Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lydia sat at her dining room table, staring at the blank document open on her laptop screen, like she’d been doing for close to an hour. She’d officially been home for the last six days, and none of them had been productive.
On Sunday, she’d enthusiastically written down her list of to-dos that she’d planned to check off throughout the week, fully intending to reestablish her Oliver Heights routine, yet here it was Friday, and she’d accomplished almost nothing.
Her optimism to move on with her life and forget about Ty had quickly faded after she’d realized that there were memories of him everywhere.
At the grocery store and in the gym. In her classroom and at the park.
She couldn’t even eat a cheeseburger from her favorite food truck without thinking of him.
It hadn’t helped that she’d found several of his items scattered here and there: a book that he’d forgotten on the nightstand, a pair of his slides by the back door, a can of his shaving cream by the bathroom sink, two of his shirts that had been thrown into her hamper, and the cozy hoodie that she’d accidentally worn home when she’d been too distraught to remember to take it off.
And she couldn’t get the scent of his aftershave out of her bedroom, no matter what she did. She’d tried washing her bedding and opening the windows, but it was still there.
He was haunting her—torturing her—no matter where she went.
Sighing, she closed her eyes but opened them just as quickly when her cell phone started to ring.
A small part of her yearned for it to be Ty, but ultimately, she was relieved when Mac’s grinning face filled her screen. “Hi,” she answered with more enthusiasm than she felt.
“Hi,” Mac said.
Lydia frowned, hearing the tears in Mac’s one word. “What’s going on?”
“I met with Will today. We went to the park down the road from my parents’ house so we could talk without the kids around.”
Lydia stood now as her nerves got the better of her. “Okay.”
“He wasn’t cheating on me, Lydia.”
She exhaled a breath of relief, even when she already knew that. “That’s really good, honey.”
“He’s been gambling.”
Her frown was back as she sat again. “Gambling?”
Mac’s breathing grew unsteady. “He spent it all. Our savings account. The money from the sale of my business. Every dime. It’s gone.”
Lydia clutched her phone, entirely shocked. “What?”
Mac sniffled. “Apparently, it started last summer—just some harmless sports bets to pass the time while I lay in bed, sick as a dog. Over the months, it turned into an addiction. He kept spending money to try to win it all back. Now there’s nothing left.”
Lydia closed her eyes. “Mac, I’m so sorry.”
Mac started to cry. “I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared. We’re broke. I’m broke, and I had no idea.”
“Oh, honey, I will never let you be broke. Never, ever. Neither will anyone else in the family.”
“I can’t take your money,” Mac said, adamantly shaking her head. Lydia couldn’t see her, but she knew her best friend.
“It’s not taking if I’m giving it to you.”
“I can’t think about that. I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“Okay.”
Mac sniffled again. “Will told me that he got himself into trouble with some bad people—a man he thought was a friend but who turned out to be a loan shark. Ty helped him get out of it.”
Lydia sat up taller as she clutched her phone again because she’d been wondering and worrying all week, agonizing over what exactly had happened with Will, especially after she’d heard Richard Russo’s name connected to the Giordano crime family and a major drug bust in the news.
Suddenly, everything about the summer made perfect sense: Will’s uncharacteristic behavior, Richard Russo’s connection to Will, and Ty’s investigation. “He did?”
“Mm-hmm. Some of Ty’s clients are FBI agents. He contacted them, and they came up with a plan to help Will, which I’m so grateful for. Will wouldn’t tell me much about what exactly happened. Apparently, that was part of the agreement that he and Ty made, but I’m still grateful.”
Lydia closed her eyes as she pressed her lips together, struggling with her own emotions. Ty had kept his promise. He’d taken care of her family. “That’s really good, Mac.”
“Yeah.”
She quickly brushed away the tears on her cheeks. “So, what does all of this mean for you guys?”
“I don’t know. I love Will. Of course I do, but I don’t trust him anymore. I don’t know how to have a marriage with a man whom I can’t count on. He didn’t sleep with another woman, but in so many ways, he still betrayed me.”
Lydia pressed her hand to her heart, hating that Mac was in so much pain—that Will undoubtedly was too. “Maybe a counselor could help you guys. If that’s even what you want.”
Mac took a second to blow her nose. “I don’t know what I want right now. Will’s staying in a hotel for the next few days so he can see the kids, but I’m going to stay with my parents for a while, certainly while Will gets himself some help and tries to figure some stuff out.”
Lydia nodded. “That sounds smart.”
“Mm-hmm,” Mac said. “He got a new phone that doesn’t have internet.
It only calls and texts, so he can’t place any bets.
And he had his first virtual session with a therapist who specializes in gambling addiction while he was visiting James and Cindy down in DC.
They’ll meet a couple times a week for the foreseeable future. ”
“Those sound like some good first steps.”
“They are,” Mac agreed. “He said he’s going to prove to me that he loves the kids and me more than he does gambling.”
Lydia pressed her hand to her heart again. “I want him to succeed. For himself. For all of you.”
“Me, too. He also told me that he doesn’t want the partnership at work. He wants to find a new law firm—something with more family-friendly hours.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I think he’s really good at what he does. Any place that he applies to would be lucky to have him.”
She smiled, feeling optimistic because there was still so much love between Mac and Will despite their problems. “How can I help you, Mac?”
“We can talk about something else for a while—anything else. You and Ty would be a good start.”
She wrinkled her nose. “It didn’t work out, Mac.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said, but why? Because you two looked perfectly in sync on the many occasions I saw you together. You guys have off-the-charts chemistry. I thought I was going to get pregnant just from watching the way he kissed you at the door after your date.”
Lydia laughed. Her first big laugh in days. “You have such a way with words.”
Mac chuckled. “You guys are so sexy, Lydia. You seemed so happy, so what changed?”
“We want different things,” she said, focusing on the truth, relieved that all of the FBI business was mostly finished. Because she didn’t want to lie anymore. “I want a family—a husband and kids. He’s focused on his job.”
“He seemed like he had plenty of time for you in between clients.”
She rolled her eyes because Mac had no idea how false that was. “Yeah, but summer in Massachusetts isn’t real life. It’s a vacation. Ty and I are back in reality again, and what we have doesn’t work.”
“Can I ask you something?”
She started tracing the edge of her computer, already certain that she wasn’t going to like Mac’s question. “You know you can.”
“Are you in love with him?”
She traced it faster, glancing at the box she’d tossed his items into on the floor nearby.
“Lydia?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you in love with Ty?”
“You know I am.”
“I do know. I just wanted to make sure you did, too.”
She closed her laptop with a snap. “I’m painfully aware of how I feel about him.”
Mac sighed. “Well, I’m still holding out hope for the two of you because you deserve nothing but happiness.”
“Thank you.”
“Oops. I can hear Maverick crying downstairs. He’s looking for his dinner. Since I’m his twenty-four-hour snack bar and I don’t want my mom to give him a bottle, I should go.”
Lydia grinned. “Call whenever you want.”
“You, too.”
“Okay. I love you, honey.”
“I love you, too.”
She hung up, exhaling a long sigh. Things seemed a little better between Will and Mac, which was amazing, but life in general still felt messy, which she hated. Moving through her days with order and routine was always her preference and something she desperately wanted back.
She glanced toward Ty’s box again, ready to get on with one of her most important to-dos that she kept putting off, knowing that letting go was a crucial step in moving forward.
Getting up and grabbing his stuff, she headed for her SUV, making the ten-minute drive to his fake condo, taking out the key that he’d given her several weeks ago.
She hesitated, then opened the door, huffing out a humorless laugh as she breathed in the scent of his damn aftershave. But she stopped as she walked up the steps to the open-concept space, realizing that the furniture and accents that had made everything so cozy were gone.
There was nothing left. It was as if Ty had never been there—as if the time that they’d shared together in his “home” had never happened at all.
It should have made things easier somehow—the reminder that all of it had been pretend—but she sat down on the step she stood on and gave in to her next round of tears.
Ty walked through his front door after one hell of a long day, toeing off his shoes in the entryway. He rolled his tense shoulders as he headed for the kitchen, tossing his suit jacket onto the couch before he reached into the fridge for a beer.
Popping the top off a Corona, he took a deep drink, having no desire to head back to the office after a quick meal and a shower like he’d done for years.
He’d been back on his squad for the last five days, trying to find his rhythm again, but sitting at his desk, comparing patterns and scrutinizing the security footage of his latest bank robbery suspect felt empty somehow—like something vital was missing.