Page 61 of Shut Up and Kiss Me

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Chapter 15

Tasha

Since Cade had worked today, and Rena had the day off, after my classes I went out with her for a while. And, okay, you guessed it. I told her absolutely everything. And I don’t mean I told her almost everything. I mean I told her everything.

I had to tell somebody, and who better to ask for sex advice than my best friend? I trusted Rena. She trusted me. She was my ultimate safe space.

So after she’d stopped squealing about how happy she was for me, and how nice it was that Tony knew I’d moved on, Rena and I went shopping. Well, I went shopping. Rena sort of moped around with her shoulders down, groaning about how we were looking at clothes she didn’t want to buy. She was a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. Me, I couldn’t leave without the black and white striped dress I wore now.

Given the spark that lit Cade’s eyes when he saw me, I was considering it a very good purchase.

Devlin herded us to the bar and promptly served drinks like an old pro. We sat, wine in front of Rena and me and beers in front of the boys, enjoying the barely lit restaurant. I liked being here when Oak & Sage was closed. It felt kind of wrong. I liked that about as much as I liked everything else I was doing that felt kind of wrong.

I cocked my head at Cade. Was I exorcising a few demons with him, or were my feelings for him real? Too soon to tell.

“You look incredible,” he told me.

“Thank you.” I fingered the hem of the dress, which stopped way, way short of my knees, liking how he watched hungrily when I inched it higher up my thighs.

“If you two would like to stop gazing into each other’s eyes for a few precious seconds,” Devlin said, “I would like to borrow Cade for a round of quarters.”

“You’ll lose,” Cade said, back straight, a look of challenge in his eyes.

Sexy.

“We’ll see.” Dev flipped a quarter in the direction of a beer glass a few feet away. It landed in the bottom with a plink.

“Go.” I nudged Cade. “Kick your brother’s ass.” He grinned at me, then leaned over and kissed me long and slow.

While Cade and Devlin set up their game at a corner booth, Rena picked up her wineglass and moved to the seat next to me.

“Has it graduated to the boyfriend stage yet?” She stole a glance at our guys across the room. I knew she was digging, but I had kicked that door open today. I wanted to talk about it. I needed to talk about it.

“Honestly?” I put down my wineglass. “I’m not really sure what to call it. We’re friends. And the sex is…Well, I told you about it.”

“If memory serves, you used the words ‘mind-blowing,’ ‘tooth-tingling,’ and ‘knee-numbing.’ ”

“I never said ‘knee-numbing.’ ” Though it wasn’t untrue. A deeper truth was that Cade made me feel worthy. Protected.

“He’s different than he was before,” Rena said, eyes narrowed on Cade. A quarter hit the edge of the glass and then the floor, and Devlin shouted in triumph at the bad toss. “In the few months I’ve been around him, he’s changed.”

I hoped he was different because of me. Was that selfish? I liked to think I’d contributed to his life in a positive way. He was changing my life in ways I doubted it would have changed without him.

Rena was right, though. Cade had changed. He’d gone from a cocky, smart-mouthed jerk to a cocky, silver-tongued hunk.

Almostsilver-tongued. I knew he wasn’t totally out of the woods, but he was doing so well.

“Devlin was telling me about the girlfriend Cade was seeing his freshman year,” Rena said, her voice low. “It kind of makes sense why he was such a jerk after she left. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to…” She trailed off, probably because she noticed that a completely mournful expression had overtaken my face. “Oh, Tasha. You didn’t know?”

I shook my head, slicing a glance at Cade, then back to her.

“I’m sorry.” Rena winced, her expression suggesting she hadn’t meant to overstep.

“It’s okay,” I said, forcing a smile. “We only just started…”

I didn’t finish that because the truth was I wasn’t sure what to say. What had we “just started”? Sleeping together? Communicating like civilized human beings? Exercising independence from our parents? I didn’t know how to fill in that blank, and I wasn’t sure if it was too soon for that conversation or too late.

“Anyway, that’s not the point.” Rena smiled. “You two are embarking on something new, and you should explore that without me causing problems in any way. No more gossip.” She pretended to zip her lips, lock them, and throw away the key.


Tags: Jessica Lemmon Romance