back, he accidentally went out with a barely legal chick from the next town over. In his defense, she did look a hell of a lot older—he showed me a picture—and she’d lied about her age until her father showed up and nearly murdered them both.
“She’s twenty-three, I swear.”
“Better be.” Silence falls between us as I carefully maneuver the machine through a stretch of mud puddles to keep from waking Jett. At one point, Jinx points to a doe and a fawn standing near the tree line.
“So, Ma said you’re going to Green Bay next weekend, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Interesting.” In my peripheral, my brother’s eyes narrow above a crooked smirk.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Just you hanging out with the ex, her future husband, and their families, is all. Hey, did they ever set a date for the wedding?”
I shoot him a sidelong glare. “How the fuck am I supposed to know?”
“Figured she might’ve invited you to that, too.”
I grip the wheel, roll my tongue along my teeth, and laugh humorlessly. “Christ, you’re a dick. It’s a birthday party. For my kid, who’s old enough to know who’s there for him and who isn’t. End of story.”
He lifts his hands and simply smiles.
“How about you worry that pretty little head of yours about getting shit together for the weekend after, huh?”
He chuckles. “I’ve got it covered. Relax.”
“And make sure whatever you’re planning is for kids. No beer pong or pin the dick on the donkey. Mom invited Becca, Bobbie Jean, and their kids, too.”
“Maybe you should invite Hayden and Lane. Make it a big ol’ family affai—oof!”
My fist collides with the center of his chest as we come to a stop at the intersection near my house. “I said end of story.”
He rubs at his chest, laughing once again. “You need to get laid, man. Might take some of the edge off.”
And that’s yet another reminder that my little brother has no friggin’ idea about anything. Getting laid is what got me into this mess and I can’t fuck my way into feeling better about it. Believe me, I’ve tried, yet the problem still remains…
The only woman I want is fucking someone else one-hundred and seven miles away.
HAYDEN
“I’m two seconds away from throwing you across the room.” I glare at my laptop, willing the little Wi-Fi rainbow to stop searching for a signal and go dark already. It’s been trying to connect since I got off the treadmill a half hour ago, almost like it’s trying to tell me I shouldn’t be working on a Saturday morning.
Stupid technology. As if it has a clue about what I need.
I slept like crap in Jett’s bed, which, for the record, is far cuter than it is fit for adult sleeping. I woke up with a cramp in my butt and a knot the size of Texas in my neck.
I probably would have been more comfortable on the couch, but the argument with Lane left me missing my baby more than usual. So much so that it was hard to leave that miserable little bed, even when my body begged me to.
The things that Lane had said last night… the accusation…
I lie awake repeating his words over and over again in my head, trying to figure out where they had come from and why he chose now to bring them up.
The past few months have been crazy for both of us. Lane isn’t wrong that we haven’t had time in what feels like forever to simply be us. To go out and do something other than work or parent. But it’s more than that. The look in his eyes and the bite in his words made that abundantly clear.
He hates that Jesse has become a permanent fixture in our lives, and that co-parenting with him means he’ll be around for at least the next fourteen years.
It hurts my heart that he feels the way he does, but honestly, it hurts my heart that Jesse has to go through this, too.
To Lane, Jesse is the enemy. The guy who dropped into my life just long enough to fuck it up in the most irreversible way.
But to me… Jesse is a blessing.
He came into my life when I least expected him—long before that summer—and he was there for me when I needed to accept that even the most carefully laid plans don’t always play out like we hope. Sometimes it’s the detour that gets us where we actually need to go.
Lane’s affair during his