Page 114 of Double Dare
“Yeah, we will, but that doesn’t solve our Amber problem. She hates your friendship with Gar, that’s no secret, and now she’s sabotaging you. Gar says she wouldn’t do it, but he’s going to ask her if she knows anything. She ruined your fucking business, love.”
“Still doesn’t explain how she even got those pictures,” Kade says.
Yeah, we’ve thought long and hard about that one, but short of her creeping on us like a peeping Tom, I can’t come up with anything else. Unless she set up a camera. Fuck, who knows?
“Maybe it’s time I use this as an opportunity to rebrand,” Laken says. “There’s this couple from Lowell Point who own this wildlife conservation organization. They take stray, injured or endangered animals to rehabilitate them, and they run a lot of good fundraisers and programs that support the local environment. I was thinking of teaming up with them so some of the sales from my photos go there.” She finishes her bread and starts on the salad. “They reached out a while ago, and now seems like a good opportunity to go see them. If this whole scandal hasn’t thrown them off.”
I love it. I love that she isn’t letting this ruin her passion. Instead, she’s taking the opportunity to do better, switch gears, make a change that suits her and the vision she has. “Full support here.”
“Same. You should go meet them,” Kade says. “And give me a bit of that salad.” He snatches the bowl, but she lets it go.
“Can you help me?” she asks Kade. “To make a brand or a logo or something new?”
“Sure as shit can. Give me some ideas and we can work on it together.”
“And when they reached out before, they mentioned looking for new fundraiser ideas. What if we did a sponsored fight night at the gym or something?” She looks at me.
“We can organize something. You need to go see them first, though.” I smirk, enjoying that she’s excited about something new.
Laken smiles at me, and then her eyes get watery. She covers her face and laughs at the same time. “Are we doing this?” she asks with a huff of laughter. “Are we really…us and it’s working?” She motions to us sitting around, having dinner together, in our own place, supporting each other and having a conversation.
Pretty damn proud of it, to be honest. “Fuck yeah, we are.”
“It might seem humble, Laken, but don’t fool yourself into thinking our minds aren’t on sex right now,” Kade says, grinning. He squeezes her hand. “We’re doing this and it’s working.”
It is working, despite how crazy it is. Relationships take work, and I fully believe that applies to any style of relationship. I know ours is going to take extra communication and maybe some rules or boundaries, but we’ve stumbled our way to this point, and I know we can figure out the rest. Are we gonna fight and fuck it up sometimes? Absolutely, but who doesn’t do that?
“Are you happy?” I ask her, honestly wanting to know. She seems happy, but she’s also good at hiding when something is bothering her.
“I’m something more than happy. I’m right. Does that make sense? Like everything about this, us, our situation and how it came to be, feels right, and now it feels like it ended up how it was supposed to.” She looks at me, then at Kade. “Do you feel it?”
“Yes,” Kade says, no elaboration, but determination in that one word.
“It does feel right, love. Just don’t get pissed at us if we fight sometimes.”
“It’s stress relief.” Kade nods.
Laken leans back, lifting her glass to her lips. “Now I just want these staples out so you two will stop pussyfooting around me.”
“Agreed,” we say together.
“I wasn’t built to be gentle,” I add.
“I wasn’t built to resist you,” Kade one-ups me.
She squints her eyes, studying the two of us as something rolls around in her mind. “Okay,” she starts, tucking her feet under her ass. “I’m like…small.”
“Tiny as fuck.”
“Petite,” she counters. “So, if we’re going to do the whole double—”
“Oh, fuck no.” I get up and walk away, grabbing plates and taking them into the kitchen while Kade tries to act like he’s got his shit together.
“What? What’s happening?” Laken’s face drops.
“Fuck, I can’t.” Kade grabs the bowl of salad and brings it to the counter.
“What?” she shouts, standing.