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FORTY-THREE
Cari
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours,I’m woken up by the downstairs buzzer. Sitting up, I dig my phone out of the pile of blankets and check the time. It’s almost noon.
And I have a text from Patrick.
Patrick: Morning, beautiful
call me when you wake up.
He sent it at 7AM. Five hours ago. Three hours after we said good night. Knowing he’s been up for hours while I sleep the day away makes me feel guilty for keeping him awake last night… but then I remember how I kept him awake, and I’m suddenly fighting a perma-grin.
Whoever’s downstairs starts to actually lean on the buzzer. One long Buzz that pulls me out of bed and down the hall.
I hit the blue button. “Hello?”
“Jesus Christ—are you still sleeping?”
It’s Tess.
Before I can answer, she hits her intercom button again. “Open the door, Faraday—I’m on my lunch break, and I need girl time. Con is driving me batshit today.”
I buzz her in before padding over to the laundry room door to open the door for her. On my way, I shoot text Patrick a quick text.
Me: Tess is here. Call you as
soon as I can. ♥
When I get the door open, she’s already halfway up the stairs.
She brought pizza.
“Declan kissed me last night,” she blurts out, shoving the pizza box into my hands as she passes me on her way in.
“I—” I almost tell her that I know. That Conner and I watched the whole thing on the bar’s security cameras, but I stop myself. Conner has done a lot for me, and I owe him, even though he’s a total prick 95% of the time. Besides, knowing I saw what happened between her and Dec wouldn’t help Tess. It might even hurt her more. “I don’t know what to say,” I tell her, shutting the door before following her into the kitchen. “Are you okay?”
“No!” she shouts, yanking the refrigerator open. “I am most definitely not okay.” She disappears into the fridge for a few seconds, digging around until she reappears with a beer in her hand. Twisting off the top, she tosses it in the trash. “Why would he do that?” she asks, eyes wide. She takes a long pull of her beer, draining half of it before speaking again. “What the fuck was he thinking?”
I shrug, turning to pull plates from the rack next to the stove. “If I had to guess,” I say, setting the plates on the kitchen island before opening the pizza box. “I’d say he wasn’t thinking at all.”
At least it didn’t look like he was.
Pulling a few pieces free, I put them on my plate before sitting down. “When did you guys even start talking to each other?”
Tess narrows her eyes, yanking a piece of pizza free. “When that dickface stole my cat,” she says, stuffing her face full of double cheese and sausage.
“Declan stole your cat?”
“Yes,” she says around a mouthful of pizza, washing it down with beer while she rolls her eyes. “No… I’m not sure, exactly. He says he didn’t, but—” She waves an irritated hand in the space between us like she’s swatting a fly. “It was a whole thing. Anyway, it was while ago.” She pulls a face and drops her half-eaten piece of pizza into the box and looks at me. “Why did he kiss me? Things were fine the way they were, and then he has to go and fuck everything up.”
“Maybe things aren’t fine,” I say carefully. “Maybe he’s not as over you as you think.”
I think about what Patrick told me last night. That Declan doesn’t love Jessica. That he’s marrying her because he thinks a lifetime of being shackled to that miserable cow is what he deserves.
Tess snorts, lifting her beer to take another drink. “He’s getting married in two months, Cari,” she says before draining the bottle. “I don’t know how much more over me he can be.”
“Have you talked to him about it?” I ask, walking the line between helping her understand and keeping Patrick’s confidence.