I finally caved and texted Rena to let her know Cade and I were through. She told me to (and I quote) “get your ass to Oak & Sage,” and I obeyed.
She’d taken on the role of bartender–slash–mother hen, feeding me alcohol and watching over me. But as the last hour progressed, she’d apparently decided I needed to leave the nest.
“I say shake it off.”
“Shake it off.”
“Yes,” she said decisively.
“Your advice about my recent breakup is the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song?”
“I thought you’d appreciate that. You love Taylor Swift.”
I gave her a weak smile. Rena got me. Everyone needed someone who got them. It was my fault for wishing one of those someones was Cade.
“I do,” I said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Would you like me to have Devlin kick Cade’s ass after work tonight, or would tomorrow afternoon work better?”
“Does it expire? I’d like to wait until the hurt goes away and maybe cash it in when he’s least expecting it.”
“Ohhh.” Rena refilled my empty wineglass. “I like the way you think.” She stashed the wine bottle back in the refrigeration unit and leaned on her elbows. No one was at the bar, and the employees were scurrying around cleaning tables in an effort to haul ass out of there. Rena and I were the only two not in a hurry.
She let out a sigh. “He hurt you.”
“He did.” My chest ached like someone had scooped my heart out. Worse than when I learned Tony was cheating on me, and that was saying something.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m shaking it off.”
She didn’t laugh. “No, it’s not okay. I’m trying to make you feel better when what you need to feel is hurt. I’ve been there,” she said. “I was so devastated, I couldn’t see straight.”
“Hey,” a male voice came from behind her. I snapped my attention to Devlin, who was watching Rena with a mix of regret and admiration. His eyes cut to mine, then back to her. “Have your drawer?”
Rena retrieved the cash drawer for Devlin while I noted a weighted, palpable silence between them. He had hurt her, and not that long ago. Yes, they’d reconciled, and I knew they loved each other. I also knew Rena hadn’t meant for Dev to overhear her just now.
When she set the drawer on the bar top, he pulled her face close with both hands and pressed a kiss to the center of her lips. He didn’t take his eyes off hers when he asked, “What happened?”
Like his mouth had been coated with truth serum, she blurted, “Cade and Tasha had a fight and they aren’t speaking.”
He nodded, his expression relaxing some. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I sat there with my wine, feeling the strange urge to start humming. Devlin turned to me and repeated the same question, but I doubted he’d let me off the hook with an easy answer. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. The inevitable?” There wasn’t a plane of existence where it made sense for Cade and me to have actually worked out. It wasn’t that Cade and I were radically different, but we didn’t share the same beliefs.
I would have fallen in love with him if he’d stayed the night. I knew that now, that I’d been hovering on the precipice of that admission for a while. That would have been a huge mistake. Cade was as immune to me as if he’d been vaccinated.
I wondered if I could put that I hadn’t fallen for him in my plus column, but then my breath caught in my throat as a crack split my heart.
Because I had fallen for him.
I loved him right now, even after the awful things he’d said to me.
“What if tell him he’s being a pussy?” Devlin asked, pokerfaced. “That worked when you did it to me.”