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“I’m awake,” Piper repeats, rolling her eyes and she pins me with a glare as I start laughing.

“Either get out of bed right now or I’ll be forced to come over there and drag you to work myself.”

Piper shakes her head. “You live on the other side of town and do you hear this thing I’m doing right now? It’s called talking and it means I’m fucking awake.”

“She’s telling the truth,” I add, laughing, and Piper’s gaze flies to me as her lips part as silence hangs heavy on the other side of the phone. Her eyes are wide as she gives me a “what the hell did you just do” look and I shrug. Isn’t this exactly what Eden wanted when she set us up on our little reunion tour?

“Who is that, Pip? Please tell me that’s not James… Please tell me you didn’t do something massively stupid and fuck up the whole Wyatt…”

Piper scrambles for the phone and takes it off speakerphone before Eden can say anything else and presses it to her ear.

“I will talk to you about this later,” she growls through gritted teeth but my focus is on that name Eden dropped as my mind spins. I clench my teeth as my chest burns and lights flash in my vision.

Who the fuck is James and what does he have to do with my wife?

Piper hangs up and sets the phone back on the bedside table before peeking over at me. I arch a brow, pinning her with a look.

“Who the hell is James?”

She sighs. “My ex…”

The burning in my chest intensifies and a knot forms in my stomach. It’s not fair of me to act like this to news that she has an ex when I haven’t been a saint over the last ten years either but the thought of another man with his hands on her body makes me want to kill someone.

“How recent?”

“We broke up a couple of weeks ago.”

Nodding, I fling the covers off of my legs and climb out of bed.

“Wyatt? Please don’t be mad… You know how complicated this situation is and I didn’t think we would ever be…” She motions between the two of us. “Here.”

“I know,” I snap as I run my hand through my hair and start pacing at the end of the bed. It’s not fair but no matter how many times I say that to myself, it doesn’t ease the ache.

“It was never anything… I was just trying to fill the void… Trying not to feel so broken without you…”

My gaze snaps to hers. “You broke up with him or he broke up with you?”

“Does it matter?” she asks with a scowl and I narrow my eyes as I nod.

“Yeah, it fuckin’ matters. Did you break up with him?”

She nods.

“And why would Eden think you were with him?”

“We ran into each other when I was out with the girls last night. He said he wanted to grab lunch sometime and talk but I blocked him on my phone after he left. I’ll show you.”

I stare at her for a second before releasing a breath and squeezing my eyes shut. I have to remind myself repeatedly that she never really cheated on me, there was never another man and I have no reason to not trust her before the tension slowly seeps out of my shoulders. Nodding my head, I open my eyes and hold my hand out for her, needing her touch to feel right again. She climbs up onto her knees and walks across the bed until she reaches me and wraps her arms around my neck. Peace settles over me and I release a breath.

“I’m sorry,” I say, my voice soft as I brush my thumb over her cheek and she nods.

“I don’t like thinking of you with other people either, Wyatt, but if we’re really going to make this work, we have to find a way to deal with it.”

I nod and slip my hand into her hair as I lean down, pressing my lips to her. She makes that perfect little sigh again and I want to beat my chest. I bet that James fucker never got her to make that sound. I bet he never knew that kissing her behind her ear will make goose bumps pop up all over her body and I know he never owned her heart.

It’s mine, all mine.

Just like she has always been.