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“Tell you what?”
“What you told the women about whether I’m single or not.”
She laughed again. Why was it he could go from being completely morose to stupidly amusing in the space of a few moments? And why did she like that so much?
Because you’re addicted to drama.
Ugh, no she wasn’t. Of everything she wanted in life, being drama free was at the top of it.
She nodded. “It’s a deal.”
And then he was lifting her up again, like a damn football, and carrying her further across the yard.
“So, who’s going first?” Presley asked. He’d carried her to Delilah’s swing set, where he’d deposited her on the wooden platform that led to the yellow slide. He was leaning against it, the two of them looking at the house, which was around fifty yards away. From here he’d be able to see if Delilah came out looking for them.
Not that they were doing anything.
Although somehow her sitting here, swinging her legs next to him, felt more intimate than when he was inside of her.
And that thought made her cheeks flush. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her right now.
“I told them that I thought you had your eye on somebody,” she admitted. “I didn’t tell them about us.”
“Why not?” He ran his fingers down the back of her calf. It made her shiver.
“Because I thought we were keeping this a secret.”
“It’s a pretty bad secret. Marley already suspects. If Alex wasn’t so busy trying to go viral, he’d probably suspect as well.”
“Yeah, but there’s something different between our bandmates knowing and everybody knowing. And you know Delilah would find out, too.”
“Not if I told her first.”
Cassie blinked. “Do you want to tell her about us?”
“I don’t know.” He was still facing the house. “I guess it depends on what this is.” He turned to look at her. “I went quiet because I started feeling guilty. That the three of us were having such a good time and Delilah’s mom wasn’t part of it.”
“You miss her,” Cassie said softly.
“It’s complicated. We were friends long before she got pregnant with Delilah. We’d see each other at gigs and have some fun. It was always supposed to be light, and then…”
She held her breath, not wanting to break the spell of Presley Hartson actually talking about his past with her.
“She got pregnant. And we got married because we both wanted to prove that we could be adults about it.” He blew out a mouthful of air. “I know it sounds kind of quaint, but I thought that this was my sign. It was time to be a grown up. To stop messing around and settle down.”
“And did you?”
“Yeah. But Jade, she…” He shook his head, looking into the distance. “Delilah was a real colicky baby. And Jade was the one at home with her all the time. I was trying to build up the construction business to support us, which meant long hours. I thought I was doing my bit, providing for my family. But I wasn’t. I didn’t see how much she was struggling.”
Cassie swallowed. She could taste the bitterness of his words.
“She tried. And that’s what kills me, she really tried to make it work. But I was too much of an idiot to listen to her distress calls. She talked about wanting to be in a band again, wanting to play gigs, and I thought I was placating her by telling her she could do that once Delilah was older.”
He turned to look at her. The sadness in his eyes made her whole body feel achy. “Pres…”
“Don’t say anything yet. I haven’t told you the worst part.”
He looked away, shook his head. She could feel the tension radiating off of him.
