“Did you have to bring me here?” Cade asked as they walked into the house for the party.
“I had to, and you had to be here”
“Why?” he whined. Ophelia stopped and turned to him holding the collar of his shirt.
“If my speculations are right I have a feeling that your brother and girlfriend are trying to play the family card on your grandfather to make him see reasons to leave the company to him”
“And why does that matter?” Cade asked to shrug. “Isn’t it obvious that all those kinds of things barely move grandfather? He is looking at power and competency, not some silly love”
Ophelia shook her head as she rolled her eyes. “There is no doubt about that but…” she trailed off her eyes catching the glimpse of someone coming towards them. “Someone is coming, time to act” she leaned in whispering before going back and smiling at him.
“You look too good, I can barely take my eyes off you” she said dusting off the imaginary dust from his shirt. “Do not allow any girl to look at you okay?” she said wondering what she was saying as she leaned in with a smile.
“Of course, if I catch any girl looking I will make sure to tell you first” he replied. They stared at each other, each of them wondering what nonsense they were doing with that conversation. “Let us get you in before you catch a cold” Cade added holding her hand in his and turning her.
“It is 36 degrees outside how can I catch a cold?”
“The worst colds are caught when it is hot out” Cade said pulling her in with himself.
They got in and the first person they met at the door was Green. “Green? What are you doing here?” Ophelia asked pulling Cade with her as she moved to close the gap between them. For some reason, Cade’s grip on her hand became tighter as though he was trying not to let her go for any reason whatsoever.
Cade had seen this man during the wedding but they never had the chance to interact. He had caught Green countless times staring at Ophelia during the wedding but made no big deal out of it, today however he could see clearly how loving and warm his gaze was. It was like he was staring at something that made him truly happy. The smile on his face looked so genuine it was hard to think it was a lie.
“Ophelia,” he said as he watched her stand before him.
“What are you doing here?” Ophelia asked again.
“I was invited, what about you?” he asked and he laughed.
“You know you are the strange one here, I am in-laws with this family but you are in no way connected with them” Ophelia said and Green nodded in agreement.
“That is true,” he said shrugging. “I got a call from Frances Gates and I decided to come because I had no other plan” Green lied. The reason he was here was because he wanted to see her. He had to admit that even though he had seen loads of her pictures he had been waiting to be in the same room with her again. When Frances had called him up with the intent of inviting him, he had first tried to know if Ophelia would be attending and then he was giving her his word that he would be there. Couldn’t possibly miss the chance to attend when she was coming as well.
“Oh that is lovely” Ophelia had barely gotten the words out of her mouth when Cade cleared his throat and pressed the back of her hand lightly. “I know this is late but this is my husband Cade”
Green did not like the sound of the sentence and even much more than he would have liked to admit he did not like the sound of Cade’s name in the sentence. “And this is my friend Green,” Ophelia said.
“Hello, Mr Vale” Green said stepping forward so he could be closer to him. “Nice to meet you” he added stretching out his hands for a handshake.
Cade looked at his hands as if he were inspecting them for any error before pulling out his hands from his pocket and linking it to his. He hated that he had to do it but refusing to do it was not a good look for him. What was he going to say was his reason for not wanting to do it?
“Nice to meet you too” he replied before pulling his hands from the handshake. He did not let go of Ophelia’s hands as he held on tightly. He slipped his hands back into his pocket.
“We will catch up some more later, for now, we have to go see the host,” Ophelia said.
“Okay then” he said stepping back and allowing them to go through.
“What is he even doing here?”
“How do you expect me to know?” Ophelia asked shruging. “I have no idea why but I am glad that I ran into him like this, it has been a minute”
Cade wanted to pass a comment about how unhappy he was to see him there but his eyes caught on Harper and he prayed that she was just a random girl who happened to look so much like her. She saw him too because she saw the way her face lit up and she began waving in the air as she walked towards him.
“Can we move?” Cade asked. He wanted to ignore her for the longest that he could.
“Why?” Ophelia asked looking around.
“Just move?” he said in the form of a question as he tried to pull her away.
“Cade?” Harper’s high-pitched voice filled the house as she walked towards them. Ophelia turned to the direction of the girl walking towards them with a happy smile.
“Your ex?” Ophelia asked turning to him with a questioning look. “Did you invite her here?”
“Of course not”
“Cade darling” she said coming to stand before them.
“I have missed you”