Boxed Set: Intercepted by Love (The Complete Collection): Books One - Book Six by Rachelle Ayala

care about other than Red. I didn’t have any real friends, just people who hung around because they wanted something from me.”
    “What about family?”
    He held her tighter and hefted a long, deep breath into her hair. “Didn’t have any. I was one of those babies no one wanted to adopt. It was foster home after foster home until I started playing ball. Then my coach took me in, but he was only interested in me winning games for the team. He used me and I used him to get a scholarship.”
    So, he had been an athlete. Figured he’d kept his physique from habit. She leaned back and lifted her gaze to his face. “What happened? Did you go to college?”
    “Yeah, I did.” His nerves felt on end, jittery and unsettled. Why was he exposing himself when he’d finally found peace away from the hangers-on, his party friends, his agent, and media attention?
    Her fingers brushed over his growing beard and she caressed his jaw. “I can’t believe no one wanted to adopt you.”
    “I had fetal alcohol syndrome, learning disabilities. I was born with a cleft palate.”
    A cleft palate? Andie narrowed her eyes and studied his upper lip. The scar was obscured by his facial hair. No wonder he wore a beard, although many guys did during the winter to keep their face warm.
    “Cade, those things don’t define you.” She stroked his fuzzy cheek. “They’re part of you, but not all of you. You’ve overcome a lot and you have a big heart. That’s the most important.” She pressed her hand on his chest, right over his Flash tattoo.
    “So, my heart’s the most important to you?”
    “Yes, even more than your brain. I’m pretty bright, and my father’s brilliant, but my mother has the best heart. She cares for little animals and people who can’t give anything back to her. She would have adopted you. So would I.”
    “Why? I needed special classes and expensive surgeries.”
    Andie traced her finger over his upper lip, careful not to linger on the cleft indentation. “Someone gave you those things, didn’t they? And even though they didn’t adopt you, they still cared.”
    “I’d never thought of it that way.” He felt the prickling of tears in his eyes. “I always saw myself as unwanted, without anyone. I never thanked the donors who paid for me, or the foster parents who raised me. I guess I was too busy resenting them for not adopting me.”
    “It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? Half empty or half full. Hero or villain, winner or loser, loved or abandoned. David was one of the most depraved sinners. He murdered his friend to take his wife, but God saw him as a man after his own heart. He had a warm and tender heart.”
    A lump formed deep in Cade’s throat, and his heart clenched tight with a feeling he’d never known—one that ached him to the core, yet filled him with warmth and wanting something more than a Super Bowl ring or an MVP award.
    “I too, want that heart.” He clasped her hand, the one on his chest. “I want you to show me how to be a man like David.”
    “You already are. You just don’t believe it.” She leaned her forehead against his, and this time, when they kissed, it was pure, and sweet, and different.
    His emotions shifted, expanding and filling him with comfort and power, beating to the drum of victory.
    I’m a winner. I’m a hero. I’m loved.

Chapter 11
    Andie kissed her father’s clammy forehead and combed his thinning hair over his bald spot. Taking a warm washcloth, she dabbed at his face. His eyes remained closed, and he held his head still, as if she weren’t present.
    “I get why you want to shut us out,” she said. “I truly do. You probably hate it when people talk about you like you’re not there.”
    His eyelids flickered, and his lips tightened on the one side of his face he could still control.
    Andie caressed his cheek into a smile. “But you’re still my Daddy. Mom and I need you.”
    He shook his head and tried to turn away. His one good arm