He's the One by Jane Beckenham (ready to read books .TXT) 📗

her own business.” Taylor had stipulated once only, and that's what she got. “Don't worry, it was a once only. She's not interested in more; besides she's got a thing going with ... ah, someone else,” Cade informed his friend. “A dead guy."

Hugh's shock was obvious. “Hell, tough opposition."

"Good pun."

"Sorry. Tough call, though."

"You're telling me. How the hell do I compete with a dead guy?"

For a few seconds Cade was lost in his own misery, then shook his head and focused on his best friend. “Come on. Leave that drink. I think coffee's on order. Strong and black. Then maybe you'll be able to think straight.” Cade hit the kitchen, switching on the kettle and getting a couple of coffee mugs from the cupboard. The irony of what he offered Hugh as a medicine for his marital woes wasn't lost on him, considering the vast quantity of coffee he'd used to drown his sorrows over the last few days.

"So, what went wrong with Taylor?"

"A one night stand. That's all.” He shrugged, knowing it was absolutely nothing like it.

"I would say there's more to it than that, by the look of you,” Hugh said as he took his cup of coffee from Cade.

Tendrils of white steam spiraled from Cade's coffee. He stared at it for brief moment. “Nah. Nothing else. It's over."

He took several draughts of his coffee, eyes closing momentarily as he let the hot liquid revive him. No sleep. No concentration, and now Hugh on his doorstep wallowing in marriage dramas. What else?

"She dumped you!” Hugh spluttered into his coffee. With great precision he placed his cup on the paper-strewn coffee table. “The woman dumped you. My God, I can't believe it."

The pulse in Cade's throat skittered, and his jaw clenched. “It happens,” he said trying for nonchalance, while inside his gut churned. It hurt. He couldn't believe how much it hurt. And it shouldn't. Letting it hurt made it way too close to home. Too close to his past, and he wasn't about to let his past hurt impinge on the present. Cade definitely didn't want to care. Caring hurt.

"She doesn't answer my calls,” he finally admitted.

"Think she's trying to tell you something?"

"Loud and clear.” Cade reached for his coffee and gulped back the remainder.

"And the problem is?” Hugh prompted.

"The problem is, mate, I feel like I've been shafted."

"Women don't shaft you, Cade. You're the guy that loves and leaves ‘em."

Yep. The truth hurt. This was a different truth, however, and one he didn't want to face and determined to change the way this conversation was going. “Your wife loves you, Hugh. You love her. It's as simple as that."

"Good deflection, Cade."

Cade offered his friend a sheepish grin.

How come it sounded simple for everyone else when his life was a disaster area? Zane had said his mother left because of their father. But she didn't just leave dear old dad; she left him, Zane and Katie, too. What about them?

"Brianna told me to go,” Hugh said breaking into Cade's morose miasma.

"Why?"

"Says I'm married to my job, not her."

"Oh..."

"What do you mean, oh?"

"That's big stuff for a woman."

"And you should know; you've had plenty of them."

"Low blow, Hugh."

Hugh dragged a hand through is carrot-top curls. “Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I've got a tough hide. Look, buy her some flowers, some chocolates. But most of all, Hugh, go home. Tell her you love her, run the bath for her, give her a foot massage, anything that tells her you appreciate her. Work is important, I'm the first one to agree on that one, but you're a team now. You can't spend twenty-four/seven hunched over a computer program anymore."

"Yeah, I know you're right."

Cade smiled at his friend. They'd been through a lot. It was good to be able to help him. “So what are you doing here?” Cade pushed himself away from the bench and strode toward the door with Hugh following.

"You sure you're okay about Taylor?” Hugh asked.

Cade wasn't about to let his friend start up on that again. “Don't worry about me."

Hugh eyed him with that steel gray gaze of his, the one Cade had seen him use when trying to suss out some computer programming glitch. “You've changed, Cade."

"Enough,” he said and gave Hugh a playful push. “Go home. Love her like there's no tomorrow."

Cade stood at his door and watched Hugh walk the short path from the side exit to his car, all the while his own advice rang hollow in his ears—and continued to ring long after Hugh had departed to make amends with his bride.

Hugh had accused him of changing.

He had.

The trouble was, Cade wasn't sure he wanted change or what to do about it. It scared the hell out of him. But there was something else that scared him more—something exciting, and new and very tempting.

The lights of the jukebox blinked a kaleidoscopic chorus of colors. Standing in front of it, Cade searched for one particular song, found it, and punched the button. The soft whirring of electronics clicked into gear and then the song started. Soft and gentle and full of memories. Memories not yet twenty-four hours old though they haunted him as if as old as time.

Do you care—enough?

* * * *

She didn't want to think about the setting, though it was the perfect spot for a wedding.

Just not hers. Not here. Or anywhere, for that matter.

The pall in Taylor's stomach knotted, and she had to steady herself. She loved Cade. He just didn't love her, couldn't let go of his “abandonment” long enough to trust in the present.

But Greta Peters and Erueti Nathan were going to love their wedding. It was everything they ever wanted, and then some. That little bit extra had been Taylor's idea.

Her visions, her dreams.

Today she was giving her dreams away.

May had given way to June and the crisp air hung fresh, the sky a cloudless blue. In the garden bordering the drive to the church entrance, buds of early blossoms poked through damp ground,