In the throat!
“Aiden!” I say, more shocked than anything else.
“Say something else and it’ll be your face,” Aiden says, gripping JimBo by the collar.
JimBo holds up a hand and says through his coughs, “Don’t. I…have ESPN in the morning.”
“Walk away from me,” he says to my husband through gritted teeth.
“Harper, you gonna let him hit me like that?” JimBo says as he stumbles out of Aiden’s grip, “After all these years? You tell him how well I took care of you, you—”
“Walk. Faster!” Aiden says.
“Fine, I’m going,” JimBo yells, genuinely worried about his face staying television-ready. I cannot believe he is the same human being I drooled over throughout all of middle school and high school. The man I freaking married. The gym door slams and then it’s just the sound of birds and bugs in the summer breeze. And tension.
Aiden stands with his hands on his hips for a beat before he says, “Explain.” I swallow, bracing myself, and the gorgeous billionaire seems to kick himself and then tries again. “Please. Explain,please.”
“Technically, I am still married,” I say.
“I gathered that part,” Aiden huffs back.
“You know his story?” I ask. Aiden nods, “So you know he was injured a few years out of high school, right when he was going pro. We had just gotten together and all his PGA hopes and dreams were crushed. So, he said he was building new dreams, staying with me, working on the business with my dad, all that. He proposed, we got married, bought a house. But he was still dreaming of playing, obviously. I mean it wasn’t obvious back then, but he entered that Monday Qualifier without telling a soul and won the whole thing and that was it.”
“That was it?” Aiden asks.
“I mean, he never came back. Told me over text message that this was his destiny, blah blah.”
“Why the hell didn’t you divorce him?”
I sigh and feel myself flushing even more, and I was already beet red, “It’s not that simple when someone is rich and famous.”
“What?”
“He didn’t want the bad press at first. Needed a year or two to milk his story, to be the PGA’s new golden boy,” I explain. “And we were broke as a laugh back then. He left me with the mortgage, and my dad’s health had just started getting a lot worse. But JimBo started paying for everything. Bought me a new car, new house, bought things for the store, bought a nurse service for my dad…”
“Hush money?”
“Basically,” I admit, “And it came with so many strings attached, I eventually sold it all and ghosted him. I mean, he boughtthe car so he expected me to drive up and pose for some press conference in the city. He bought the nursing service so I would leave dad alone and meet him at a tournament in Florida.”
Aiden cocks his head, “So he did ask you to leave Juniper Falls with him?”
I laugh, “No, he most definitely did not. He asked me to pose for photo opps and make him look good with reporters. He never asked me to leave Dad and I wouldn’t have, anyway. He wasn’t the man I married anymore. I mean,” I remember it all, and snap to make a point, “he changed likethat.Like it was nothing. Like we hadn’t just started to try to get pregnant.Thank Godthat didn’t happen.”
“Unavailable,” Aiden says to himself.
“Right, I’m not available. This is what I meant. I finally put myself back out there about a year ago, I thought maybe I would face it, try and work things out if I found someone. I met Lewis and he was an adventurer too, in his own way. Always off camping, skiing, repelling and stuff. But he said he was all about settling down and starting a family with me. He bought Stuart, took me on fancy dates to the city, we had looked at rings, the whole thing.
“Right up until he realized JimBo would ruin him financially. His hobbies are not cheap. He evaporated into thin air. Decided I wasn’t worth it.” Aiden scoffs but I defend Lewis, “It’s not a small thing though, really. I mean the legal circus to divorce JimBo now, with all that he paid for over the years, paying all that back? Pft, I can’t even afford the lawyers.”
“I can,” Aiden says quickly.
I blink, surprised. But then I clear my head, “Then I’ll just go from being indebted to him to indebted to you, no offense.”
“Offense taken. I am yourfriendand as your friend I would like to give you use of my family lawyer. You know how many Vanderwells have gotten quietly divorced over the years?”
“No,” I say.
“Exactly. It’ll be over before week’s end,” Aiden says.
