Make a Right by Willa Okati Read Free Book Online

laughed, surprised. He’d heard that more than a few times, back when Cade could sleep peacefully through the night. “You never did wake up gracefully. Sleeping Beauty.”
    Suzie-Q got tired of being ignored and bounced back to Cade. Sheesh . “I think she likes you better than I do.” Tuck leaned over to pet her too, rubbing her belly. “She’s got good taste.”
    “You really do never know when to stop, do you?”
    Tuck considered that as Suzie-Q wallowed between them. “Not usually, no.”
    “Mmm,” Cade said. “You know the super’s going to kick you out if he finds her here.”
    Deep-breath time, though the act didn’t quite match the intent and Tuck was the one to focus his all on the dog. “She’s worth it. I can’t be alone, Cade. I can’t. I need something that needs me. That I can help. I am who I am. You used to like that.”
    Cade’s chest moved as his throat worked. Tuck could barely hear him when he said, “I know.”
    Silence.
    Then—a touch. One that almost knocked Tuck on his ass, because it was Cade stroking the curls that had slipped out from where he’d tucked them behind his ears. Just for a second, but it was enough. “I miss you too.”
    God . Tuck could barely breathe for all the feelings, confusion and anger and want , swirling around and choking him. But he did know one thing for sure. Still. “You love me. Don’t try to tell me you don’t, not when I know you inside and out.”
    “You don’t know everything,” Cade murmured.
    “But I know that.” Tuck refused to stop now. “Look at me, Cade, and tell me. I gotta hear you say it. You still love me.”
    “No,” Cade murmured. “God, all right, that’s a lie. Yes. I do love you.”
    “Then why can’t we fix this?” Tuck let out a long sigh. He didn’t want to fight. Not when he could still feel the phantom of a gentle touch on his jaw, his nape, and taste Cade’s kisses. “Forget I asked. You want to know something?”
    Cade tilted his head, curious obviously despite himself.
    “You’re here.” He jostled Cade’s knee. “That’s enough for now. I’ll be good as long as you’re here tonight, or at least I’ll try. Deal?”
    Cade’s smile warmed him like nothing else, and even more so when it faded naturally slowly, not into a scowl or into unreadable flatness. He still had to work up some oomph, but he nodded. “Like a truce?”
    Tuck whipped the dishcloth out again and waved it. “Not exactly a white flag, this, but yeah.”
    That smile threatened to return.
    Being with Cade tonight was like riding a roller coaster. Zoom high, swoop low, and just when you thought you were coasting back into the station and disappointed as hell that the ride was over, back you went, doing an upside-down loop-the-loop. Sunshine in a bag with the top folding open.
    He offered Cade his hand. Just his hand. “Truce?”
    Cade bit his lip and took his time to answer, but finally he nodded. His smile left his mouth, but Tuck thought he saw an echo of it in Cade’s eyes, and his mouth was still so much softer than it had been just minutes before when he took Tuck’s hand and said, “Truce.”
    Tuck had to get up and move. The touch of Cade’s hand in his crackled like static electricity, lightning tingles that were going to make him do something stupid, soon, if he didn’t put some space between them.
    Tuck wondered if that was what life felt like to Cade inside his troubled head.
    “Tuck?” Cade craned his neck back to watch Tuck stand. He too rose to his feet.
    “We’re cool.” Tuck found a grin and forced it out. “I’ve got a show of good faith.”
    Cade’s eyebrow lifted. “Really?”
    “You did leave some things here. I just now remembered where I saved them for you.”
    Cade’s mouth quirked at a different angle. “That’s your idea of truce?”
    “It’s my way of trying.”
    Cade shifted from smiling on the inside to thoughtful, but the end result seemed so close to the same as made no difference.