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“To go pick up Jess. She doesn’t have a car.”

Wreck gestured over at the girls. “The ladies took care of it.”

Confused, Kade looked at the door just as Jess strode in. She was wearing shiny, skin-tight leggings, and a figure-hugging forest green tank top. The neck was low-cut and showed off the perfect curves of her tits, and holy shit, was she wearing high heels?

Kade hovered there, half standing, half sitting, hands gripping the arms of the chair.

Click.

King laughed and showed Reed his phone. “Look how dumb his dumb face looks.”

“Send me that,” Cash said. “I’m going to make it into a t-shirt.”

Kade would be irritated with them a different time. Right now, he just wanted to get to Jess. “I’ll order another round,” he told the guys as their mates filtered over to them. “Margaritas?” he asked Timber and Sasha, who were to the table first.

“Kat, margarita night?” Timber asked behind her.

“Yup,” Katrina said without hesitation as she headed for King, who had his arm out for her already.

“Fruity shit or normal?” Kade called as he walked away.

“Fruity shit. Surprise us with the flavor!” Timber called.

“Not grapefruit though,” Sasha said.

Raynah and Garret stayed home with baby Breah, but Jess seemed to be having fun with Harley. They were chatting and laughing and making their way slowly to the table.

Harley gave him a little wave and told Jess she would see her at the table as he reached them.

“Hi,” he uttered, still shocked she was just…here. “You look…” He shook his head and arched his eyebrows at her. “You’re fuckin’ hot.”

She laughed, and looked down, probably to hide that pretty blush in her cheeks. “No, I’m not. You’re just really nice.”

“Mmm, am I?” he asked, trying really hard to not stare at her perfect cleavage. “I’m headed to the bar to order drinks for the table. Want to come with me?”

“That’s what she said.”

“What?”

“That’s what…” Jess cleared her throat, and her cheeks were cherry red now.

“I’m just kidding. I heard you. I just wanted you to say it again,” he said with a laugh.

“I’m feeling very not smooth tonight,” Jess admitted as she slipped her hand into the inside of his elbow that he’d offered her, so she wouldn’t topple over in those hot-as-hell sky-high heels. “Raynah messaged me in a group text, and I had ten minutes to get ready before your Crew picked me up. They’re really nice,” she said, looking up at him with those pretty crystal blue eyes of hers. God, she was so pretty.

“They’re good people. Annoying as hell but good.”

She giggled. “I can tell they’re nice. They have no ill intention behind the things they say. And they just seem like happy, confident women. Harley brought me this shirt, and the heels. I already had the leggings from what Raynah brought before. I haven’t…” She seemed stuck on her words, and her eyes were full of some deep emotion he couldn’t guess at.

Kade eased her to a stop at the bar top and turned his shoulders to face her completely. “You haven’t what?”

“I haven’t done this in so long. Just had a fun night without a worry about anything.” She tugged at her tank top. “I got dressed and no one had an opinion other than compliments, and I knew I was going to see you, and I just got your picture you texted and I got all excited inside because I knew I was going to see you before you even finished the last of that beer, and I just feel…I just feel…good.”

Kade had never felt a smile consume his body from the inside out until this very moment. He hadn’t even known that kind of feeling could exist. Her feeling good made the damn world make sense. How strange.

She rubbed her scarred hand absently. “Do you know, on the drive here, Harley asked what happened to my face, and I just answered. I didn’t prickle or have flashbacks or hate that she’d noticed the scars. She’d just asked it so nonchalantly, like she wouldn’t judge no matter what, and I just said it. I got in a car accident. A drunk driver hit my car, and I rolled down a mountain, and when I woke up, I couldn’t feel my animal. I just said it without a shaking voice, or tears in my eyes, Kade. I just…said it.”

“You mean you owned it.”