“Since Grant was rehabbing with me in Virginia,” Mike says.
“That was like ages ago, wasn’t it?” Miller looks at me.
Nodding, I say, “I played with him right after I had my surgery. I was assigned to Virginia for rehab. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back to New York.”
“And you’ve been keeping this a secret all this time? You didn’t even tell Ivory, and they’re best friends.” Preston almost sounds impressed at Mike’s ability to not expose our truth to his daughter.
Mike shrugs and reaches for another beer. “Wasn’t my story to tell. If Taylor wanted the girls to know, she would’ve told them.”
“If it were up to me, she would’ve told them a long time ago,” I say.
“So have you been married all this time or did you just get married?” Chase jumps in after silently observing.
“We’ve been married.”
“But you haven’t been together?” he asks, attempting to piece things together as the newest member of the group.
Shaking my head, I answer him. “No, we’ve been . . .separated I guess you would call it. We never officially called it a separation. One day, she just left.”
“What did you do?” Miller quirks a brow.
“Why did I have to do anything?”
“Why else would she leave you?” he volleys back at me.
“Without getting into specifics, it just didn’t work out at the time. I don’t blame her and no one is at fault. We went zero to sixty really fast, and at the time were both dedicated to our careers and didn’t put the time and effort into our marriage that it needed. Luckily for me, the universe brought her back to me.”
I leave out all my family drama and Taylor’s motivations because it’s none of their business.
“Am I the universe?” Mike asks, puffing his chest out for show.
“That was the condition, wasn’t it?” Preston looks between us. “You said you would only come play with him if he was in Nashville, but you only wanted him in Nashville because you knew Taylor was going to be in Nashville sooner or later.”
Mike winks but doesn’t directly confirm Preston’s correct assumption. “I plead the fifth.”
“Daddy Mike, are you playing matchmaker?” Miller asks.
“Do not call me that,” Mike groans. “And somebody had to do something. He was taking too long.”
“Hey, I was getting there,” I argue.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Do you think they’re really mad at her?” They’ve been inside for at least ten minutes now and I’m worried it’s not going well.
“Nah, those girls don’t really get mad at each other. They’ll be hurt because she didn’t tell them, especially since she’s been hiding it since the year they graduated college, but they won’t be mad,” Mike assures me.
“How long do you think they’re going to stay in there?” Chase sits up taller, trying to see inside.
“I’ll go check.” Miller jumps up and pokes his head inside,spouting some nonsense I choose to ignore because it works, and the girls walk back out laughing.
Taylor rounds the table and I turn to pull her into a hug before she can sit down. “Everything okay?”
“Aw, look at the boss man being all sensitive,” Miller mocks.
“One of these days someone’s going to punch you in the face,” Gabby says.
He leans into her face and sticks his tongue out. “But not today.” Turning to Taylor, he clears his throat and says, “Sorry about what I said earlier. That wasn’t cool.”
