Huge Deal - Lauren Layne Page 0,28
used to fake not getting along with his brothers so Ian would agree to come home with him at the holidays to act as a buffer.”
“Because he knew Ian’s only option was a foster father who thinks Top Ramen counts as Christmas dinner,” Lara said softly.
Kate nodded. “And once, he overheard me on the phone with my dad, who was super bummed because the fishing lodge in North Carolina he and his childhood friends went to every year had been shut down. The next morning, Kennedy sent me an email with the confirmation code for a vacation rental on Lake Norman. He’d rented a six-bedroom house right on the lake for my dad and four men he’d never even met. He barely accepted my gratitude and wouldn’t take any of the money I tried to pay him back with.” Kate threw her hands up in the air. “How was I not supposed to be in love with him?”
Lara nodded thoughtfully. “You know, if Kennedy did that for your dad, maybe he—”
“Felt the same way?” Kate made an elimination buzzer noise. “Wrong.”
“You don’t know that,” Sabrina chimed in. “Maybe he was too afraid to say anything, just like you were.”
Kate withheld the flinch, hating that she’d let herself hold on to that same foolish dream for as long as she had, and instead took a deep breath to tell her friends the rest of the story—the part that really hurt.
“So you know how the guys have that pact? The one where they can’t date me?” Kate said.
Lara stared at her. “Wait. You know about the pact?”
“Yup,” she muttered. “I was there when they made it. I mean, they don’t know I was there,” she rushed to explain. “They thought I’d left for the day, but I’d forgotten my umbrella, so I came back, and they were in Kennedy’s office.”
“You heard the whole thing?” Sabrina asked with a wince.
“No,” Kate said softly. “Just enough.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Lara touched her hand. “What’d those morons say?”
“Just the one moron,” Kate replied. “They were sort of arguing, and Kennedy said, ‘The little thing’s hardly irresistible, but better safe than sorry in case any of us gets drunk and stupid.’”
Her friends were silent for a moment, and then Sabrina shook her head. “He is so lucky he’s not here right now.”
“Seriously,” Lara said in heated agreement.
“Yeah, well.” Kate shrugged. “It’s actually a good thing, because my childish infatuation with Kennedy needed to die, and that little nugget delivered a swift and fatal blow. Which is a good thing,” she repeated, in case they’d missed it the first time. “Outwardly, nothing changed. He was still all broody and hot; I was still the capable, businesslike assistant. Only, from then on, I wasn’t harboring any romantic delusions about him one day professing his love for me.”
“Don’t kill me for asking,” Sabrina said, “but are you positive you’re really, truly over him? Because sometimes you seem a little . . . aware.”
Kate took a gulp of her mimosa. “I may not be in love with him anymore, but my body hasn’t quite gotten the message that we no longer want him.”
“Ah,” Lara said. “So the physical thing is still there.”
Kate scrunched down in her chair. “Unfortunately. But it’s getting better.”
“Because of Jack?”
“Maybe? I’m not going to lie. It wasn’t like it was that first meeting with Kennedy, where I felt it tip to toe. But Jack’s the opposite of Kennedy. Kennedy’s never seemed to notice that I’m a woman, while Jack . . .”
“Is very aware that you’re a woman?” Sabrina wiggled her eyebrows.
Kate exhaled, too embarrassed to tell her friends that she and Jack hadn’t exactly gotten to the physical part of dating. She sensed that Jack was more than interested but was waiting for her to give the green light, and she just . . . wasn’t there yet.
“We’re happy for you,” Lara said, seeming to sense Kate’s discomfort and giving her an out. “We just hope . . .” She trailed off and looked to Sabrina.
“What?” Kate asked warily, glancing between the two of them.
Sabrina picked up where Lara left off. “We just hope that eventually, whether it be Jack or someone you haven’t met yet, the person you end up with gives you butterflies. That it’s something more than ‘nice.’ You deserve that.”
“I do deserve that,” Kate agreed emphatically, feeling a rush of gratitude that she’d found friends like these women. She raised her glass in a toast. “Here’s to hoping that the next time it