Page 217 of All For You Duet

Pulling away, he says, “I’m fine.”

The passenger door opens. “Everything alright?” Silas leans out and slices into the tension.

“We’re fine,” Redix says with eyes on him like a rifle scope.

But he doesn’t hate Silas. It’s weird. Redix looks at Silas like he knows him. Like they share a secret.

Is it me?

“I’ll follow up on those items.” Redix steps back, and this is business now. Serious business. “Thanks for the help.”

And Redix does it.

He’s not aware of the gesture, but it’s woven into my soul, the pain of it. How he tucks a lock of his hair that’s fallen from his hat behind his ear, turns his back on me, and… leaves me… standing there… with my heart crying silent tears.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Keeping A Secret by Bleachers

There’s a pink elephant riding in Cade’s back seat while we circle through the Starbucks drive-thru.

I order an Americano, and Cade gets whipped cream with coffee and a lemon pastry. This woman and her sweet tooth. She has the metabolism of a hummingbird to eat that way but look like a supermodel. Then again, her dad’s the same way.

We’re friends, and when I hang out with Jeff Bryant, he’s a bottomless pit whose fifty-year-old body shames most twenty-year-olds. Yep, Cade struck the sexy DNA lotto.

We get our drinks, and she pulls her car into a parking space and turns to me.

“You wanted to tell me something?”

I love this about her—Cade cuts straight to it. I can’t stand it when folks hem and haw. Just fucking say what you feel.

“We got two things to talk about now.” My coffee’s too hot to sip. “Which one’s first? Me or Redix?”

Her eyebrows shoot up like she’s been caught. “You first. I talk about my shit too much as it is.”

And damn, now I want to hem and haw. I could drag this out for days. But fuck it.

“Cade, I’m bisexual, and that’s why my parents cut me off.”

Nothing. Her face. Her eyes. She doesn’t react while she finishes sucking sweet goop up her straw before she says, “It’s bullshit they cut you off. That has to hurt you, and I’m sorry.”

“So that’s what you get from that?” She keeps winning me over. “What about the bisexual part? It doesn’t bother you?”

“Why should it?”

“It bothers most people. Everyone in my family. Most of my friends. Hell, most don’t even know. And when I tell people I’m dating, it’s usually a deal-breaker.”

“Are we dating?”

“I have no fucking clue what we’re doing, but I like it.”

She looks out her front windshield. “Silas, I don’t know what we’re doing either, but you being bisexual doesn’t bother me at all. I’m totally fine with it because, honestly, I’m too busy trying to figure out what I feel.”

“It’s obvious what you feel.”

Her eyes cut my way. “You’re gonna tell me how I feel?” Warning: Never cross this woman. “You’re a brave man.”

Laughter bolts up from me because this is the first time I’ve kinda pissed her off… and it’s funny.