My emotions were teetering on a ledge, my love for Blane warring with the guilt I was carrying around inside. It was wrong of me to lead him on. But if he knew what had happened between Kade and me, he’d never forgive me. And I couldn’t face that yet. I’d just gotten him back in some small degree and couldn’t handle the thought of another fallout between us—one that, this time, would be permanent.

The guilt gnawed at my heart, which made me hold him even more tightly. His shirt grew damp beneath my cheek and when he forced my chin to tip up, I couldn’t look him in the eye, so stared at a spot on his neck instead.

“Don’t cry, Kat,” he said, his words a pained whisper. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

But it wouldn’t be okay. It really, really wouldn’t. Not with Kade, who was determined to disappear from my life, and not with Blane, who I loved but couldn’t trust.

My anger and bitterness over what Blane had done had finally dissipated, but without it, I felt even emptier than I had before.

I had to be at work soon, and my uniform was in my burned-out apartment. I called Tish to see if she had an extra I could borrow.

“Oh, not to worry—we have new uniforms for the Fourth,” she informed me.

My heart sank. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes.”

“Are they as bad as the Santa ones?”

“Think Daisy Duke meets Wonder Woman.”

I groaned. Good Lord, I couldn’t even imagine what that was, and it turned out that even if I’d been able to, it wouldn’t have come close to the real thing.

I turned around to see exactly how much of my ass was hanging out of the cut-off denim shorts Romeo had bought for us. They were even shorter than the ones he usually made us wear in the summer. The employees’ bathroom mirror said way too much. The shirt was like Daisy’s, tying between my breasts, but one side was red-and-white striped while the other was navy blue with little white stars. At least the shirt had short sleeves, so I knew it would stay on, but the plunging neckline left little to the imagination. Though the bare midriff and stomach didn’t bother me—my broken-heart diet had taken care of that—my chest appeared immune to weight loss.

I sighed. Well, here was hoping the getup helped with tips.

It was a good hour or more into my shift when I turned from one side of the bar to work the other and saw Kade walking in the door.

He’d changed into jeans and another of his ubiquitous black T-shirts, and he was just taking off his sunglasses when he spotted me. His hand paused for a fraction of a moment, then he was heading my way.

A stupid grin spread across my face and my pulse quickened. Ridiculous, how glad I was to see him, but I couldn’t help it.

“Hey,” I said as he slid onto an empty barstool. “How’s your back?”

“I told you to go to Blane’s,” he said. “Nowhere else.”

His voice was hard and flat, his eyes sparking with anger.

My smile faded. “I did, but I had to come to work.”

“I would have brought you, or Blane.”

“You weren’t there.” And I wasn’t going to relate how I’d snuck by Blane’s den to avoid an uncomfortable car ride. I was getting angry. Here I’d been all happy to see him and he had to go and ruin it. “Stop yelling at me and have a drink.” I popped the top off a beer bottle and set it in front of him.

Kade glowered at me and I raised an eyebrow, waiting. At last he sighed and reached for the beer. Taking a swig, he eyed me.

“Looks like your ribs are better,” he said.

I looked down at the expanse of skin revealed by my “patriotic” uniform. “Yeah, guess so.” The marks were yellowish now, hardly visible in the low light of the bar.

“Better not come home in that outfit,” he said. “Blane will have a shit fit.” The words were said casually, but his eyes were keen.

I stiffened. “It doesn’t matter what Blane thinks,” I said. “He doesn’t control me.” I felt absurdly like a rebellious teenager: He’s not the boss of me.

“Doesn’t he?”

“Is that what you think?”

Kade gave a deceptively casual shrug and took another drink of beer. “I brought you back because he needed you.”

His words stung. “What about what I need?”

Kade’s eyes held mine. “That’s something only you can decide.”

I had to go back to work then, but Kade stayed. He switched to coffee after the beer, and I could feel his eyes on me as I worked. Too vivid memories of his hands on me—of all we’d done in his bed—made me acutely aware of him.

I tried not to think about it.

I was delivering drinks to a table with three guys when one of them put his hand on my ass. I cursed Romeo in my head while hurriedly putting down the drinks.

“No touching,” I said through a forced smile, pushing his hand away.

“Sweetheart, I’ve got a hard-on just lookin’ at you,” the guy said. He wasn’t drunk but was well on his way. His buddies laughed, both of them staring at my chest.

“Well, that’s just great,” I said sweetly. “I hear men your age often have trouble with that.”

His smile faded pretty quick and I headed back behind the bar.

I grabbed the coffeepot and went to refill Kade’s cup.

“Should I break his arm or just his hand?”

I glanced at him, surprised. “Neither,” I said. His face was cold and he was staring at the guy who’d put his hand on me. “It’s just part of the job. Especially when Romeo has us dress like this. You get used to it.”

“I don’t like it,” he said, swinging his gaze back to mine.

I shrugged. “It is what it is,” I said. “You didn’t tell me how your back was. What did the doctor say?”

“He said I’m fine. Don’t change the subject.”

“Fine. Then I’ll just get back to work then.” I spun away and spent the rest of the evening ignoring Kade. Well, at least I pretended to. He was a hard man to ignore, especially when I felt his gaze on me the entire time.

“So what’s with tall, dark, and gorgeous?” Tish asked as we were cleaning up. She gave a small jerk of her head toward Kade. “Wasn’t he the guy you left with that one night a few months back?”

She meant when I’d pretended to pick Kade up from the bar. It felt like forever ago, so much had happened since.

“Remember how Blane and I broke up because he accused me of sleeping with his brother?”

She nodded.

“That’s him.”

Her mouth fell open and she took another look. “Well, if you weren’t sleeping with him, you should fix that right quick.”

I avoided that one, reiterating instead, “He’s Blane’s brother.”

Tish shrugged, tugging the overflowing trash bag from the bin. “So? Stuff like that happens all the time. It’s not like you’re doing a threesome.” She grinned. “Though that sounds awesome.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her irreverent humor, though I was sure the image that flashed unbidden through my mind had me turning bright red. I glanced at Kade, who was watching us, and quickly looked away.

At last it was time to leave and I went to grab my purse from underneath the bar.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Kade said, sliding off the stool.

I gave a curt nod, following him out the door.

“I called a company to start cleanup on your apartment,” he said as I locked the door behind us. “They moved your stuff into storage for now.”

“Thank you,” I replied. That was one less thing to worry about, though I wondered how badly my clothes reeked of smoke.

The night air was thick and humid. Sweat broke out immediately on my skin. Fishing an elastic band from my pocket, I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail as I walked beside Kade. Not even a slight breeze stirred.

“Feels like a storm coming,” I said absently, glancing up at the sky. A flash of lightning lit up the horizon.

“Not pissed at me anymore?” Kade asked.

I sighed. “I’m tired of feeling. Angry, sad, hurt, bitter, disappointed, afraid. I’m just sick of it all.” I desperately wanted a drink, something to numb the tumult and confusion inside me.