A few seconds later, my phone went off in my pocket. Thinking maybe it was Cane, I pulled it out to see Kari’s name flashing with an incoming text. Curious and a little confused, I opened the text.
Jillian Grady and I were on the screen.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, puzzled. “Where’d you get this?”
“Someone sent it to me,” she said, pausing before my phone flashed again. “And these, too.”
“Why?”
She sat her phone on the table and faced me, her eyes nervous. “I have no idea.”
“Look, I don’t know what’s goin’ on, Kari, but that was Jillian Grady and me going into lunch. Her husband met us a few minutes later.” I scrubbed my hands down the length of my face, trying tofigure out who and why someone sent pictures to Kari. “Who sent you those?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know the number.”
“I just...” I let my mouth hang open as I released a breath. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “That was a business lunch? That woman works in construction? Because she looks like a model.”
“She’s very pretty, I won’t deny ya that. But she’s also a shark. She’s married to Wade Grady, a subcontractor that was good friends with Cane’s father. She’s sharp as a tack and handles all of Wade’s business.”
I saw the apprehension leave her face, the softness of her features that I loved reappear. “So that’s it?”
“That’s it. I’m not sure what else it was supposed to be.”
Her shoulders slacked. “So who sent those to me? Who would do that?”
“I have no idea. But it’s a waste of their time. Cane was supposed to meet them, actually, but he had to take off because something happened. Speaking of which, do you know what’s going on?”
She shook her head. “No. He just called here and told me that I didn’t need to come over this afternoon. He sounded really weird, though. I figure maybe Jada will call me later. He did tell me it had nothing to do with her, though.”
“But if it isn’t her or the company, because I would know if it was, then what could it be?”
She gave me a frown and walked over to the sofa and sat down, curling herself up in the blanket from the back. Her phone buzzed on the table and I picked it up to take it to her. I glanced at the screen.
Unknown:Please, talk to me.
“Who’s this?”I asked, handing her the phone. My jaw pulsed with irritation because I knew damn good and well who it was.
She looked at the screen and sat upright. “Nobody.”
“Really?” I asked, sitting beside her and stretching one arm along the back of the couch. Her nonchalance and the way she was avoiding looking at me made the knot in my stomach wind tighter.
Her phone buzzed again and she didn’t look at it, completely ignoring it. “Should we call Cane and Jada?” she asked, trying to divert my attention.
“We can. But I want to know who’s texting you.”
She swallowed roughly before looking up at me. “Blaine.”
“What?” I asked a little louder than I intended. Even though I knew it was him, the sound of it coming out of her mouth was still a blast. “What the hell for?”
“He called today and I—”
“He called you today?” I suddenly knew what real jealousy felt like. If I thought I felt it the day she went for coffee with the doctor, I was wrong. This was it. This burning, itching, come-out-of-my-damn-skin feeling was it.
I got up and headed to the fridge, pausing to read Kari’s sticky before opening it and grabbing a beer. “You didn’t think to tell me?”
“You were at lunch with theprettyblonde,” she said, throwing the adjective I used for Jillian back at me. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”
