glanced at me out of the corner of her green eyes. “You need to exercise more. You have no stamina.”