“No. You injected yourself into the intimate details of my life, and stood between me and theonlyperson I haveeverwanted. I just met my son three weeks ago.”
“All is fair in love and war, Jack. You should know that.” She waved toward my phone. “Looks like you two found your way back together anyway.”
I pushed the words out around a lump in my throat. “I have to know why you did this.”
“BecauseIwanted you.”
I scoffed. “You know how delusional you sound? We talked for what—five, six weeks?”
“Plenty long enough for me to know I wanted more.”
As she said the words, my eyes landed on a picture frame on the other side of her desk. Bree, a man, and a little baby girl. I reached over, picking it up. “Is this your family?”
“Yes.”
I studied them—smiling, laughing, the man with his arms around the two of them. “You stole this from me.”
She surveyed her fingernails as if she was bored with the conversation. Her tone was half-hearted. “When we met, I thought you were sweet, something a little different. One hour into our first date, you were the man I wanted to keep around. And usually I find away to get what I want.
“So when she showed up at your house, I lied. Said you were mine. Because you’re too fair. I knew you’d go back to her even if she didn’t deserve you.” She huffed and looked me up and down, hitching an eyebrow. Clearly she enjoyed the view. “And you deserve the best.”
I puffed in disbelief. “And that’s supposed to be you?”
“Obviously.” She huffed in annoyance. “I can’t even fathom how you would compare the two of us.”
My fists clenched at my sides. She could say whatever she wanted about me, but she couldn't speak ill of my wife.
“All worked out for the best though.” She slowly strolled around her desk to stand right in front of me. “The man I wound up with is rich and adventurous. Very unlike you. However, we have a special little arrangement in our marriage I’d love to tell you all about.”
She crossed her arms again, making an intentional show of squeezing her breasts together and giving me an eye-full.
I looked away as heat flew up my spine. Embarrassment churned with my anger making the room feel smaller, hotter. Felt like I’d been caught making out behind the bleachers in middle school. She was a married woman for crying out loud! I shouldn’t have come.
She continued, “Our marriage is veryopen, Jack.”
Open?
My jaw may have hit the floor. Before I could even find my tongue to respond, she continued. “You are probably overdue some excitement.”
This cannot be happening right now.
She reached out to run her fingers down my forearm. “We should?—”
I snapped.
“Whoa!” My palms flew out to the sides as my feet quickly put distance between us. “Let’s make somethingcrystal clear. The only woman I’m ever going tobewith is my wife.”
Bree had the audacity to laugh. Her head tilted back as she slipped behind her desk, dropping into the seat again. “I had no doubt you’d say that.” She gave me a patronizing once over with a tsk. “Yeah, we wouldn't have worked out. Too traditional.”
Stunned silence wasn’t something I experienced very often. Everything I had marched in wanting to say evaporated from my brain. But I finally formed words, pathetic as they were. “You are disgusting.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I must’ve been blind to keep you around as long as I did.”
She perked up. “NowthatI can agree with. You are most definitely blind.” She opened a file on her desk and rifled through the papers. Looked up at me with a plastered smile. “Your loss.”
She pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side like the joke was on me.
Then the truth dawned. Bree didn’t even value herownmarriage. Of course she wouldn’t care about anyone else’s. Looking into her cool and haughty expression, I felt sick for the little girl who would grow up in her shadow.
I had never stopped to consider just how bad off I was after Miranda left. I must’ve been one depressed, lonely idiot. Standing before her, things were returning to my memory. How she seemed to text and have a lot of male friends. How frustrated she was with my glacial dating pace. How she bad-mouthed “boring” people. I should’ve seen who she was.
