“Asshole!” I yell after him, because no way my lumbering ass beats his receiver legs but I’m still going to try.
EIGHT
Harper
“I just…right now the less I see him the better. I’m over it. Don’t get me wrong. But when I see him, it reminds me he cheated on me, and that just makes me feel…” I trail off because most of the feelings it makes me feel are not ones I want to discuss. Especially not around Alex.
“Yeah, well fuck him for making you feel any damn way that wasn’t fucking good. You didn’t deserve that. And his cheating? That’s his fragile fucking ego. It had nothing to do with you.”
“I know. Logically I know that. But I can’t help feeling like maybe if I had been a better wife or maybe there was something I didn’t do that I should have, you know? And I’ve been through the therapy—the real kind and the kind where I sit around and drink with my friends about it. It’s just still hard to quiet those voices.”
“He’s the one that lost though. He lost all the perfect things in his life when he lost you. The life that you gave him. His home. His future. So just remember that when we’re in there, okay? And if you’d rather stay in the car or not go… I’m not gonna make you, and I’ll tell him to go fuck himself if he complains about it.”
“No. I can do this.” I straighten my spine and remind myself I’m not the fuck up in this situation and if I happened to fall into the arms of his best friend on accident, well, it is what it is.
Alex holds his hand out, and I glance over at him, raising a brow in question.
“Moral support,” he gives me a half grin, and I slip my hand into his. His fingers tighten around mine and we make our way toward the office.
When we get inside,we’re directed to a conference room by Drew’s secretary, and we take seats at the table there. I already feel unsettled, and my stomach is in knots as I look around the room. I feel like I’m awaiting trial.
Alex glances at me and down at the space between us for half a second before he grabs the underside of my chair and pulls, dragging me toward him and closing the distance between us down to a couple of inches.
I look down at the narrow gap and then up at him, raising a brow. “Was that necessary?”
“Yeah. I don’t want anyone in this room confused about what’s mine.” A smirk creeps up one side of his face and whether it’s that or the words, a flicker of want lights under my skin.
I am normally good, so good, about ignoring his charms and his looks. Being my husband’s best friend and the irritated looks he’s always given me made sure that it wasn’t too much of a problem. But now? Now when the charm is leveled at me, when he says infuriatingly sexy things at a time when I’ve been feeling anything but—it’s unfair. I can’t help my reaction. And he must know because the devilish smirk creeps higher before the door pops open, and Drew and a small entourage enter the room.
Drew looks pissed. Well, to an outsider who doesn’t know him, he looks fine. Like maybe he’s just had a rough morning and is tired. But I can see the subtle twitch in his jaw and the way his eyes coast over the two of us like he wishes he could say what he really thinks. But his eyes come to a stop when he sees my swollen lip.
“You didn’t tell me she got hurt. How did that fucking happen?” Drew’s temper flares as he looks at Alex.
It’s fucking rich coming from him. The person who’s hurt me the most in the last few years to be worried about a little surface injury like this.
“He clipped her with his elbow when he was trying to hit me.”
“Jesus Christ. This is why I keep telling you to stop talking with your fucking fists, Xander. There’s only so many fucking times I can do something about it.”
“Yeah, well you better do something about this one. That fucker is lucky he’s not in a hospital bed as far as I’m concerned.”
“You should have called the cops.”
“Yeah, and what would they have done? His agent would have shut that shit down fast, and you know it.”
“I do know it.” Drew’s eyes land hard on Alex, and I raise my brow.
“Don’t fucking imply I’ve ever been inappropriate with a woman. You know I fucking haven’t.”
“No, you just have a habit of going after married women.”
“I didn’t know she was fucking married. She told me she wasn’t, and I had no reason not to believe her until her husband showed up guns fucking blazing.”
I’m going to have to figure out what that was about because it’s a story I’d definitely never heard.
“That’s true I suppose. What’s your excuse here?” Drew’s eyes shift to me and if looks could kill, I’d be a melted puddle of goo on the floor.
“Nothing happened when we were married,” I say, annoyed that he wants to accuse me of cheating.
