Sophia...

The days are happily rolling by. One date after another, Cade and I are nicely settling in with being together. The floating in my heart, that blissfully continues. I'm so joyously happy, I feel like I could actually reach up and touch the floating clouds above me. I am enjoying our blossoming relationship. I'm enjoying being one half of us. One pleasant day at a time, I am learning more about Cade, and one day at a time, he's learning more about me. Things are going great. But as enjoyable as it is with us just dating at the moment, I am soooooo ready to take our relationship to the next level. I don't think I have ever been so sexually frustrated, but sexually frustrated I am. So when I woke up this morning, I made a naughty decision. Cade is having to work late this evening, so I intend on just dropping in on him. My frustration is making me feel daring, bold and audaciously amorous. Cade will make love to me tonight, if it's the absolute last thing I do!
But I don't have time to get wrapped up in how many saucy ways my gorgeous man will take me on his big and sturdy office desk. Oh no, I have flowers to be prepped, plants to be watered, orders to make up, balloons to inflate, and a new delivery driver to find—so any saucy thoughts shall very much have to wait.

Hannah, my current delivery driver, is unfortunately going on maternity leave. Her first baby is due in four weeks time, and quite honestly, she already looks like she's about to pop out her little munchkin at any given moment. So mum has eagerly stepped in until I find the lovely Hannah's replacement.

"Shall I give you a hand making up a couple of orders?" Mum happily asks, absolutely loving being back in the shop again.

"Yes please." I too, enjoy her being back in the shop with me. We've always been a good team, but I understand why mum feels like she needs to slow down a bit. At the attractive age of fifty seven, mum is wanting to wind down her working life. After a cancer scare eighteen months ago, I think she realised that there's still so much that she wants to do. Thankfully, the lump she had found in the side of her neck, was nothing more than an enlarged lymph node due to a virus, but it was enough to make mum reevaluate a lot of things.

As we both start getting stuck in with the freshest of focal flowers, accent and foliage that are all lined up in their buckets of water, just waiting to be turned into bouquets of flowery masterpieces, I can't help but smile. And it's that smile that doesn't go unnoticed by my mum. "Do you think it's serious between you and Cade, Sophia?"

With an armful of dahlias, I keep my smile upon my lips. "It's early days, but I'd like to think that we are." I had sat both my mum and dad down last night, telling them where and with whom I have been spending most of my recent evenings. As expected, they were a little stunned to discover I was seeing Cade. I have no doubt that they have heard all about him over the years as well, but for now, they are happy to take him just as they find him. "He makes me happy, that's all you need to know." My assurance to mum comes with yet another warm little smile.

"In that case, your father and I would like both you and Cade to come for dinner this Saturday evening." Carefully, mum places a bunch of dark purple hydrangeas down onto the counter. "That way, I can see for myself what the women at the book club I go to have been gossiping on about all this time, and your poor father won't flare up his hiatus hernia anymore than he already has." She's half-joking/half-serious.

Trying to suppress my piqued curiosity, I busily but casually ask. "The women at your book club talk about Cade?" I can't help but feel bothered by this. It just bothers me that people who don't even know him, think it's okay to gossip about him.

Without actually looking at me, mum is keen to answer. "It's been mentioned a few times about how up themselves both Cade and his mother are. Too much money and not enough heart, that kind of thing." Studying the bouquet artistry in front of her, mum's eyes soon lift to mine. "Cade and his mother have a ruthless reputation for being hard-hearted and detached people. Which is why both me and your father worry for you, Sophia. But you're a grown woman, who must make your own choices. We haven't seen you look this happy, in a long long time. Cade Lapley, no doubt, has something to do with that, which is why we want to meet him. We will gladly welcome him into our home, because he is putting a smile on our daughters face and bringing joy to her heart." She blinks with such maternal affection, then smiles back at me with the very same maternal affection.

Holding some gypsophila in my left hand, I rush to cuddle my mum so lovingly hard with my free arm. My parents are good and kind people. They treat others only as they like to be treated themselves. Regardless of all the rumours and the hearsay, I know that they will welcome Cade with open and non-judgemental arms. They will do that because that's the wonderful kind of people that they are, and they will do that, for me. "Thank you, Mum. It means a lot that both you and dad are happy for me. I know Cade has a bad name for himself, but he is honestly a really nice guy. He is nothing but a gent to me. He's incredibly kind and funny, hardworking and brilliantly intelligent. Yes, he can be a little intense, but it's a sad kind of intense." My thoughts start drifting off, thoughts that remind me of some of the heartbreaking things that Cade has began to share with me.

How his mother has never held him in her arms.

How he has never been told I love you.

How traumatically lonely his childhood was.

I remember every single sad and terrible word he has ever told me.

My mums gentle and persuasive touch to my arm, immediately pulls me away from all of those dispiriting thoughts. "Just promise me that you'll be careful, my darling?"

With love, I smile. "Please don't think that I need to be careful because of Cade. I can't tell you some of the things that he's told me, but there's a very real reason why he is the way that he is." In his absence, even with my own mother, I feel like I must loyally defend him. I feel like I must, because I don't think anyone has ever stood up for Cade during his entire life. This beautiful man, has suffered so much in his life. I wish I could tell my mum the single, and most heartbreaking thing that Cade told me the other night. I wish I could tell her all about Betty, a caring nanny who he had grown so close with. He told me that she was the closest thing to a mother that he'd ever had. But even at the tender age of eight, Cade had learnt not to ever show any fondness for anyone or anything, in front of his mother. If he ever did, his mother would cruelly remove whatever it was he had become so fond of. Whether it was a comfort blanket, a favourite toy car or a cute pet rabbit, she would not allow him to keep anything he ever cared for. So with Betty, he would pretend to hate her in front of his mother. It was the only way his little boy self, knew how to keep his dear nanny in his life. But one day, on the rolling grounds of Lapley Estate, Cade had fallen off his bike and badly sprained his wrist. When he screamed, Betty had ran towards him, comforting him in her caring and consoling arms. Cade told me how he remembers just crying and crying—crying, not just because of his aching wrist, but crying because he had never known what it felt like to be cuddled like that. So he held on tightly to Betty, and cried his little unloved heart out. Cade then said that as he and his dear nanny walked slowly back to the house with his broken bike, his mother was watching them from her bedroom window. He said that the constant and cold stare only meant one thing—that he would never see Betty again.

I wish I could tell my mum that. I wish I could tell her every bitterly sad part of what Cade has told me, but I can't and won't. He has entrusted his painful memories to only me, so those memories will now stay strictly between us. With an ache in my heart, I solemnly then say to my mum. "All I ask is that you give him a chance, okay?"

Stroking my face with her motherly palm, mum nods with a trusting smile. "I will." Then happily carries on with what she is doing, creating a pretty little nosegay of hydrangeas and bells of Ireland.

It matters so much to me that my parents give Cade a very real and true chance, because he already matters so much to me.

The thing is, I care.

I care and I'm not afraid.

I'm not afraid of the rumours.

I'm not afraid of his reputation.

Cade isn't a bad man. He has just behaved badly.

He has openly and willingly told me that. He has told me about the drink and the women. He's no longer afraid to own all of the wrongs that he has done in his life. For me, it doesn't matter that he hasn't always got it right. What matters, is that he's now brave enough to admit that he has done things wrong. Cade is a man who has been shaped by so much sadness and neglect. There seems to be so many depressing layers to his life story. But one painful layer at a time, he is starting to reveal his truest self to me. The avenues of his mind, they are some of the darkest and loneliest I have ever travelled down. But I travel down them, because I see so much more in Cade.

I see his light, even when he doesn't.

I see his worthiness, even when he refuses to.

He has talked about many of his saddening hurts. He has also talked about how he now wants to be a better man because of me. I have listened, and I have listened well to all that he has so truthfully told me, because I don't think Cade has ever been truly listened to.

One of the most sincerest things he has ever said to me, was the unforgettable this. "I intend on catching you, Sophia...when you eventually fall for me."

Well, guess what Cade Lapley?

I think I already have.

**WHAT ARE WE THINKING ABOUT THE STORY SO FAR, MY LOVELIES?
WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS XXXXXXXX**