by Leanne Davis
She nodded, licking more whipped cream. Naturally, his mind was temporarily caught on her tongue. A jolt of… attraction? Sexual interest? …was sharp, real and surprising to Hunter. He shook his head to banish the strange thoughts. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind. He had to remember that. And having that feeling towards Kyomi? His cousin’s girlfriend? No. Hunter wasn’t like that. He was well aware of what cheating could do to someone’s life. “You should turn on your phone,” she mimicked without a break in licking the sweet whipped cream.
He shook his head, took the device and shoved it at her. “Do it. Do it for me. Turn it on for me.”
Surprised, she used her free hand to take it. “Me?”
“Yeah. I can’t do it. Just see if there are any messages.”
“Okay…” She shoved her drink toward him. Biting her lip, she turned it on and stared at the screen in her hand. Then she looked up for a password. He gave it to her and she nodded, typing until his phone opened up. “You have dozens of messages here.”
He could tell by the little, red notification icon he had emails and texts and several apps were flagging at him. He stood up abruptly. “Read them all. Then summarize them for me. I’m going to buy a bottle of water to wash down this chocolate flavor. You want one?”
“No. I can’t read your private emails. They’re from your wife. That’s wrong, no matter how wronged you were. She’s still your wife.”
The words seemed to hang between them. His wife. However, all of his time and desire to spend it with someone centered on Kyomi, not his wife. She looked down. “Hunter, really. This isn’t for me to get in on.”
“I can’t… I can’t read her words. Whatever they are. It’ll bring up too much rage. Anger. That scary-feeling of violence that first made me run and hibernate here. As my friend, though, you can. I need you to do that for me. I’m begging you to.”
“What if she refers to private things?”
“You already know a lot of the private things between us.”
“But there’s a lot I don’t know. I’m just not comfortable—” She stretched out her arm with his phone in her hand.
He caught her hand in his. His was large enough to cover her knuckles and the fist she had around the black device. “Please? I know it’s making you feel weird. But not as weird as I feel by wanting to kill her. Her words might rekindle the desire to do just that. That scares me. That’s why I need someone else to screen them for me. I’ve had all this time to ask Asher and I can’t stand the thought of him doing it. Just you. I’m okay as long as I hear it from you. Please?” Begging her? He wasn’t above it. Eyebrows raised with eager anticipation, he hoped she could help him.
Her hand slowly returned to her lap. “Okay,” she answered simply. Relief flooded him as his shoulders dropped down. He appreciated her lack of drama at all times, but especially now.
He was gone for several minutes buying a bottle of water and grabbing a stack of napkins to wipe his mouth. He downed the rest of his hot chocolate before chugging some water. And it was time to hear the voice of reality. To finally learn something new. To relive the situation that sent him spiraling down a dark ravine before showing up at Asher’s ranch. Time froze for Hunter to the point he had no idea what was going on.
Whipping around, he walked toward her. She looked up without any expression, nothing to reveal what she might be thinking or feeling about what she read. Staying away for ten minutes, he finally wandered back and flopped down beside her. Both their butts rested against the planter box, and they stared at the kids playing in the park and sledding, along with the tourists wandering through the shops all around them. “Well? Was there anything important?”
She slipped the phone to him. “Yes. There were many important messages. What do you want to hear? The first one or all of them?”
“Francine?”
“Yes. She sent you fifty-three text messages.”
He blinked. Yeah. That would be just like her. Ridiculous. “And?”
“Mostly, ‘I’m sorry.’ Lots of begging you to respond to her. Everybody wonders where you are. No one knows or has a clue. No one thought of Asher or Reed Ranch. Oh, your mother texted you and seems to grow more concerned after a full week without any response from you. So please, contact her and tell her something.”
“Francine apologized.” He snorted. “Is that all?”
“You should read them for yourself.”
“I—I have no interest. None at all. So was that it?”
“No, she seemed to grow angrier at your lack of response. Honestly, there was probably no better revenge than ignoring her, judging by her messages. She detests being ignored.”
He smiled to himself and she looked up to see it. “You knew that?”
“How to get to Francine? Sure. I was married to her for five years. I know… I guess, I could call them ‘parts’ of her. Being ignored is unprecedented for her. No one ignores her.”
“She was quite sorry. I think she wants you back. Or at least to talk to her.”
He shrugged. He swiftly processed that but had no feeling about what to do with it. “Any idea if I still have a job?”
“Oh, yeah. You do. The dad? He answered the picture you sent that night. He was pissed. Appalled. Horrified. Fully on your side. I’m guessing they both suffered by his string of scornful words and disgust. He sent a few more messages over the last few weeks, asking you to reply, but said he understood if you need to take more time. Seemed decent enough.”
“He is.”
Hunter’s skin started to feel itchy and too tight for his body. It was all suddenly too close for comfort. He was right back there, and the image of Francine could not be extinguished. The familiar sensations of horror and hurt were even scarier and more upsetting because of his desire to hurt her. And Stanley. The need to get revenge all at once seemed so satisfying.
“Okay.” He shot to his feet. “Anything else pressing?”
“Well, not that I saw, but heck if I know what could be important to you. Just take a look at your phone, Hunter.”
Standing up, he turned and scanned the crowd of tourists out enjoying the day despite the cold temperatures. “That phone represented my entire life. All I did was look at it. Messages came constantly at all times of the day, no matter what I was doing. It was more of an appendage than my hands. I ignored everything if an important message appeared. Including my mother. Not the first time she hasn’t heard from me in a while, despite several urgent messages of concern. What if…” He shook his head, unsure where his wandering thoughts would land, yet it felt like he had to say these words.
“What if? What?” She stood up too, and they strolled down the sidewalk.
“What if their affair was obvious? Her sleeping with the stepbrother? And being in love with him even before we got married? What if it were always the case and I was simply too damn busy to notice it? Too preoccupied to notice her? What if I drove her to him?”
Her breath caught as she stood beside him. He glanced down at the sharp intake and the feel of her hand on his forearm. “What?” he asked at her reaction.
“Hunter… that is actually amazing.”
“What is?”
“You. Thinking that maybe this terrible situation was created by something more than all her indiscretions. All her wrongdoings. You’re beginning to realize…”
“I ignored my wife so often she could fuck her stepbrother in my bed? Yeah, that’s been pretty difficult for me to try and wrap my head around. Being here, I’ve had a new clarity I can never remember having or even caring about. Even being half-inebriated most days, it’s very different from burying myself inside a phone and messages, focused solely on my work and deals. I left River’s End pretty young and had only dollar signs in my eyes, along with a ridiculous, ruthless ambition. You wouldn’t have liked me then. Nor my real life. My real self. Here? I’m not me. Here, I’ve forgotten about the phone. I’m not shushing you as I take calls and messages that I consider far m
ore important than your company. So no, Kyomi, I won’t take the phone again.”
“You thought a while on this?”
“Yes, and I realize this is a wakeup call. I didn’t even know I needed one. But being at Reed Ranch, and so removed from it all tends to make you aware of the things you need or don’t need. You know what was the most shocking to me? The world did not collapse when I did. It still stands. I’m still here. No lightning struck me dead. When I divorce her, I’ll be broke. We had a prenup. The fortune will always remain entirely hers. Well… except for Stanley and his dad. But what’s hers is not mine. Not sure how that’ll work. But I’ll be starting over again. The penthouse? The art we collected? The glitzy lifestyle I worshipped and wanted and thought I deserved? All gone. I thought when I came back here, to the damn place I was raised, that I not only lost my wife, but also my sanity and my whole purpose in life. But later on, a new idea sunk in, the idea that there’s perhaps more to life and to me than money and success and ultimately, power that I sought. I always thought I found it. Turns out, I didn’t.”
“Oh, my God, Hunter, this is more than I ever conceived you were going through. And divorce is serious. You haven’t even spoken to her yet. You won’t listen to her messages. You can’t just divorce her without first speaking to her.”
“I know some people accept infidelity. Not me. That’s a line you can’t cross. A forever line for me. I can’t go back if I can’t trust her. And her stepbrother? I might mock them and seem heartless, but she broke my heart, Kyomi. She broke my heart and shattered my trust that night. I can’t… I can’t ever be married to her again.”
“You still have to talk to her. You have to be the one to tell her that.”
“I also decided to abolish all the deadlines. I’ve scheduled deadlines in my life for over a decade. I have this imaginary timeline of what I need to do and accomplish ever since I was sixteen. Finish high school with a four-point-oh GPA. Do enough extracurricular activities to get into the University of Washington. That was the golden key. I lived my high school years with one goal in mind: get out of River’s End. College was much more than a temporary getaway. I was competitive to a fault. I had to choose the right major, and minor, and I did. I stepped on anyone’s toes or hands to get there too, excluding any outlets of fun and recreation. Then I met Francine and her family. They were crucial in boosting me up one rung on the ladder of corporate success and from then on to the next. I exhausted myself with all the work I took on. Eighty-hour work weeks, and I never vacationed. I had all this money accruing and I never took a vacation. Maybe…”
She gripped his wrist with her fingers and pressed hard. “No. There is no maybe about it. You didn’t cause her to cheat. She chose to do it, no matter what you did or didn’t do for her. I mean, she could have told you if she needed something more or different from you.”
He flipped his hand over and took hers. “Thank you for saying that. I kind of needed some encouragement to ease my guilt. But honestly? When I arrived at Reed Ranch, it was like I looked up for the first time in a decade and asked myself, what the hell am I doing? Where am I going? And why? Why? All I keep thinking is why? Why did I marry Francine if I didn’t intend to spend time with her? Why did she marry me if she loved another man, no matter who he was? Why did we get together if we didn’t want to spend all our time together? Why didn’t we mind the long hours I worked? Why didn’t she want me around more often? Why didn’t I notice how much time I spent away from home? Why? You know? What was the plan? Work until I had all the money and then die of a heart attack at the age of fifty with a cheating wife?”
“Hunter… where are you going with all this?”
“I honestly don’t know. But I’m not going home. That’s what I do know. I’m not going home, or what I thought was home because it never was. I’m not sure where my home is or what to expect. So I’m still ignoring the phone. I’m walking on a sidewalk with my friend and enjoying the sounds of kids sledding and the cold air on my face. Ask me the last time I did such a thing.”
“Okay. When was the last time?”
“I don’t know. Maybe when I was a kid with my parents.”
“You are driven. Ambitious. Focused.”
“Ruthless.”
“Okay, ruthless. You don’t have to give up all of that. Just make some adjustments to the singular vision you once had of your life. Like success; you can have the job and the penthouse and the wife, but be sure to make time for her. Make sure you spend your time enjoying something.”
“It will not be with Francine.”
“Hunter… I really think you have to talk to her. You don’t know what you want. This smacked you in the face and blindsided you. It made you reevaluate all the parts of your life and yourself, but you can’t decide to divorce a woman you haven’t even spoken to. You have to deal with something. Some part of it.”
“I thought you’d support me.”
She nodded. “I do. I really do. But you also need to discuss things with her to divorce her.”
“Okay. Maybe that’s a good point. You’re saying I got here by not being fully engaged and dealing with her in my personal life, so to end it or change it, I have to do something different?”
“Yes.”
He stopped dead in middle of the sidewalk. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” Her eyebrows rose in surprise at his words and she paused as well.
“To my house. I need some things. So many things. But honestly? What I want most right now?”
“What?”
“Fresh underwear. I want to wear my own underwear. I miss them. Go with me? Maybe I can face one thing with your help.”
“Now?” Her eyes bugged out. “I have nowhere to stay in Seattle.”
“For now, I have a lot of money so we can stay anywhere you want.”
Her eyes widened even more. “Overnight?”
“Well… we can keep it platonic like a stay-over. But yeah.”
“What about my ranch? And Asher? And I have no clothes.”
“We can pay someone to stop in and do your work, buy some new clothes and Asher will just think it’s a day that you’re not coming over. He has no clue that you now show up every evening just because of me. Not him. He didn’t notice any change and you know it. So he won’t miss you or think anything about it.”
Her mouth gaped, and she shut it, looking at the ground then back at him. Finally, she shrugged. “Fine. Okay. Let’s go get your underwear. Platonically and as friends.”
He laughed. He enjoyed being with the best friend he might have ever met.
He was walking quickly, feeling invigorated now, like he hadn’t been in… well, since the big event.
She stopped dead however.
“What?” he hesitated, feeling sure she would back out of their recent plans. Find more reasons—even if they were legitimate, not to go. Reasons like her having a boyfriend.
But Kyomi said, “And we’re going to let your mother know you’re still alive and kicking.”
“Okay. We’ll let my mother know that too.” Relief swamped him. Unreasonable relief that indeed she would go with him. To his penthouse. He had to face something unknown… he could only wonder what it was.
Kyomi came along to help him at least claim his damn underwear.
Chapter 9
HUNTER SLID THE PHONE to Kyomi. He wouldn’t touch his own, but borrowed hers. “No one is there. We’ll be in the clear.”
“The clear? For what? Do you plan to break into your own house?”
He beamed. “Kind of exciting, isn’t it?”
She groaned. “It is not exciting in the least, Hunter. It’s strange and weird. Why don’t you talk to your wife…?”
“Just come with me and help me pack.”
Hunter slid out of his luxurious car, that was perfectly appropriate in the city, before Kyomi slipped out and followed him. In the parking garage of the building, it was gloomy and she had to blink several times to follow him. Much to he
r surprise, she didn’t feel all that strange in the city. Her clothes, though plain, were not unlike many she saw while driving through the downtown.
Some people strode with purpose, while others ambled along at a slower pace, nothing more than a bored meander. There was nothing magical or mysterious about the people she previously gawked at from the front seat of his super expensive sportscar. The car got some envious honks and looks. The tinted windows kept her safely hidden from view. She glanced at him as they drove the busy streets. “Do you suffer from a neglected need for approval?”
“Why do you ask that?” He tilted his head her way.
“Because you drive and dress in ways that make people look at you. Like, ‘Here I am. Notice me.’ I wondered if perhaps you require the approval of others now because you lacked it growing up or when you were a child.”
“I like to look awesome because it’s fun. It’s thrilling. The suit is appropriate for all my business dealings and on a day I’m not working? I don’t dress like this. Give me a freaking break. I’ve had no clothes of my own and these are the only clothes I can call mine.”
She snickered at his look of disdain. Watching the people ogling them again, she commented, “I thought I’d feel severely underdressed or outclassed, but most of these people look pretty normal.”
“It’s a public street. Of course, you see all kinds of people and all kinds of dress.” She liked it when he fully turned his attention her way. “Kyomi Wade, have you never been to a city before? Is this your first time here?”
“Yes. I haven’t actually been here before.”
“Or in a city?”
She shuffled around. “I’ve driven past them. But never stopped or gone through them.”
He coughed as if to cover a startled exclamation. “What’s your story? You’re really going to have to share more about yourself with me at some point.”
“Born on the ranch you just visited. Near your ranch, Mr. Rydell, so I’m not that far off.”
“Right. But the fact you left and only came back recently, and now you’re a full-time cattle rancher… What the hell were you while you were gone? What did you do?”