Page 175 of All For You Duet

Without me.

Without our past haunting him.

God made good on her deal.

He’s free now.

I’m not, and that’s what I wanted—to swap our places like I wanted to that night.

I’m the one with a dark secret now.

Paparazzi were there after Redix left rehab. Tough to say if his team planned that, but they got cute videos of him later on the patio of his ice cream shop in Malibu. He treated dozens of families to free ice cream. The smile on his face, sitting on a bench beside a swarm of kids, he was licking a cone, and the light was back in his eyes.

Happy for him; it made mine water then.

Like they do now.

I drop my shades over my eyes.

Like hell, if anyone can see me cry.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Dear Candy Cade,

The nape of your neck, how your dark hair comes to a perfect point showing me the exact soft spot to kiss?

It pulls me to you, Cade.

Hell, who am I bullshitting?

Everything pulls me to you.

Like this journal, it’s tan. It’s new. Kinda like me.

I guess you found my old one. I guess that’s good. You know everything now. How I never wanted to hurt you. I just wanted to protect you. That’s why I never told you those things.

Because it kills me when you cry.

Because I’ll still take all the pain for you.

Remember when we were twelve and too big to be at that playground, but of course, we didn’t listen? You started a stupid game of “let’s see what we can jump off of.” And me, like the idiot I always am for you, thought it was the best idea ever.

And it was.

Until you jumped off the top of a sliding board.

Damn, woman, you forget you have bones that can break. But it broke my heart because I heard the thud when you landed and knew it hurt. You curled in a ball and bit your lip until it bled to keep from crying in front of me.

“It’s okay.” I climbed up the sliding board ladder. “I’ll do it too.”

“Don’t” was all you could barely say, watching me.

“Hey, Candy Cade!” I’d do anything for you. “Watch this!”

That’s what everyone says, right? Just before their next trip to the Emergency Room.

I jumped and landed beside you. My ankle broke, and the ground smacked me so hard for being so damn dumb.