15. Heath
CHAPTER 15
heath
I t took me longer to get to the Wildflower because I’d stopped by Alexa’s.
Juno hugged me, told me she had an exam, and whispered, “Good luck” in my ear before sprinting to her room.
Alexa was crying. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her face was blotchy in a way I hadn’t seen in years. She was upset as hell.
Alexa wasn’t a big crier so if she was this upset, I knew I had to pay attention, ex or not.
“What’s going on?” I sat next to her on the couch.
She didn’t look at me right away. “I can’t believe it’s come to this, Heath,” she said finally, her voice shaky. “Me having to defend myself. My family. Our daughter.”
“Defend yourself?” I repeated, my voice sharper than I intended. “Alexa, you went into the Wildflower and made a scene.”
She flinched, turning to face me, more tears threatening to spill. “You think I wanted to do that? You think I wanted to humiliate myself in front of half the town?”
“You didn’t have to go in there at all,” I shot back, though the fight was already leaking out of me. Seeing her like this—wrecked and vulnerable—made it hard to hold onto my anger.
She wiped at her cheek and let out a humorless laugh. “And what was I supposed to do, Heath? Sit back and watch while she gets everything. While you forget that I’m the one who’s been here, who’s always been here?”
I frowned, feeling a familiar pang of guilt creep in. As she often reminded me, I was the one who asked for a divorce and broke up our family. “Alexa, who I date doesn’t concern you.” Or at least, it shouldn’t.
She looked up at me, her eyes glistening. “I’ve spent years trying to hold it together for Juno. For us. And now, everyone’s talking about how she” —she practically spat the word— “is some kind of saint. Like she’s the one who deserves a happy ending while I get left with nothing.”
Fuck! This was about Sable winning ? Did neither of these women realize that they weren’t in high school anymore? Sable was still affected by the past, still triggered by what people said about her and thought about her. And now Alexa was triggered by Sable and me.
“Alexa, you’re not left with nothing.”
She shook her head. “You don’t hear what I hear. People pity me, Heath. They look at me like I’m some bitter ex-wife who couldn’t hold on to her husband. And the worst part of it all, I feel like I’m losing you. ”
You already lost me.
I ran a hand over my face, feeling frustrated. “Alexa, Sable didn’t ruin our marriage. You and I both know it was broken long before she ever came into the picture.”
“I know,” she said softly, pausing to look at me. “But none of it changes how I feel. I love you, Heath. I’d hoped…that we’d move to Aspen and get back together. Now that dream is dying.”
She looked like the young woman I’d met all those years ago—the one who I’d fallen in love with. Her sharp edges and manipulative streak had emerged over the years. But, right now, she wasn’t the ice queen she showed the world—she was someone who felt abandoned, left behind.
I let out a slow breath, my anger vanishing. “I didn’t mean for any of this to hurt you, Alexa. I never wanted that.”
She gave me a sad smile, her shoulders sagging. “I know. But it did. It still does.”
I’d been so focused on my own life—on Sable, on figuring out what I wanted—that I hadn’t stopped to think about what this all looked like from Alexa’s side. It didn’t excuse what she’d done, but I saw the pain behind her actions.
“I know.” I wrapped an arm around her, and she leaned into me.
I inhaled her familiar perfume. I wondered if maybe we could be friends and not just friendly. Perhaps then it wouldn’t hurt her quite so much .
I put a finger under her chin to lift her face. “What can I do to make this better?”
Her eyes glistened with tears. “I don’t know.” Her voice was small. She seemed so forlorn that my heart ached. “Maybe, maybe, you can keep your…whatever it is with her , quiet? For the sake of us…for Juno.”
Her voice cracked on Juno’s name, and that’s what did it. That’s what softened me completely. Because whatever else Alexa was, she was Juno’s mother, and I’d promised myself I’d always keep things civil for our daughter’s sake.
“Okay,” I promised her.
I’d talk to Sable. She’d understand. It had been the wrong move to go public. Two weeks of that, and already my ex-wife was crumbling, and my daughter had to witness it. I didn’t want her to have a broken mother—especially since I was the one who wanted the divorce . I had a higher burden of responsibility to make this right.
She nodded, wiping her eyes one last time. “Thank you, Heath. I just want things to be okay again. For all of us. Especially for Juno.”
After she calmed down, I checked in with Juno.
“You okay, Junebug?” I asked after I entered her room.
“Yeah.” She looked sad. “Mama’s gonna be alright?”
“I think so.”
“She told me what happened.”
Well, Juno would probably hear about it at school. I doubted Alexa’s little nervous breakdown at the Wildflower wouldn’t make the gossip headlines .
“How does that make you feel?” I asked.
“Sad,” she admitted. “I don’t want her to hurt, you know? I want her to be happy. You guys weren’t happy together. You fought, and you were…cold to each other. But now, you both seemed to be doing well…with each other. Friendly. We went for dinner and it was fine, even fun, like old times. Now….”
I pursed my lips.
“But, Daddy, you have to live your life, and she needs to live hers,” Juno continued, surprising me with her maturity. “I think she just needs time to accept that you’ve moved on, and when she does as well, she’ll feel better.”
“When did you become so smart?” I kissed her forehead.
“Born this way.” She grinned.
By the time I made it to the Wildflower, the resolve I’d walked in with was gone. I wasn’t sure who I was trying to protect anymore—Alexa, Juno, Sable, or myself.
The last thing I needed was to see Natasha there. Fuck me! I couldn’t catch a break from the Vikar sisters today.
I smiled at Natasha and nodded at Sable, tacitly asking her if she was okay. She just shrugged and poured me my nightly drink—a finger of Macallan 12, which she kept at the bar just for me, she’d told me.
“Natasha.” I sat next to her.
Sable slid my drink in front of me, and without thinking about it, and because I needed it, I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Thanks, babe. ”
Thinking about how to handle the situation was one thing, but when Sable was in front of me, a warm sensation took over, and I knew in my heart that I couldn’t let her go.
Natasha noticed the kiss and smiled. She finished her drink. “Thanks for talking to me, Sable. You have a nice evening. Good to see you, Heath.”
“I’m sorry I’m late.” I held out my hand to Sable after Natasha left. She came around the bar, and I pulled her to me, spreading my legs so she stood between them. I put my hands on her hips and squeezed. She felt good. She always felt so damn good. I wished we could just be in this space and explore one another without all the interference.
I kissed her and let go. Feeling her tongue against mine, her taste inside me, it washed away everything bad that had happened during the day—the small stuff like the ski lift that stopped working and the big ones like finding Alexa losing her shit in front of Juno.
“Hey, handsome,” she whispered when I let her mouth free.
“I talked to Alexa,” I told her.
She nodded and waited.
“She’s pretty broken up about what she did.”
She looked at me in disbelief, which rankled a little. Sable needed to trust me to know my ex-wife. But she didn’t say anything, and I knew I didn’t have much standing here since Alexa had come into Sable’s business and made a scene. I didn’t have the details, but I could guess .
“She’d been hoping we’d get back together, and my moving on publicly with you has hit her hard.”
Sable put her hands on my shoulders and squeezed but didn’t say anything. I was grateful.
“I made it clear to her that we’re never getting back together. It’s over. It’s been for a while now.”
I could see the conflict in her eyes. She wanted to believe me but wasn’t sure she could.
“Sable.” I looked her in the eyes. “I can’t change what Alexa did, but I’m asking you for grace while I sort this out. For Juno’s sake.”
Her shoulders sagged just slightly, and she nodded. “Okay. What do you need?”
Fuck me! There was no anger, no manipulation, no nothing—just plain concern and acceptance. I was a lucky son of a bitch to have a woman this compassionate with me when my ex was losing her shit.
“First, I want you to know that I’m sorry and hate that you’re in the middle of…my divorce.”
She laughed softly. “Hey, from one divorcee to the other, I get it.”
“Second, I think we should keep things…quiet.”
She raised an enquiring eyebrow.
“We don’t have to flaunt it. Maybe we can meet at each other’s homes and not in public. You know what I’m saying?”
I saw concern move in her eyes.
“It’s not like you’re some dirty secret, Sable,” I quickly said in case she misunderstood me.
“Never thought I was.” Her back straightened, and she stepped away from me as if she wanted to put space between us. She didn’t like what I said or maybe how I said it. I knew she didn’t want to be out in the open. I mean, I kept asking her to go out, and she wanted to stay home. So, what was her problem? Maybe she didn’t have one. Perhaps I was imagining it.
“Come home with me tonight,” I pleaded softly. I had thought we’d go to her place, but I suddenly wanted her in my bed. I wanted…to stake my claim. What the fuck? But the feeling was almost overwhelming. I didn’t want to lose Sable, and I was feeling like I might.
She hesitated, and for a second, I thought she might say no. But then she nodded. “Okay. Let me close up.”
That night, there was a desperation in the way I touched her. I worried that it would be the last time—because I knew something had gone wrong between us. I didn’t know what or why, but it was there—so I tried to light a fire with passion, which was always red hot, and this time was no different.
But in the morning, when she kissed me goodbye—refusing breakfast and coffee because she had things to do—I couldn’t shake the fear that this was the beginning of the end, which stung hard because we hadn’t really begun.