Page 64 of Unofficial

Leaning back, Kade pulls his phone from his front pocket and taps the screen until her phone chimes. "There."

Jess turns and looks in the direction of her purse and asks, "What there? Are you a magician about to pull a rabbit from your hat?"

"I just shared my location with you. You can check up on me anytime you want to see if I'm where I say I am."

"If you say you're home, the location doesn't tell me if you're alone. It just shows you're home, and then there's another loophole semantics situation."

Okay, she has him there. "I'll give you the account information for my doorbell camera. I'll also install one on the backdoor and the garage entrance, if you want. You can check it anytime you want to see I came home alone."

"Kade, I appreciate the sentiment, but you realize how not normal this is? People in healthy relationships don't need to share their locations and doorbell camera passwords just to make the other feel at ease about who they are or aren't spending time with. This is crazy."

"Who determines what's considered normal or healthy?"

"Do you really want to be in a relationship with someone you have to go through so many extreme measures and jump through hoops for just to prove yourself? Wouldn't you rather start out fresh and have trust there?"

He panics. This isn't how he thought it would go. Giving her all of his information to track him should have made her feel better. That he wanted to show her he could be trustworthy and say what he means. He'd be stupid if he thought he could bring a girl home or go home to her house with Jess's ability to track him.

"Jess-"

"This just seems like a lot of effort for someone who probably has never been committed to anyone in his life. What's that line from that movie? Your longest relationship has been with a sandwich or something."

He shakes his head. "That's not true."

"Really? When was the last time you were in a real relationship? Because things have started to make sense now. Why your family was so surprised you introduced me to them. It's probably never happened before."

"Yeah, it has."

Jess laughs. "When? In high school? That doesn't count as commitment."

"I know what commitment is. Very well."

"Kade, I know you think you do, but-"

"I was engaged."

Chapter Twenty-Three

Iwas engaged. The words just came out of Kade's mouth before he could stop them, and he feels as stunned as Jess looks.

Jess opens and closes her mouth a few times before finally saying, "You were what?"

"What are the chances we can just forget I said that?"

"About as good as the odds of me ever stepping foot in your kitchen again," she says and shakes her head, moving to sit on the couch. "When was this? And to who?"

Sighing, he stands and turns towards the door. He can't look at her right now. Not when he talks about Sam. "It ended about six years ago."

"Huh."

It's not a question but a statement. He just dropped a giant bomb, and she can just say "huh." It's actually kind of fitting.

"It's the reason I said I wasn't a commitment guy. After things ended the disastrous way they did, I swore I'd never go through it again."

"I can see that," she says, her voice still filled with stunned disbelief. "Is this what you meant when you said one day you hope you can explain it so I can understand?"

"Yup."

She stays silent, and he almost wants to turn around to look at her. To see if her face gives away anything she might be thinking, but just as he's about to, she asks, "Can I ask what happened?"

---