Page 82 of Heartbroken Husband
She shook her head at me, almost smiling. “You’re going to have to learn how to do that, you know? Say no.”
“Why?”
She chuckled and arched an eyebrow at me. “They’re never going to stop wanting things. If you keep saying yes, you’re going to end up having to buy another ranch just as a storage facility to keep all their stuff.”
I rocked my head from side to side, pretending to be considering it. “Apparently, real estate is always a great investment. Another ranch couldn’t hurt.”
She laughed, the sound so bright that my own nerves finally eased a little. It was also getting easier the longer we talked, the awkwardness kind of just melting beneath the familiarity of the rhythm we were falling into.
The conversation picked up from there the same way it used to, both of us effortlessly bouncing from one topic to the next. We talked about boarding school and terrible cafeteria food, then reminisced about the time Jesse had accidentally set a curtain on fire trying to impress a girl during winter break.
“He told me that wasn’t true,” Adeline said.
Both of my eyebrows shot up. “He was lying. Nate made him carry around a fire extinguisher for two weeks after as a safety measure.”
She laughed. “Well, it’s not like Nate can talk. Do you remember that time he got us trapped in an escape room? Maybe he should’ve been carrying around a fire extinguisher too. It would’ve helped us bash down the walls.”
I groaned, lowering my forehead into my palm. “Don’t remind me. Do you know he still blamesmefor that? He saysIdidn’t want to read the instructions because I was too busy staring at you.”
“Well, were you?”
I looked up at her again, blowing out a deep breath through my nostrils before I shrugged. “Maybe, but I maintain it was his fault. He kept insisting that he knew what he was doing, and clearly, he didn’t.”
By the time dinner arrived, it felt like we were friends again, slipping back into those old skins like neither of us had changed at all. We kept talking, laughing, and reminiscing while we ate, and at one point, when she tucked her hair behind her ear andsmiled at me, I was feeling like we genuinely might be able to make this work.
As the sun dipped lower over the golf course, Adeline watched it set for a beat before looking back at me. “I’m glad we came here.”
“So am I.” Even if only because this didn’t feel like a disaster waiting to happen anymore. “We’ve got a deal, then? We’ll make a point of doing this every so often?”
“Definitely.”
“I can’t actually remember the last time I went on a date,” Adeline admitted.
“Seriously?” I frowned. “Wait. That can’t be true. Didn’t you and Louis only separate last year?”
She shrugged one shoulder, but it didn’t look as light or as easy as she was obviously aiming for. “We never really went on dates. Mostly, we just attended events together. Work dinners. Charity fundraisers. That was about it.”
Bitterness twisted into a writhing, hot mess in the pit of my stomach. “What about before that?”
Her eyes flicked to the window. “Probably you.”
Holy fuck. That wasn’t what I meant.
“Did he honestly never take you out?” I asked incredulously. “What about in the early days, just after you were married?”
She shook her head slowly. “He was busy. His dad had just signed over the brokerage to him and there was a lot of pressure to prove he was ready for the transition.”
I leaned back in my chair, suddenly understanding why she’d looked like a shadow of her former self those first few times I’d seen her again. It had been a product of years of being lonely despite technically sharing a house with another person.
She suddenly laughed. “Well, this is a cheerful topic.”
“You deserved better than that,” I said quietly. “Seriously, Adeline. I’m sorry you had to go through it.”
My heart was breaking for her all over again, but I would never say that out loud. Truth be told, I’d spent eight years angry and hurt, convinced she’d chosen another life over me, and the only thing that had stopped me from going after her had been the fact that I thought she was happy.
Eventually, when I’d heard she was pregnant, I’d convinced myself that it was time to start moving on. It had been little consolation, but I’d thought that despite how shitty the arrangement had been for both of us, at least she’d found happiness.
So I’d chased it too. I’d never found it. Not even for long enough to date the same woman for more than a few weeks, but all along, I’d thought the arrangement was working out for her. But now, hearing what those years had actually looked like, all I could think about was how alone she must have been. How she’d been married to someone who was supposed to have taken care of her and obviously never had.
