Page 68 of Unofficial

Did she? "No... you startled me. There's... there's some stuff I probably need to talk to you about, too, but I want to get my questions about Sam out of the way first."

His hand moves to cup her face, concern written on his. Even though he hurt her emotionally, she has no doubt he'd step in front of a car for her. "I take back what I said earlier. You can ask anything you want about Sam whenever you want. But I need to know what made you flinch when I turned to you."

"After you answer me. Please?"

"No, I wouldn't let Sam back in. She could come crawling on her hands and knees, and I don't know that I'd even open the door for her."

"Even though you still love her?"

Sighing, he shakes his head. "The version of me that loves her doesn't exist anymore. And the version of her that guy loves doesn't exist anymore, either. What I love is the past. The history we had. How I learned to let someone in for the first time."

This man lost everything important to him at one time, and Jess’s heart hurts for him. He planned to start a life with Sam, one she agreed to, and she betrayed him in such a terrible way. So did his supposed best friend. It makes sense why he doesn't have a wide net of friends, even though he has the personality that attracts almost everyone.

"Your turn," he says.

Licking her lips, she lets out a sigh. "Landry and I aren't seeing each other anymore."

"Okay...."

"There were red flags from the very beginning. He has this thing about him that makes him seem very distant. Aloof is maybe the better term.”

“Aloof?”

She chuckles. “When we first met, I told him I couldn’t tell if he was being a jerk on purpose, or if that was just his personality. Joe, his friend and Lena’s boyfriend, laughed because no one really calls him out.”

“You probably said it nicer than others would have.”

“Maybe. He said he never noticed, but it was like he used it to keep people at a distance. He still does it, and I call him out, but he doesn’t care enough to make any actual changes. It’s just who he is, and we all just have to deal.”

Kade raises an eyebrow. “He was a jerk on purpose, essentially?”

“Pretty much. But not all the time. It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“Okay, walk me through how this relates to jumping when I turned to you.”

Taking a deep breath, she can’t look at him. “Remember how angry he got the night you showed up, and I defended you?”

“Yeah, dude was about to blow his top.”

“It’s not the first time that’s happened. One night, after a date, I asked about his ex. He got so angry, and he gripped the steering wheel like you had. It kind of brought me back to that night. He startled me. I didn’t understand why asking a question made him so angry.”

"He never hit you, did he?"

She shakes her head. "No, he didn't. I don't think he would, but he would get mean and nasty when angry. I mean, you saw it that night. And he's so spiteful. It's very off-putting."

"Did you stop seeing him because of me?"

Jess chuckles. "Yes and no. It was so hard because he should have been exactly what I was looking for. He wanted a commitment. He wanted to get married and have kids, and he was good looking."

"What more could a girl want?" Kade adds.

"You know how whenever I cooked for you, whether it was your place or mine, you'd always insist on doing the dishes?"

He chuckles. "Yeah. You put in the effort to make me something delicious. The least I could do was wash up."

"He never even offered. Just expected me to do everything. But again, I wrote off his inconsiderate nature as comparing him to you. I overlooked it. And he never listened. I bet he still believes I like baseball even though I told him many times I don’t.”

“You’re kidding.”

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