"We are having a light luncheon at the main building in a few minutes," Hannah explained as she approached. "Everything all right?"
"Yes, fine. Why?" Cadence asked as Aaron patted her gently on the back and then went over to talk to Jamie, Shane, and Christian.
Hannah shrugged. "You took off out of her so quickly I just wondered if... Oh, my goodness, Cadence! What's that on your hand?"
By the time Hannah noticed, Cadence's family had already approached, her mom and dad with gushing smiles on their faces, Cassidy a bit bewildered. "Oh," Cadence beamed, "this?" and held her hand up for both Hannah and her mother to see.
"Oh, my! It's beautiful!" Liz Findley exclaimed. "Princess cut in a cathedral setting? Very nice."
"It's huge!" Cassidy cried, peering over her mother's shoulder.
"Well, congratulations!" Hannah said, stepping forward and hugging her.
"Thank you," Cadence replied, humbly. Her mother and sister hugged her as well. She glanced at her father who was smiling proudly, his hands in his pockets as he rocked back on forth. She also looked over at Aaron who appeared as if he would just as soon avoid all of the attention, but the rest of the team looked at him and then at Cadence, perplexed, before stepping over to see what all of the fuss was about.
"When did you..." Meagan asked, her tears temporarily dried up.
"That sucker is ginormous!" Aurora shouted.
Everyone else had an opinion as well, except for Christian, who stood by quietly, as if he wasn't sure what to say, and his silence said everything to Cadence and Aaron. It seemed he hadn't quite gotten over his infatuation with the Hunter, at least not yet.
As they made their way over to the main building for the luncheon Hannah had planned, Cadence looped her arm through her sister's and hung back a bit, hoping to have the opportunity to speak to her alone. "How you doin' Sis?" she asked, a sympathetic look on her pretty face.
Cassidy sighed. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I never even knew this place existed. Those pictures of Elliott--and you--hunting Vampires, that was surreal. And now you're engaged to some guy I hardly know who seems like he's okay, but hasn't he already broken your heart a couple of times?"
Cadence nodded. "Yes, but things are different now," she replied.
"If you say so," Cassidy responded. "I see all of this, and I think about what happened to Elliott, and I get so angry. I can't help but wish I could be part of it now, you know? Rather than waiting."
"I know," Cadence assured her. "But you're not old enough to Transform yet. As soon as you are, we'll make it happen. In the meantime, you really need to talk to Grandma. She can explain everything a lot better than I can. I know she wanted to be here. At least she got to watch the memorial."
Cassidy agreed. "I've spoken to her about Elliott dozens of times, and she never even acted like she knew him. I always thought it was a little odd that no one thought it was weird that I was such good friends with a guy my sister worked with who happened to be, in my understanding, like, ten years older than me. But even grandma would just say she was glad I had someone to look out for me. It makes sense now, I guess."
"Elliott was assigned to look after you, since you were a baby," Cadence explained as they approached their destination.
"What?" Cassidy asked, stopping in her tracks. "He was?"
"Yes. Aaron just told me last night. So, it makes perfect sense that you would have a relationship with him from the beginning. And of course, Grandma, Mom, and Dad would think nothing of it."
"Wow," Cassidy said, shaking her head. "This keeps getting more and more bizarre by the moment."
"You're telling me," Cadence mumbled.
"No wonder he hated that guy I had a crush on," Cassidy said, walking away from Cadence, the bewildered expression back on her face.
"Say what?" Cadence asked, but by then, her sister had already entered the building and walked off to join her parents, and Cadence was face to face with someone she really wasn't expecting to see--Cale.
"Hi, Cadence," he said, literally running into her in the entryway.
"Oh, hi," she said, forcing a smile, unable to meet his eyes. "It's nice to see you."
"You did a great job at the memorial, with your speech," he replied, stepping out of the way so she could continue to enter the building.
There was a short hallway that led to a larger room where Hannah had a catered lunch prepared, and while Cadence could see into the room, she couldn't quite get there. Where was her boyfriend--fiancé--now when she needed him? "Thank you," she said, finally deciding to go ahead and address this uncomfortable situation and get it over with. "It wasn't easy."
"Well," Cale said nodding, "I know you're probably in a hurry to get in there with your family, I just wanted to let you know that, despite how angry I was the last time we spoke, I don't wish you any ill-will. In fact, I'm very happy everything turned out all right with you and Aaron in Ireland, and you're secret is safe with me."
Cadence hadn't realized she was holding her breath until he was done speaking and she exhaled. "Thank you," she said, most sincerely, patting him on the arm with her left hand.
"You're quite welcome," he replied, offering her a small smile. He caught her hand out of the corner of his eye, and Cadence watched as his expression changed. "Is that? Oh, wow... that seems... quick."
Cadence immediately withdrew her hand. It had somehow slipped her mind. "Oh, yeah, uhm... there's that."
The smile had disintegrated fairly quickly, but with a bit of effort, he forced it back onto his handsome face. "Congratulations," he said mildly.
"Thank you," Cadence replied. After an awkward pause, she said, "Well, I guess we should..."
"Yes, please, after you," he agreed, following her into the noisy room.
Rather than approaching the buffet first, Cadence immediately plopped down in the seat next to Aaron. "I'm sorry. I'm saving that for my fiancée," he said, squinting at her playfully.
"Uhm, do you know who I just ran into?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down but not doing a particularly great job of it.
"Cale?" he whispered, leaning toward her.
"Uh, yeah!" she replied.
"And how did that go?"
"Not good. This rock on my hand is attracting a lot of attention!" she exclaimed.
"Did you want me to take it back?" he chided, trying not to laugh at her.
"No! But, if you knew I was talking to him, why didn't you come over?"
"Don't you think he at least deserved to have a private conversation with you?" Aaron replied, the calmness in his voice beginning to transfer to her.
Cadence considered his response. "I guess," she said, crossing her arms and turning away so that her back was in the chair properly now.
"I'm sorry, Cadence. If I would have thought you needed my help, I would have come over. But I thought you should handle it yourself."
His hand was on her shoulder and she felt herself relaxing. Still, she said nothing. After a moment, he added, "Besides, eventually, Eliza is going to find out, and something tells me you'll be happy to let me handle that conversation by myself."
Cadence's eyes grew wide. "Ooh, payback is hell, love."
He nodded. "That it is. Luckily for me, news doesn't travel to Siberia quite as quickly as it does to Nevada."
Cadence shot up in her chair. "Siberia? You sent her to Siberia?"
"No, I did," Hannah replied from her seat across from Cadence. The Hunter looked at her in shock and amazement. "Hey, something had to be done, and you two were off vacationing in Ireland," she explained with a wink.
"Holy hell," Cadence muttered as she watched Hannah stand and approach the buffet. "Remind me never to piss off Hannah!"
Aaron just nodded. "Now come on. Elliott would be sorely disappointed if we didn't at least attempt to eat our weight in cheeseburgers and nachos."
Cadence laughed, knowing the statement was true, and followed her betrothed to the buffet, no longer caring who might have a problem with the enormous ring on her finger.
