Three Months Later… #3
I scoffed. “Careful is my middle name.” It wasn’t, but that wasn’t the point.
I wanted him to trust me with this. Orion wanted to be in this baby’s life.
If that was the case, I was going to be around.
It would probably help if the woman didn’t hate my guts.
Not that I would blame her if she did. I hadn’t meant to steal her husband from her.
My heart beat a gazillion miles a minute as I turned to walk out of the building—that cold bottle in my hand did nothing to calm me down or ground me.
If anything, it was probably setting me more on edge because I was worried that maybe it was a little too cold.
Was there something wrong with our fridge? The damn thing was practically frozen.
I didn’t have time to think about it anymore because I was suddenly outside with the bright sun beating down on me.
A fine sheen of sweat broke out over my body, was this part of California unrealistically close to the sun or something?
How had I never noticed it getting that hot in the summer before?
“Hello?”
The soft voice made me jump. I was two seconds away from a damn heart attack—I needed to get my act together.
When I turned to face the source of the voice, my breath caught in my throat. I’d always been confident in declaring that I was gay, but Whitney was stunning. How could Orion have picked me over her?
But now wasn’t the time to let my insecurities slink in. I’d come out there on a mission, part of that was telling the woman who the hell I was. Why did that suddenly feel ten million times scarier than it had when I first thought it up?
“Uh, hi,” I forced as much cheer into my voice as possible.
Maybe if I didn’t let her know I was afraid of her, she’d go a bit more easy on me.
It didn’t matter that Orion had told me a thousand times that the woman wasn’t capable of hurting a fly—there was something about telling the pregnant ex that you were the person who had ended their marriage.
“Is the bar going to open soon?” she asked.
I swallowed thickly. At least she could tell that I worked there. Then again, the dress shirt and apron sort of gave that away. I’d tried to tell Victor we should go for a more laid-back feel, but he wanted to try something more formal, at least in the beginning.
“Uh, yeah.” Fuck, I sounded like a damn idiot.
I closed my eyes, trying to take a deep breath.
I hadn’t been kidding when I said it was hot outside.
The humidity alone made it nearly impossible to pull in a full breath.
The woman standing there with her rounded belly somehow looked as cool as a metaphorical cucumber. How the fuck did women do that?
I held out the bottle of water to her. “One of our staff members said you were out here, and I wanted to apologize for him being so rude by making you wait in this heat.”
She sighed. “It’s okay, and thank you.” She took the water, opened the cap, and took a long sip. “I haven’t talked to Orion in months, and I suddenly show up here.”
I was officially at a loss for words. How the hell was I supposed to tell this woman who I was? It had been such a stupid idea to talk to her first.
She walked closer, studying my face. The cold water bottle was pressed to her chest—maybe she was a lot warmer than I had originally thought.
Up close, I could see the fine sheen of sweat that coated her skin.
There was something about her green eyes that put me at ease.
Like she was trying to tell me she wasn’t angry with me.
“You’re him, aren’t you?”
My mouth ran dry, and I blinked rapidly, wanting to look away. But I’d come out here to be brave.
“Ye—yeah.” Goddamn, my voice was so fucking shaky.
Instead of anger or animosity, she only gave me a small smile. “You’re sort of adorable.”
Of all the things I’d been expecting, that wasn’t one of them. “Thank you?”
She giggled. “I get it, you don’t know what to say either. I spent weeks trying to figure out what I would say when I ultimately ran into the person who had stolen my husband’s attention, but it took me even less time to realize, I’d lost it well before you even came into the picture.”
I wanted to wrap this woman in a hug. She was so damn sweet. I saw why Orion felt so fucking guilty over hurting her. If I had been in her position, I would have clawed the eyes out of the person who had dared to lay a finger on my man.
But of course, she beat me to it. Her thin arms wrapped around me as I struggled to fight back tears as I returned her embrace. Why the hell was I the one crying? If anyone should have been emotional right now, it should have been her, but she was giving me so much damn grace.
“I’m here because I need to tell him that I forgive him. I should have figured out long ago that fatherhood wasn’t what he wanted, but I pushed for it, anyway.”
It felt so wrong that she was saying all of it to me. Orion deserved to be the first person. I didn’t want to be rude, but I pushed back from her to see that her eyes were red rimmed like she’d been holding back her tears after all. “Why don’t I take you inside, and you can talk to him.”
“I’d like that,” she said as we pulled away from each other, and I escorted her into the air-conditioned building.