Page 16

Chapter sixteen

Kade

Janae comes back from the bathroom but she's without Sam, leaving me confused. When Janae returns, I lean over the table and ask, "Is Sam still in the bathroom?"

"No. She went home," she replies calmly. A little too calm for my liking.

"Why, what happened?"

"Kade. Let it be for right now," she says with a tone of warning as she looks over at two women sitting at the table diagonal from us with two of my other teammates, Ryan and Justin. I'm not sure what happened in the bathroom, but by the way Janae is looking at them, I know that they're involved.

I look back over at Janae. Clenching my jaw, I grit out, "Tell me what happened or I'm going to go ask them."

"Kade," Shane says in warning but I don't listen. Instead, I turn on him. "This is my wife, Shane. If something happened, I need to know about it. You would want to know if this was about Janae."

He puts his hands up in surrender and whispers, "You're right. Janae, tell us what happened."

Janae takes a deep breath. "Fine, but you will not go running out of here halfcocked when I tell you. You need a plan. Agree?"

"I agree."

"Those two women were in the bathroom at the same time as us. They were talking about you and Sam. Saying that she doesn't belong here and is too fat for you."

My blood boils with every word that comes out of her mouth.

How could someone talk about her like that?

Sam, fat? No, she's fucking beautiful with a fucking gorgeous body.

A womanly body. One that looks like she could handle a man like me and not like she's going to break.

If those women knew anything about me, Sam is exactly the type of woman I want.

Pushing back my seat, I get up, but Janae stops me. "I thought you said that you weren't going to go after her without a plan."

"I'm not. I have a plan," I tell her as I gather my things.

Right then, Coach comes over to our table. "Are you ready for Saturday's game, men?"

"Yes, sir," we all say in unison.

"Thanks for coming out again for another team dinner. I will see each of you tomorrow for practice. Don't be late." He then turns to me with a skeptical eye. "Where is your wife? I was hoping to say goodnight to her."

"She had to leave, but I was just about to go join her."

"Will she be at the game on Saturday?"

"Yes sir. She will be," I say, crossing my fingers. Hopefully, Janae will be able to convince her if I'm not. He just nods and moves on to the next table of players, allowing me to make my escape.

Before I leave the dinner room, I make sure to stop over at the table with the two women.

"Ryan, Justin." They both look up at me, waiting for me to tell them something.

Pointing at the two women, I say, "You should be ashamed of your dates.

They were rude and said some hateful things to my wife.

I hope you are not planning on keeping them around because I won't forget this. "

After I let them know how I felt, I run out to my car. My heart is racing as I drive as fast as I can back to my apartment, swerving between cars, hoping that I get there before Sam leaves.

The moment I enter the parking lot, I slam it into park and run up to my floor. Throwing the front door open, I can tell right way I’m too late, she isn't there. She left.

My apartment went from cold to warm in the week that she was there and back to cold again. Sam has a way about her that makes everything feel amazing and now that she's not here, it just feels empty.

I enter my bedroom hoping that the dread I feel in my gut is wrong and that Sam's asleep in the bedroom, but I'm not so lucky—Sam is nowhere to be found. The closet door is propped open and I head over to it. When I fully open it, I see that her suitcase is gone along with all of her clothes.

At that moment, a hole in my heart opens up and threatens to swallow me whole.

My knees buckle under me, and I collapse onto my bed, wishing that she were here in my arms at that very moment.

That's when I realize that I love Sam, and that I've loved her since the first time we got together.

I've just been a coward this whole time and was willing to settle for tidbits of her.

Now I see there is no way that I can do that.

I could never settle just for tidbits. No, I need to have all of her.

And I know exactly what I need to do.

This time I don't wait or push my feelings aside. No, I'm going to win her back even if that means I have to get down on my knees and beg for her mercy.