“Okay,” Aaron said, with a simple shrug, sitting next to Cadence on her parent’s front porch swing. After a large breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and her mother’s signature made-from-scratch biscuits, which she had devoured almost as ferociously as Elliott and Brandon, Cadence had dragged herself outside to talk to her fiancé about the prospect of Cassidy moving to headquarters for good. While, she’d dreaded the conversation, she thought it was best to get it over with quickly rather than let it linger; he would know there was something she wasn’t telling him anyway.
“Okay?” she echoed, stunned at his one-word answer. “Just like that? Okay?”
“What can I say? You made a good argument,” he said with another shrug.
He was wearing a light blue shirt that accentuated his eyes, and he hadn’t yet shaved, giving him just a bit of stubble around his strong jawline, and Cadence was momentarily distracted. It didn’t help that he had his arm around her, and she was only inches from those perfect, soft lips. Shaking her head to clear it, she said, “So you’re really okay with this?”
“Of course,” Aaron assured her. “I mean, as long as your parents don’t have a problem with it, then it’s fine with me. I don’t expect to take her out into the field until she’s completed the program, but you did that rather quickly, and once she proves she’s ready, she’ll have the same opportunity as any other Hunter.”
“And she’ll be able to finish high school, just like Brandon is doing, online, right?”
“I would definitely expect her to. And then she can go on to college if she wants to. I don’t see why she can’t go ahead and make the move if that’s what she wants.”
Cadence nodded. College was something she still wanted to finish someday, too, if she ever found the time. “Wow—that was a lot easier than I expected,” she muttered.
“I don’t know what made you think I ever opposed her coming to headquarters,” Aaron replied, his forehead creased. “You are the one who wanted her to finish high school here.”
“I know,” Cadence admitted, “I just thought… I don’t know. She’s a lot of responsibility. I mean, she’d probably be looking to me for other things, too. She’s only sixteen. So I’d still have to make sure she did her homework, followed curfew—and I would not let her have boys in her bedroom.”
Aaron laughed. “Good luck stopping that. Are you proposing she live with us?”
“Well, where else would she live? She can’t live by herself. She’s just a kid. I’m not sure she knows how to make toast.”
“I’m not sure you know how to make toast.”
Cadence ignored his comment and rolled her eyes. “Listen, wouldn’t it be kind of weird having my kid sister in our apartment when we… you know… do stuff?” He flashed her an irresistible grin, and Cadence fought the urge to pull him close and give him an example.
“Yeah,” he admitted, a bit of color shading his face, “but we have good insulation.”
“Not that good,” Cadence muttered under her breath, and Aaron laughed, knowing exactly what she was referring to. “Anywho….” she said, remembering she was sitting on her parents’ porch. She straightened her collar, and then asked, “Can you think of any alternatives?”
It took him a second to regain his composure, too, which was delightful to her. “Uh, yeah, sure. I think so,” he said, pulling his hand from around her and crossing his arms across his chest. “I mean, maybe Hannah or someone wouldn’t mind a roommate for a while.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility to dump on another team member.”
“True, but I honestly don’t think it will be a problem for long, Cadence.”
He had said her name in that serious tone—not the one that made her want to scream at him and pull her hair out, but a close second, the “I know something you don’t know” tone. “What’s that?” she asked, trying to dismiss it.
Aaron readjusted in his seat and ran his hand through his hair. Cadence knew what that meant, too. “Well, I had a conversation with your mom last night over the dryer, and I think there’s a possibility that your parents might actually be thinking of coming to headquarters, too.”
Cadence was almost as shocked as she had been when she’d realized Elliott had come through the portal. “What?” she exclaimed. “My parents? What would make you think that? What did my mom say?”
He hesitated again. “Actually, she said, ‘I think we’d like to move to headquarters,’ or something like that.”
“That? Exactly? She said they wanted to move to headquarters?” Cadence was having a difficult time imagining her mother and father living in the same state again, let alone in the same apartment building.
Nodding, Aaron said, “More or less. She said she just needed to talk to your dad.”
“Wow,” Cadence said for the second time that morning. “Okay, well, I guess that would be good for Cass. I don’t know how I feel about it, though.”
“Right,” Aaron concurred, putting his arm around her again. “It might be an adjustment. But your dad’s an engineer, isn’t he? So we can definitely find him a job, if that’s what he wants. And your mom….”
Cadence had been staring straight ahead at the front yard, listening, but at his lengthy pause, she turned to face him. “What about my mom?”
“Well,” Aaron began, locking eyes with her and proceeding cautiously, “I have noticed that she is highly organized, that she’s used to running a very efficient household, and that once she puts her mind to something, she gets the job done.”
Cadence considered each of those qualities and realized they were true. “And?”
“We are going to need a new assistant,” he said, dropping his gaze as he did so. “I know it’s difficult to think about replacing your grandmother, but I was thinking, your mom might actually do a pretty good job.”
“My mom as our new assistant?” Cadence echoed. Her mother didn’t know how to set the DVR or enter the WiFi password. “Do you think we can train her to do all the things we need done?”
“Sure,” Aaron nodded. “I mean, Janette wasn’t so good with the technology either, but she knew how to use a phone. And she definitely knew how to schedule appointments and arrange for whatever I needed done. She did it for a very long time. I think your mom could do it, too, just about as well, and it would be nice to have someone onsite.”
“Right,” Cadence agreed, though she heard the flatness in her own voice, as if she wasn’t convinced.
“Mrs. Carminati is a great receptionist, and she’s a lot older than your mom, and a lot less flexible,” he reminded her.
“Hmmm,” Cadence said, pondering his argument. “That’s true. Have you talked to Mom about it?”
“Oh, no, not yet,” he assured her. “I definitely wanted to talk to you about it first, before I even brought it up to her.”
“Thank you,” Cadence smiled. “I appreciate that. I’ll have to think about it a little while. Is that okay?”
“Sure. But I do think your parents are talking about moving to Kansas City, and I think it’s fine if your sister goes ahead and moves in with us for a little while in the meantime. It’ll be an adjustment, but we’ll work it out.”
“You’re a good guy,” Cadence said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.
He snickered. “I thought I was a jackass.”
“Oh, that is also true. But you’re a sweet jackass, when you want to be.”
