Aaron slowed down slightly, and she took his hand. “Where did you learn to block like that? I was impressed. Maybe you could play for the Cowboys after all.”
He chuckled, and a tinge of red started to creep up his neck. “There are other sports a person can play that require the ability to block, you know? Not just your blessed American football.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at his choice of words. “Like what? Soccer? Rugby? Did you play lacrosse?”
“I used to play a little bit of real football from time to time, years ago. Not professionally, of course.”
Cadence let out another belly laugh, her side starting to hurt, not just from his comment that soccer was somehow real football but that he felt the need to clarify he hadn’t been a pro, not that he couldn’t have been. Any of them would’ve made successful professional athletes due to their speed alone. “Well, Jamie’s no Beckham, but as determined as he was to get to Skelton, it took a lot of effort to stop him.”
“You’re telling me.” Aaron’s eyes traced across the landscape to where Jamie was fading in the distance. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that angry in all of the years I’ve known him.”
Cadence’s eyes fell on the shadow of her friend as he passed out of her sight. “I haven’t either. But... maybe all of this time, he’s been dealing with the fact that he couldn’t save Grandpa Jordan, and he wished he’d had the opportunity to tell Skelton how he felt about it.” Cadence felt bad for not giving Jamie that chance, but she knew she’d done the right thing in letting the old man go.
“I can see that. Jamie couldn’t have done anything though. Just like with Elliott, it was too late.”
They were almost to the building, but Cadence stopped, pulling Aaron’s hand so he turned to look at her. “Do you think he could now?”
“Do what? Bring someone back from the dead?”
“Not exactly. But if they weren’t quite all the way gone, do you think he could bring them back? I mean... what are his limitations, you know?”
She could tell by the way his eyes were moving he was considering her point, but then he shook his head. “Jamie is a miracle worker, but he can’t cure death. No one can. I think, in either instance, Elliott or Jordan, he wouldn’t be able to do anything differently.”
“But Elliott wasn’t dead when we got there.” She knew there was no way he had forgotten that. “He spoke to us, through his IAC. If Jamie could’ve hit him with his blue lights from across the field....”
“Maybe. But what’s the point in going over all of that now, Cadence?” He reached up and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “We can’t go back and change the past. Or if we can, that’s a portal I’ve yet to uncover.”
“God, don’t even joke about that.” The fact that Skelton had implied there might be even more portals in existence did not sit well with her.
“He’s a crazy old man.” It was as if Aaron had read her thoughts.
Cadence nodded, and he leaned down and kissed her forehead, but she realized that there were still plenty of things her husband knew that he hadn’t told her, and she had to wonder if he knew about any other portals. If he did, he wouldn’t mention them until he had to. It used to annoy the hell out of her that he wouldn’t fill her in on everything he knew, but then she came to realize that was just how it was always going to be. Then, another thought occurred to her. “You knew where he was all along, didn’t you?”
He turned around and headed for the door again, and for a moment, Cadence thought he wasn’t going to answer her. But once he’d called the elevator, he said, “Not the entire time. But for a while now, yes, I could’ve found him. I’ve heard he has been up to some pretty peculiar things the last few years. I didn’t see the point in going after him. And Janette always said she didn’t want us to anyway.”
She had heard her grandmother say that more than once. It was hard to imagine Grandma Janette had dated that man, but that was decades ago. Who knew what he might’ve been like then, especially if what he said about Daunator getting into his head was true.
They made it to the top floor and their offices, and Cadence could see Cassidy standing on the other side of the frosted glass door talking to the receptionist, Mrs. Carminatti. She hadn’t told her sister she was headed back, but it had been about a half an hour since she’d said she needed to postpone their meeting, so it only made sense that her sister would be there.
For a moment, she stopped and watched the teen’s form through the glass. She was leaning against the counter, one foot flat on the floor, the other on point, twisting back and forth like she didn’t have a care in the world. Cadence wondered what they might be talking about, but she knew whatever it was, Mrs. Carminatti had worked her magic and had Cassidy feeling like a typical teenage girl, not someone with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
If her sister had known where Christian was all along and had chosen not to tell them, it would be hard for Cadence to understand why, but it would be equally as difficult for her to be angry. They asked so much of her little sister, almost as much or more than anyone else in so many ways, and it hardly seemed fair to ask her to sort out the level of importance when it came to keeping secrets entrusted to her by someone she was doing her best to get along with when there were other ways for the team to find out what they needed to know.
“Are you okay?” Aaron’s blue eyes narrowed in on her, his concern noticeable.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I was just watching Cass. She looks like herself again from here.”
“Through an opaque door. Life filters who we really are in unimaginable ways.”
She wasn’t sure if he was still talking to her or just ruminating on one of life’s lessons, but she could certainly agree with that. Aaron pushed through the door, and Cadence could see that the girl on the other side was just as burdened as she’d been the last time Cadence had spoken to her sister in person. The image of a carefree young lady was left behind on the other side of the frosted glass.
