One Night Mistake: A Second Chance Romance Series (Book 4)

by Wood, Lauren

“Don't worry about it, really. It's not that big of a deal. I will forget about it soon enough, I'm sure.”

  My assistant sighed and tried hard not to say anything more. I knew she wanted to. I should have never told her. I should have just said nothing. It would be better than her looking at me like she was now, like I was a wounded puppy.

  The intercom on my desk buzzed and I pressed the button.

  “What is it, Ashley?”

  “You have somebody here to see you.”

  I looked over at my desktop calendar and I didn't see anything on the horizon for this time.

  “Are you sure? I do not have any appointments.”

  “It’s Jaime.”

  She blurted it out and my heart stopped for a moment. The whole point was made that I didn’t want to see him already. I had sent my bill through the mail and I missed the final viewing, sending Ashley instead. I thought I had made it clear, but not enough it would seem.

  “Tell him that I'm busy.”

  “He can hear you.”

  “Well, Jaime, I'm busy.”

  It was about a moment later that the door opened and he was standing in it.

  “What are you doing here? Did you not hear that I was busy?”

  I'm sitting at the desk and assuredly I wasn't busy, but I certainly was for him. Whatever it was that he wanted, I was not interested. I just wanted him to go away, because my emotions were all over the place and I didn’t think I would be able to handle this, not here.

  “Yes, but I have learned not to listen to you sometimes, Angie. I wouldn't have let you walk out of my life last time, but I didn't know where to find you. Now I do, so you best believe that I will not make the same mistake again.”

  I didn't smile. It was literally the perfect thing to say, but there was no way that I was going to smile about it. All I had to do was close my eyes for a moment and remember that we broke up because he was kissing Anika. His ex-wife. That gave me the resolve I needed to wipe the smile off my face.

  “What do you want, Jaime?”

  “You.”

  “You can’t have me Jaime, so unless you have something to talk about regarding our contract, I have nothing to say to you.”

  He closed my office door. “I don’t care if you have anything to say or not. I do and you’re going to listen to it.”

  Jaime locked it and I was left wondering what he thought he was doing. This was not part of the plan, at least not mine.

  22

  Jaime

  Personally, I had no plan. The whole plan was to make her see reason. With the way Angie was looking at me at the moment, that was going to be easier said than done.

  “I don't have to listen to you, Jaime. You need to leave. I think we've said all that needs to be said.”

  “No, you said a whole lot of everything and didn't leave two seconds for me to get a word in edgewise.”

  “You did, remember? It wasn't what it looked like. Something like that.”

  “And you really don't care if it's the truth?”

  “I don't want any more complications in my life. My business is doing good and I want to keep it moving forward. I can't do that if I'm having catfights at charity events and these kinds of conversations with you. I would rather just go our separate ways. It's easier that way.”

  “That is what happened last time to us Angie, and I can tell you right now, that it wasn't easier. It was torture to not know where you were.”

  “Well, now that we know where each other is, maybe it's for the best that we don't see each other anymore. You and Anika have a child together. Ree wants a mother. That's plain to see. You should take some time and try to work things out with your family. I don't want to stand in the way of that.”

  I started to get agitated. “Why does everybody keep saying that! I do not want to get back with Anika! I never have wanted to. I didn't want to marry her to begin with, but I did, and I've regretted every second of it ever since. I love my daughter, but I will always hate my ex-wife. My family wants me to marry her again, but I will not do it. I told them that I love someone else. They are just going to have to find another way to get what they want.”

  Love? It was of course the word that every woman wanted to hear, but because of that, they couldn’t believe it when it was said. I could count the amount of times I’d said it on one hand.

  “If you hate her so much, then why did you kiss her?”

  “I was telling the truth. She came on to me and was literally on me before I could stop her. I pushed her back and that was the end of it.”

  “It didn't seem like the end of it.”

  I was frustrated and I could see that nothing I said was going to get through her head. She was stubborn as all get out, but I didn’t have a choice. I was going to have to make her see that I was telling the truth and I wanted no one else but her.

  “Well it was. I didn't want her to kiss me. I really do think she set me up, but I can't prove it. It's just something that she would do.”

  “I remember the way she looked at me when you guys were walking in the other room, like she was about to show me up. Maybe there is some truth to your words, but I still don’t know if I can forget it.”

  “You have to. I didn’t want that to happen.”

  “But it did. It is just too complicated.”

  “Maybe we need complicated.”

  She relented for a moment and told me that she didn’t want to argue with me anymore. Angie was giving up and with the idea that we were going to work it out, I wanted to press my luck. I wanted more.

  We spent the night together and she was able to finally forgive me. Or, I was able to put enough new images in her mind that she was able to forget the old ones. Either way, I was feeling a lot better about the whole situation.

  23

  Angie

  There was a knock at the door early in the morning and I wasn't sure exactly who it was. I usually did not have guests this early and I forgot for a moment that I wasn't alone. I looked over at Jaime lying next to me. The doorbell didn't seem to bother him at all, but after the third time it made that buzzing noise, I was ready to get up just to shut up whoever was mashing the button. It was far beyond rude at this point.

  When I swung the door open, I wasn't really expecting anyone, but I was certainly surprised to see Anika. Of course, Anika would come to my house. Why wouldn't she? This woman obviously knew no boundaries.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “Is he here?”

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “You know who I'm talking about.”

  She tried to push me in, so that she could come in the house, but I didn't budge. I may be tall and wispy, but I could hold my ground with the best of them. After a minute, she realized that she was going to have to put in too much effort and stopped.

  “I don't know what you're getting at, but that is my husband.”

  “Ex-husband.”

  “I don't want my daughter around you. If he is going to stay with you, then he is not going to be able to see Marjorie anymore.”

  “Marjorie lives with him.”

  “That can change. I do have a good lawyer; my family has one on retainer.”

  I told her to wait there and I went to go get Jaime. This was obviously something that he needed to take care of.

  I told her to hold on for a moment, before I shut the door and locked it behind me. I did not trust her at all.

  “So, you need to get up and go talk to your ex-wife. She's at the front door.”

  His eyes popped open. “You're kidding me, right?”

  “You don't know how badly I wish I was kidding. But she's right out there and you need to go talk to her.”

  To his favor, Jaime got up rather quickly, got dressed and went outside. He shut the door behind him, and I wasn't even trying to listen. I had enough of that whole situation.

  When he came back in, I could see that whatever it was she had said, it had really hit home. I asked him what
was the matter and all that Jaime said was that he had to go.

  “Are you really just going to leave like that?”

  “I need to.”

  “Are you leaving with her?”

  “No, but I'm going to leave because I don't want to go to court with Anika over custody of Marjorie. Nothing right now is set in stone and the woman usually gets it by default.”

  I wanted to argue with him, remind him that she had been in the front of every newspaper for the last few months on her wild, drunken binges. No judge in their right mind would give her the right to take care of her daughter, it didn't make sense. But I wasn't going to argue with him. If that's what he thought he needed to do, then who was I to stand in the way?

  I waited for him to give me a kiss, and it never came. There was a coolness between us now and I knew that it had to do with Anika. What had she said and what had she threatened?

  24

  Jaime

  I went to the office. Anika thought that we were going to have a conversation, but she was the last person that I wanted to talk to. I wasn't going to say another word to her until I had gotten some good legal advice. Her threats were not going to be something that was going to be taken lightly. She said it so that I would leave Angie. It had worked, but it wasn't going to work in the way that she thought. This would be the last time that I was ever threatened by Anika.

  Angie called a little bit later, before I got to the office. I couldn’t talk to her right now. I had to flip the phone off and just let it go to voicemail. I couldn't explain it to her right now. I needed a little bit of time to think things through and talk to a lawyer. Then I would be able to move forward. Until then, I was going to mollify Anika by doing what she wanted. I could stay away from Angie for a week or two, if it meant that I could be with her for the rest of my life and not have to worry about all of Anika’s silly threats.

  I needed to just make sure that they were silly and that no judge would take it seriously. Then I would be able to move forward, once I had those assurances. I was about to get everything in writing, so it was known that I had custody. Anika didn’t need custody of our daughter and I wasn’t going to let it happen. She wasn't the only one who had a good family lawyer.

  It took about two months, for me to get everything taken care of. I wanted it to be shorter, but that's just not the way it played out. My lawyer told me that I needed to be careful until we went to court, so I was. I left Angie a message explaining it all, but I knew that I was going to have to make amends when we saw each other again. I had no problem doing that.

  When it was finally said and done, I ended up with full custody and Anika had supervised visitation. I doubted that she would actually use them, but I still did hope for Marjorie that she would turn a corner. At some point, she had to grow up right?

  So now that I had Anika taken care of, I had to deal with my family. It wasn't just my family though. It was the board as well. I set up a meeting with Colin and the rest of them and I made it clear that I wasn't going to be there bitch-boy anymore. I was for my father and that was because of the respect I had for him. I respected my uncle as well, but it was time for me to be my own man. I didn't even know what that looked like right yet, but I was going to figure it out.

  I thought that I would lose everything, all the family money, but that didn't come to pass at all. I thought that I would lose my job, but that didn't happen either. I actually put my foot down and they finally listened to me. It was the first time in a long time that I started to think that maybe I would be able to choose my own path.

  When all of that was done, there was one more place I had to go. This place made me nervous, because I had to go see Angie. I knew she was going to be mad at me, for taking off like I did and disappearing in the fashion that I did. I hoped that she would see that it was something that I had to do.

  “You really have a bad habit of just showing up, Jaime. I'm starting to think that you don't understand how appointments work.”

  “We both know that I'm not here about a job. This is personal.”

  “There is nothing else for you to be here for. I thought that we had worked things out and then you just kind of ghosted me for the last couple months as a goodbye. Did you really think that I would receive you now, with open arms?”

  I grinned and sat down across from her. I wanted to go over to her side and kiss her, but I knew that we weren't ready for that, or rather, she wasn't ready for it anyways.

  “I left you a message.”

  “Yes, you left me a message. That makes everything better. You told me that you would see me as soon as you could, but you haven’t called or talked to me since. That’s ghosting, Jaime.”

  “I had to because of court. Anita and I had a custody case over Marjorie and my lawyer was clear that I couldn’t be around you.”

  I could tell that she was trying to stay mad at me, but her curiosity got the best of her.

  “So, what happened?”

  “I got full custody of Marjorie.”

  She smiled for a moment and then dropped it off. She must have remembered that she was supposed to be mad at me.

  “Well that really is good news. I am sure that Marjorie is going to be happy about it.”

  “She doesn't really understand most of the legal stuff. She still wants to see her mom, so it's still an impossible situation. I can't promise that Anika won't just pop up and try to ruin our lives again. Most likely she will.”

  “And there's nothing you can do about it?”

  “You've met her. Do you think I could?”

  She sighed and shook her head.

  “No, I don't think there is any way to calm that tornado.”

  “But am I worth dealing with the crazy? That’s the question.”

  She sighed and there was this look on her face.

  “Can you please say something. What is it?”

  “I have some news of my own.”

  Suddenly I got this sinking feeling in my stomach. What was it going to be?

  “So are you going to keep me dangling?”

  “I'm pregnant.”

  She said it quick, almost like she was blurting it out, because she was going to lose the courage to say so if she didn't. It took me back a moment and I wasn't sure what to say to that.

  “Well, say something!”

  25

  Angie

  My words hung in the air for far too long and he didn't say anything. I had played it out in my head many ways, but completely freezing like he was actually going into shock was not one of those scenarios. And if it was, I certainly didn't want to think about it.

  “Are you going to say something?”

  “Are you sure?”

  I just kind of shook my head and sighed.

  “Yeah, I'm sure. You can go into any grocery store and get those little tests. I think I can figure them out. I took two just in case and they were both positive.”

  I waited and I actually thought I might lose it. His face was white as a ghost and I wondered if he was going to pass out or something. Was that a thing? Could he be having a heart attack right now?

  Finally I shut down the stream of nonsense that was being produced and told him then he needed to say something or get out of my office.

  “I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

  “You look like you’re freaking out.”

  “A little bit.”

  Well, at least he was being honest, I guess. I could have done without that much honesty, but I had freaked out when I’d found out as well. Since he’d been MIA, it was even harder than I would have imagined. I have had a lot of time to think and whether I liked it or not, it was a lot to take in. Just as much for him I would suppose.

  “So, do you want me to talk about it when you have pulled yourself together? Because I need to get back to work, and I can’t spend all of my time talking about this with you.”

  “You’re mad at me?”

  “You disappear for all this time. I found out
about it two weeks ago and I couldn’t even talk to you about it. It’s been hard and yeah, I’m mad at you.”

  “I want to make it up to you.”

  He had that look in his eyes and Jaime was certainly looking like he was hungry. I was on the menu, and I had to fight the urge that came over me. I was at work. We couldn’t do anything, not again.

  “No, it looks to me like you want to have sex, Jaime. Tell me that I’m wrong.”

  “Of course I want you. I haven’t seen you in a very long time and you’re looking fine as ever. Everything is straightened out and I’m ready for us to be together. And yes, I want to fuck you until you pass out right now.”

  I shivered, because with Jaime, that was a real possibility. He had the stamina to go a lot longer than I would have imagined. My hand started to tremble, so I put it below the desk so that he wouldn’t see it.

  “That’s quite a want, Jaime. What do you want me to say to that?”

  “Tell me that you want the same thing.”

  Now I was the one that was frozen, unable to speak. It was just that simple. Why did I have to make it so complicated? I wanted him, he wanted me. Wasn’t that enough?

  “I do want the same thing, but I have more questions. You have been gone a long time, then you come in here and what, I’m supposed to bend over the desk for you?”

  “You don’t know how good that sounds.”

  He started to stand up. “Not here, Jaime. I swear, you don’t know how to act.”

  “Well then, call it a day.”

  “You going to come over?”

  “No, I want to take you home. It’s your home now too. With the baby coming, there is no sense in you living apart from me. Marjorie is going to be so happy to have a brother or sister. You don’t know how long she has wanted a sibling.”

  It was all happening too fast and I told him so.