Page 55 of Unofficial

Did she? "No, but it's not that hard to assume."

"She doesn't have friends? Or coworkers? It has to be a guy she may or may not be sleeping with now that you're back in the picture?" Drew asks and drinks from his can as he rocks in the chair. "Dude, you're tripping."

Kade stares up at the moon. It's almost a full moon, but he can't blame that for his irrational reaction. He is tripping. He's tripping over a girl, and he swore he'd never do that again. Never, ever again. "Shit."

"You also aren't right here, Kade. You are most definitely wrong."

His head snaps toward his cousin. "Excuse me?"

"She's been completely honest with you from the very beginning. Even when you deceived her, she was honest and upfront about everything she was doing. Like seeing a guy named Landry. You have no right to get after her if she sees him, and I honestly think if she was going on a date this Friday with him, she'd have told you."

Damn him. He hates when Drew speaks in facts. "It’s fine she's playing us both like pianos?"

"She's not playing anyone. She's trying to make a decision, and each of you seems to think you have some claim on her, but the truth is, Landry's the only one who does. Just a little."

"I should just give up?"

Taking another sip, he rocks and looks up at the night sky. "I think you're trying to force a decision that may or may not end in your favor. She's throwing you a bone by giving you an opportunity to plead your case, but that girl owes you nothing."

"I don't know if I can just walk away from her, Drew."

"Kind of sounds like you already have."

"No, she walked away from me. Before and tonight."

"You didn't stop her before. Your actions made her make that decision. And tonight, you kind of forced her to."

Kade knows he had an opportunity to stop Jess that night they talked after she saw him with Lena. He could have told her their relationship was getting too deep, and he was scared. That being scared made him do something stupid he didn't really even want to do, and he regretted it the moment he saw her face in his kitchen. He knew he was wrong, but he was too stubborn and prideful to admit it.

"What do I do?"

"Give her space. Let her breathe and live her life. She'll come back if she's meant to."

"What if she doesn't come back?"

Drew gives him the same sad expression he did the day they found their dog had been run over by the neighbor. "You have to find a way to live with it. What you did, what you put her through, that doesn't just go away. The pain she felt will be there for a long time, and she's the only one who can decide if she can put up with it and move past it or not."

"I never meant to hurt her."

"I know you didn't. I think she knows that, too, but it doesn't change the fact you did."

He rocks in his chair and looks out at the moon. "Give her time, huh?"

"Yeah, let her take time and reach out if and when she's ready."

"If she doesn't, can I reach out?"

Drew chuckles. "As long as you don't have any expectations."

How can Kade not have expectations? He wants Jess. He wants her with every ounce of his being.

"Hey, Drew?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm so in love with her, it hurts."

Chuckling again, he watches Drew take a large gulp from the beer, finishing it off. "I know."

---