Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sean,
Once we stepped over that invisible barrier, we didn’t stop. It was a hot and explosive six weeks of my life. I won’t get into the specifics, but it wasn’t just the sex. It was the feelings that went along with us being unable to stop touching each other.
We’d have late night talks about the years since we’d seen one another. I didn’t even mind hearing his story about meeting Kristie at his first frat party where they bonded over our breakup. Months later, and he was still reeling from it.
He told me about the failed marriage, how he was to blame too. That now that he was with me, he could see she just wasn’t his one and only.
God, I think I would’ve married him if he’d asked and wasn’t still legally married to Kristie. I was completely in his orbit and would’ve never left it if I was given the choice.
One morning, the dream I conjured in my head, the one where we made it, where he divorced Kristie, and we made another go of it as adults, shattered with one ring of the doorbell.
I’d been sent to Sacramento for a week to make a bid on a project and couldn’t wait for some alone time with him when I returned.
I was repacking my bag, waiting for Bennett to pick me up for a weekend getaway, so I flung the door open, assuming he was early.
I was ready to throw myself into his arms, kiss him, and let him sweep me away into a love bubble of just us at a bed-and-breakfast by the ocean.
But my feet skidded to a stop before I broke the threshold. Familiar blue eyes stared back at me.
“Hello, Delaney,” Kristie said.
Her blonde hair was pulled into a messy ponytail on top of her head. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that said “Color Outside the Lines” with a pair of worn-in Birks.
I looked past her, not seeing Bennett and wondered what was going on.
“Hi.”
“Well, I can tell from that response that there’s no need for introductions.”
“Kristie.” I crossed my arms, trying to prepare myself for why she was at my door. Hell, how she knew where I lived in the first place is still a mystery.
“Yes, Bennett’s wife.”
“Soon-to-be ex-wife, you mean.”
She huffed a laugh as if saying, you foolish, foolish girl. “May I come in?”
I stepped aside and opened the door a little farther, allowing her into my space. Looking back at it now, that was a big mistake. “Sure.”
“Thanks. You’re as sweet and beautiful as Bennett said. That girl next door vibe for sure.” She walked over and sat on the edge of my sofa.
“You know about me?”
She laughs, her head falling back. “Yes.” She chuckles again. “I’ve been competing with you for years.”
I sit on the chair adjacent to her but stay on the edge because I was pretty sure this conversation wasn’t going to be her saying she wishes us both the best.
“I’ll just cut to the point because you look like a little fawn caught in the headlights on a dark highway… I’m pregnant.”
Any response was swallowed by my shock.
“And it’s Bennett’s.” She rolled her eyes, as if it was absurd that I’d have a facial expression that said I was doubtful. “I’m almost three months along. But yeah, he doubted me too, so he went for a paternity test, and he’s the father.”
I sat there in shock, panicked and unable to say anything, feeling as if my dream was slipping away.
Her lips turned down. “Sorry to blow up your little lovefest.” Her hand fell to her stomach and rubbed a circle as if I wasn’t already thinking about the baby growing there.
“If it makes you feel better, it hurt me to tell Bennett there’s a kink in his plan to reunite with the woman he believes is his soulmate. ”
Anger flared in my veins. I was over sitting silently and letting her play the game she wanted to play.
I’d reached my patience level for her to come to my house with her snarky attitude, acting as if Bennett and I were just a joke, and I was the mistress.
She was the one who blew up her marriage by sleeping with his friend. “What do you want? Why are you here?”
Kristie positioned her purse in her lap, unzipped it, and pulled something out, placing it on the table in front of me. “I’m here for her.”
The ultrasound picture showed nothing but a little white fleck surrounded by dark with her name printed on the top.
“Cute. You thought I was lying.”
I pushed it closer to her, and she picked it up, admiring it for a second, smiling, before placing it face up on the table once more.
Bennett failed to mention how much Kristie enjoyed games.
“Again, why are you here?”
“I’ve always been irregular, you know. I thought it was a long shot I could be pregnant. I figured there was no way it was Bennett’s, but then I remembered that last time when we both decided to try again. I guess destiny had other plans for us.”
“Get on with it,” I said, annoyed and wanting her to leave so I could talk to Bennett. So we could figure this out. Sure, it would be tricky and uncomfortable, but he could still be a father to his little girl…
She pointed at me. “I see those wheels turning, and I hate to crush your dreams of being my little girl’s stepmom, but I don’t want her to grow up going from one house to another.
I did that my whole life, then my parents decided to reconcile after I graduated from high school.
After all the shit they put me through. Fighting over who was paying more, who wasn’t doing enough.
And the holidays… I sure as hell never enjoyed one since on Christmas morning, the other one would call and cast a shadow of guilt over all my new things because they were home alone. I won’t do that to my daughter.”
“It’s not just your decision.”
Her hand went to her stomach again. “True, he could choose you, but I’ve offered him something he’s wanted for a long time.”
“Being?”
“Willowbrook. I told him I’ll go live in his small little ranch town as long as we give us another go, and his little girl can be raised there like he’s always wanted. We both know how important family is to him.”
I did. Bennett had gone on and on about us returning to Willowbrook and opening our own landscape architecture firm and flower shop. How we’d live on the ranch with the rest of his family and raise our kids surrounded by love. But I was the wife and mother in the daydream, not Kristie.
“None of this answers why you’re here.” I wanted Bennett to be the one telling me all these things. How could he come back into my life just to be stripped away again?
“Because he’s going to come here and tell you all this, and I’m asking you to let him go.”
My heart free-fell into my stomach.
She put her finger on the picture and pushed it closer to me. “It’s a fresh start for us. A baby who needs her father and her mother living under the same roof.”
My gaze wouldn’t leave that ultrasound picture. An innocent life that was going to be born into a tug of war from her first cry. It wasn’t her fault. Hell, I wasn’t sure it was anyone’s fault.
“You’re asking me to just step aside?”
“You might not have a choice. I have no idea what Bennett wants. He sure wasn’t going to tell me. I’m just asking for you not to fight him if he says he wants me.”
“And the baby.” I had to remind her that if he chose Willowbrook and his unborn baby, it’s not her but his child he was choosing.
She shrugged. “Semantics. There’s no baby without me.”
I inhaled a big breath. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of telling me what I was going to do. Plus, I had to think about it. Regardless, my choice only mattered if Bennett still wanted me and what we had together. I wasn’t going to fall to my knees and beg him to choose me.
“I guess we’ll see what his decision is then,” I said, hoping it got her to leave my house.
She stood and looked me over as if she really did understand why Bennett was in love with me. For a second, that strong front of hers vanished. “I’m just doing what’s best for my baby. I hope you understand.”
She picked then to be cordial and nice. I don’t know why. I didn’t understand her or how Bennett had ever fallen in love with her. The two of us seemed so different.
I didn’t say anything but walked over to the door and opened it for her.
She stepped out onto the small entry porch, then turned around. “If it makes you feel better, he really loved you. The first night I met him, when he talked about you and the breakup, I thought, God, no one will ever compare to his precious Delaney.”
Except his daughter, I thought but didn’t voice.
She turned and walked down the sidewalk to her car, and I shut the door, locking it as if it would keep all the demons from invading my happiness.
My back hit the door, and I slid to the floor because deep down, I think I knew what Bennett’s decision would be.
I wasn’t sure I could even fault him for making it.
Delaney