Kade held the door open for London as they went inside the store. London looked around. “So, what are we here for? Suit? Sports jacket? Button-down shirt and jeans?”
“Definitely not a suit. Let’s say, sports jacket, button-down shirt, dark jeans. And hopefully, I’ll be able to go home tonight and won’t need more than this one set of clothes.”
London riffled through the rack nearest the door and tossed three shirts at him. “Try these.”
“Why are you helping me? I thought you wanted to see my shopping skills.”
She shrugged. “We only have a few minutes, and we got a little distracted outside . . .”
Heat flooded Kade’s face. “Gotcha.” He grabbed some jeans off a table and headed for the dressing room.
Once there, he set the clothes down on the bench and leaned against the wall. What had just happened? He’d never expected any of that, and he definitely hadn’t expected to kiss her. And he absolutely hadn’t expected that one kiss to rock him to the very core.
He pulled off his shirt and slipped into a new one. It worked—no need to try on the other two. The jeans were good too. Now he just needed a jacket, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to go back out there. How could he face her when he wanted to crawl under a rock because of all the mean things he’d done? And how could he face her when what he wanted even more was to take her in his arms again for part two of that kiss?
“Sir, your young lady friend asked me to bring these jackets in for you to try.”
Kade stuck his head out of the stall and took the jackets from the salesman. “Thank you,” he said. Maybe London was just trying to save him time, but she had answered his dilemma perfectly.
The second jacket was a fit, and he decided he’d just wear the clothes out of the store. He slung what he’d been wearing over his arm and exited the stall, walking up to the cash register.
“Mind if I wear them home?” he asked.
“Not at all, but let’s snip off the price tags first.” The salesman walked around him with a small pair of scissors, then removed the security tag from the sleeve of the jacket. “We don’t want you setting off any alarms when you walk out of here.”
“Yeah, I’d rather not.”
Once the sensor had been tossed aside, the salesman rang up the items, and Kade swiped his card. He got a bag from the salesman to carry his other clothes, then he took London’s hand and they dashed out to find a taxi.
Touching her hand proved problematic, though, because he didn’t want to let it go.
They sat in uncomfortable silence as they drove back to the hotel, her hand in his, not looking at each other. He paid the driver, and the taxi drove away while they stood on the sidewalk, not making a move to go in.
“It’s ten minutes to two,” London said at last.
Kade reached out and fingered the dark curl that lay on her shoulder. “We need to talk some more.”
“I know we do, but things get busy from here on out, and maybe we’d better wait until after the pageant.”
He chuckled. “You know, I almost forgot about the pageant today.”
“Me too. But you’d better go. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Right.” He took one step away and then paused. “Promise me you’ll talk to me later.”
“Of course I will.”
He left her standing there as he turned and went inside, making his way across the lobby to the main meeting room. He was actually the first one there this time, and tucked his bag under his end of the table. When Elaine and the mayor walked in, he grinned. “What took you so long? Let’s get this thing done.”
***
Back in her room, London texted Chelsea to see if she wanted to come over, then ordered room service. Chelsea replied that she’d already eaten, but she’d come over anyway, so London just got enough for herself. She had no idea when her mom would be back, and her mom didn’t care for room service anyway.
As soon as Chelsea walked in the room, London told her everything—well, almost everything. She mentioned the kiss, but she didn’t say anything about how right it felt to be in Kade’s arms and how she’d never felt more alive than in that moment. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about that—she definitely wasn’t ready to talk about it.
Chelsea looked stunned. “Wow. I mean, wow. He’s been in love with you all this time?”
“I don’t know about all this time. He was in love with me in high school, and then he kissed me a little ago, but that could just be leftovers, you know? From how he felt before? And I’m sure he had relationships in college.” London flopped down on her bed. “I don’t know. Maybe he has been. Probably not.”
“And how do you feel about him?” Chelsea asked.
“I don’t know! I mean, I hated him in high school, but this week, I started to notice that he’s really hot, and he’s smart and funny—which I should have known because we had an AP English class together. I think I was so busy hating him that I didn’t realize how smart he was. And today, when he apologized, that confused me, and then he made me mad, and then he kissed me, and I don’t even know what to think about that.” London shook her head. “I need some Tylenol.”
“Here.” Chelsea tossed London her purse, which she’d flung down as soon as she’d entered the room. “For what it’s worth, I think you should give him a chance.”
London swallowed down two pills before she asked, “A chance to do what, though? Gain forgiveness and then what? I don’t even know what we’re talking about here.”
“How about a chance to take it a day at a time?”
Room service arrived just then, and as London took a bite of her sandwich, she realized that hunger was probably part of her headache. Breakfast seemed like a long time ago, and going through emotional things always made her hungrier. “I think I can do that,” she said after she swallowed. “Take it a day at a time.”
Chelsea smiled. “You’ll be okay. I’ll go now and let you eat—I’m sure you want to rest before tonight.”
“I really do. Thanks, Chelsea.”
When Chelsea opened the door, Lacey was standing there. “Oh, hi, Chelsea,” she said. “I’m here to see London.”
London tried not to roll her eyes. Her mouth was full of sandwich, so she waved for Lacey to come in, although she’d rather push her into the swimming pool.
“You’ve certainly been a busy girl today,” Lacey said, coming in the room and sitting down on the edge of the bed. “I got a manicure, but you got a man.” She laughed at her own little joke.
“What are you talking about, Lacey?” London asked after she swallowed.
“Oh, nothing. But the next time you decide to get a little amorous on the sidewalk, you might want to choose someone a little less famous to get amorous with.” She held out her phone, showing London a snapshot someone had taken of them kissing. It looked like the photographer was across the street and had zoomed in.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, a chill running down her back.
“Instagram. But it’s already making the rounds on Facebook, and I have no doubt the gossip rags will be all over it in just a few minutes. That’s the beauty of the internet—news is instant.”
“And you just happened to be on the lookout for news involving Kade Smith?”
“Kade does make things more searchable, but it’s really you I’m gunning for.” Lacey flashed a smile. “I think it’s important to keep tabs on all one’s competitors, don’t you?”
“I don’t think that includes stalking them online and then showing up in real life to gloat.”
“Then you’re missing part of the fun.” Lacey stood up. “Gotta run—I’m having my hair done in ten minutes. I’ll see you later. I just hope you and Kade can keep your lips off each other long enough for us to have eliminations tonight.”
“If we have to be surgically removed from each other, I’m sure we can set up a conference call from the hospital,” London retorted as Lacey walked out the door.
London grabbed her own phone and unlocked it. She’d turned down the volume while she was out with Kade, and now she saw that she had a dozen texts and hundreds—yes, hundreds—of notifications. She couldn’t even look at those, so she clicked on her texts to see that most were from friends and one was from Amber. Smooching your bully in public? That’s one way to end the feud.
As she was contemplating a snarky reply, another text came in, this one from Kade. You might want to avoid social media for a day or two.
She snorted. A little late for that.
A moment later, he replied, I’m sorry.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m sorry or not, she texted back, then put her phone away. Let him think about that for a while. She needed to finish eating and getting ready for eliminations.