Page 109 of To Tango, with Desire

“It’s about Zane’s mom.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know how to tell Zane, and I need to get this off my chest.”

I sighed. What was it with these two and communication? They both sucked at it.

“You need to go up to Zane and say—”

“My dad cheated on his mom.”

“He . . . Wow. Okay.”

“Omar asked me—wait, the man never asked for a damn thing in his life—he threatened me not to say anything about it. But it’s been eating me up for decades.”

“Decades?” I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to ease some of the tension. “Why is this coming up now? Why didn’t you tell him all those years ago?”

Kade shrugged. “I’m trying to make amends for my past behavior. I’m in a program at the moment and I . . . I feel he should know.”

“All it’s going to do is hurt him. You know that, right?”

“So you don’t think I should say anything?”

“No. I just . . . you have to handle this really carefully. You need to be honest with him, but you’ve a complicated history. To make matters worse, Zane loved your dad, he respected him. From what I understand, his mom and your dad had a great relationship—”

Kade scoffed. “My dad . . .”

“What?”

“Nothing.” But the look on his face was haunted.

“Listen, if this is what you need to do to get this off your chest, then do it gently. That’s all I can say. Be kind and considerate, no matter how upset you feel about it. Be mindful of Zane’s feelings. It’ll hurt coming from you, given all that’s happened in the past.”

I was startled by the bitter hatred that flashed across his face. It lasted a mere moment and then it was gone. He stood there, looking defeated, and I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how.

“He’s gonna think I’m purposefully causing him more pain. But it’s like if he can forgive Chloe, then why not me?”

“I don’t know how much he’s forgiven her to be honest. I think Zane would be happy to never see her again.”

I thought about the charity ball, and even though it had been hard meeting his ex, I was glad that it had happened. Glad that we could finally put this all behind us.

“Why meet up with her then?”

My heart squeezed in my chest. Surely he was mistaken. “What? Zane met up with Chloe?”

“I spotted them at a café. So I figure if he’s able to get cozy with her again, then maybe he’s ready to hear the truth, you know? Maybe talking to him about this will help us move on.”

“What café?”

“Shit, I thought you knew. It’s no big deal.” Kade shifted. “Listen, I should—”

“If you want me to keep this secret of yours, you better start spilling the beans.”

Kade rolled his shoulders. “You don’t have to get nasty about it.”

“What happened?”

“Listen, all I know is that I saw Zane and Chloe at a coffee shop together.”