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“Chris, please don’t damage the fridge.” My wife’s voice came from our son’s nursery.
“I’m sorry,” I yelled back, rubbing my forehead while melting into one of the soft-backed chairs around the kitchen island.
Her footsteps were soft when she made her way into the kitchen, so when her arms came to hug me around my shoulders, she frightened me. “Why don’t you call them?” she asked.
She smelled like breast milk, ointments, and baby powder, but she still smelled great to me.
“Who?” I asked, turning my face to kiss her hand.
“You know who,” she said, rubbing my shoulder for just a few seconds, although they felt damn good with how tense I was. She’d need the massage more than me though, so I didn’t beg.
“I can’t,” I said, spinning around to face her and pull her into my arms. Oh, the scent of the breast milk was way stronger coming from her bosom now. I made a face, and she tapped my back, blushing.
Holding her close around the waist, I let my face rest against her chest; her soft, fuller body with the weight she had gained since becoming a mom felt good. I also didn’t want her to feel embarrassed. She hugged me back.
“Why can’t you?” she asked, her gentle voice a murmur against my ear as she stroked my thinning hair.
“I can’t trust her. I don’t know who she is anymore.” My body shook as the image of her and my best friends flashed in my mind again.
“Whoa,” she said in response, rubbing my back.
“I mean, how can I even look at them anymore without picturing it. It’s too much. And even if I could by some miracle get past that, how could I look at them, knowing they all played me for an idiot and didn’t respect me enough to tell me to my face?” I asked.
“But what if Tiffany needs you right now? What if there’s any truth whatsoever to what your father implied?” she asked, pulling back out of my arms to search my green eyes with her deep blue orbs. “Are you going to just do nothing?”
“That’s not the vibe I got from them when we were all at Lion’s Bar together,” I said.
“Either way, whatever happens, your sister needs you, Chris. And if you’re right about the guys, then their whole life’s about to be turned upside down by your parents just because they chose to be with your sister. Again, if you’re right about them, then that doesn’t seem fair, does it?” she asked.
My eyes shifted from her gaze; the truth was that deep down, even though I knew it was wrong of me to feel this way, the hurt in me danced with glee at the thought that perhaps they didn’t get to have their happy ending after all. And so, I didn’t bother picking my phone back up to give them a call.
My resentment enjoyed this far more than it should have.
Chapter 3
Jared
Squeezingthebridgeofmy nose and pulling on the skin between my brows, I growled low in my throat. Focus evaded me. Taking off my reading glasses that were hanging gingerly on my forehead, I rubbed my eyes, pressing my thumb and forefinger into my closed eyelids.
Tiffany was all I could think of. It had been a week since I’d seen her, and the high we experienced after finally reconnecting came to a devastating crash. The look of pain on Chris’ face haunted me at night. Damn, it made me feel dirty and disgusting. It was hard to look at myself in the mirror in the morning. It was hard to live in my skin. I let him down. I was a dirty scoundrel, a terrible friend.
The buzz of my phone reverberated through my wooden desk, and I pulled my strained eyes from the blur of the computer screen to look at it. An even louder groan escaped me when I saw Tiffany calling. This time, the reason I hated seeing her name had nothing to do with me hating her. I hated how quickly my hand jumped for the phone and how hard I had to fight myself to keep from answering it.
My brain went numb while my blood flow felt like pure adrenaline powered it. It shook my body, moving me out of my chair to stand before pacing around the room. I watched the phone as it rang and stopped ringing. Rang again and stopped. This had to have been harder for her than it was for me. She was going through it with her brother kicking her out of her apartment. What she needed was reassurance that everything would be okay.
But Mario had that sorted out, right? I wasn’t sure how to be anything to her right now. Because if I tried to be there for her, I was choosing to continue to betray Chris and even worse, it wouldn’t help his and Tiffany’s relationship. The best thing I could be for her was ‘gone.’
The phone rang about three to four times, tempting me to answer it so that I could hear her sweet voice while my stomach churned with guilt. But it eventually stopped, allowing me to return to my desk and do my best job of pretending to ‘work’ by staring at the screen and shuffling papers around. However, I was struggling to make anything out of any of the information before me.
Fear stopped me from actually attempting to work since my failing focus could result in me making a mess of everything. With my lagging brain, I’d get the clients mixed up and end up sending confidential information to one client, violating some of the lawyer-client protocols.
The idea of a short walk and a breath of fresh air to refocus was tempting. Since the pool would turn into an even bigger distraction. It was highly doubtful that I’d spend any less than too many hours in it trying to drown my thoughts out. And enough hours had been wasted doing nothing this week already. So, a quick walk it was.
Just as I was about to leave my desk, my office phone rang. Melissa must have gone to the bathroom or something; she wasn’t at her desk. Yet another groan escaped me. Okay, I would have to get a hang of myself soon and by soon, I meant now. It wasn’t okay to greet a potential client or investor sounding as if I were underneath a shaky, unstable sand cave about to tumble down on top of me.
“Crawford & Beam, you’re speaking with Jared Craw…” I started, but the person on the other end of the line was determined to finish me.
“Listen to me, Jared Crawford, you disgusting excuse of a man!” the person yelled.
