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She couldn’t. Not when there was so much left unsaid between them. “Then okay.” A couple of days might give her time to find the words that had escaped her up until now. Despite Zeke’s adamant warning otherwise, Kade deserved to know the truth. All of it.
Bree hadno idea how many hours had passed between waking up and being cleared to leave the hospital. It was seven o’clock in the morning when the nurse brought in a wheelchair and announced Bree had been cleared to go home. Kade had insisted that he be the one to drive her.
Pulling in front of her house—the place she used to feel like was home—Bree’s chest seized with panic.
Kade stopped his truck and turned to her. “You’ll be fine. You know that. Right?”
There was no feeling behind Bree’s nod of agreement. He was trying to offer reassurance, and she appreciated him for it. Her heart thundered in her chest.
The air thinned, and Bree gasped. It was like she couldn’t breathe. “I can’t do it.”
“You don’t have to.” Kade shifted the gear into reverse and backed out of the driveway. Silence sat between them as he navigated onto the farm road.
“Where are we going?” Bree asked after a long silence.
“Considering I’m in the process of selling all my stuff and my apartment is a wreck, I thought it might be best if we borrowed one of my buddy’s fishing cabins instead. It shouldn’t be a problem this time of year. I know the code to get inside, and he said I could use the place whenever I wanted. He knew I might need a place to escape for a few days and recoup. Does that sound okay?”
“I don’t care where we go, as long as it’s not my place.” Those words sounded foreign. Her home had been sacred ground. It was the first place she’d rented on her own with money she’d made.
“Deal. We should stop off and buy some necessities on the way out of town. Do you mind grabbing my phone and texting my sister to let her know where we’re headed? No one in the family will suspect anything when I’m suddenly not around. I’m known for my disappearing acts. And people will most likely think you went to stay with your family.”
“My dad.” Bree gasped. In all the exhaustion Bree hadn’t thought about calling home. Her father was dealing with so much already with the medical diagnosis. “I should call him.”
“Travis called last night, and my sister has been in contact ever since. Your dad wanted to drop everything and come. Chloe reassured him that nothing else could be done here except sit and watch you sleep.”
“Did Chloe say how my father sounded?”
“He was upset but grateful you were found in time. I’m supposed to pass on the message that he loves you.” Hearing those last two words from Kade stirred a reaction in her chest—a reaction she couldn’t afford under the circumstances. He was the one person who could shatter her heart into a thousand tiny specks of dust.
“He requested that you call when you’re up to it. He also said not to come home unless you were ready to travel. He volunteered to come here to take care of you, but Chloe promised that wasn’t necessary.”
“My dad took your sister at her word?” Surprising.
“Chloe told him I planned to stick around to make sure nothing else happened until the guy was caught.” He white-knuckled the steering wheel. “Now you see my problem. I already promised your father, and I’m a man of my word.” A cocky grin upturned the corners of his mouth.
The break in tension was a much-needed relief. Bree allowed herself a small smile. “You’re right. You win.” It was probably the stress of recent events that caused her to break out laughing. She sounded a little hysterical, even to herself. But it was like she was sighing relief for the first time. “I’ll let your sister know where we’re headed so she doesn’t worry.”
Bree located his phone and sent the text. A response immediately came back. “She said she’ll drop off the dog you told her about. She just picked him up from the airport and will redirect so she can drop him off at the cabin. Said she his name is Kimbro, and he has food.”
“She doesn’t fight fair.” He shook his head in mock disgust. “He’s being retired from his military service, and one of the men in my unit rescued him. If you’re thinking about a pet, and I use that term loosely because he’s a trained fighter, maybe he’s the right one.”
“Sounds like it would save me the work of training a puppy. I’m willing to give him a try if you think it might be a good fit.”
“All I know is that he’s a seven-year-old German Sheppard named Kimbro. He’s been through a lot. He lost hearing in one ear.” Kade’s deep baritone washed over her, bringing to life parts of her body she ought to ignore.
“Sounds like he deserves a good home.” One she could provide. Kade making sure she would be okay brought on a reaction she couldn’t afford…comfort.
He glanced over at her stomach. “At least until the baby’s born. Young kids and highly trained military dogs don’t usually mix well.”
“We can take a wait-and-see approach.” Bree settled back in her seat and fixed her gaze on the patch of road before her. She needed to remind herself he was only there because she was in trouble, not because he wanted to be with her. After what she considered the best weekend of her life, she’d been devastated when he’d been clear that he had no desire for anything more to develop between them. She’d never been one-night-stand material. It worked for some, but not for her. She needed to feel an emotional connection with someone. She’d been embarrassed to realize that had been a one-way street with Kade.
To be fair, Kade hadn’t made any promises. She’d known what she was getting into. Sort of. He’d been crystal clear. No commitments. No strings. Just mutually agreed-upon, great sex. Why had she thought it would be different with her? She’d been naïve to think there could be more between them than smokin’ hot sex. And, damn…it had been the best sex of her life. Which would’ve been fine if her heart hadn’t gotten in the way, sending her confusing desires.
Her feelings for Kade dated back to high school when they’d started spending time together with the group. She thought maybe things were going down a path where the next logical step would be for him to ask her out. He hadn’t. Instead, graduation had come, and he’d signed up for the military. She’d figured that was that. Life moved on. She’d seen him a few times when he’d come home on leave to visit his sister. He’d rented a small apartment—big enough for one—over the Huckabee’s garage. Even in high school, there’d always been something unreachable, something distant about him. Was that the attraction?
And then he’d come home a few months ago. He’d saved her on the side of the road. The two had talked, and the next thing she knew, it was one o’clock in the morning. She’d invited him over for coffee, which had turned into three days and nights of the best conversation and food—and the most incredible sex both at her house and the fishing cabin. He’d disappeared just as quickly.
One of her closest high school friends, Zeke, had been there to pick up the pieces when she’d realized she was pregnant. She’d loved Zeke. He’d loved her but in a different way. She’d quickly realized his love was the kind that led to a proposal—the words she’d wanted to hear from Kade. Tears welled, thinking about Zeke being gone. An ache formed in her chest at his life being cut short. She thought about never seeing his smiling face walk through the front door, where he’d drop his rucksack and crack a joke that made her belly laugh. The loss was too much. The stress caused by thinking about him was probably bad for the baby, so she carefully tucked away those memories for a time when she could really grieve.
