by Sam Crescent
“What’s wrong with me saying the truth?”
“We’re not having any more kids. It’s not happening. The whole point of me wanting a divorce is everything else means nothing. You and I, we’re never going to be together like that. Never, ever. You’ve got to realize that.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Why do you want to ruin my life?”
“I’m not trying to ruin your life. I’m simply stating a fact. Ryan, you think he’s coming around here because you’ve both got two sons and can play happy families as a friend. Please, that guy wanted one thing and one thing only.”
“You’re joking, right? Ryan is nothing like that.”
“You’re not the best judge of character.”
“And you are? You married me, Rachel. I got you to believe whatever I wanted you to. You think I’m the only guy like that out there? Don’t be a fucking idiot. He wanted to fuck you. That’s what he wanted. From what I heard today, he’d gladly have a nice warm body to warm his bed and good little wife to keep his kid happy. He wants a wife and mommy, and guess what, you fit the bill perfectly.”
“You think no one would want to be around me just for me? Am I that boring, is that what you’re saying?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.
“No, what I’m saying right now is you give some men way too much credit. I’m not denying there’s a guy out there who wouldn’t want to hang out with you. They’d be crazy not to want to. Believe me, I get it. I don’t want to upset you, but it’s the truth.”
She closed her eyes, and he stepped toward her. The moment he touched her, she tried to pull away.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I don’t want to go through this again with you. Do you think this is easy for me, having you close?” She opened her eyes, and tears filled them. He didn’t want her to fucking cry. This wasn’t what this was about, and yet, here she stood, close to tears, and he felt like a fucking monster.
“Don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it. This isn’t what I want to do, but … you never loved me, Wolfe. All of our time together was a plot for you to get what you wanted. Me walking away, it didn’t have any effect on you at all. It meant nothing to you, just like I mean nothing to you. But I loved you. It wasn’t a stupid crush either. I really loved you. I fell head over heels for you, and walking away, I felt broken inside. You have no idea how long it has been to get over you. Where I can think about you and not cry. Randomly bursting into tears over a damn newspaper. I finally fell out of love with you, but having you here, saying the things I always wanted, it’s hard. I don’t want to be broken by you again. I’m asking you nicely, let me have the divorce because I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
She stepped back, and he watched her leave. At the doorway she stopped. “You need to throw the saucepan away. You can never use metal on a non-stick pan. It scratches the surface.”
She left the room, and he waited for several minutes before pouring the dark milk away. He’d put way too much hot chocolate in, and well, she wasn’t wrong. He saw the scratches on the bottom of the pan. Tossing it into the trash, he made his way upstairs, after making sure every door and window was locked.
He took a quick shower, returned to his room to change, and then checked on Benjamin. His son was fast asleep. He still had a nightlight to help him with the dark, and Wolfe leaned against the doorframe, watching his son sleep.
He looked so peaceful.
When he came to him on the weekends, he would often sit for hours watching him sleep. He missed this boy so much throughout the week.
Pulling the door a little, but not fully closed, he stopped at Rachel’s door. Again, it was closed as she always wanted to hear and be available to Benjamin.
He waited and knew he should go back to his own room.
This wasn’t about hurting her.
Far from it.
Opening the door, he saw she wasn’t ready. The lights were all turned off, and she was curled up, facing the wall.
There was a nice big spot of bed open, just for him. Well, it wasn’t for him, but he was going to forget about that tiny little detail.
As he climbed into the bed, she let out a gasp.
“Wolfe, what the hell?” she said.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“Get out,” she said.
“I will get out when I know you’re all right.” He heard her sniffling and knew without seeing her face, she’d been crying.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“I imagine you never want to talk to me. It’s fine. I can deal with that, truly, I can.” He held her close. “But I don’t want to go to bed knowing you’re in here crying. I’m a bastard, but not like that.”
“Wolfe, please, go back to the city and give me a divorce.”
“No.”
“Why are you making this so difficult?” she asked. “You got what you wanted, and now you won’t let me have any peace.”
“Ryan is not the man for you.”
“This isn’t about him. You need to stop thinking all of this is about him. This is about me and what I want. You can have your affairs with the women. None of them stay long enough after, and I’m sure you’ve got all the money in the world to buy their silence. I don’t care. Not anymore. I can’t even think of having a life while I still have your wedding ring.”
“You still haven’t put it on your finger.” He noticed she had defied his request. Nothing he could do about it, even as it did piss him off.
Rachel was a sexy woman. Her curves drew the gaze, and he had to watch a couple of dads today who happened to take a second glance. Not to mention how fucking happy Ryan looked walking beside her. He’d stolen the show though. Not that it was hard. Science was cool; he loved his son, and well, he happened to enjoy spending the day away from work to have some family time.
Today, for him, none of it was an act.
Everything Rachel had gotten today was real. Not that she’d believe him, not yet anyway, but he wasn’t giving up.
“Seriously, it bugs you that I’m not wearing it?” she asked.
“A lot of things are bugging me, but I’m the kind of guy who deals with one problem at a time. For now, the ring is a problem. I want you to wear it.”
“What does it matter?”
“I took three days to pick it out.”
“Please, I bet you got your assistant, Denise, to pick it out.”
He chuckled. “No need to sound jealous of Denise. She is a happily married woman with three grandchildren. I’m not going to tear up a happy family. I picked out the ring. I didn’t trust anyone else with the task of giving my future wife a piece of jewelry which would help cement her as mine for the rest of our lives,” he said.
“Oh. I had no idea. I always assumed you got someone else to buy it.”
“You can assume all you want, it doesn’t change the fact it’s not true. I picked it out for you.”
****
After Wolfe’s confession about the ring being the one he picked, Rachel found it next to impossible to sleep that night. What also didn’t help, she wouldn’t even get a reprieve the next day with work. Not only did she have the weekend off, as she shared rotational work with several women, but also, Benjamin had a sleepover for from Saturday into Sunday. It had been organized for a month. She liked to make sure she was ready before letting her son go off to someone else’s house. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust anyone. It was merely … she missed her son so much.
She did allow sleepovers though, and she loved to hear about the adventures he would tell her about. Her son had a wild imagination, and she often wondered if he’d become an author someday. It would be so amazing if he did. Not that she’d ever push him into a career she saw for him. No, just guide him to what he loved.
There was no doubt about it, she was turning into a crazy mom.
“You have all your clothes packed?”
�
��Yes, Mom.”
“Your toothbrush. Soap. All of it.”
“Mom, we’re not going out into the woods. We’re going to Blake’s house. He has a pool.”
“Did you pack your swimming shorts?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Don’t worry, Rachel. We’ll take good care of him, and we have soap,” Lindsey, the mom who would be taking care of him, said.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to be insulting.”
“We have this every single time. First time I was a little insulted, but now, I just see you’re a first-time mom.”
“Yeah, you’d think I’d be able to control my nerves. Each time I arrange these, I promise myself I’ll get better. I really do, and then I’m here, in the moment and bluh, my mouth just wouldn’t shut up.”
Lindsey laughed. “So, erm, rumor has it Benjamin’s father has returned.”
Now she didn’t know what to say.
“You heard?”
“He certainly has,” Wolfe said, coming to the doorway. In true possessive style, he wrapped his arm around her waist as if he had a right to even touch her? Did he? They were married, and well, it wasn’t like she’d been living the single life around town either. “Wolfe Montgomery. Pleasure. I hope you take good care of our boy. This is a first time for me, him having a sleepover. Probably why she’s so nervous. She senses my worry.”
Instead of being insulted, Lindsey blushed and began to smile.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. We love to have Benjamin over. He’s such a good boy.”
Okay, now she watched as Lindsey began to play with a piece of her hair, and Rachel also noticed the subtle way she pushed out her chest.
Wow, she was right here, and now her friend, if she could call her that, was flirting with her husband.
She did not act jealous though. What was the point? She wanted a divorce, and he could sleep with whomever he wanted.
Brushing his arm off, she walked past the woman and straight to the car.
“Hey, sweetie, you okay?” Rachel said.
“Yeah, Mom. It’s really cool Dad is here. I can tell everyone about him and they won’t think I’m lying either.”
“They know you’re not lying.”
“But he’s here, and that makes it even better.”
She forced a smile to her lips, kissed his cheek, and helped him to settle in.
“We’ll take good care of him,” Lindsey said, finally coming back to the car. “Will you be in town for the potluck Sunday next week? We hear it’s going to be amazing weather, and you should totally come. Wolfe would love it.”
A bunch of town families, gathered around, talking, watching their kids, and discussing the upcoming Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas plans—she truly doubted he’d go for it.
She nodded and stepped back. She didn’t think for a second Wolfe could hack being in town another couple of days, let alone a week. He never did anything in his life unless it benefited him, and right now, she didn’t see anything on offer to benefit him.
Running her fingers through her hair, she tried not to panic as she turned back to the house. The yard needed a quick mow, and she could do with wiping the windows.
“She seemed nice,” Wolfe said.
“Awesome, sleep with her. She’s a married woman, but I don’t know if you even believe in the sanctity of marriage.”
“Someone is in a pissy mood,” Wolfe said.
She stepped into her home, and she felt … exhausted. With Benjamin out of the house she didn’t have a buffer with the man who was supposed to be her husband.
“I’m not in any kind of mood. I’ve got things to do. You may as well go and do whatever it is rich men do.”
“Yeah, I want to ask you about that. Why didn’t you pick a bigger house?” he asked.
“I don’t want a bigger house.”
“Or hire a maid?”
She laughed. “Out of everything you could ask me, you’re more concerned with the way I live my life?”
“You’re not without the means of making your life more comfortable. Your parents are wealthy. Believe me, I see the figures every quarter.”
“I don’t see this as being any of your business.”
“Amuse me.”
“I’m not here for your amusement.”
“Tell me why you’re raising our son without any help. No nanny, no cook, nothing.”
She folded her arms and stared at Wolfe. He wasn’t being his aggressive self, or even mean. He looked genuinely curious.
“My mother didn’t come from money. She struggled throughout her life, but rather than turn her back on everything she knew, one of the things she wanted from my dad was for them both to raise us like she was. Not to expect money. Wealth comes and goes, but there are other more valuable and precious items in life to hold onto.”
“Like love?” he asked.
“Love, respect, loyalty. I did tell you this when we were dating, how I’d want to be everything for my son. To cook for him, to keep a home. This place, after everything, it just seemed to hold the prospect for so many memories. It’s a home. It’s not a place to sleep or have sex in. The kitchen is where I can see us having breakfast together, talking about school, and trying to help him through his math problems. We do that. This place works for us. I don’t want a nanny. I didn’t have a child to have a nanny. I’m not judging anyone who does. We all have different reasons for doing what we do. This works for me and for Benjamin.”
“I could get you a bigger house. You wouldn’t have to work.”
She smiled. “I like working. When Benjamin’s at school, it gives me something to do.”
“You’re my wife. You would have plenty to do.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“Shop, entertain, go to lunch. Whatever women do while I work.”
“Wow, you know, that doesn’t sound sexist at all.”
“I’m trying to make your life easier,” he said.
“Then sign the papers and don’t threaten me with my son. That would make my life easier.”
“Not happening.”
“Wow, you know what, you really just don’t get it, do you? You don’t see that I don’t love you, or want to be with you anymore. You’re lost in your own thoughts and feelings, which is all you’ll ever be lost in because you don’t give anyone else a chance.” She shook her head. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got work to do.”
She had to be far away from him.
These days she usually spent her time sewing or reading a book. Doing something relaxing. This weekend, she was going to have to spend it working.
“Where are you going?”
“To make sure my yard isn’t housing any jungle animals.” From the confused look on his face, she couldn’t help but smile. “I’m going to mow the lawn, but I wouldn’t want to get your pretty nails all muddy with a bit of hard work.”
Chapter Six
Wolfe didn’t mind hard work. He put in twenty-plus hour days when he needed to, slept in his office, and didn’t have much of a social life, all in the name of business. It’s what he did, and how he worked.
He folded up his sleeves. Some gardening wasn’t going to get the better of him, but when he walked outside, he saw the lawn was a tad overgrown. She already had out the lawn mower and was setting it up. Even though she was pissed at him now, he wasn’t going to let her hurt herself.
Rushing forward, he took over.
“I can handle mowing the lawn. Go and do whatever it is you need to do.”
“I can do this. I don’t need your help.”
“You’re getting it regardless. You want to keep pushing, I can prove to you just how much I can do.” He wasn’t just a guy who knew how to manage behind the desk. Mowing a lawn was something he did when he was younger. The gardener back home with his parents would let him mow the lawn as it helped him to think. Any troubles he had, he was able to see to them with the help of the constant back and forth motion.
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“Fine.”
She stepped away from him, and he couldn’t resist admiring her ass.
If Rachel thought she was making his life difficult, she was sadly mistaken. He happened to like her sass, and it was turning him on.
Dealing with the mower, he began to work across the small yard. He started first by taking the thick off. By the time he’d done the first mowing, he was sweaty, and he removed his shirt, revealing the ink he’d gotten done as a kid. There was also a nice piece of ink down the inside of his arm, which Rachel hadn’t been able to see yet. He caught sight of her gaze as he revealed his body to her.
He didn’t make a big show of it, or point out her ogling. The last thing he wanted to do was make her hate him more, but play on her attraction to him.
She wanted him, even if she didn’t realize it yet. He was a not-so-patient person, but with Rachel, the moment he conquered her, the rewards would be so sweet. Five years ago, she’d been so … easy. Not for sex. She’d remained a virgin until their wedding night, but all it had taken was the right kind of words spoken to her, and she’d been putty in his hand. He didn’t mind for the most part. At the time of trying to win her over, he’d needed speed as he wanted her spot on the board. Her grandparents always passed it down to family members when they reached a certain age, and Mary, Alice, and Rachel only had to become eighteen to get it.
Her spot had passed down to him as part of her wedding gift to him. He’d manipulated her, so she’d sign it over to him, and well, he got what he wanted.
Now though, he didn’t want the divorce. His lawyer had been sent a copy of the papers. Rachel had known deep down he wouldn’t take the potential for divorce very well, and she’d gotten her family lawyer to pass them along to his. Now, he knew the full extent of the offer she was giving him.
She was offering shared custody of Benjamin. Their arrangement wouldn’t change. He’d get his position on the board, and he’d pay for their son’s education. That was it. The full extent of the agreement she was offering him. It was really generous. Even his lawyer believed he should take it.
There was only one tiny detail wrong with it. Rachel had asked for his complete agreement he wouldn’t meddle or cause trouble for any future love interest she might have, or children.