Page 20 of Fourth Down Forever
"No way. She's too fat to be his wife. Haven't you seen the other women he's been with? I bet it's a pity date," the other woman replies and right at that moment, something deep within me knows that they are talking about me and Kade. The sad part of it is that something about what their saying hits one of my main insecurities deep down. I'm the type that seems strong, like I don't let anything hurt me, but that is totally wrong. I'm actually a very sensitive person.
At that moment, I hear a stall door hit the wall.Oh shit, that's probably Janae. I hurry up and make my way out of the stall totry to intercept her. But I'm too late because as I exit the stall, I find Janae in the two woman's faces. "Who are you to talk about another woman like that? Do you think that you are perfect?"
"Janae, it's okay," I tell her and that's when the women notice me and the blood drains from their faces. Pushing past them, I begin washing my hands as I say, "Women who have to put others down are really just unhappy withthemselves."
Nobody says anything else. Janae and I finish washing up then leave to head back to the tables. The whole time we were in the bathroom face to face with those nasty words, I presented a tough exterior, but they only confirmed exactly what I've been feeling since the moment he asked me to stay married to him—I'm not good enough.
We approach the door to the room where the dinner is and I freeze. Janae looks over at me, "Don't worry about them. They're just jealous."
I can feel the unshed tears in my eyes, and I try to blink them away but I'm not successful. "They're right, Janae. I don't belong here for many reasons."
"If you don't belong here, then neither do I," she says to me as she wipes away a tear from my cheek.
"But you do belong here. Your fiancé loves you. I'm just here as a favor," I whisper, dropping my gaze to the ground.
"Sam. Look at me," she demands. I do as she says and look at her. "I'm telling you I've never seen Kade look at anyone like the way he looks at you."
Wiping my face, I look at her in earnest. "I can't do this right now. Can you tell Kade that I'm going home?"
"Of course. I'll check in with you in a bit," she says to me.
I don't reply, I just nod and head toward the front door, pulling out my phone and calling for an Uber. Thankfully, it pulls up five minutes later and I'm able to get out of therequickly. My phone buzzes in my purse and I see Kade’s name on the screen, but I ignore it, putting it back into my purse.
No matter what he thinks, those women were right—I'm not Kade's type nor do I belong in the limelight. He is an amazing football player and will be getting more and more famous, he doesn't need me to drag him down. I'm just a regular girl who is too curvy and is just trying to survive.
I enter Kade's apartment, heading straight to his room. I pull out my suitcase, placing as many clothes as possible into it. The need to get out of here takes over, back to my normal life and not some fairytale that Kade has spun for me.
Once I've packed as much as I can in my suitcase, I call another Uber and go straight to my apartment. The moment I enter my own domain; every amount of weight I've been carrying threatens to crush me and the only thing I can do is to release it the only way I know how. Crawling into my bed, I curl into the fetal position and cry, letting out every feeling I've had since the moment I found out that I drunkenly married Kade Humphries.
Chapter sixteen
Kade
Janae comes back from the bathroom but she's without Sam, leaving me confused. When Janae returns, I lean over the table and ask, "Is Sam still in the bathroom?"
"No. She went home," she replies calmly. A little too calm for my liking.
"Why, what happened?"
"Kade. Let it be for right now," she says with a tone of warning as she looks over at two women sitting at the table diagonal from us with two of my other teammates, Ryan and Justin. I'm not sure what happened in the bathroom, but by the way Janae is looking at them, I know that they're involved.
I look back over at Janae. Clenching my jaw, I grit out, "Tell me what happened or I'm going to go ask them."
"Kade," Shane says in warning but I don't listen. Instead, I turn on him. "This is my wife, Shane. If something happened, I need to know about it. You would want to know if this was about Janae."
He puts his hands up in surrender and whispers, "You're right. Janae, tell us what happened."
Janae takes a deep breath. "Fine, but you will not go running out of here halfcocked when I tell you. You need a plan. Agree?"
"I agree."
"Those two women were in the bathroom at the same time as us. They were talking about you and Sam. Saying that she doesn't belong here and is too fat for you."
My blood boils with every word that comes out of her mouth. How could someone talk about her like that? Sam, fat? No, she's fucking beautiful with a fucking gorgeous body. A womanly body. One that looks like she could handle a man like me and not like she's going to break. If those women knew anything about me, Sam is exactly the type of woman I want.
Pushing back my seat, I get up, but Janae stops me. "I thought you said that you weren't going to go after her without a plan."
"I'm not. I have a plan," I tell her as I gather my things.
