Page 130 of The Sweetest Devotion

I wrinkled my nose. “You totally ruined that song for me, thanks.”

Jadyn grinned. “Oh, I’m still gon’ let the song rock because it’s fire, but did I lie?”

The lyrics of “Don’t Leave Me” started jumping out at me as the song continued to play. Theywerethreatening to go mental if a woman left. Cainwasmanipulative, getting the upper hand when my father was at his lowest. But he didn’t want me to pity him. He’d never use that as a tactic to get me to be with him.

“I don’t know, Jay,” I admitted. “Cain doesn’t seem…completely horrible?”

She pretended to gasp. “He’s gotten to you?”

“God no. I’m sure he’s a bad person, but at the same time, I don’t think he’sallbad.”

“Forcing marriage on a girl sure constitutes as bad in my book, but what do I know? How’s Keith?”

I blew out a breath and sank down on the chair across from her. “Complicated.”

“How so?”

I looked around her office space, admiring her dedication to her craft. Jadyn was old school in the way she’d write out plot lines or character trees in notebooks before typing them up on her laptop. She even had a large whiteboard on one wall filled with little scribbles and ideas. Looking at her and all her talent and intellect, sometimes I wished I were good at something.

Getting back on track, I returned to my best friend and opened up. “We’ve been taking a break, but, I can tell if he had it his way, we would be more than just friends with benefits.”

Jadyn gave me a once-over. “You are a nice catch. Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Keith wasn’t trying to be more, at least, not outright. He drew a line in the sand the same way I had in the beginning, but it was me who kept crossing it. Me who spent the night. Me who wanted to learn to do yardwork. Me who wanted to learn how to cook by his hand alone.

Maybe we needed this time apart. To loosen up and not get too attached.

Yeah.

“So, anyway, I thought we were going out?” I changed the subject and gestured to where Jadyn was sitting cross-legged on her plush black chair at her desk.

Jadyn bit her lip and faced her screen. “I know, but I put my other script on pause—creative funk, ugh. And now I’ve been hit with something else, something juicy.”

The passion in her eyes said it all. Jadyn was in love with this new project, enough so she had trouble getting away, even if only for a few hours while we hung out on the town.

“What’s this one about?” I wondered.

A sneaky smile crossed Jadyn’s face as she turned back to me. When she didn’t say anything, a terrible idea popped into my head.

“You arenotwriting about this,” I practically hissed at her.

Jadyn chuckled as she plucked up her wineglass. “I’m a writer. Anything you do or say can and will be used in a script.”

“Jay.”

Jadyn gave an innocent shrug as she looked at me over the rim of her glass. “I changed a few details to protect the innocent.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Such as?”

“For starters, our heroine is based in Bedford Heights. I figured a story about a street-smart woman enamoring a bougie guy was more interesting.”

That did sound intriguing for a plot.

I settled down. “What are you calling it?”

“All I Need,” Jadyn said as she hit a few keys, seemingly saving her progress before shutting her laptop. “Now, we can go.”

“I’m reading that script,” I declared.

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