“Obviously,” he drawled.
“The thing is, he, that is…Bryce was already married.And he had two kids.But I didn’t know any of that at the time.”
I flinched just remembering that scene in the restaurant when Tara, Bryce’s wife, and her friends confronted him.
Us.
Then I flinched again at the memory of when she noticed the ring on my finger, and at first, thought I was engaged to someone else.But then, as I was in the midst of experiencing my own heartbreak, during which I shared I was engaged to Bryce, how she reacted to that.
And I flinched yet again, remembering three days after all that went down, when I sat with Tara, we had our convo, and she showed me pictures of her two little kids (one and three years old, and both adorable, by the way), sobbing and not understanding what went wrong (Bryce), how it went wrong (Bryce), and what she was going to do next (that had no answer at the time).
Hutch crossed his arms on his chest, and the days were getting cooler and cooler, so he was wearing a brown and black plaid insulated flannel shirt over an oatmeal thermal.
I could still see his pecs pop, such were the power of his pecs.
“Obviously, I broke up with him,” I went on.“And…well, there’s a lot of other history I have going on.We, as you know, kind of touched on some of it the other night.”
“All right,” he said.
“And I just…” I shrugged and threw my hands out to my sides to unleash added annoyance.“I just got done with it, Hutch.I did a lot of research about where to go and what to do.I hocked his ring.Sold everything I owned.I’d received an inheritance I didn’t want from some person in my past, more history, long story, but I didn’t really want to touch that money, though I did”—I took in a huge breath—“and I came to Misted Pines.”
“You’re acting like this is some kind of dire confession when nothing you’re saying seems out of hand after you found out what your jackass fiancé was up to,” he remarked.
“I changed my name,” I said quickly, thinking he’d think that was weird and extreme, or even unhinged.“There are more reasons than just this, but we can say, Bryce took his wife finding out he was cheating as some kind of boon.Like he was on a game show and could now officially pick door number one or door number two.I was door number two, and when he was, as it was in Bryce’s mind, given the choice, he picked me.”
“But you didn’t pick him,” he said.
I shook my head vehemently.“God no.Of course not.The man was living a double life, for heaven’s sake.Gave me this whole song and dance about how he traveled for work, when he was at home a few miles away with his wife and kids.And just to say, was also making one of those kids with his wife when he was also with me.He texted all the time ‘when he was away.’Called all the time when he was ‘on the road.’I honestly don’t know how he did it.Truthfully, how she didn’t catch him is a mystery.Then again, in the end, whatever he was doing, he wasn’t being as stealthy as he thought, because she did catch him.”
“Why are we talking about this now?”
“Well…look,” I said, pulled up the video on TikTok, turned it, tapped it and gave my phone to him.
He watched it, and when he was done, swiped the program closed, muttering, “How the fuck did that get so many hearts?”
“Likes,” I said automatically.“And, um…I don’t know.Maybe because you’re gorgeous.”
“And maybe it’s because you’re gorgeous,” he shot back.
I didn’t need him being sweet right now.
Though, with time to consider, if the owner of the MP Community TikTok went around filming some of the men who lived here in action, I was now seeing why tourism stayed so strong year long.
I pushed that thought aside and pointed out, “Hutch, it wasn’t me sinking twenty shots in a row.”
“I shouldn’t have asked the question,” he said tersely.“Let’s get back on target.I can see you don’t want to be on social media, babe.But it’s gonna be a thing for as long as those people have the attention span to give it, and since they exist to ping-pong from one thing to be pissed off about to another, you can just chill.It’ll blow over.”
“Bryce doesn’t know where I live.”
“Not surprised.It’s not his to know anymore.”
“Bryce is my Bree, Hutch.I just didn’t bother with the restraining order.I took off.”
Oh dear.
I could see immediately I shouldn’t have told him that.
“He’s stalking you?”he asked ominously.
