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There was a pause before Suzanna said, “Yeah, of course, but—”
“I’m coming to Whisper Lake.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?”
“No, I’m not—” Avery stopped herself from telling Suzanna that she wasn’t going to be walking down the aisle today. She figured she should probably let her betrothed in on that piece of information first, which she was moments away from doing because she’d just reached his room. “I’ll explain when I get there. See you in a few days.”
Avery hung up the phone and stood staring at the door to the suite. She lifted her hand and knocked quietly. If Jude was having as much trouble sleeping as her, he might be awake. If so, she wanted to alert him that she was there instead of just going in. When there was no answer, she pulled out her master key and held it against the reader.
When she walked in, she heard the distinct, recognizable sounds of sex. The room was filled with a melody of panting and moaning. As she walked down the small corridor before entering the suite, she fully expected to find him watching porn on the flat screen. It might be a little uncomfortable for her to tell him this was over when he was jerking off, but she honestly couldn’t wait a second longer.
“Jude,” she said his name a second before she rounded the corner.
When she did, she saw that the television screen was black. The sounds she’d heard were not coming from an erotic film. They were coming from Jude, who was on the bed, fucking someone with long brown hair.
Neither party noticed her enter the room. They continued going at it with more passion than she’d experienced in years. Five years, to be exact. Since the night she’d shared with Keaton Savage.
Well, this is going to make my news a lot easier, Avery thought to herself.
She waited to see if she was going to get upset, feel sad, or be angry, but she just felt numb.
“Jude!” She said it a little louder.
That got their attention. Both Jude and his partner looked her way, and she saw that the woman he was sharing their honeymoon suite with wasn’t a random hookup or someone he might have met at his bachelor party. No, she was Jacob’s twenty-year-old nanny, Celeste.
Avery waited for the betrayal to hit her, but again, she just felt numb.
“What are you doing?! I can’t see you before the wedding!” Jude shouted as he dismounted Celeste and pulled the sheet along with him, leaving her lying naked on the bed. She scrambled for a comforter or something to cover up with.
Avery actually felt sorry for Celeste. She knew firsthand how captivating and intoxicating Jude’s attention could be when he turned it in your direction. It was like the sun shining on you. But the flip side of that was the cold and darkness that the shadow of his love left you in when it was gone.
“There’s not going to be a wedding,” Avery stated flatly, and walked out of the room to Jude, shouting at her to wait.
Besides feeling numb, she actually felt relieved. Maybe that was wrong, but she was glad that she wasn’t going to have to carry the entire bad guy burden for this not happening.
Not that she was an angel in this situation. She knew it was wrong that she’d let the farce of their relationship go on this long. But at least her intentions had been good. It wasn’t an excuse, but it was a noble reason. She wanted her son to have a family. It might have been a flawed reason, but it was certainly more noble than whatever Jude had going on.
She’d just made it to the elevator when Jude grabbed her arm and spun her around. He’d pulled on a pair of sweats but was still shirtless. She hadn’t had a chance to look at his body in a light this bright for years. She noticed that he was now sporting a little gut. Nothing crazy, but his body wasn’t quite as toned as it had been. Not that hers was either. Her body had changed after having Jacob. She was carrying around ten extra pounds, quite a few stretch marks, and a pouch in her gut.
She wondered if he’d noticed that she’d changed, too. She doubted it since she couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her naked. It wasn’t a judgment on either of them, just an observation of how tragically disconnected they were.
“You’re being emotional over nothing. It was my last night as a single man. What did you expect me to do?” Jude asked in a completely non-ironic, non-rhetorical way.
“Call me crazy, but how aboutnotfuck our nanny.”
“There’s no need to be crude.” Avery used to find Jude’s British accent sexy; now every time he spoke, he just sounded like a condescending prick.
Avery couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m the one being crude. You were just having sex on our wedding day with a woman we pay to watch our son, and I’m the one being crude. That’s… priceless.”
“Look, I don’t know what you were expecting to find coming to my room. You were the one who insisted we spend the wedding night apart. This never would have happened if you’d shared the room with me instead of following some ancient tradition.”
Avery truly wasn’t mad before this conversation. But every time Jude opened his mouth, she was getting more and more upset. Jude was the king of gaslighting. Of course, he was going to try and turn this around on her. He was actually going to try and lay the blame firmly at her feet for him getting caught cheating.
“We’re both upset.” Jude reached out and rubbed her upper arms. “Let’s just get through today.”
“No.” Avery shook off his touch. “We’re not going to get through today. There’s not going to be a wedding.”
“You were the one who insisted on having the wedding in the States. My entire family flew over. I have two hundred friends and work associates showing up in twelve hours for our wedding. What are you going to tell them?”
