Page 44 of The Shy Waitress and Her Boss

"Just humor me, dammit. I'm at my wits' end. Nothing I said in the truck seemed to make a difference with her," Slade revealed tautly, "and I just want to know if there might be something I'm missing here, because I don't..."

"Love her?"

Slade glared at his friend, knowing a trap when he saw one. If he said he didn't love Kady, Farica would only accuse him of lying, but if he were to say yes, his question had something to do with love, the brat would purposely misread him and say he had just admitted to loving Kady.

Which he didn't.

But it didn't mean he wouldn't mind doing something that men in love would do, if that was really what it took. Anything to make Kady stop crying.

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Kady was back in herbedroom, her tiny body curled up in a ball, when he entered and silently closed the door behind him. Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she had changed into a shirt - a shirt that was damn too large it could only belong to a fucking bug.

The billionaire's jaw clenched. He fucking knew it. This whole crying bout clearly had everything to do with fucking Humbug, and despite having Farica's advice ringing in his airs—-

Think knight to the rescue, not chest-beating caveman.

Cajole, don't command.

Sweet and soft, instead of rough and hard.

Yeah, well, to hell with all of that.

Kady only had her first inkling of no longer being alone when the bed dipped, and she found herself rolling to her back—-

And then she saw a bare-chested Slade looming over her, his shirt in one hand.

She immediately sat up, tears drying in her confusion. "S-Slade?"

"You're wearing his shirt," he bit out.

She stared at him dumbly. "What?"

"If you don't have enough clothes, then take mine, dammit." His arm shot out, thrusting his shirt at her.

She looked down, unable to understand why he was so adamant about her changing into his shirt. "I don't—-" Her gaze absently fell to whatshewas wearing, and she stopped speaking.OH.She thought about telling him that she hadn't realized it was actually her male cousin's shirt she was wearing and not Eric's, but instead she heard herself mumble, "Sorry. I didn't...realize."

"Bullshit."

She wanted to ask him if he were jealous, and if he said yes, then...didn't that mean something?Shouldn't it?

But the words remained locked in her throat.

She could never ask them, knowing that another girl had already asked the same thing, and how that same girl had fallen to pieces at Slade's answer.

"Shit." Slade immediately regretted his outburst when he saw that tears had once again started trekking down Kady's cheeks. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry again."

She shook her head, wanting to say that it wasn't him at all, but it was just so hard to speak.

"Please, baby." He cupped her face. "You're killing me here," he said raggedly. "I hate seeing you like this and not fucking knowing how to fix things."

Love me.

Slade's desperation grew as more sobs shook her body. "It's the shirt. Is that it? If you still want to wear his, then it's fine—-" He managed not to gag at the fucking concession. "You can wear another guy's shirt. It's not like I can stop you if you really have a thing for bugs—-" He heard her choke out a teary giggle.Finally.He swiftly scanned her face, and the tension inside him eased a little when he saw that the tears had stopped falling. For now at least.

But...

"So it really was the shirt?" he couldn't help asking one last time.

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