Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Liv
I go home, strip off Austin’s t-shirt and sweats I took from the bathroom floor and cry angry tears while I shower him and the sandalwood-scented bathwater off me.
I don’t want to. I don’t want to erase the magic that’s happened between us, but a wedding ring?!
After everything I went through with Steven, how could I be the other woman?
But the last thing I want to do is spend the night feeling sorry for myself. So instead of eating ice cream on my couch while I watch Teen Mom, I pull on some jeans, a bright pink halter top and a pair of killer gold heels and hobble down to Howler’s.
Melody takes one look at me, slides a wine glass across the bar and pours so much wine into the glass it’s almost overflowing. I put my mouth to the rim and slurp.
Wow. Forty years old and still slurping wine.
“What happened?” Melody asks, putting the bottle down next to me.
“Men suck. That’s what happened.”
She throws a dishcloth over her shoulder and leans over the bar. “Okay. Give me details.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“If you didn’t want to talk about it, you’d be at home crying into a pint of ice cream. But you’re here, looking hot as hell, by the way. So, tell me. Who is he?”
“Austin Adams.”
She just stares at me.
“He’s some football guy.”
“Liv. Austin Adams is not just some football guy. He’s the wide receiver for the Denver Breakers. He’s one of the best players in the league. At least he was. He’s had some?—”
“Injuries. Yeah. I know.”
She raises a dark blonde eyebrow at me.
“I…” I run my fingers through the lengths of my hair. “I massaged him.”
“Ooooh, girl! If I had my fingers on that man’s body! Reow!”
“He does have an amazing body,” I admit. “He’s unfortunately just a lying asshole.”
Okay. Maybe that’s unfair. It’s not like he lied. He just didn’t tell me one piece of very important information.
But I was falling for him. So hard. And I was just his bit on the side.
I finally slurp enough wine so that I can hold the glass and chug down half of it.
Melody tops me up.
“Spill it, Liv.”
I’ve known Melody for years. She held my hair the night Steven asked for a divorce, and I got so drunk I spent the night vomiting in the Howler’s toilet.
So I spill.
“He’s staying at the resort.”
“Makes sense. He must be super rich.”
“We kind of… hooked up.”
“Liv! Oh my god! You hooked up with Austin Adams?!”
“I jerked him off,” I tell her, throwing a hand over my face. “And then he reciprocated.”
She attempts to give me a high five, but I just glare at her. “Okay, so what was it like? He’s great at sex, isn’t he?”
“It was… good. Really fucking good.”
“So why the hell are you here drinking shitty house wine when you could be riding his cock every night until football season starts?”
“Because—” I start, taking another huge slug of wine. “He’s married.”
“Wait, they’re back together? Even after everything? Are you sure? I’d be really surprised if he took her back after?—”
I just look at her like I have no idea what she’s talking about. Because I don’t.
“Oh, shit. Liv. You don’t know?”
“Don’t know what?”
“Austin Adams is married. But it’s over.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s all over ESPN.”
“I don’t watch ESPN!”
“He got married two months ago.”
The pit in my stomach widens.
Not only is he married, but he’s newly married.
“Two weeks ago, they split.”
I grip the stem of the wineglass. “What?”
“He got home from practice and found her in their bed with Garry Grant, linebacker for the Philly Renegades.”
“Oh my god.”
“It’s been all over the news.”
“He was married for six weeks and she… cheated on him? Like that?”
“They were high school sweethearts. On and off for years. Everyone thought it was so romantic when they finally tied the knot. Garry Grant was his best man. They’d been best friends for years, played high school football together.”
I let out a gasp. “Oh god, that’s awful!”
“Honestly, I don’t understand how Austin Adams wouldn’t be enough for one woman. He’d be enough for me!”
I narrow my eyes at her, and she raises her hands in surrender.
“I’d be shocked if he took her back after that. What made you think they were still married?” she asks.
“Wedding ring. On the nightstand. I thought he took it off because I was coming over and he didn’t want me to know.”
God, the way I ran out on him. Like he was the one who’d done something wrong. But he didn’t. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was the one who was wronged.
Just like I was.
Oh god.
“Well, it looks like you might have a chance to apologize,” Melody says, her eyes on something, or someone, behind me.
I turn, and there he is.
Austin Adams.
I slide off the bar stool and rush toward him. “I’m so sorry, Austin,” I start. “I didn’t know. I thought?—”
“I’m so glad I found you here, Liv,” he says, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking down at me with deep concern in his stormy eyes. “We’re clearly great at the sex stuff, but can we just sit? And talk?”
I nod, and we slide into a booth near the back of the bar. He runs a hand through his hair, which doesn’t look like it’s been combed since I was shoving my hands into it earlier. When my cougar was calling all the shots.
But now that we’re here to talk, she’s fast asleep.
Melody appears with my glass of wine. “What can I get for you, Mr. Adams?” she asks.
“Austin is fine,” he sighs. “Just a beer. Thanks.”
She pulls one off the tray that’s clearly meant for another customer, places it down on the table and then leaves us alone.
“I was married,” he starts. “I still am. Technically. But I don’t want to be.
Not anymore.” He takes a swig of beer and continues.
“We knew each other since we were kids. There was a lot of love between us. Maybe not love. Fuck. I don’t even know.
I think maybe history sometimes feels like love.
Maybe sometimes you know someone so well you mistake that comfort, ease and knowing for love.
” He takes a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have married her.
I had so many fucking doubts. But my life is…
complicated. A lot of women only want me because?—”
“Because you’re Austin Adams.”
“Yeah. So many women want to be with Austin Adams. None want to just be with Austin. Not the football player, just the guy.” He places a hand on the table. “Until I met you.”
I reach out and hold his hand. He grips my fingers so tightly, as if I’m his anchor. Like if I let go, he’ll float away.
“You didn’t know who I was, and you wanted me anyway.”
“Maybe I just wanted you for your hot body,” I joke, attempting to ease the tension.
He lets out a low chuckle. “Gorgeous,” he says, and a little flutter of joy sparkles in my loins.
“I don’t think that’s the only reason we’re drawn to each other.
The sex stuff with you is fucking amazing, but I think it’s more than that.
God, I’m going to sound so fucking corny here, but I think we have some kind of… soul connection.”
“I do too,” I tell him, squeezing his hand.
“My body isn’t going to be hot forever,” he says. “But my soul won’t change.”
I take a deep breath. “I lied when I said I was something like thirty-five. I’m forty.”
His eyes light up like this is somehow better than thirty-five.
I take a gulp of wine. “My best years are behind me,” I tell him.
“That’s fucking bullshit.”
“We might have this crazy connection, Austin. But in the real world, people will talk.”
“Liv. I’ve spent over a decade in the public eye.
People have said anything and everything about me.
If the worst they can do is talk about me bagging a hot cougar, I’m good with that.
And it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about us.
All that matters is what we think of us, and I think we’d be fucking amazing together.
” He presses his fingers into mine, linking our hands like he’ll never let go.
“Liv. My life is complicated. I’m on the road a lot.
I’m kind of famous. My marriage broke up after just six weeks.
I’m hurting. Physically and emotionally.
I’m kind of a fucking wreck.” He laughs nervously. “Wow. I’m really selling myself here.”
“My life is complicated too,” I tell him. “I have an ex who sucks, a kid who has to be my first priority, always, and I’m also—” I’m about to tell him about the whole cougar shifting thing but decide maybe this is enough for now.
His eyes smolder at me over the table. “I’m so fucking into this,” he says. “I want to be with you. Maybe forever. Is that too big?”
My heart leaps at the idea of maybe forever with this man.
“Not too big,” I tell him. “But maybe we can take forever one day at a time. Maybe starting with you coming back to my place tonight?”
He gives me a sexy smirk and my cougar wakes up.