Page 1 of Cade

Chapter One

Cade

“So, who is next?” Evan laid down his cards and folded.

“It’s a little soon for that,” Cade said, tossing chips in to raise the bet. He didn’t want to talk about dating again just yet.

He and his group of friends met most Friday nights to play poker, and tonight was no exception. However, these games had been more and more rare with the new relationships for three of the six of them.

Almost a year ago now, Evan had come up with an idea to try a blind dating restaurant he was considering investing in. The idea was that the dates were done in the dark, with no info except what you shared, and you couldn’t see each other making the success of the date strictly based on your personality.

It was a brilliant concept, especially for their group, considering it was hard to know if women were interested in them or their money and status as successful billionaires. Jake had gone first, and the dates had started off rough, to say the least, and then he’d been set up with Cade’s assistant by his sister. It was technically Cade’s turn to pick a date for Jake, but Catherine had taken over, and he’d let her.

In the time that all this had been happening, his father had grown increasingly bizarre with his demands of both Cade and Catherine. He’d also taken a personal affront to Jake, dating Lauren, his assistant, and called her some choice names. Cade had done his best to distance himself from his father since then.

Only now, that problem was showing up again. His father had worked with Lauren’s mother to almost completely ruin the restaurant. Unfortunately for him, Cade and his friends pulled together to help rebuild it. It left Lauren with a sense of misplaced guilt, with it having been her mother that was involved.

Cade had told no one yet that this latest attack had his father behind it, mostly because he couldn’t understand why. Attacking Cade’s friends served no benefit that Cade could see and without a motive, he would not solve much. His friends wouldn’t be upset with him at all. They’d help him puzzle it all out, but he felt the need to hold this one close.

It pissed Cade off, though. He’d already banned his father from the building of the business he used to run. He had a private investigator looking into him and he’d cross the bridge of what to say to his friends once he knew more. Until then, he’d work to stop his father on his own.

“I think you’re up next, Cade,” Luke joked.

Cade groaned and ran a hand down his face. “Not if you’re picking.” Luke had a history of picking the worst dates for everyone.

“I’m offended.” Luke pressed a hand to his chest as he pretended he cared. His smile showed how much he didn’t care.

“I had to suffer through it. You can pull through,” Jake encouraged him.

“Only fair that everyone gets to endure Luke’s picks,” Evan agreed.

“Help me out here,” Cade turned to Ryker. “The longer it takes me to take a turn, the longer it will be before yours.”

Ryker remained stoic.

They were an interesting group of guys, Ryker being the quiet one. He only spoke when he felt the need, and those words were usually grunted out. He was Luke’s mentor somehow, though. Two more opposite personalities didn’t exist.

For every word that Ryker didn’t say, Luke did. He was the youngest of the group and his maturity level shined through everything he did in both business and personal life. Luke hadn’t matured beyond his teenage years still, despite being several years past them.

Then there were Jake, Evan, and Owen. All three of them had met their significant others on blind dates. Owen hadn’t done it at the restaurant like Jake and Evan. It hadn’t even been his blind date. He’d accidentally crashed someone else’s and ended up with the girl.

“Stop delaying it. You can help us re-open the restaurant.” Evan was a not so silent partner with Kayla, the owner of The Blind Date.

He didn’t really have a choice unless he wanted to explain why now wasn’t a good time in his life to be dating. That was going to happen.

“Fine,” Cade grunted out. “He can’t go first.” Pointing at Luke, Cade leaned back in his chair with a glare.

“You won’t know who went first. That’s the point.” Luke reminded him.

“We all know when it’s your turn.” Evan rolled his eyes.

Luke grinned, not even bothering to look sheepish about it.

“Deal or not?” Cade asked. He just wanted to move on, back to the game where he could play without too much arguing.

“In the end, Luke is right. You aren’t supposed to know who goes first, so can’t really agree to it,” Jake said.

“Bullshit.” He wasn’t about to lose this argument. There was no way that he was going to go on his first date in forever with some crazy chick that Luke picked.

---