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Shaking my head, I finally moved forward and onto the elevator with them, but my eyes were glued to Kayla. “I think you should tell me anyway. Obviously, you thought it was important enough that Jagger would at least say something about whatever it is, and you don’t exactly look all bubbly considering you had a date with your better half.”
“Dana is only twenty, but she…has a past,” Kayla said after we’d descended a few floors. “I don’t hold it against her. She was looking for love in all the wrong places while trying to hide from her parents that she is a lesbian. They’re really religious, and once she came out, they kicked her out.”
“Fuckers,” Violet and I muttered at the same time.
“We all have a past in some shape or form,” Vi continued. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Her past is a bit more colorful than some people’s. As I said, I don’t hold that against her. All of that was before we met, and I know she’s mine now, so I’m not going to go all alpha bitch on someone’s ass. Unless they deserve it. They make my girl cry, and I’m going to put a bullet in their head.”
The elevator stopped in the garage, and we walked out as two other people were getting in. But we only took a few steps before stopping to continue our conversation.
“Kayla, I get that. But what does this have to do with what Jagger has to tell me—” I broke off as the realization hit me. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” Kayla nodded affirmatively. “Jagger seems like a great guy. What little I got to talk to him last night, I know he won’t be an issue. I was just wondering how you feel about him living down the hall from her.”
I turned away from her and Violet and walked off a few steps. Jagger’s stomach had started bothering him when Kayla and Dana showed up. Now I understood that it wasn’t his stomach so much as his anxiety bothering him. He’d been blindsided by having Dana, a girl from his past, show up at the party.
Was it because he didn’t want me to know—didn’t want me to think he might still want her? I was the jealous type, but Dana was with Kayla, and from what Kayla had said, it seemed like any guy from Dana’s past was just a smoke screen. Plus, I knew Jagger had a past. He’d been dicking around for years, long before I’d even thought about him in that kind of way. I wasn’t going to hold it against him.
But I didn’t like that he hadn’t told me about Dana the night before. It hurt that he hadn’t been honest and upfront about her, but it was obvious it bothered him so much that he’d made himself ill over it.
The Shaw of the past would have already been back on the elevator, headed for him like a missile to tear into him about keeping something like that from me. But the new Shaw, the one who was trying to trust in the guy who’d been so loving and patient, wanted to give him the chance to speak up.
Deciding I was going to give him that chance, I turned back to my best friend and Kayla. “Don’t clue him in that I know,” I told them. “I want to give him the opportunity to tell me himself.”
Violet blinked at me in surprise. “Really?”
I smiled. “Yes, really. He says he loves me. I’m going to let him prove how much. If he can be honest with me, then I’ll know this was meant to be.” My stomach clenched, and I swallowed my sudden nervousness.
“What if he doesn’t?” My bestie voiced my fear.
“Then I’ll know we weren’t meant to be together.”
I dropped Violet off at her house and then reversed and pulled into my own driveway. A shiny SUV was sit
ting in the driveway, and I could only guess it was Cannon’s new wheels. Our parents had refused to replace his car that they had sold, so this vehicle was one he’d paid for out of his own pocket. As my eyes slid across the sleek black exterior, I had to admit my brother had good taste.
Walking into the house, I heard voices coming from the living room and debated avoiding Cannon, but when I heard both my parents, I shrugged and went to greet them.
Mom and Dad were cuddled on the couch watching television, with Cannon sitting at the opposite end. Seeing me, Mom patted the spot beside her. “Hey. Come join us. We were starting this new reality show.”
I dropped down beside her and grabbed a handful of popcorn out of her bowl. “I’ve seen this. Vi and I watched the full season Friday night.”
“Do not spoil it for me, then,” Dad grumbled. “I heard this one chick is a little crazy, and I want to make up my own mind.”
“How was the party?” Mom asked, more interested in talking to me than watching TV. She only watched those shows to spend time with Dad, so I knew she didn’t care if she missed anything or not.
“It went really great. Jags is fighting a bug or something, though, so I’m going to go over and fix him something light to eat later.”
“I’ll put a care package together for him that will help with whatever he’s fighting,” Mom offered.
“Okay, thanks.” I was sure whatever she wanted to send him wasn’t going to help the hiding-stuff-from-his-girlfriend kind of bug he was fighting, but I figured once he confessed what was on his mind, he’d be fine again. I’d go over and he could unload what was weighing him down, and everything would be back to normal once more.
From the other end of the couch, Cannon was humming happily to himself while he played on his phone, only half paying attention to what was happening on TV. Annoyed, I glanced his way and saw a huge, smug grin on his face as he swiped his thumb over his screen.
“What are you so happy about?”
He lifted his head and then slowly turned his gaze from his phone to me. “Hm? Oh, nothing. Just planning a few parties of my own in my new place.”
