by C. Morgan
I’d been wrong every damn time.
Was that all this was with Rylen? Another one of my miscalculations?
“What are you thinking about?” Rylen’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
I tucked my hands in my jacket pockets. “I was thinking about you actually.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Me? What about me?”
“Just trying to make sense of you.”
“I’m an open book.”
His invitation to ask questions was too tempting to pass up. I wanted to know more about him and the only way to do that was to dive in.
I licked my lips. “Actually, I was wondering about this ex-wife of yours. I can’t make sense of why things didn’t work out for you two. It’s none of my business and we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Rylen was quiet for a minute and I worried I might have crossed a line. Two years might seem like a long time but he wasn’t grieving a normal breakup. He was grieving the loss of a marriage and the vision he had for his life and his future—and the future of his child.
“We were both to blame,” he said finally.
I felt my brows pull together as I fought the frown tugging at my lips. “I thought she cheated on you?”
“She did.”
“So how could you carry any of the blame?”
“Marriage is complicated,” he said. “Intricate. I don’t know if I was truly ready for it. I thought I was. I thought I could handle whatever life threw my way if I had Mona by my side through it all, and she felt the same way. We were madly in love. We dreamed about our futures together. Told each other stories of what might be. Laid awake at night talking about the children we’d have before I even proposed.” He smiled at a memory that seemed fond. The smile didn’t last. “But after the wedding, and the baby, and the struggle of becoming parents, something slipped away. I think we both stopped trying. Me especially. I got caught up in my work. I let myself believe that work was the most important thing. That money was the most important thing. I stopped showing up in the way I did at the beginning and Mona noticed.”
“Did you guys try to work through it?”
He shook his head. Our pace slowed and he stopped to stare up at the tree. “No. I didn’t know things had fallen apart until I walked in on her and Logan in our bed. Cora was with her grandparents. Apparently, it happened weekly.”
“That’s brutal.”
“It went on for two years.”
I couldn’t fathom how much it must have hurt him to find out how long his wife had been unfaithful. “That was half of your marriage?”
“Yes.” Rylen’s jaw flexed. “She met him at my clinic, too. He has an old dog. A good dog, too. I’d been treating him for arthritis for two years already when Mona came into the clinic one day and dropped off my lunch because I’d forgotten it at home. She ran into Logan in the waiting room. They hit it off. From that day forward, our marriage was over.”
“She should have been honest with you.”
“I was angry for a long time,” he admitted. “The betrayal, the years of lies, the disregard for our family.”
“What changed?”
“I did, I guess.” He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I saw my hand in it. I saw how unloved I’d made her feel. I can’t blame her for leaning into someone who made her feel seen again.”
I stared at him. “That’s incredibly wise and self-aware of you.”
He chuckled. “Every now and then, the anger still gets the best of me. I still don’t like being around Logan. Not because I think he’s a bad guy—” He paused and raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know.”
“You can tell me.”
He gave me a side-eyed look before letting his hand fall to his side. “I hate to think of him as Cora’s stepfather. That’s the part… that’s the part that doesn’t sit right. I had it all at my fingertips and let it slip away because I was always hurrying to the office. Always overlooking everything Mona did at home. Always paying attention to the things that didn’t matter in the grand scheme. Now I only get fifty percent of the time I should have had with my daughter. Another man gets the other half.”
I couldn’t imagine how big of a pill that had been for him to swallow. Rylen’s daughter was only five, which meant Logan had plenty of time to establish himself as a second fatherly figure in her life. And it had to happen for her sake. It was what was best.
That didn’t mean it would hurt Rylen any less.
If she ended up playing sports, he’d be sharing his father-daughter moments with another man. Hell, no matter what she ended up participating in, all the time would be shared. Mona still got to be a hundred percent mom. Rylen, like he said, was left with half his cut.
Decisiveness and clarity rose up in me.
I looped my arm through his. “I’ll do it.”
Rylen looked down at me. “Sorry? Do what?”
“Paris.”
A smile stretched his lips. “Are you screwing with me?”
“No, not at all. I’ll go. But I have conditions.”
“Naturally.”
“I’m not an escort. Not anymore. I’m the hostess at On His Arm and my time is precious.”
“I’ll have Grady double your rate.”
He hadn’t even batted an eye. I felt suddenly flustered and blamed the wine. “In that case, I’ll up the ante. Let’s take this thing one step further.”
His smile lingered. “I’m listening.”
“I’m not going to be your date to the wedding. I’m going to show up as your fiancée.”
Rylen’s expression shifted from intrigue to absolute devilish joy. “You just made my night, Miss Fox.”
“Is that a yes?”
“To being your fake fiancé? Why the hell would I say no?”
I held out a hand. He grasped it firmly and we shook on it. “A business deal has been struck,” I said.
“I’ll book your ticket tomorrow. Send me a picture of your passport.”
Rylen and I spent the next half hour wandering through the square until we circled back to where his truck was parked. We climbed in and turned on the heat and drove the long way back to my apartment. I wasn’t sure if he did that on purpose to spend more time with me or because he didn’t know the other route was ten minutes faster.
He parked the truck at the curb and offered to walk me to my door.
“I think I can handle it,” I said as I leaned across the console to press a kiss to his perfect lips. “Besides, if I bring you to my door, I’m going to bring you to my room, and truth be told, all I want to do tonight is cuddle my cat and gush to my roommate about how good of a night I just had.”
Rylen cupped my cheek and stole one last goodnight kiss. “I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of that.”
He stayed parked at the curb until I was safely at my apartment door in the lobby. He turned on the cab light in his truck so I could see him wave, and he pulled away, leaving me full of giddiness and excitement.
I was going to Paris.
Chapter 22
Rylen
Mona opened her front door on Saturday morning wearing an apron covered in little snowmen. Her short brown hair was held back off her face with a gold clip that matched her snowflake earrings. She was all smiles and a little breathless after running to answer the door.
“Hey,” she breathed. “Cora is just getting her stuff from her room. Want to come in? We have fresh cookies. I advise you avoid the ones with pink icing.”
“Cora’s?”
Mona gave me a knowing nod—the same nod we used to share to talk in secret when we were out at family functions or on triple dates that were going poorly for everyone but us. We’d laugh with each other on the drive home and pick up milkshakes if the food hadn’t been satisfying. Mona would always order a strawberry one with no whipped cream.
“It’s mostly all icing and no cookie,” Mona warned as she stepped back and let me inside.
We met up w
ith Logan in the kitchen who was unceremoniously scraping copious amounts of pink icing off said cookies.
He grimaced as he dropped a huge dollop of it into the garbage can positioned underneath him and looked up. “Hey, man, don’t tell her I’m sabotaging her cookies. We want to send her home with some, but if she eats these, you’re going to have a sugar-high gremlin to contend with all day.”
“Thanks for looking out for me,” I said.
Mona held out a plate of cookies. I helped myself to one with blue icing. It wasn’t bad.
Little footsteps pounded down the staircase and I turned as Cora careened around the corner into the kitchen. Her smile was bigger than ever as I dropped to one knee and she leapt into my arms. I gave her a tight squeeze, kissed her cheeks until she descended into a fit of giggles, and took her school bag from her to put it over my shoulder.
“Hey, kiddo,” I said, poking playfully at her ribs. “I missed you.”
Logan hurried to hide the evidence that he was tweaking her cookies.
“Did you have a cookie?” Cora asked.
“I did. It was delicious.”
Cora turned to her mother. “Can I show Daddy my flower-girl dress?”
Mona nodded.
Logan stayed in the kitchen while the rest of us followed Cora down the hall to Mona’s in-home office at the back of the house. It boasted big bay windows and sheer white curtains. Her computer was off and her desk was covered in wedding related items: planners, calendars, invitations, seating charts, and magazine clippings.
Hanging in the open closet was a row of dresses. There were five powder-blue women’s dresses which I assumed were for the bridesmaids—women who used to be my friends too before the divorce—and a smaller dress, which was Cora’s. It was made of the same chiffon-like fabric. Mona pulled it down from the closet and held it out. Cora took the skirt and fluffed it up before running her fingers over the satin silver sash.
She spun to me excitedly. “I have matching blue shoes and flowers that go in my hair, too.”
I nodded approvingly. “It’s very wintery,” I said before lifting my gaze to Mona. “The dresses are beautiful.”
Mona hung the little dress back up. “Thank you. The girls love them. You should have seen how much fun everyone had in the shop with Cora. She wanted to try everything on, naturally.”
“Naturally.” I chuckled as I leaned against the office doorframe and tucked my hands in my pockets.
Cora tugged at the hem of my shirt. “They had so many dresses, Daddy. There was a neon pink one that I loved so much. It was so pretty.”
Mona crossed her arms. “Yes, Cora did have her heart set on that one for a while. But bless her heart, she met me halfway and agreed to go with the blue so she matched the other girls. The pink would have clashed with all of my decor and the dresses and we can’t have that, now can we?”
Cora shook her head. “No, we can’t.”
I almost rolled my eyes. Almost.
Leave it to Mona to suck all the fun out of it for Cora. Sure, she’d still be delighted to wear a fancy dress, but had it been my wedding, I’d have let her pick out and wear whichever dress she liked, regardless if it was neon pink or made completely out of rhinestones.
“Well,” I said, “I think we should hit the road. I have a surprise back at the house for you.”
Cora clasped her hands together. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really.”
The three of us made our way back to the front door, where Logan joined us to say goodbye to Cora. She gave her hugs and told them to have a good week as she followed me down the steps, across the path, and to the truck on the drive. She was still talking my ear off about dress shopping as I buckled her into her car seat in the back of the truck.
We pulled away and Cora gushed about how beautiful her mother looked in her wedding dress. “She looked like a princess, Daddy. A real-life princess.”
“I bet she did.” I could still remember in exquisite detail how beautiful Mona had looked on our wedding day. It wasn’t in Paris, but it was the perfect day for us. We’d gotten married in her parents’ backyard. Initially, we were going to elope but her mother wouldn’t hear of it. She convinced us to have a small ceremony at their family church, after which we moved to the backyard of their large home.
Mona’s dress had been out of a fairy tale. It hugged her figure in lace and crystals. Her hair had been longer then, another thing her mother insisted on, and she’d left it down. One part was pulled back and pinned with her veil by a silver rose. I had never in my life seen someone so beautiful.
Until I saw Natalie.
I gave my head a shake and focused on Cora. She told me about her week at school as we went through a drive thru to grab coffee and hot chocolate. After that, we finally made our way back to the house, where Cora was nearly bursting at the seams to find out what her surprise was.
We walked in the front door and I turned her to face the living room.
I’d pulled my Christmas tree out of storage late last night and set it up in the corner by the fireplace. I’d strung it with lights and found the box of ornaments so all we had left to do was the fun decorating for today.
Cora raced excitedly into the living room and immediately hovered over the open box of Christmas ornaments.
I spent the afternoon decorating the tree with my daughter while Christmas music played. At first, she’d insisted on putting in a movie but I knew how that game would go. She’d put three or four ornaments on the tree before becoming completely absorbed by the movie. She’d sit on the couch, consumed by the screen, and I’d be decorating the tree alone.
Nope. Not happening. That wasn’t tradition in my eyes.
So we decorated together and hummed along to the songs we knew. We took a break halfway through to sit down and have lunch, ham and cheese sandwiches on croissants, one of her favorites, before returning to our festive task.
Cora snuggled up on the sofa with a fleece blanket after lunch. I didn’t push her to keep helping me. She’d grown tired. Her eyes were heavy and I wondered how late she’d stayed up last night with her mother and Logan. Maybe they’d had a movie night like we tended to do at my house on Friday nights.
I let her doze off and tucked her under the blanket around two in the afternoon. We could finish the tree tonight. Without her company, it took mere seconds for me to start thinking about Natalie and only Natalie.
And Natalie in a sexy dress in Paris.
While she slept, I decided to call Grady and tell him my good news.
He answered mid laugh. He was with someone.
“I can call back later,” I offered.
“Nah, man, it’s just Nick, Liz, and Max. Say hi, guys. I have Rylen on the phone.”
I heard a chorus of hellos in the background and offered a hello of my own. “I have some news.”
“Oh?” Grady said.
“By some miracle, Natalie agreed to be my date to the wedding.”
“You sly dog. How did you pull that one off? Did you tell her your divorce sob story and she took pity on you?”
I heard Liz crack the whip at Grady and tell him not to be an ass. She then quickly apologized for swearing in front of Max, who had started giggling. Grady offered me an apology. “Sorry, man, but you know what I mean. When Natalie makes up her mind about something, it’s decided. How’d you get her to come around?”
“There were other things at play besides my sob story,” I said.
“Other things?” Grady pressed.
“We’ve been spending some time together.”
“What kind of time?”
“Quality time.”
“Intimate quality time?”
“Maybe.”
Grady groaned. When he spoke, his voice was low and I could tell he’d moved out of the room from the others to talk privately. “You lucky son of a bitch. Do you know how many times I tried to make a move on Nat? She shot me down every time. But you? The geek in the specs who gets
pissed on all day? You can get her into bed?
“I don’t know what she sees in me either.” I chuckled. “But there’s something there because I can’t stop thinking about her, man. I wake up thinking about her. I got to bed thinking about her. For the first time in a long time, I don’t feel like I’m drowning.” Now that I thought about it, I realized since I’d spent some significant time with Natalie and she was living in my head on repeat, I hadn’t spared a second to dread the upcoming wedding. It hadn’t even gotten under my skin this morning when I picked up Cora.
“You should come join us in Vegas,” Grady said. “We can have a drink to celebrate you finally getting over Mona. It’s about damn time.”
“I can’t come to Vegas. I have Cora this week.”
“Next week then.”
“Honestly, man, I don’t think I’m interested.”
“Why?” Grady mused. “Because you don’t want to miss out on any time with a certain lady?”
“Yes,” I said simply.
Grady laughed. “Well then. I see how it is. Whatever, man, I’m happy for you. It’s about time something good came into your life. I have to let you go. Max is kicking my ass at a game of Clue and I can’t let that stand.”
“Go put the kid in his place,” I said.
Grady hung up.
On the sofa, Cora stirred and propped herself up on one elbow. She eyed me curiously as I tucked my phone in my pocket. “Daddy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Chapter 23
Natalie
I stifled a yawn and stretched out across my sofa on Saturday afternoon.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had such a lazy day before. In anticipation of going to Paris for a week and leaving On His Arm in Victoria’s capable hands, she and I had both decided that she should work this Saturday alone to get some practice under her belt. I knew she’d be able to handle anything that came her way, but if this would help her build up her confidence, I was more than willing to spend an indulgent Saturday doing absolutely nothing.