“I couldn’t control where they posted me, Aust.”
When she shortens my real name like that, Aust, I’m hard as a rock. “I know that, but fate works in mysterious ways, don’t you think? You could have been assigned anywhere in the continental United States, and yet here you are.”
“Let’s just agree that we can co-exist.”
Yeah, we can co-exist in my bed every night. She’s still the one I want, even after three years without her. One might assume that I’m the asshole who did the dirty, or wanted to see other people, but it just wasn’t the case. When you love a woman so much, but you can see she wants more for her life, you can’t hold on to her. You have to let her go. That theory cost me my wife, and I’m not so sure I’m not the dumbest fucking man on the planet, but I’ve never wanted to hold her back. It felt like us against the world for such a long time, but you can only be teenagers for so long. At some point, the bubble had to burst. Maybe we did get married too fast, and maybe I could’ve tried harder to be a better husband, but if anything, these last few years have taught me what I really want most in the world. She’s right—we have changed, but I’ve never stopped loving her. Part of the reason I let her fly was because I felt she could do better than me.
Sure, we got married to piss her parents off, and we were wild back then, but deep down, Willow has always sought her father’s approval. It saddens me that even after all this time, she doesn’t have it in anything she does. She doesn’t have to tell me — I know what that bastard is like.
When she orders two more shots, I know she’s asking for trouble. Then again, for a tiny little thing, she can hold her liquor pretty well. “To co-existing?” I pop a brow, holding my shot glass toward her.
She laughs, not taking her eyes off me as she downs hers in one throw. The burn makes her wince as I laugh. “This is a pretty big city. I mean, we can do this.”
“Right, and it isn’t like I’m in your neck of the woods any time.” Aside from the nights when I check up on her. She lives in a very nice building downtown, but you can never be too careful these days.
“Exactly. You have your life, and I have mine.” I don’t know if she’s trying to convince me or herself, but I go along with it.
“It isn’t like our paths ever cross.”
She nods and then narrows her eyes. “Wait, you just walked into this very same bar as me?”
I sigh. “Honey, if you think I follow you everywhere you go, you’re sadly mistaken.” Technically, it’s not a lie. I don’t follow her everywhere, just some places.
“So it was by total coincidence?”
“I’m meeting someone.”
Her eyes almost bug out of their sockets. “A woman?” she blurts.
I smile at that. Oh, my little sweet cakes used to be very jealous. She didn’t enjoy other women admiring me, as much as I didn’t like men looking at her. Nothing has changed there. “No, not a woman. Why? Are you jealous?”
She snorts. “Jealous? Puh-lease.”
“I’m just sayin’, why would you ask if you didn’t care?”
“You might want your ex-wife’s approval.”
She’s not my ex anything, but now’s not the time to mince words.
“I’ve been doin’ okay without her approval for a while now.”
“I’m sure you’ve been doing just fine.” I don’t mistake that tone as she grazes her eyes down my body. I’m a liar, but she doesn’t need to know how pathetic I am, how much I yearn for her.
“You keep lookin’ at me like that, I’ll get ideas.” I hide my grin behind my glass as the bourbon hits the spot.
“We wouldn’t want that now, would we?”
“Definitely not. You know how relentless I am when pursuin’ your pleasur?—”
She whacks me on the arm. “Haze!”
“Now I’m Haze? What happened to sweet Austy, Austin?”
“He’s not being very sweet right now.”
“Just tellin’ it like it is.”
“Do you remember that time your mom caught us in the back of your truck?” She puts a hand over her mouth, but it’s pointless.
