Fiona didn’t quite understand the change of expression on Cade’s face. He seemed happy to see her one moment, then in the next he was distant and wouldn’t make eye contact. She stood closely next to him, her elbow brushing his arm.
He glanced at her, smiled sadly, then looked down at his empty glass. She wondered how many drinks he’d had.
“I was hoping you’d be here,” she told him. “I wanted to talk to you and clear up what happened earlier today. I’m sure I look like a terrible person to you...”
Cade shook his head. “You’re not a terrible person. You didn’t ask to marry that guy...”
Something about Cade’s words and his tone didn’t match up. Either he didn’t believe what he was saying or there was something else bothering him. She wondered how long he had been waiting for her.
Fiona didn’t intend to get there so late, but she talked with her mother for a long time, the time getting away from her, and when she wasn’t making any headway there she went to her father. He talked about pack politics and familial responsibilities and it seemed pretty clear after nearly two hours that he didn't intend to change his mind about her engagement to Jackson.
She ended up having to call Wendy, the only person she trusted with her spare keys, to open up the bar in her absence.
“Have you been waiting long?” Fiona asked him, putting her hand on his shoulder. She glanced at Javier to get a read on the situation. He nodded and held up four fingers. Either that meant four drinks or four hours...Either way, she felt bad.
“No, not long,” Cade said. “But I didn’t realize it was getting so late. Maybe we can save this talk for later?”
Fiona was a bit stunned, but she didn’t want to be pushy. She removed her hand from his shoulder and Cade stood up slowly. “Let me at least give you my number this time,” she said.
Cade sighed like he wasn’t sure it was a good idea but he handed over his phone and Fiona put her number in. Just two seconds after she handed it back he told her to have a good night and he left. It felt so abrupt.
“What was all of that about? Did you guys say something to him?” Fiona asked, trying not to let herself panic. She’d only known Cade for a day... There was no reason for her to get so defensive, right?
“Oh, honey, we said a LOT of things,” Javier said, wiping a glass dry. “He told us a lot of things too. In fact, he was perfectly fine until you walked in.”
She loved Javier but sometimes he didn’t know when to be sympathetic or to hold his tongue. She was about to bite back at him when Wendy popped up behind the bar, a whole head and a half shorter than Javier.
“I think I know what might be bothering him,” Wendy whispered, leaning in close.
Normally Wendy was a bit socially awkward and she didn’t talk much, but once she got comfortable with you or if you talked about something that interested her, she had no issues prattling on.
In a matter of minutes, Fiona had gotten the whole scoop on Cade. The Knight family was under a curse and had been for many years. Cade’s grandfather had suffered from it, and it was currently afflicting his father. At some point, it was bound to catch up with Cade as well.
“What kind of curse is this?” Fiona asked, bewildered. “Did he say what has happened or what will happen to him?”
Wendy shrugged. “I’m not sure. He didn’t mention that.”
“And what about a cure? Did he say if he knew how to fix it?”
Wendy shook her head and sighed. “That’s why he’s in the city. He’s trying to find out about the curse so he can stop it.”
Fiona groaned and plopped down on the barstool. This was the first time in years, no, EVER, that she’d been so interested in. Why did that someone have to be cursed? That seemed to be like a curse on Fiona too. But despite that, she didn’t want Cade to pull away from her or give up on him either.
Javier patted her hand. “Sorry, honey. You should really talk to him about this. From the sounds of it, he really likes you. I’m sure he’s doing the typical pull-away-before-I-hurt-the-girl move.”
“Thanks for telling me about this,” Fiona told her friends. “I think... I want to try to help him.”
“Help him? How?” Javier asked. He slapped the black towel over his shoulder and poured a shot of vodka, sliding it across the bar to Fiona.
She took it and shot it, her throat full of the sting from the liquor. “Wendy, can you make time after work to help me out?”
Wendy nodded hesitantly. She always seemed so timid, but Fiona knew what she was capable of. She would need her help. Her help and assistance from one more very important person...
***
Sarah-Beth pinched the bridge of her nose and sunk back in her seat on the lounge sofa. “So you want me to help you find a cure for this curse you know nothing about for a man you know nothing about because you only just met him last night?” she asked flatly. “The sex must have been pretty good….”
Fiona huffed and rolled her eyes. “Listen, I know it seems weird, especially coming from me, but you’re my best friend. I need you to understand. I might not know everything about Cade yet, but he... I already feel like he’s someone important to me. Even if we don’t develop a relationship after this, I’d like to try to help him out.”
The silence between the three women was almost louder than the speakers of the underground club booming around them.
“I thought I was your best friend,” whimpered Wendy.
“You both are my best friends, for different reasons,” Fiona released to reassure both women.
Sarah-Beth looked at Fiona, then at Wendy, then back to Fiona again. “Okay, fine,” she said, her cheeks popping up with a smile. “I’ll help you out THIS time. The guy seems too hot to let slide by.”
Fiona rolled her eyes, and sighed with relief, grabbing SB’s hands. “Ah, goddess, you’re the best. I need both of your smarty brains to figure this out. Of course, I’ll try to talk to Cade about it and see what he has to say but he all but ignored me earlier... though I can’t say I can blame him.”
SB patted Fiona’s back lightly. “Just explain it to him. I’m sure he’ll be understanding if he likes you. And if he asks like a jerk after you’ve told him what’s up, then you can forget about him.”
“We already told him a lot,” Wendy admitted. “But I’m sure it would be different if he heard it directly from you.”
Fiona nodded. She wanted to be mad that Wendy and Javier had already told Cade about Fiona and Jackson’s engagement before she’d had the chance to explain everything, but they were also the reason she’d found out about the curse, so she couldn’t be too upset.
“I’ll try to hunt him down tomorrow and talk to him,” Fiona declared resolutely. “But until then, today has been declining rapidly and I think I need a little pick-me-up before I go home...”
SB grinned and peeked across the lounge. She caught the eye of one of her waitress friends who quickly brought over some drinks. The girls had a few more drinks and chatted about girly stuff until four o’clock in the morning.
“Don’t you just dream of having sex on the beach?” Sarah-Beth raised her drink with the same name, and her eyes fluttered like she was living in a fantasy world. Then she snapped, “I bet you would, Fiona, with your new boy toy.” Her eyes darted to Fiona who coughed on her mojito at the unexpected comment.
“Remember how I said you’re my best friend…yeah I take it back,” Fiona joked with SB as they both giggled.
“Wendy, you have any love interests these days?” SB pried, a bit bluntly compared to her usual self, but the alcohol was unpredictable.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever find love,” Wendy confessed, sipping on her vodka cranberry. Her eyes looked hollow as they stared into her drink. Fiona massaged her friend’s back as the girl was about to burst into tears.
Meanwhile SB’s face who was usually bright red when drinking, somehow brightened to the shade of a strawberry. Even in her blurred mind, Fiona caught sight of it. “Oh my goddess, who is it?” Fiona shrieked at the thought of SB finding love and slapped her friend on the thigh.
Sarah-Beth winced and rubbed her leg, but a shy grin started sliding across her face. “I mean, just a guy.” she muttered.
Fiona and Sarah-Beth had been friends since they were small children and Fiona knew SB’s I-have-a-crush-on-someone face. That was definitely it.
Wendy, whose expression brightened again, leaned in closely to hear the answer.
SB continued unprompted, “A handsome, tall, red-headed guy with adorable little freckles.”
It couldn’t be. The man who had the elite job with Holt Industries? The fierce underground fighter, who simultaneously had a heart of gold? The one everyone in New York wanted to be connected with?
“His name is….”
Before SB could finish her sentence Fiona uttered the name at the same time.
“Devon Delaney.”
What could her best friend possibly be doing with THE Devon Delaney?