Divine by Cait Jarrod Page A

be my one and only.”
    The declaration had held him off.
    Until… now.
    “I wished I had said no immediately.”
    Cadence rolled her head backwards then slowly
brought it forward. “Yep!” she said, emphasizing the ‘p’ sound.
“You’re a horrible, incorrigible person and I love you. You have to
come clean to Cal and Matt. More importantly, to yourself.” She
pinched her lips together. “You’re in love with Matt, not in lust.
He’s not your buddy. He’s the guy you’ve always wanted. It’s about
time you face it and act on it.”
    She stared into her coffee cup, tears
streaming down her face. Messed up, dating the wrong man. An ache
penetrated every inch of her skin. The exact reason she couldn’t
become a Marine’s girlfriend nipped her in the butt anyway. She
couldn’t handle it. Yet, she had gone and done exactly what she
feared. She fell so deeply in love with Matt, she became his
girlfriend without him asking. No other man had a chance.
    “Sweetie, I’m not sure what you’re doing or
if you even know, but you need to take Cal’s ring off. It’s wrong,
it's just wrong. You can’t lead a guy on this way.”
    The alarm in Cal’s features when she didn’t
accept it immediately ratcheted more guilt. She stupidly allowed
him to slip the sparkling two-carat diamond on her finger.
    Explaining her feelings toward him with an
audience wouldn’t have been fair. She didn’t love him, but he
didn’t deserve her rejection in front of others. Their discussion
didn’t need outside input. Her mother wouldn’t have let her say
much before she stuck her nose in the middle. “Wait!” She set her
cup on the table near the couch, wiped her cheeks, and shot to her
feet. “I didn’t tell Cal I’d marry him. I’m giving him my answer at
lunch today. I would have said no last night, if—”
    “If it hadn’t been for your mother,” Cadence
finished for her. “She threw you under the bus. At every turn, she
dictates what you should do. Sweetie, you have to stop allowing
her. I know you want to be a good daughter, and you fought this
good daughter-bad daughter image for years, but it’s time. Be
honest and set Trina free.”
    Her friend was right. She broke free in so
many ways. She wore lounge clothes of cotton, not silk, not lace,
or from an expensive designer store. No crystal, fine china, or
status-packed figurines lined her furniture or shelves of her
shared apartment, and no items screamed ‘look at me, I’m rich.’
    The furry pillows with flowers on them, the
‘I love animals’ blanket tossed on the arm of the chair. The
hand-carved end table she purchased from a store in Pennsylvania,
she loved these things. They put her on the happy bandwagon.
“Putting those accusations on me about my mom is wrong. I don’t
live under my parents’ thumbs anymore.”
    Cadence grumbled and set her coffee cup on
the table.
    Not a good sign. She never relinquished her
coffee except for…a lecture.
    Cadence grasped hers shoulders. “You’re the
sister I never had. I love you and I will always be here for you.
You can’t lose me, but you can lose the only man you’ve ever cared
about. Matt is in Afghanistan. He can’t control when he can or
can’t contact you, but you know in here,” Cadence touched a finger
to Trina’s chest, “that he’s there. You’ve always known. My fear is
Matt will somehow find out you put another man’s ring on your
finger. You’ll ruin any chance you might have with him.”
    “That’s ridiculous. How will he find out?
Besides, plenty of people changed their minds. They get engaged,
then call it off, get divorced, and find the one person they should
have never let go.”
    “Sweetie, I’ve seen Matt. I’ve seen the way
he watches you, the way you watch him. If half of what you’ve
voiced about him is accurate, which I don’t doubt for a second,
then he won’t.”
    She listened, believed her, but… “What if
he’s moved on? He hasn’t contacted me. What if,”