CHAPTER 33
Harper
“JimBo? This is JimBo?” Aiden says, or maybe yells.
Oh crap crap crap.
“Why don’t we…” I try to herd us away from the entire towns—plural—turning to watch us.
“That’s right,” JimBo smiles wide, cocky as ever.
He looks good. He’s almost as tall as Aiden but lankier. Tanner too, since he’s out on a course 24/7. They have similar coloring but JimBo’s hair is lighter from the constant sun, his eyes aren’t as dark. His teeth are brighter too but they’re veneers. I remember when he bought them.
“Jimmy Bowen is your ex-husband?” Aiden thinks out loud.
“Nothing ex about it,” JimBo says as he hooks an arm around my waist.
I pull away, “Why don’t we go outside?”
“Okay, baby,” JimBo says.
I make a beeline for the side exit out of the gymnasium as soon as I’m free of JimBo’s hands.
“You’re married?” Aiden says when we reach the air.
“Oh, wait,” JimBo catches up to what’s happening. “Oh, shiiiit, are you two together?”
“No,” I say, trying to protect Aiden from my husband’s greedy, manipulative reach.
“Yes,” Aiden answers at the same time.
JimBo laughs, “Wow, really? A Vanderwell, huh? Way to go baby, upgrading from a millionaire to a billionaire. Didn’t think you had it in you.” He turns to Aiden, “Good thing I warmed her up for you, huh? When we were kids she didn’t even talk.”
Aiden’s gaze, previously scanning the horizon while he processed the shitshow that is my life, snaps up to JimBo’s smug face. “What did you say?”
“I said you’re welcome I warmed her up for you, ma—ugh!”
Aiden punched him!
In the throat!
“Aiden!” I say, more shocked than anything else.
“Say something else and it’ll be your face,” Aiden says, gripping JimBo by the collar.
JimBo holds up a hand and says through his coughs, “Don’t. I…have ESPN in the morning.”
“Walk away from me,” he says to my husband through gritted teeth.
“Harper, you gonna let him hit me like that?” JimBo says as he stumbles out of Aiden’s grip, “After all these years? You tell him how well I took care of you, you—”
“Walk. Faster!” Aiden says.
“Fine, I’m going,” JimBo yells, genuinely worried about his face staying television-ready.
I cannot believe he is the same human being I drooled over throughout all of middle school and high school.
The man I freaking married. The gym door slams and then it’s just the sound of birds and bugs in the summer breeze. And tension.
Aiden stands with his hands on his hips for a beat before he says, “Explain.” I swallow, bracing myself, and the gorgeous billionaire seems to kick himself and then tries again. “Please. Explain, please.”
“Technically, I am still married,” I say.
“I gathered that part,” Aiden huffs back.
“You know his story?” I ask. Aiden nods, “So you know he was injured a few years out of high school, right when he was going pro. We had just gotten together and all his PGA hopes and dreams were crushed. So, he said he was building new dreams, staying with me, working on the business with my dad, all that. He proposed, we got married, bought a house. But he was still dreaming of playing, obviously. I mean it wasn’t obvious back then, but he entered that Monday Qualifier without telling a soul and won the whole thing and that was it. ”
“That was it?” Aiden asks.
“I mean, he never came back. Told me over text message that this was his destiny, blah blah.”
“Why the hell didn’t you divorce him?”
I sigh and feel myself flushing even more, and I was already beet red, “It’s not that simple when someone is rich and famous.”
“What?”
“He didn’t want the bad press at first. Needed a year or two to milk his story, to be the PGA’s new golden boy,” I explain.
“And we were broke as a laugh back then. He left me with the mortgage, and my dad’s health had just started getting a lot worse.
But JimBo started paying for everything.
Bought me a new car, new house, bought things for the store, bought a nurse service for my dad… ”
“Hush money?”
“Basically,” I admit, “And it came with so many strings attached, I eventually sold it all and ghosted him. I mean, he bought the car so he expected me to drive up and pose for some press conference in the city. He bought the nursing service so I would leave dad alone and meet him at a tournament in Florida.”
Aiden cocks his head, “So he did ask you to leave Juniper Falls with him?”
I laugh, “No, he most definitely did not. He asked me to pose for photo opps and make him look good with reporters. He never asked me to leave Dad and I wouldn’t have, anyway.
He wasn’t the man I married anymore. I mean,” I remember it all, and snap to make a point, “he changed like that. Like it was nothing. Like we hadn’t just started to try to get pregnant. Thank God that didn’t happen.”
“Unavailable,” Aiden says to himself.
“Right, I’m not available. This is what I meant.
I finally put myself back out there about a year ago, I thought maybe I would face it, try and work things out if I found someone.
I met Lewis and he was an adventurer too, in his own way.
Always off camping, skiing, repelling and stuff.
But he said he was all about settling down and starting a family with me.
He bought Stuart, took me on fancy dates to the city, we had looked at rings, the whole thing.
“Right up until he realized JimBo would ruin him financially. His hobbies are not cheap. He evaporated into thin air. Decided I wasn’t worth it.
” Aiden scoffs but I defend Lewis, “It’s not a small thing though, really.
I mean the legal circus to divorce JimBo now, with all that he paid for over the years, paying all that back? Pft, I can’t even afford the lawyers.”
“I can,” Aiden says quickly.
I blink, surprised. But then I clear my head, “Then I’ll just go from being indebted to him to indebted to you, no offense.”
“Offense taken. I am your friend and as your friend I would like to give you use of my family lawyer. You know how many Vanderwells have gotten quietly divorced over the years?”
“No,” I say.
“Exactly. It’ll be over before week’s end,” Aiden says.
I shake my head, “You don’t know JimBo. He’ll try and milk this for all it’s worth. He’ll build some sob story in the press, make me out to be a gold digger or—”
“No,” Aiden steps into my space and puts hands on my biceps. “You don’t understand. My family lawyer intimidates me. He will pick up JimBo and throw him around like a rag doll.”
“It’ll probably be like a million dollars and then I’m just supposed to not feel like I owe you? Forever?”
Aiden squeezes his eyes shut for a breath and then opens them to say, “Ask Janie then.”
“I couldn’t, they—” I pull away and start to pace.
“They are also billionaires, Sweetheart. With their own team of lawyers that will make JimBo piss himself. It’ll cost them less than what they pay to fill the gas tank on their yacht. I’m surprised Janie hasn’t offered.”
“She has,” I admit.
“Then there you go. Problem solved.”
“But then I’ll just feel like I owe her forever!”
Aiden frowns, “Firstly, she’s your best friend, she’ll be happy to do and it and secondly, she probably doesn’t understand.
Both of you underestimate these lawyers.
By the end it’ll probably be JimBo paying you a settlement back and paying off the Clark’s legal fees, it’ll literally cost them nothing. ”
“R-really?”
“Really,” he says, hands back on my arms. “Let someone help you for a change. Let yourself be free Harper.”
“I…”
He kisses my forehead, “Be free, Sweetheart,” he says into my skin before wrapping his arms around me.
Free…
It’s hard to imagine.
Free to what, exactly? Free to tend to the last few months of The Roasted Chestnut’s existence. Free to take care of Dad. Free to help put my broken little town back together after half of it’s torn down. After Aiden is long gone and the excitement of the resort has worn off.
Still, free from the invisible chain I’ve felt around my life ever since JimBo left that morning, grabbed his old clubs out of our garage, and never freaking looked back.
“Tell me I can tell Ben to sort this for you,” he says into my hair. “Please.”
I nod into his chest.
“Now tell me I can take you home after this,” he adds.
“You can take me home right now,” I say, meaning it.
We’ve already raised a ton of money for the town.
It doesn’t go toward our profitability bet with Aiden, since these are charitable donations, but it will help keep the volunteer fire department up and running until Resort revenue comes in.
Plus, ten percent of tonight’s money goes to Cedar Point’s halfway house program.
Tonight is already a success.
And I’d rather not have to go inside and face JimBo again, or the town’s reaction to our little scene.
Aiden tenses around me and I can hear a smirk in his voice when he says, “I meant take you home to my house.”
I smile wide when I reply, “I know exactly what you meant.”
I almost laugh at how fast he spins on his heels and leads me to his car. I’m like jello as we walk through the parking lot. Actually, this might be the most relaxed I’ve been in years. And with the relief I feel comes some hope too. Aiden didn’t hesitate to tell JimBo we were together.
Together!
Together doesn’t mean a nice dinner or dating. Together means boyfriend. Together means maybe, just maybe he’s thinking about sticking around.
He’s been in Juniper Falls for three whole months, but does that mean he’s willing to stay for real? For ever?
For me?