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Tilly laughed out loud. “Yes, I’m kidding. We talk about nothing; sometimes, we talk about the kids, his family, my family.”
“He’s married?” Candice clarified.
“Yes.”
The interrogation was losing steam. “I like you looking like that…” Candice waved her hand at Tilly, “Happy. It’s a good look on you and not one I’ve seen in a while.” The waitress dropped off her coffee. She lifted the cup, looking at Tilly from over the rim. “This Gage gets you to look like that, I’m thinking it’s not a bad thing.”
Tilly kept her reaction to herself, but getting the green light, so to speak, from her best friend, hearing the confirmation that her time with Gage wasn’t sordid, Tilly had a feeling she just might be glowing again.
“Have you looked him up on Open Book?” Candice asked, reaching for a slice of the warm bread and smearing butter on it.
Tilly hadn’t. She’d been tempted. She was curious about what his wife looked like, but she hadn’t. “No.”
Candice pulled out her phone. “What’s his name?”
Tilly’s stomach twisted; the fact that it did was proof that what she felt for Gage was more than what she was trying to convince Candice and herself. Not to share his name, Candice would see right through her. “Gage Sutherland.”
Candice’s eyes met Tilly’s from over her phone. “Gage, sexy name.”
Tilly’s hand shook a little from nerves when she launched Open Book.
“Holy shit. Til, have you seen this guy?” Candice’s screeched then looked around at the attention she drew. Lowering her voice, she leaned over the table. “He’s fucking hot.”
“I’ve seen his picture,” Tilly replied, as she logged into the app.
Candice’s brow rose, and her eyes narrowed. “You’ve seen his picture?”
“Yes, our first chat we shared pictures.”
“So you’ve been texting with this god-like creature?” Candice said.
“Yes.”
“And you’re just chatting?” she asked, looking around them and adding in a low voice, “If you were sexting, I’d understand.”
Tilly’s eyes snapped to Candice. She tried to look outraged, but she wasn’t sure she pulled it off because the idea of sexting with Gage was one she liked a lot. “We’re not sexting.”
Candice studied Tilly for a second. “But you’d like to.”
It wasn’t just his looks. She wasn’t sure Candice would understand that. Gage was hot, but he was also real. He cared, he listened, he was interested. She didn’t answer and instead searched for Gage Sutherland; she saw his face on one of the profiles and opened it. His banner was of his truck, Sutherland’s Landscaping printed on the side. Her gaze moved to his bio: seeing his status as married, she felt a twinge of something, though whether that was guilt or envy she didn’t know. She pulled up his pictures, getting a little peek at his life. Most of the pictures were landscaping pics—gardens and hardscapes that she assumed he had done, a sort of portfolio for prospective clients. Greedily, she devoured the images until she saw one of Gage, tan from all the outdoor work, and with him was a stunning blonde and beautiful young girl. Her stomach twisted again, harder this time.
His family.
His daughter looked like him, more so than her mom. In that awkward stage, but already beautiful. Tilly turned her focus on Gage’s wife. Sparkling blue eyes stared back, her arm wrapped around Gage’s waist, his around her shoulders. She was exquisite, model beautiful. Her toned, trim body dressed in jeans and a form fitting wrap sweater, her blonde hair falling down around her shoulders. They looked good together, picture perfect, but things weren’t always what they seemed because she chose to spend her husband’s birthday with her friends. She was surrounded by all that beauty and didn’t appreciate what she had. Tilly didn’t want to see anymore; she closed out of the app and put her phone on the table.
“It’s a bit different when you see his family, huh?” Candice said softly, adding, “The whole sexting thing.”
Tilly glanced up to see Candice watching her. Seeing his family did make it different, but not in the way Candice was thinking. There was a part of Tilly that hoped Gage’s wife realized what she had, but there was another part of Tilly that grew with each conversation she had with Gage that hoped his wife never did. She wasn’t sure what that said about her.
To Candice she simply said, “We’re just friends.” But she knew that wasn’t completely the truth.
_______________
Gage pulled his phone from his pocket, checked the time, and saw it was going on almost two hours since he last heard from Tilly. She thought he was sexy. For the two hours, that thought had his lips tipping up.
“Why in the fuck you keep smiling?” Dom asked when he came to stand next to Gage by the trailer. Dom looked to the cell in Gage’s hand. “Oh shit, you and the wife been sexting?” Dom pointed a finger toward the cell and nodded. “That’s why you been on that thing so much.”
Gage shook his head, chuckling, “No.” He gestured to the new guys to hop in the truck while he closed the door of the trailer.
