Page 51 of Unofficial

"Hey," she says and leads him to the front porch. Her nerves kick up, and she barely fits the key in the lock to let them inside. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. You?"

"I'm okay."

This is awkward. Very awkward. Considering they'd just found their way into bed together and ravaged each other, it shouldn't be like this. If things were working, they wouldn’t be here.

"Look, I feel like I need to explain about that night. At the steakhouse."

She'd be lying if she said the curiosity of how it all went down and who the girl was wasn't killing her. "You were on a date."

"So were you."

"Mine wasn't planned," she says. "He hijacked me in the lobby of my office and put me in a tough position to say no. I also figured the least he could do was buy me a meal at my favorite restaurant after everything that happened."

Landry sighs and moves to sit on the recliner. "You didn't plan to go out with him?"

"No, I didn't."

"I saw him pick you up, and I followed you," he admits.

Her eyes narrow, and she moves to the couch and stares at him. "You followed me?"

"I was coming here to talk to you. The way we left things... I didn't like it."

"We both have phones, Landry. Stalking isn't necessary."

"I figured it would be harder for you to tell me you chose Kade if we were face to face. Plus, if he can show up unannounced, I should be able to, too."

Jess shakes her head and sits. What the hell is this? Eleventh grade? If he can do it, so can I?

"Who was the girl?"

Letting out a dry chuckle, he rests his elbows on his knees. "A girl who's been trying to get together with me for a few years now. I called her, and she was able to call in a favor to get a table at the steakhouse. It was a game for her, and she had no issues with it."

"Did you take her home?" The fact he called up some random girl to make what should be a relationship into a game bothers her. It bothers her more than the fact he was with another girl.

He runs a hand over his face and sighs. "I saw you let Kade inside your house. I thought... well, it was a moment of weakness. If you could sleep with him, I could sleep with Holly."

The stabbing pain she expects to feel doesn't come. Instead, she feels anger for the woman he slept with out of spite. "Oh."

"I didn't want you to be the only one who could mess around with someone else."

"Tit for tat?"

"Something like that."

Leaning back, she sinks into the back cushion of the couch. "The only issue is, I didn't sleep with Kade. He gave me a kiss goodnight, but that was it."

He sucks in a sharp breath of air. "You didn't?"

"Nope. He came inside because he wanted to talk and didn't want to say it on the front porch. I told him I have a strict sixty-day rule, and he apologized for being the reason I felt the need to do that. He told me he'd wait until I was ready, whether it be sixty days or a hundred and sixty days."

"You didn't have sex with him?"

"Nope. I kissed him, but that was it. I haven't heard from you since that confrontation here, and I had no idea whether or not I should reach out or not to decide where we stood."

He rubs a large hand over his face again. "I was sure you let him upstairs when he went inside."

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