Never Just Friends by Katerina Winters
Chapter 1
"Breaking up after Valentine's Day, that's rough," Maritzia said, giving him a sad, sympathetic smile.
Cade shrugged as he brought the glass tumbler of amber liquid to his lips. "Yeah, well, the only reason why I didn't do it before Valentine's Day was because I didn't want to be labeled the villain." More so than he already was, he mentally added.
The din in the bar was reasonably low tonight, only punctuated here and there with laughter from some of their fellow officers from the precinct. Filled with mostly officers from the forty-eighth precinct, the widely known Bronx police bar was suitably crowded for a Friday night.
Maritzia pursed her lips to the side in thought, a habit Cade loved; a habit she had done since the first time he met her when he was fifteen and she was thirteen. "Well, at least she got some presents out of it," she offered pragmatically.
"Yeah, and my apartment," he grumbled, knocking back the rest of the glass.
Bethany had followed him from Alabama where she met him when he was stationed at Fort Benning. The move was supposed to solidify their casual on-again-off-again relationship. It was supposed to make him "take their relationship seriously," a phrase she had yelled at him time and time again throughout the long three years they tried to make it work.
Setting down her still half-full glass on the table and sliding it closer to him in a silent request for him to finish it, Maritzia gave him a considering look. "You don't think it was maybe too big of you to leave her your apartment? That was a nice place."
Taking her offered drink, he grinned at the sweet taste of her whiskey and coke. It was more coke than whiskey. "No, and she did come up here for me. So, I figured I wouldn't leave her homeless in New York after I called it off."
With her elbow resting against the beat-up and scarred wooden bar table, Maritzia put her chin in the palm of her hand and gave him a playfully beautiful smile. "You're a gentleman through and through."
"I know," he agreed dramatically before giving her a shrewd look. "But let's not pretend that you're not happy to see her go. I know you hated her," he said, pointing directly at her.
Leaning away from the table, Maritzia wrinkled her nose and shook her head at the accusation. "I didn't hate her. That's far too much energy to waste on someone like Bethany. It was just impossible to like her," she added lightly, her dark eyes shining in the bar's dim overhead lighting.
Cade laughed, more than intrigued by her candid words about his now ex. "Oh, was it now? Please elaborate now that you can speak truthfully since she's gone."
For nearly three years now, he had known that Maritzia did not care for Bethany and kept her feelings perfectly sealed under lock-and-key for his sake. Something he could not say for Bethany when it came to her.
Waving to a colleague of theirs that walked by, Maritzia turned her eyes back to him and cast him a level look. "Good Lord, Cade, the woman was stuck up as hell, and you know it."
"Yeah," he gave her a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head, ruffling his brown curly hair just as the bell of the bar’s front door dinged. Automatically, his eyes looked over Maritzia's puffy black curls that framed her beautiful face and watched as a few more officers he knew entered the bar. Looking back to her waiting eyes, he sighed and stared down at the empty pair of glasses between them as he thought of Bethany. "For a while, I convinced myself I liked that about her."
"Dear God, why?" Maritzia shot back, clearly horrified at the concept.
Cade grinned ruefully as he thought of all he had to deal with over the years with Bethany. "I don't know, I thought I would like that type of woman. She was…different."
A look passed over Maritzia’s eyes, a look he recognized like the back of his hand and made his stomach fill with fire. A look that they both have been ignoring for years now. A look that had grown between them in frequency since his return and despite his relationship and her own relationship. But like seasoned pros, they went on ignoring it.
As if shaking off the feeling, Maritzia gave him an overly bright, positive smile. "Yes, well maybe with the next woman you find, could you try to pick one who's a little bit more bearable?"
He let out a cold, bitter laugh at that. "There will be no next woman."
"Don't give me that. The infamous Caden Lamar Moore is not the type of man who stays single for long."
"Oh, and you would know? You've only ever seen me date one woman." He held up one finger to her and enjoyed the pouty look that threatened at her lips. God, he loved those lips. He loved her smile, her laugh, everything. There was nothing about Maritzia DeLeon he did not love.
Just as it did every time, he looked at his partner and best friend, memories of their childhood came rushing back to Cade. After his dad had died when he was fifteen, his mother moved them both from Philadelphia to New York for her teaching job. As an only child used to growing up in the suburbs, it had been an overwhelming culture shock moving to The Bronx. He could remember staring up at the towering and foreboding buildings as they drove through the congested city in his mom's old car, wondering how the hell were they going to adjust. He was used to living in a house, not an ant colony like everyone else in New York. He didn't want to take an elevator to get home every day. He didn't want to be surrounded by strangers day and night. He didn't want to live there—until his mom had pulled up to their new apartment. Sandwiched between two bigger buildings, they had pulled up to a two-story, stark white building off of Tremont street, right in Morris Heights. The four-unit apartment building turned out to be owned and occupied by the DeLeon family and had one apartment unit left. The vacant apartment was technically owned by the fourth DeLeon brother in the family but was never occupied. Renting the unit to a quiet little family not only helped cover the cost of the unit but as Francisco DeLeon put it, the leading patriarch of the entire family who lived across the hall from them, it was a perfect way not to have to rent it to their annoying cousins.
On his first day at the Tremont apartment, Cade and his mother were absorbed into the DeLeon family. With each of the three other units occupied with no less than two children, it took them less than an hour to get fully moved into their new spacious apartment. By the second day, Cade was sitting down and having dinner with a group of kids that would not only become his best friends but people he considered family. Especially Maritzia—Ritz for short. With two older brothers, she had taken after them not only in mannerisms but in the style of clothes as well. Cade had initially found the stern-looking thirteen-year-old tomboy kind of odd. Always slightly frowning and trying to be tough like her older brothers, Ritz had initially reminded him of kids he had met growing up that had always tried too hard to be cool. And despite being convinced he wasn’t ever going to get used to the girl that tagged along with him and her brothers, Cade found himself liking the quiet girl with the fierce expression. It didn’t take him long to realize her toughness wasn’t merely a façade. Where all the rest of her family members were loud and brash, Ritz was quiet but assertive. All throughout his high school years, he and Ritz became inseparable, until he turned the legal age to enlist. That was the day he walked away from his best friend’s tear-streaked face and shining eyes, vowing he would return.
"I know you well enough," Maritzia said, pointing accusingly at him, drawing him out of his reverie. Catching the eye of the lone waitress, Sheri, Maritzia signaled for more drinks. "Granted, dating might be a little bit hard since you're now living with my brother, and you're too cheap to get your own place again."
"Carlos is hardly ever there," he defended. "It's fine. This temporary arrangement will suit my needs perfectly until I make bigger, better, and more permanent plans for the future."
"Mmm." Skepticism flickered in her dark, brown eyes. She was not convinced.
Cade could see that she wanted to ask about those mentioned plans, but she said nothing.
"Well, the only thing in your future plans at this moment are more drinks," she announced happily, drumming the edge of the table with both hands. "I'll go get us refills, I know Sheri is super busy."
"Are you sure?" He leaned one folded arm on the table and gave her a lazy teasing grin. "I'd hate to have to take you home drunk and have to face Victor."
Cade emphasized the man's name with a secret note of disgust. Every single day for the past two years he has hated that man, a hatred he has been forced to keep wrapped up beneath a tight smile.
Her phone, which sat at the edge of the table, began to vibrate. Looking down at the glossy phone, they both saw Victor's smiling picture flash to life as the phone rang.
Groaning, Maritzia cast him a blaming look just as Sheri came over and dropped off two glasses filled with shining amber liquid.
Nodding to Sheri, Cade took the tumbler. "Speak of the devil," he murmured behind the rim of his glass.
Groaning again, Maritzia swiped her own glass off the table, spilling a couple of drops of the liquid over her fingers, and brought the glass angrily to her lips. "I swear he can sense when I'm having fun."
"More like sense when you're having fun with me," Cade corrected her. "Or he was simply tipped off." He gestured his glass to the people in the bar around them. Filled with off-duty police officers that treated gossiping like a sport, Cade wouldn't be surprised at all if Victor had received a ribbing text from some other officer letting him know his girlfriend was having drinks with her "work husband."
Looking around them with amused understanding, she laughed. "Very true."
"You gonna answer?" Cade took another sip of his drink and watched as she reached for the phone.
Long, delicate fingers grasped the phone before swishing the red icon to the right.
"Nah," she said, shaking her head and dropping the phone back in its original spot. "I'll see him when I get home tonight."
"Well then, should we polish off these drinks?" he asked, raising his drink up in a swishing little tilt.
Giving him a large smile, she raised up her glass. "Of course, tonight we celebrate. Here is to the end of a toxic relationship."
"Here's to an end of fights every single time I got home late from a call," he groaned in agreement.
"Here's to the end of her obnoxious side-eye every single time I saw that woman," Maritzia countered, rolling her eyes at the memory.
God, the arguments he and Bethany had over her, Cade thought with a shake of his head.
Raising his glass higher, he thought of everything he would not miss about that relationship. "Here's to the end of constant pressure and constant crying over when exactly when were we going to settle down and have children."
Dark brown eyes looked back at him with a sudden sharpness that demanded his full attention. Watching closely, he noticed every passing tell in her expression. With her gaze softening, she reached across the table and put her hand on top of his. Without hesitation, he flipped his hand over and grabbed her hand, not giving a damn about the no doubt staring eyes of their colleagues around them. Everyone in the department knew they were like family. hell, let them watch.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that," she said softly, squeezing his hand in comfort.
Cade's stomach tightened at the glimmer of pain shining in her eyes, and he wondered if she was enduring the same conversations with Victor.
"Don’t worry, Sunshine, that chapter of my life is over. Really, the only thing hurting now is my pride."
She nodded in understanding, her eyes focused on him solely. For the past few years, ever since he came back and gotten hired onto the department, they had worked together day in and out. Shamelessly using a little family nepotism, they got promoted out of uniform and to detective work quickly. Every day Cade got to work with her. Every day he got to hear her laugh, and watch that infamous seriousness of hers furrow her black brows together. So why was it every damn time she focused those damnable eyes on him, did it feel like his stomach was bottoming out and he was reminded of just exactly what was missing from his life?
Scooting his bar stool back noisily, Cade got to his feet. "I'll go get some more drinks."
"No, I said this round was on me," Maritzia protested.
She tried to get up, but he stepped around the tiny bar table and placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, feeling the warmth of her skin beneath her shirt.
"No, I'll go," he shook his head and gestured discreetly over to his left to where a small group of people stood at the edge of the long bar. "Sergeant Milford is over there with Banks and Tony. I don’t want her to see me left alone. The woman has been eyeing me all night like a piece of meat.”
Maritzia laughed. "She’s had her predatory gaze on you since you came to the department. What's the difference now?" she asked, holding out both hands while her eyes flicked to the woman and question and back to him again with barely suppressed mirth. "I swear she smelled your presence in the air the moment you moved back to New York. It's like the woman can sense eligible men miles away, like a superpower or something."
"Exactly," he hissed in a low whisper. "And that's why I think she knows I broke up with Bethany already."
"Really? I thought I was the first one to know!" Maritzia pouted.
"Sunshine, you are," he assured her, still leaning in close to her. He told himself it was to keep Sergeant Milford from peering at them too closely and not the fucking wonderful scent of amber and jasmine that bloomed in the air around her each time she moved. "I'm telling you that woman is an apex predator. I think she might have read my lips as we talked or something." Maritzia laughed harder at that and Cade forced himself to look away. "Yeah, you laugh but I swear that woman wants me," he shuddered dramatically and hugged himself with both arms while giving her innocent eyes. "She wants my body, Ritz, she wants to devour me."
Maritzia's body trembled with laughter and her eyes began to shine with tears as she tried to hold it at bay.
Shaking his head with a smile, he stepped away. "Wait here, and watch my six as I go to the bar and get us more drinks."
"Roger that." Giving him a cute salute, she smiled at him.
Bold, strong, and way smarter than him, Cade reminded himself not for the first time that Maritzia DeLeon was his friend, his sister even. Yes, she was fucking gorgeous and every red-blooded man within her vicinity knew it and found themselves staring at her with barely disguised want. But not him, no. He was her best friend only, and pseudo brother that got glomped into her family when she was a kid to the point that her mother, Alina DeLeon, called to check up on him just as much as she did her own sons. He was just family, he repeated the mantra in his head. He simply noticed every detail about the curvy, coppery skin woman he worked side by side with every day because they were like family and nothing more. He would just go on continuing to notice the way her long, dark curly hair she painstakingly tried to press straight every day would curl back up to its natural waviness when it rained or after her workout in the gym because he was a caring friend who noticed things like that.
He just simply wished he didn’t have to be the fucking friend that escorted her home to another man that night.