Page 74 of Unofficial

I love you. He wants to shout it, but he knows now isn't the right time. No, he needs to find the right moment to make sure she knows he's serious. That he's never meant anything more.

"You're funny," he says. "I feel like I should be slightly offended by the fact you have never needed a cigarette after our time together."

Winking, she smirks. "Not that I've told you, anyway."

Oh, she's flirty. Very flirty. "That swordfish isn't bad. It's actually pretty good."

"Look at you growing up," Jess jokes. "I'm keeping your fork now."

"You can have whatever you want."

Her eyes glance up to his, and instead of distrust like he expects, he sees a sparkle in her eye. "I'm going to remember that."

Carrie walks out and pulls up a chair, sitting on it backwards and resting her arms on the table. "How is it?"

"I changed my mind. I want his steak," Jess says. "That's the food equivalent of an orgasm. But this champagne glaze on the fish... I can't decide. I want it all, actually."

"No one else understands when I say food can be just as pleasurable as sex," Carrie says with a laugh. "My girlfriend didn't until I gave her both at the same time."

Jess laughs, but Kade suddenly finds this woman even more fascinating than before. She doesn't look like someone Jess would normally befriend, but he's starting to realize more people see how amazing she is than he realized.

"Okay, so tell me. What was with the Rasmussen's? It looks like a super juicy story."

Kade lets out a sigh and waves a hand in the air for her to say whatever she wants. She gives him a serious look and asks, "Are you sure?"

"After how you both handled them, yes. Besides, it's been six years. It's been long enough."

Carrie shimmies in her seat. "Oh, this is gonna be good. I can tell."

Kade decides he likes the woman instead of just being fascinated by her. She has balls. Big balls.

"Well, the woman, her name is Sam. She and Kade dated in high school and all through college. Zach was Kade's best friend, and they were like the three musketeers or whatever. Then Kade and Sam got engaged two years after college, and they lived together. Had a long engagement to pay for a house and a wedding, and Kade was saving up money to surprise her with a house she fell in love with. Then he finds out she's been cheating."

Carrie's jaw drops and looks at him. "You're kidding."

He shakes his head, and he's surprised at how little the conversation bothers him. He expected the steak knife to spontaneously lift itself from the table and stab him in the chest. Instead, it stays sitting right there on his plate, and he feels only a slight twinge of regret knowing how he'd been played.

"He found out because Zach, her now-husband, texted her where to meet for a frisky night out and to wear underwear he'd bought her. She left her phone at the apartment, and Kade found a drawer full of things this guy bought Kade’s soon-to-be wife. His fiancée was screwing around with his best friend. For years. This was all found out five months before the wedding."

"No shit?"

"No shit," he says, chuckling at the amazement in her eyes.

Jess clenches her fist. "Kade worked with Zach to get Sam a position at the company, and the messing around started back in college."

"Tell me the bitch cried when you confronted her," Carrie says. "Please tell me she cried and begged on her hands and knees."

"Oh, I think she'd been on her knees enough," Jess says and takes a sip of her wine.

Both Carrie and Kade look at her in surprise. "Wow, I did not think you had that in you," Carrie says.

"What?" she asks innocently.

"Being catty."

Kade smiles. "She gets protective of people she cares about. But to answer your question, no, she didn't. She never shed a tear, and she didn't care. I'm pretty sure she wanted to get caught."

"Cold-hearted bitch."

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