Page 97 of The Write Stuff

He took a deep breath. “Michael wanted his family back, and Aggie was torn,” he explained. “She didn’t trust Michael — she was having trouble trusting anybody — but she thought Lucy deserved a chance to have her father in her life. She said she felt guilty because Wylie never had a father, and she thought that had been to Wylie’s detriment because … well, because Wylie was so out there with her stories and the things she was interested in.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Wylie,” I insisted.

Mick, recognizing my tone, held up his hands to placate me. “I didn’t say there was. I said that Aggie believed that Wylie was somehow given the short end of the stick because she didn’t have a father. I didn’t want to make Aggie choose, so I took a step back.”

He ran his tongue over his lips, and I could tell that the next part would be the most difficult part. “Your mother and I started hanging out — just as friends — in the aftermath of Aggie going back to Michael. We weren’t dating. I planned to wait out Michael, knowing he would leave again, and then your mother asked me out.”

I just blinked.

“I should have said no, but I was feeling particularly vulnerable that night,” he explained. “I told her it was just as friends and she agreed. We got drunk, though, and one thing led to another.” His grimace matched mine.

“You’re not blaming my mother for this, are you?” I practically growled.

“Not entirely, no. We both made huge mistakes. You promised to hear me out.”

I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him.

He took that as his sign to keep going. “Your mother decided that since we’d slept together, we were going to be a couple. I told her no, but there was no sign of Michael and Aggie breaking up, at least that I saw. Your mother kept guilting me about using her, and finally, I gave in. I agreed to date her.”

He rubbed his forehead, and I could tell this was difficult for him. I didn’t care. My mother was the one who had ended up most hurt in this arrangement.

“Your mother suggested marriage about a month after we’d started dating,” he supplied. “I wasn’t prepared to get married, but she said it would make things easier for Aggie. If Aggie saw us together, she would allow herself to be happy with Michael.

“You have to understand that from all outward appearances, Michael and Aggie looked happy,” he continued. “They seemed to be making it work. I didn’t want to steal Aggie’s family from her. I didn’t want to supplant Michael, and I did want Lucy to have a father.”

“So, you agreed to marry my mother even though you didn’t love her,” I guessed.

“I loved your mother, just not the way she wanted me to.” His mouth was a flat line as the server delivered the food. He managed a smile for her benefit, but his eyes were vacant when they moved to mine. “We went to Vegas and got married. I was determined to make things work with your mother. When we got back, about a week later, I found out that Michael had left again.”

“That’s not my mother’s fault!” I barked.

“Did your mother make Michael leave Aggie? No, she did not.”

I relaxed, if only a little bit.

“Your mother knew two weeks before the wedding that Michael had left Aggie, however, and she set up the entire thing to convince me to marry her so there would be no options for Aggie and me.”

I was about to call him a filthy liar — my mother would never — but I remembered how she was with some of her other husbands. She hadn’t cared in the least about steamrolling other women to get what she wanted. She didn’t deny it either. She owned it.

“She did that to Aggie?” I ignored my breakfast because I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

“Your mother is the sort of woman who goes after what she wants,” Mick explained. “She decided, for whatever reason, she wanted me. I don’t know why, because from the moment we got married, everything I did irritated her.”

He wasn’t wrong. My mother was like that with all of her husbands.

“You stayed with her, though,” I said, finally finding my voice. “For years. You were the stepfather I had in my life the longest.”

“I stayed because I made vows, and I was genuinely fond of you,” he confirmed. “Plus, I knew once I exchanged vows with Eleanor that there was no hope for Aggie and me. At least this way, I would see her occasionally. I would be able to see Wylie and Lucy grow up, because I fell in love with them too.”

I took a long drink of my London Fog. “Obviously, you decided you couldn’t take the angst any longer and went back to Aggie at some point,” I said. “That wasn’t right. You should have told her you wanted a divorce first.”

“I told your mother I wanted a divorce two years before we actually divorced. She refused to give me an out and instead told me that she would submarine the movie series if I even tried. She was going to take financial stability away from all of you if I didn’t stay married to her.”

I tried to remember that time in our lives. I’d been in college, though, wrapped up in my own life.

“You couldn’t have known, Huxley,” he said, correctly reading my mind. “There’s no way you could have known. She went out of her way to keep it from you.”

“I just don’t understand why. She jumps from husband to husband with ease. Why wouldn’t she let you go?”