Chapter 52
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
WYATT
Our three weeks went by so fast. Julian was putting the last bag in the trunk, and I was locking up the apartment.
For three weeks, the outside world hadn’t been able to touch us.
No hockey, no life back in Las Vegas. Silver Creek felt a million miles away from Las Vegas.
Maybe that was why younger me bought this place. I knew someday I would want out.
“Ready?” Julian closed the trunk.
I looked one last time at the parking lot.
Patches of the tar were starting to show through.
I felt simpler here, less encumbered by my past. “No, but that doesn’t matter,” I said, opening the passenger door.
My life had crept back in this morning when Margo had texted to say my termination papers were ready to sign.
Then Dana wanted to talk. Julian’s agent and lawyer had left message after message. All things we now had to deal with.
“We could stay,” Julian said over the roof of the car.
“A bit of a commute for you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” I could see the stress slowly make its way back to his shoulders and neck. The muscles in his jaw tighten. In four days, Julian would be back on the world stage for everyone to judge and decide his value. That worried me. But I also knew he needed it. He’d been restless here.
“We should go before traffic gets bad,” I said, ducking into the car. Julian did the same, and we both looked one last time at our soft place.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” I asked, putting on my seat belt.
“For giving me a few moments to breathe.” And with that, we left the quiet peacefulness of Silver Creek for the bright chaos of Las Vegas.
* * *
I stepped into the suite. There were fresh flowers on the side table, which was new. There was something else. Something I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Dana?” I called. There was a box with my name on it sitting by the door.
Inside was an open box of condoms. Weird.
My overnight bag, a bottle of tequila, a couple of thongs, and a bra.
All stuff that could have been thrown away.
What wasn’t in there were the Saint Laurent dress and heels, or the other designer clothing Maverick had given me in case he needed me on the floor.
“I was worried you wouldn’t come.” Dana stepped out from the kitchen.
“Is everything okay?”
She looked thinner and older. But she was still Dana Sands.
The wife of a very wealthy casino owner.
Her brown hair was pulled back in a sleek bun.
Her makeup flawless. Her cream pants pressed and not a single wrinkle in her black silk shirt.
She was what people expected Maverick Sands’s wife to look like.
And I was what his mistress should look like.
“I’m fine. Can we talk?” She motioned to the couch.
“Okay.” I followed Dana into the living area. I still felt like a child playing dress-up around her. It was her fashion I had tried to copy the first few months I was here. But clients didn’t want their whore dressing like their wife.
“Maverick won’t tell me, and I don’t trust that woman that follows him around. Are you still sleeping with him?”
“Wow, okay.” I sat down. That was Dana. She didn’t beat around when it came to Maverick. She set the rules for Maverick’s and my relationship. No overnights unless she was out of town. No public displays of affection. And no pregnancies. “No, not since Thanksgiving.”
“Damn it.” She pressed a thin hand to her mouth. “I think he’s fucking around on me.”
“Dana, he and I weren’t playing board games when we were together.”
“Oh, I know.” She waved off my words. “But we had a deal, Maverick and I. He got you if he promised that was it.” She stood and walked over to the bar.
She poured a shot of clear liquid, swirling it around the glass.
“He never could keep it in his pants. I knew that before we got married. My father loved him. Said he was going places. And that I could do no better. He cheated on me the night before our engagement party. Some stripper. I wanted to call it off then. My mother said men were born to cheat and women were born to turn a blind eye. She would know.” Dana scoffed before swallowing down the shot. “She said I’d grow to love him.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.” Dana glanced over her shoulder. “It’s hard not to love him. He knows all the right things to do and say. I really thought he’d settled down when we got married. I was so stupid. He was gone all day and night doing god only knows what. Then you came along.”
“I’m sorry.” I really was. I never had to face any of my other clients’ wives. They were faceless names.
“For what? If it wasn’t you, there were a hundred other women in the city.
He used to say he couldn’t do this job unless he was in bed with it.
” Dana walked over to the large windows that looked out onto the Strip.
“I hated you when he first brought you here,” she said over her shoulder.
“You were the type of girl Maverick would’ve married if your father could give him the seed money to grow his dream.
You were young. Stunning. And so eager for his attention. ”
She walked over and sat down next to me.
“And then I got sick. And you took a burden from me. I didn’t have to worry about where he was or what he was doing.
I knew he was with you. I knew you’d send him home.
” She took my hand. “You lessened my burden. You did all the things I couldn’t.
And I got all the things you deserved. A husband who sat next to me during my chemo.
Who brought me flowers and made sure I had a personal chef.
” She examined the large diamond that sat on her finger.
“And now he’s left you with nothing. Moved on to some twit who doesn’t have enough brains not to wear perfume or lipstick. ”
“He wouldn’t be that stupid, would he?”
“See for yourself.” Dana nodded to the bedroom.
That was what was different about the space.
I walked into the bedroom. The smell of perfume hung in the air.
In the bathroom the counter was littered with bottles of perfume and skin care.
Tubes of lipstick and makeup. All things I never wore with clients.
In the closet, clothing and other personal things. She had staked her claim.
“I assume those things aren’t yours.” Dana sounded tired.
“No. I have much more expensive taste.” I tried to keep the hurt from my voice. I shouldn’t have been hurt. Maverick had made it very clear I was insignificant in his life.
“That fucker. How could he cheat on us?” Dana sat down on the bed.
“On us?” I laughed.
“Yes.” She smiled. “Christ, Wyatt, for sixteen years you and I have been more partners in this marriage than Maverick and me.”
I sat down next to her. “You know how silly that sounds, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She scanned the room with indifference.
“My therapist says I had the healthiest dysfunctional marriage she had ever seen. She caressed my cheek. “After the cancer, I was told I wouldn’t be able to have kids. Not that Maverick wanted them. And then one day there you were, scared and alone. I was so angry. What kind of mother would leave her daughter broken? Leave you to a wolf like Maverick? I should’ve made him send you home, but I was selfish.
For the first time in a long time, our marriage was working. ” She let her hand drop.
If my mother thought the same as Dana, I would’ve gone back to South Dakota and lived a life like my sister. There were some days I hated my life. But this life had given me so much. I traveled. I mingled with the rich and powerful. I learned so much about myself. This life made me who I am today.
And it gave me Julian.
“Something has changed, hasn’t it? Maverick would never leave you.”
“I met someone,” I confessed.
“The hockey player? Julian Silver. He’s very handsome. That’s what pisses Maverick off the most. You traded up.”
“I know what you think.” She would think the same thing Maverick thought. “It won’t last. That he’ll never be able to get over what I was.” I thought when I quit, the worst was behind us, but what I did would always be a shadow that hung over us.
“I think that this Julian truly loves you. And that is why Maverick is acting like a spoiled brat.” She took a deep breath letting it out, her eyes scanned the room. “At some point I thought it would quit working. Christ the man is almost sixty. I don’t know if I have the energy for another one.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” I was part of the problem. I had always thought she had agreed to this, but now I saw it was Maverick.
“Don’t be. We are all victims of a circumstance beyond our control. It’s not your fault men are so desperate they’d pay a pretty girl to jerk them off.” Dana stood. “I should go. Thank you for meeting with me. I wish you the best of luck, Wyatt. You deserve happiness.”
I stood. “You deserve some too.”
“Making Maverick miserable is all the happiness I need. And don’t worry about the place in Henderson. Stay as long as you like. I really hope you find some happiness. But please stay away from my husband. We are both getting too old for this bullshit.” She patted my cheek as she left.
This was it. Time to pack up Cassidy’s life. I’d miss her. But I was also excited for Wyatt’s life finally to begin. I watched the neon of the Starlight Sands sign flash one last time.
Then I closed the door on this chapter of my life.