Page 87 of The Rules of Dating a Younger Man

Lacey chuckled. “To being miserable for as long as we want.”

We both knocked back the shot, following up with a lick of salt and a suck of lime. Lacey set down her glass. “So what went wrong in your relationship?”

I frowned.

“Oh gosh.” She saw my face and put up her hands. “I’m sorry. It’s too soon for you to talk about. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sure I wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it after only three months.”

“It’s fine.” I shrugged. “Though nothing really went wrong. It’s kind of a crazy story, actually.”

“Well, that’s a very intriguing statement. Now you have to tell me…”

I chuckled. “I think I might need another shot if we’re going to swap war stories. How about next round on me?”

Lacey smiled. “Good idea. I find alcohol makes it easier for me to talk about the hard stuff.”

I raised my hand to call the bartender, and we knocked back another round. The second one slid down smoother than the first. I wasn’t much of a drinker, so between the tequila and the two beers I’d had before she walked over, I was feeling a fuck of a lot more relaxed. The alcohol apparently also helped improve my vision, because I noticed a few things about Lacey for the first time—like how big her blue eyes were, and how full her pouty mouth was. When she sucked on the lime, my gaze took a dip lower—appreciating her feminine curves.

With our liquid-courage tanks topped off, Lacey turned and straightened in her seat, giving me her full attention. “Feel more talkative now?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m good.”

However, telling my story turned out to be more difficult than I’d thought. I couldn’t seem to find the right place to begin. After a few minutes, I decided to stop overthinking things and just spit it out. “I slept with my girlfriend’s daughter.”

Lacey’s jaw dropped, and her eyes went wide as saucers.

“Shit. That didn’t come out right.” I shook my head. “I didn’t sleep with her after I started seeing Alex. I slept with her before.”

But Lacey only looked more confused. “You slept with your girlfriend’s daughter and then your girlfriend?”

“Yes, but it sounds worse than it is. Let me back up, start from the beginning.” I explained how Caitlin—Kate—and I had briefly dated in college, and that Alex and I had no clue about that when we’d met by chance. When I was done telling the story, Lacey looked almost as shocked as when I’d blurted out that I’d slept with my girlfriend’s daughter.

She shook her head. “That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. What are the chances you would date someone in college in one state, and then randomly meet her stepmother a decade later in a different one and fall in love?”

“I told you it was a screwed-up story.”

“Is it weird that I almost feel like it was fate working in some odd way?”

“Working against me, maybe.”

“So the daughter couldn’t get past it?”

“That’s the hardest part for me to swallow. Caitlin, the stepdaughter, was pretty upset at first. In the end, though, she said she was okay with it. She wants Alex to be happy. But Alex is too afraid to risk her relationship with Caitlin. She doesn’t really believe Caitlin would be okay with it.”

“Do you think maybe Alex is hiding behind her daughter, using her as an excuse?”

“Because she’s afraid of a serious relationship with someone younger?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess it could be that, too.”

I tilted my head. “What did you mean?”

“I meant maybe she used it as an excuse so she wouldn’t hurt you.”

My face fell. “Oh.”

Lacey put her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry. I just keep sticking my foot in my mouth, don’t I? I shouldn’t have suggested that. I don’t know what the heck I’m saying.”

But the seed had been planted, and my brain was already nurturing it, watching it grow. How the hell had I never considered that maybe Alex didn’t feel the same way about me that I did about her? I’d spent hours thinking about what I could’ve done differently, how I could’ve convinced her to take a chance with me. Never once did it occur to me that she just…didn’t love me. But she hadn’t said the words back when I’d told her how I felt.

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