her with my son more than I do you.” If he meant to hurt me with that one, he succeeded spectacularly.
I felt the scream tickle the back of my throat and, for a split second, knew that I was going to lose my mind. Instead, I swallowed the hurt and my pride and rushed to follow him out the door. She was waiting for us with a triumphant look for me, and that same simpering sticky sweet smile she always saved for him but was now aimed at my son as well.
I took everything in me not to revolt when Calen handed the baby to her, but my son, bless his perfect little heart, started screaming and reaching for his father, witch. “Hey, big guy, what’s the matter? That’s your aunt Dana, don’t you want to say hi?” I stepped forward, ready to snatch my son if he tried to force the issue, but Calen held onto him and rocked him on his shoulder soothingly.
“Well, Dana, I see your touch with kids is still in great form.”
“You know me, mother of the year in the making. I don’t know why babies hate me. I guess they can smell the career-driven genes in me and think they don’t stand a chance. No matter, unlike all the others, this one is yours, so I’ll have plenty of time to get to know him. Isn’t that right little guy?”
She shook the baby’s foot as she spoke before turning her gaze to me. “It’s nice to see you again, Giselle; I guess we’ll be seeing more of you now that you’ve moved back in.”
“She didn’t, and you won’t.”
I wished the floor would open up and swallow me whole at his words and the smarmy look on her face.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to take my son for a walk in the gardens. If that’s okay with you, of course.” I gave Calen such a scathing look I was sure he couldn’t miss it, but he said nothing as he passed Junior to me without a word. “So, how was Bimini? You look, well-rested?” He was talking to her before I even cleared the door as if I hadn’t just been standing there.
“It was lovely, and you were missed as usual. I went to all our favorite places, and everyone asked for you. It’s not the norm for them to see me there without you after all, and everyone made mention of it. It got so bad I thought of wearing a sign saying you got stuck working, and everything was fine between us.”
I felt like ten kinds of fool as I closed the door behind me: Bimini, the first stop on our honeymoon tour. I took the hit and kept moving because what else am I going to do? It’s obvious now that they’d become an item after I’d left. I can’t say that I’m surprised; I always wondered why they never got together before. I’d spent many a night worrying myself ragged over their friendship, and now my worst fears were confirmed.
It’s none of your concern anymore. He’s not your husband. Yes, but that worry is something I would’ve lived with our whole union if I’d stuck around. It had nothing to do with why I’d left, of course, but now that I was back here, a lot of old buried emotions were coming to the forefront.
CALEN
I saw her look as she left the room, and though I knew that Dana’s words were a bit misleading, I didn’t seek to correct her or the assumptions that my ex had so obviously drawn. She’s jealous, even a blind man can see that, but I don’t think that I care one way or the other. I’d spent too many nights wondering if she was in someone else’s bed the whole time she was gone, let her have a taste of her own medicine.
I found though that I wasn’t interested in shooting the breeze with my old friend now that my ex and son were gone. I wanted to be out there with them even though I had a ton of work to take care of. Things that I’d left undone the day before. I’d missed out on so much of my baby’s life, a lot that I wanted to make up for.
“Hey, Dana, I know you came all the way out here to tell me about your trip, but can we put that off for another time? I need to spend some time with