“I mean, there is no need for that. Natasha, what’s your problem?” Jordie said as he set his phone down, his brows furrowed.

Kacey tore her gaze from his and back to Natasha’s, since she was staring at her almost as if she were sizing her up. “I heard you good and well. But why would I care?”

Natasha laughed, and even her laugh was a soft, raspy sound that one would hear in a porno. “Because he loves me.”

Kacey’s eyes widened more as she whipped her gaze to him, but he scoffed. “No, I don’t, and I told you that plenty of times.”

“So you know her?” Kacey demanded and he shrugged.

“Yeah, I hooked up with her in New Orleans,” he said simply, and she swore her blood pressure rose even more.

“Remember, when you were texting him every five seconds, begging him to be with you?”

Kacey’s head whipped back to Natasha, her eyes narrowing. “I never begged, and you don’t know me or my relationship with him. You were just a night of fucking.”

“Oh, it was more than a night, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. So obviously I meant something to him if I was going to rehab to visit him.”

Kacey swore her eyes couldn’t widen any more. Looking across the table at a gaping Jordie, she glared. “What!” she roared, and Jordie shook his head.

“You are my friend, Natasha, or were. Because the way you are acting is not okay. I don’t love you. I never have, or will.”

“She went to rehab to see you?” Kacey asked incredulously.

“Oh yeah, girl. All those nights he needed someone to talk to, he called me and we’d talk for hours. I know everything about you two’s relationship and his alcoholism. And I helped him through that while you had no clue about anything.”

Kacey’s heart was pounding in her chest because, surely, this wasn’t happening. Jordie couldn’t reach out to her, but he could to the porn star who was standing in front of their table.

“He does love me. He’s just fighting his feelings, not realizing how good we are together and how he’s breaking my heart not wanting to be with me,” Natasha said then, her eyes falling on Jordie. “I know I haven’t been in contact, but it just hurts. You really mean something to me.”

Kacey was sure she was having a panic attack as her heart jumped up and down in her throat, her belly turning. He trusted this person he didn’t even know—someone who started out as just a fuck—over her?

“I never meant to hurt you, and I’ve told you that many times. We are friends, Natasha. Stop trying to start shit.”

Unbelievable.

She meant something to him.

Kacey could see it in his eyes. He might not love her, but he cared about her, and that bothered her more. Why was she special enough to get that piece of him Kacey wanted so desperately, to help, to be there for him? And why hadn’t he said anything about her?

“You love me!” she yelled like a crazy-faced bitch and Kacey couldn’t take it anymore.

“Natasha,” Jordie said calmly, his hands coming up. “Calm down. You know that’s not true. I told you that a long time ago.”

“No, I know you do. You don’t share things like what you told me. You don’t tell me how it hurts to not drink, how you missed having sex with me, and then you come here, get back with her, and then drop me like a bad habit.”

Jordie was shaking his head. “I was fucked up back then. I’m not that guy anymore, you know that.”

“Sure, but I helped you. I was there for you when she wasn’t,” she said, pointing at Kacey. “Who talked you through her losing her shit on you because she lost your baby so long ago? Not her, but me!”

Oh. Oh wow, Kacey thought as she slowly scooted out of the booth.

“Because you are my friend, Natasha!” Jordie yelled, his temper getting the best of him, but he must have noticed Kacey moving because he reached out, taking her arm. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, leaving, so you and your friend can catch up,” she sneered, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“No, she’s leaving,” he said, looking back up at Natasha. “Go, you’re doing nothing but causing issues.”

“Oh, what, I’m going to make your precious Kacey cry? If she meant an ounce to you, you wouldn’t have tried to forget her every second you got.”

Kacey hadn’t even realized that she was on the verge of tears until Natasha said that.

“That’s not true, and you know it. Stop this. Kacey, stay here,” he demanded, but she shook her head before ripping her arm from him.

“Don’t push me away now that I’m telling the truth.”

“You aren’t. You’re trying to cause problems because you don’t like not getting what you want. You aren’t going to get me, Natasha. Just stop.”

“You never told me to stop before.”

“Because I, for one, was a fucked-up mess, and, two, I wasn’t with Kacey.”

“Yes, key words ‘not with her.’ And you were good then,” she said and Kacey wasn’t sure if Natasha was trying to convince herself or Jordie, but she was pretty sure that was a damn lie.

“Are you serious? I had one foot in the grave with a bottle in my hand, and I must have been pretty fucked up to have dealt with you for as long as I did. Because now that I am stone-cold sober, you are fucking annoying.”