Chapter 21
Brandon
I suppose I should’ve seen it coming.
A man like Avery McAllister wasn’t meant to stay single, no matter how hard he’d preached about doing so when we were kids.
Heirs of billionaires, no matter the estrangement, would always eventually find their way back to the roots that their families had laid out for them—a carefully crafted plan that ensured that the money stayed within the family system and would continue to be reinvested for the next generations to come.
Assets were contingent on the legacy to continue. Letting it die with an unkept heir and redistributed to the government would never be allowed, no matter how much of a fight said heir could theoretically put up.
That’s just how that world worked.
And Avery was no exception to it.
Ex-wife.
That word echoed in my head for so long that now it felt like my mind had been permanently branded with it.
I wondered if he’d left behind a family in the city. He’d never mentioned children before this but then again he never mentioned having an ex-wife, either. How much did I actually know about this man that I’d allowed to get me off in the front seat of his Audi?
Hardly anything now that I thought about it.
Ex-wife.
He’d jumped out of the car at her phone call, which meant that whatever happened was serious. Avery wasn’t one to leave unless necessary, and definitely not when we were in the middle of what we were doing.
That meant she mattered. She wasn’t some fluke—a small blip in his radar that he’d soon forgotten the second the ink dried on their divorce papers. He cared enough to run to her, despite them no longer being together. She’d called and the second he’d picked up, he’d left.
My stomach ached so damn bad. Like a fist had been slammed into my body and it was taking everything in me not to double over and vomit.
Having a life after me was inevitable. Something I’d been expecting to find out eventually when it came down to us actually sitting together and talking about everything. I’d expected to hear about past relationships and the sordid tales of lovers gone by.
This wasn’t one of those things. A marriage meant something. He’d walked down the aisle, promised her a comfortable life, and legally bound himself to her. For how long, I really couldn’t speculate. It wasn’t like I’d been looking at his ring finger searching for a damn tan line.
Kids were another thing.
I had a hard time believing Avery’s willingness to leave a child behind, even if it was to come sort out his father’s affairs. A custody arrangement could be in place, or the kid could not exist at all.
Both were very real possibilities. Especially with Avery only mentioning himself when it came to fighting his father’s widow for the estate.
At this point, though, anything was possible.
And that was the part that was killing me.
I’d allowed my fantasies to pull me from reality.
To fool me into thinking that anything that I built with Avery now could somehow be permanent and change his mind from leaving again.
Our ‘date’ had been a stark reminder that I needed to get my head on straight and to focus on what really needed to take priority: moving on.
Come the next morning, and with no word from Avery at all, I decided that instead of wallowing in my own self-pity party, I’d be proactive with actually getting the ball rolling on this whole Max thing.
If anyone had the potential to turn my attention elsewhere, I hoped to God it was him.
Max: Hey! Good to hear from you :) Yeah, I’d love to grab dinner. How’s tonight sound?
Me: Sounds perfect. Want to meet somewhere?
Max: How about I pick you up?
I blew out a breath at the offer.
Obviously it was a way for him to have the excuse of dropping me off back home himself and potentially being invited in for something more. An idea that I didn’t exactly hate.
The only problem was, would I be into it?
Would I have Avery off my mind long enough to focus on a new partner and not let that man swarm my thoughts like usual?
I could still feel his hands on me, gripping my face and cock even now almost twelve hours later. Maybe another set of hands could overwrite his. Marking me in the same way his had.
Or maybe it was all a damn pipedream.
Me: Yeah, that sounds good to me. I’ll send you my address. How does 8 sound?
Max: Perfect! Can’t wait to see you :)
“So, this is your second date, then?” my sister asked.
I moved the phone away from my ear to put it on speaker and set it down on my dresser. “Technically, yeah.”
Fishing out a pair of jeans from my dresser and slipping them on, I moved to my closet and swung back the hangers to reach the nicer shirts I had hidden away in the back. Grabbing two of them, I turned to hold them both up to my chest in the mirror.
“What’s with the technically?” she said.
“Well, the last time we went out, we got interrupted so it ended early.” Not finding either of them flattering, I tossed both hangers onto the bed and grabbed two more shirts out, doing the same to them in the mirror.
How sad was it that I was stressing out this badly about my date?
The first time I’d gone out with Max, my head had been too preoccupied to really care what the hell was happening. I’d met him straight from work and had figured if he still liked what he saw with my minimal effort, then maybe that made him soulmate material.
Which was a stupid way of viewing it.
The man deserved effort, so that’s what I was going to give him. If I could go out of my way to look nice for Avery, then I damned as hell needed to step up my game for Max. That was the only way I was going to force myself to take this seriously.
“Oh? Interrupted by what? Don’t tell me you scared him off, Bran.”
“No, nothing like that. I just—” I clamped my lips together before I could finish the sentence.
I’d been adamant not to mention anything related to Avery to any of my siblings up until now. Lila would have no idea who I was talking about, but that didn’t mean one of my brothers wouldn’t clue her in after she recounted the story to them.
All eight of us were close, despite us being a large family. Coming together had been tough at first but slowly we’d made our own way, relying on each other as if we’d always been a part of each other’s life since the beginning.
I loved my big family, even if they drove me completely nuts sometimes.
“Uh oh,” she teased. “I sense you’re trying to hide something from me.”
“Am not.” But even to my own ears, I sounded like a damn liar.
Lila being Lila immediately picked up on it. “Tell me what happened. I need to know if this guy that I got you set up with is a total sleazebag!”
I wanted to sigh to both her and myself.
Fuck me. Seriously
“It had nothing to do with Max.”
“Okay? Then what?” she said.
“It’s...” A soft grunt tumbled from my mouth. “I ran into someone from my childhood. That’s all. And... well, we got to talking and wanted to catch up.”
Lila was silent on the other line for a long while—enough that I had to pick up my phone to check and make sure she was still connected on the other end of our call.
When she finally spoke, her tone was slow. “So... you ditched your date... to go hang out with an old friend?”
“Yeah. Essentially. It wasn’t planned.” Especially what happened afterward...
“Huh.” She was silent for another pause. “I guess I never would’ve expected that out of you. To... ditch a date to catch up with a friend.”
I winced at the subtle accusation: this isn’t you.
I was supposed to be the levelheaded one, not the flighty type that had barely any regard for things outside of my own personal bubble of reality. If anything, I was painfully aware of social situations to the point of bending over backward just to accommodate everyone around me.
Lila had stressed how hard she’d worked with her matchmaker to find Max—as she’d described it, like searching for a pearl amongst sand grains—and to hear that I’d completely ditched him for someone else was no doubt strange coming from me.
“It’s complicated,” was all I could think to say. Because it really fucking was.
With still no word from Avery about anything since he left to go back to the city, I was being forced to face the uncomfortable truth of not being a priority in his life, just like I should’ve known all along.
It hurt. No matter how much of it was the truth being served to me plain and simple.
Ex-wife.
A whole life away from here.
Avery belonged back in the city. Not fucking around in bum-fuck nowhere with me.
“Complicated, as in feelings complicated?” Lila asked.
“No.” I lied. “Just catching up. It was nothing. I wanted to make it up to Max for being an ass, hence tonight.”
“Oh good.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “Well, tell me how it goes! I really hope you guys get along. On paper, he seemed perfect for you.”
My stomach twisted into a tight knot. Lila meant well, as she always did.
The pressure to get this right was a little overwhelming, considering my failure would ultimately reflect back onto her, no matter what way this got spun. Hopefully, it didn’t come to that, though. Whatever money she invested in this, I’d get a good return for her.
It was the least I could do.
“I will. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Ending the call, I wandered back over to my bed and face-planted down onto it. I had about a half hour to get ready and meet Max at my door, and so far, I was running majorly behind. Outside of dinner, there were no real plans either of us had come up with.
And assuming that dinner went well and we got along, he’d be coming back here to... well, get more familiar with me.
I let my hand wander down to the fly of my jeans, cupping myself over the fabric and giving a firm squeeze.
I suppose it was fucked up of me to consider anything about my body Avery’s, no matter how hard it’s been trying to get his damn touch out of my head.
I’d never had something like that happen before—where I’d felt claimed in a way.