Page 66 of A Heart Worth Finding
“That looks…disgusting,” Silas said as he watched the bartender make her drink. Jessica was fascinated by the pink hue it turned thanks to the cotton candy, and when she sipped it, was surprised by how subtle the sweetness was.
“It’s amazing,” she breathed. The bartender passed Silas a beer, and Jessica shot him a wink. “I’ll be back for more later.”
The man behind the counter laughed. “I’ll be here.”
Jessica had to admit, she was starving, so before she dragged Silas out onto the dance floor, she took a moment to pass by the buffet table, where hors d'oeuvres were artfully arranged on plates, platters, and towers. Grabbing a little plate and a napkin from the end of the table, she loaded it up with finger sandwiches, chunks of cheese, mini quiche, a small, flaky roll, and a number of delectable-looking desserts like mini cheesecakes and cookies.
In a matter of minutes, she’d inhaled the entire thing, and turned to go back for seconds. Silas stopped her with a hand on her elbow, gently taking her plate from her and tossing it in a nearby trash.
“Set your stuff down and let’s dance,” he said, inclining his head toward the stage, where the DJ had switched from a Top 40 hit to “U Got It Bad” by Usher.
Jessica could hardly say no, so she dropped her clutch and shawl at a table, then let Silas lead her to the dance floor, where he stopped in the middle and spun her into his arms.
Automatically, her hands rose to his shoulders, and he settled his on her waist, tugging her closer until every inch of them from chest to hips was pressed together.
“I missed this,” he said.
“Missed what?”
“You, us, being like this.”
“Like what, exactly?”
Genuinely, Jessica had no idea what he was talking about. Things hadn’t been outright bad between them lately, but they hadn’t been good—and she didn’t feel like one dance under a thousand twinkling lights was enough for Silas to consider this most recent rift between them magically repaired.
“Look,” Silas said, his heavy sigh fanning across her neck, tickling the baby hairs along her nape. “I know we’ve been on shaky ground lately. And I’m sorry.”
Taken aback, Jessica pulled away from him to study his face. She found nothing but sincerity there, which surprised her.
Her mother’s words from Thanksgiving rang in her head.
Familiarity, or…something real.
But who was her mother to say that this—this relationship she’d been in for almost her entire college career—wasn’t real?
Much later, Jessica’s feet were finally screaming at her in that delicious way that only came from a night well spent on the dance floor, and she had no idea what time it was.
At some point while she was dancing with her friends, Silas had disappeared. In desperate need for water, Jessica decided to hit the bar for a glass then seek him out.
She paused for a moment to chug her water, then wandered over to the table where she had left her purse and shawl, making sure no one had stolen them and checking her phone for any messages. She responded to her sister and Kenzie, surprised to find it was after one a.m., then decided to head up the stairs in search of Silas.
At the landing for the second floor sat the bathrooms, and while the line for the women’s was long, the one for the men’s consisted of two guys, neither of whom were Silas. She waited for the current occupant to exit, and when that wasn’t him, either, she turned and headed toward the back of the space. There was a long, dimly lit hallway that jutted into the back of the building, lined randomly with doors bearing signs like “electrical” and “employees only.”
Clearly, Silas wasn’t back here, and she was about to head back to the main floor when voices filtered out from an ajar door at the end of the hall.
“It’s not that simple.”
Silas.
Jessica was pushing the door all the way open before she fully formulated a plan to do so. Emboldened by the liquor coursing through her veins, she didn’t even stop to consider what she might find.
And what she did was not what she’d expected.
After the constant rumors swirling the last few months of Sofia being in love with Silas, and Silas acting shady about his relationship with Sofia, Jessica fully expected to barge in on them in a much more compromising position.
Silas had his hand to Sofia’s cheek, brushing a tear away as it tracked down her brown skin. Sofia’s hands were fisted in his dress shirt. They didn’t appear to be doing anything wrong. It simply looked like a friend comforting another friend.
But somehow, Jessica knew it was more than that.
