Page 15 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“And you know that I don't really want to talk about that.”

Kade nudged my shoulder with his own. “C'mon, you can tell me. I told you when I had a crush on your widowed cousin, what could be worse?”

“I don't have a crush,” I said quickly. Too quickly, it seemed, because my friend only laughed.

“If you don't have a crush, then why are you getting all flustered?”

“You know me, I get excited about lots of things.”

“That's true. I remember when you woke me up because they hadtwo new ice cream flavorsat that dingy parlor across the street.”

“Hey, one of those flavors was apple crumble.”

“I'm allergic to apples.”

I shook my head in defeat. “It's not my fault you're so weird. Who's allergic to apples?”

“Me.” Kade looked up at the branches of the tree we were sitting under.

“What, is that an apple tree?”

“Nope. Cherry.”

“Oh, I bet that looks really pretty in the spring.”

Kade fixed his eyes on me. “Stop trying to change the subject.”

“But you're making it so easy.”

“Nick... please.”

“Why is this so important to you?” My friend wasn't usually the pushy kind. Well, notthispushy.

“Because we've been friends for years and I've never seen you with a crush before.”

I shrugged. “Never had one. Don't have one now.”

“Well, if you're not crushing on anyone, then what makes this alpha so special that you don't want to tell me about him?”

I sighed with the realization that my friend was never going to let up. “Okay, you're right. I'll tell you about him and then you'll see there's nothing going on. His name is Zander. His family lived down the street from us when we were children. That's how we know each other.”

“So you used to be friends then?” Kade's eyes lit up in a way I didn't like. “That's so sweet.”

“Nothing sweet about it,” I tried, but I knew all my attempts at changing my friend's mind would be in vain. He was anartist, and once he had a vision of something in his head, it was difficult to change his viewpoint. If I gave him a couple more minutes he'd come up with a song to describe my childhood relationship with Zander just from the little I'd told him.

And I hadn't even brushed the more interesting parts yet.

“How old were you when you moved away from here?” Kade asked. “Twelve? Thirteen? I forgot.”

“Twelve.”

“Did you try to keep in touch at all?”

I rubbed the back of my neck, a sinking feeling in my stomach. That was one uncomfortable question. “You know how I'm not very good at that sort of thing now?” Ninety percent of the time, it was Kade who called or texted. “I was even worse at it when I was a kid.” Looking back, I was fairly sure that at fourteen, I'd barely attained the attention span of a four-year-old. “Zander called from time to time. At first. Then not so much anymore. You know how it goes.”

Zander had really deserved better. I couldn't blame him for realizing that.

“Yeah, I guess...” Kade nodded. As far as I knew, he wasn't in contact withanyonefrom his old life, but of course, his circumstances were a bit different from mine. “So, Dean's wedding was the first time you two met again after you moved away?”