Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,59
her go and went into the kitchenette to find her something to wipe her face. It was the most she’d let her guard down with me since we’d met, and honestly, it was kind of reassuring to know Kody had the same kind of fears and uncertainties as any other woman. For the longest time, she seemed so much more sure of herself than anyone I’d met. I was confident in my career, and in the knowledge I’d accumulated over the course of my studies and work, but that was the only place where I was one hundred percent certain of myself. Kody seemed to own everything in her life, good or bad. She made no apologies, and I thought that was so refreshing and was slightly envious. I’d never had that kind of freedom.
I reclaimed my seat across from her and reached for my abandoned coffee. “I’m going to keep this conversation between the two of us, but I have to tell you, the people who care the most about you, see things you might not be aware of them seeing. If you don’t want to tell your brothers and the girls, that’s one thing. However, you need to tell Hill. This is something the two of you are in together from the very start.” I lifted my eyebrows pointedly. After all, she wouldn’t be in her current condition if her relationship with Hill hadn’t progressed as quickly as it had. “Trust him to give you what you need and to be your partner in everything. If he oversteps, let him know, but you also need to listen when he tells you what he needs.”
She groaned dramatically and smacked her palms down on the table. “Ugh. You’re so reasonable. It’s annoying. Have you ever done anything rash or reckless in your life?”
She pouted a little bit as I blushed. “Umm, well…” There was no stopping the vivid images of everything I’d done with Shot in my bathroom the previous night. All of that definitely counted as rash and reckless.
Catching sight of the guilty color in my face, Kody clapped her hands together and laughed, tossing her head back. “Oh yeah. I forgot Shot answered your door this morning.” Her eyebrows winged upward and a crooked grin twisted her lips. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing with him? He’s not some nice, polite college graduate. He’s not a guy who owns a suit and tie. He’s never come across a rule he wasn’t willing to break, and he lives every single day knowing there’s a good chance he’s going to end up in a jail cell or a shallow grave by the end of it.” She cocked her head to the side and asked, “Is he really someone you want to get tangled up with?”
I huffed out a breath and averted my eyes. “I’m not so sure I have a choice. No matter how hard I try, or what kind of warning I give myself, I can’t seem to stay away from him.” I blinked rapidly, remembering she used to have a much different relationship with Shot than she did now. “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t think before I said that.”
Kody laughed. She put a hand on her belly and used the other to wipe away a few tears that squeezed out of her eyes. “You don’t think I’m jealous that you’re hooking up with him, do you?”
I frowned. “I honestly don’t know what to think. You called me in to save him in the middle of the night and he’s very protective of you. I never stopped to work my way through what all of that may mean when I started to have very confusing feelings toward him.”
It was Kody’s turn to reach out a hand and comfort me. Her gaze went soft and sincere as she told me, “Shot and I are friends. We’ve always been friends. He was there when I needed help with the bar. He was there when I was lost and lonely and needed someone to lean on. We both knew it was never going to be anything more than a very close friendship with an occasional benefit from the start. The benefits ended up being less important to both of us than the friendship. He means the world to me, but I always understood that he is a dangerous man who is fully capable of doing really bad things.” She smiled a little as she added, “He’s also a very good