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“Yes, please,” she said. “I need Cade and I choose to stay with him.”
Cade’s gaze captured hers.
Please, heaven above. Let me stay with him.
“Interesting choice of words, sis.”
She didn’t rise to his teasing. “Can we talk more later?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“I love you,” he said easily, as if this tough brother of hers often told her he loved her. “Be safe.”
She put a hand to her heart, tears pricking her eyelids. “I love you as well.”
“Bye, Jace.”
“Goodbye … Quaid.”
She clung to the phone, her eyes riveted to Cade.
“You all right?” he asked.
Nodding, she managed, “My brother is far from a scared, abused little boy.”
“Far from it,” he agreed. “A very impressive and tough man.”
She loved him reaffirming what she’d felt in the conversation. “Are you personally acquainted with Quaid?”
“Only what I’ve seen on the news and in magazines.”
Her family was famous. Because of her devil of a mother, or had her brother earned distinction with his military prowess?
“You thought Lieutenant Quaid Raven was a beat-up little boy?” Easton asked incredulously.
“Easton,” Clint all but barked. “She isn’t herself.”
Jacey inched closer to Cade. He sheltered her with a strong arm sliding around her lower back. She placed the phone on the kitchen table and nestled into his ridged abdomen. He was tall and broad, and she was his to shelter. Even though it was obvious Quaid had watched out for her and loved her, she felt instinctively she had to be strong and brave on her own. Relaxing into Cade was coming home. A home she had never imagined or even dreamed about. This man was her safe haven. Her cowboy would never permit anything to happen to her.
“Apologies,” Easton said. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around …” His gaze focused on Cade, then trailed back to her. “All of this.”
“No need for apologies,” she told him. “Regrettably, I have lost my mind.”
Easton and Cade laughed. Clint seemed too serious to do more than crack a smile.
“Do you want to set that load down?” Cade asked. “I’m assuming Mama Millie feared I wouldn’t feed Jacey?”
“You guessed it.” Easton shook his head, then imitated in a female voice, “‘I know that handsome Cade will have man food up there, but he won’t have home-cooked goodness and all the fruits and veggies that my Jacey loves.’”
Jacey smiled. Then she realized she had no idea what she loved. The veggie and ham omelet she and Cade assembled had been delicious. It was thoughtful of ‘Mama’ to send groceries and baked goods, and a relief to know the men were not staying.
Easton hurried over to the long kitchen counter and slid bags off his arms.
Clint followed and set the platter down and the grocery sacks. He returned to Jacey and extended the suitcase to her. “She demanded I pack all your clothes and toiletries for you.” He grinned, actually grinned. He was an extremely handsome man when he did that. Not as handsome as Cade, though, and he didn’t make her insides warm. “I made Walker do it.”
Cade laughed, and she felt some of the tension between the two men dissipate.
