Page 25 of The Draft
Cade shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, but I have a theory that our goaltender has a girlfriend.”
“Oh, really?” My heart beat a little faster, and my self-doubt got the better of me. What if Dash had started dating someonebeforeThe Draft, and I mauled him at it? What if he was already happily in love with someone else and that was why he hadn’t told Cade about the kiss? What if he didn’t want it getting out because he was trying to impress someone else?
It was like my little heart had just been trampled on and there was no way I could come back from it. Dash with another girl. The last time I saw it was in high school before I really considered Dash my knight in shining armor. Was the reason I’d never seen it because he was hiding her?
“Yup. He kissed some girl a couple of weeks ago, and he hasn’t been acting the same since. You know, he’s being shifty. He doesn’t want to talk to me or get any advice, which makes me wonder what the hell he’s doing on those dates.”
The timeline immediately sent red alerts through my brain because that surely had to be me, right? I so badly wanted it to be me, but there was something irking in the back of my mind, stopping me from being soconfident in the assumption. My stomach churned, and I felt like I might throw up. I wanted to speak to Dash and get this entire conversation over with, but I needed to get Cade to leave me alone first. So I did the thing that usually worked.
“Dash is being shifty. What about you?” Talk about him. Cade hated telling me anything private because he knew I had a hard time keeping things to myself. He’d clam up any minute now, and I’d be able to sneak into his best friend’s room with no one suspecting a thing.
“What about me?” he replied defensively. “I’ve been acting perfectly normal.”
“Exactly. You’re anything but normal. You haven’t had a girlfriend for a while, which is new for you. What’s stopping you?” Granted, I didn’t want to know about his sex life, but Cade was the kind of guy who always had his eye on someone, and I hadn’t been introduced to anyone since I got here, which now that I thought about it, was almost as odd as me kissing his best friend in a parking lot.
Cade’s hard features immediately softened, and that was when I knew I’d made the right move on changing the subject. I loved my brother, but concentration wasn’t his best asset, especially if his love life was involved.
“There’s a girl, isn’t there?”
“I don’t know.” He looked at me and then waved me off. “There’s someone, but she’s made it pretty clear that she’s not interested, despite smiling every time she sees me at the bar.” His lips were tight, and he clenched his teeth in what looked like an attempt to stop showing any emotion. Oh, Cadey, I knew that face. He had a crush but wasn’t willing to tell me or anyone else about her because…well, the great Cade Bright didn’t do crushes or love interests, or anything romantic for that matter. “However, this isn’t something I should be talking to my little sister about.”
“But you’re perfectly okay to talk aboutmylove life?”
“Madison.” The fact that he used my full name meant he was serious and wanted to make a point. “I’m not interested in your love life, but you don’t make things easy on your big brother.” He blew out a breath, and my heart was beating wildly because I could almost feel the tension building between us. Cade knew something, and he was going to confront me about it.Buckle up. “Look, I didn’t want to say anything, but I heard something.”
I heard something.
Those three words were just that. Words. But they cut through me like a knife because what the fuck had he heard?
“You did?” My voice was squeaky again, and I was looking around the room, taking names, wondering who ratted me and Dash out.
He pushed my shoulder to the side. “I heard a little rumor that you were flirting with some of the guys from the football team.”
My eyes bugged out, and I was rendered speechless for the first time in my life. So, he’d heard about my conversations at The Draft, but not the way it ended? With his best friend essentially dragging me out of the place? Weird.
“I flirted with them, yes, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do at an event like that?”
“Madison,” he drawled out with pointed annoyance as he looked at me in warning.
“Cadence.”
He balked. “You know that’s not my full name.”
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to do when you’re about to give me some overbearing lecture about how I should never date again?”
“Good. So we’ve agreed on your correct course of action,” Cade replied with a chuckle.
“I was just talking to them. There’s nothing going on.”
“Okay, and you’re right, it’s not for me to decide who or how you date.”
“Really? Because that’s not what you said in high school. Didn’t you put a team-wide ban on me after Henry? Bet you did the same thing here, too.”
“Team-wide ban?” He thought about it for a minute then shook his head. “That’s not where I was going with this. You didn’t let me finish.”
“Oh.”
“Butdating an athlete will do absolutely nothing for you. Especially one on the football team, or one of my teammates, for that matter. I know what these guys talk about in the locker room, and none of them would be right for you.”