Page 54 of Embattled Ever After

Shannon nodded, hands on her hips. “And does she want kids?”

Jaw firming, he nodded.

“And why is that an issue?”

“Are you serious?” he asked incredulously. “Besides the fact that I’m limping closer to fifty, how fucked up is it to saddle a kid with a crippled father who will only get worse as he ages?”

Shannon’s mouth dropped open and Duncan realized what he’d just said. He pushed to his feet and circled the desk, hand raised as if to grab back the words. “Wait, Shannon, that’s not what I meant. You guys are a completely different case.”

She shook her head even as sudden tears filled her eyes. “I can’t believe those words just left your mouth,” she whispered. “You, of all people.”

Not waiting for him to reach her, Shannon turned and left his office, closing the door softly behind herself.

“Fuck!” Duncan hissed.

As if it wasn’t bad enough he’d screwed up his own relationship, now he was annihilating the ones closest to him.

She was right though. Those words should have never left his mouth. Hell, they should never have even entered his mind. He’d seen guys much worse off than him reach greater heights than he ever expected to. John was certainly one of those.

In his heart, he was overjoyed for John’s relationship with Shannon and their impending deliveries. It couldn’t have happened to a better couple. And the same with Chad. That was one relationship that he’d never expected to work, but it had flourished, and they loved Lora’s little girl. Zeke, the most physically disfigured of them all, was about to get married.

How did they all look beyond the way things are now to see whatcouldbe?

Maybe he was just too old to change his outlook on life. Rather than seeing the hope, he only saw stress and worry and responsibility. It had been ingrained in him for years and it was hard to let go.

Alexandra was an incredible woman. Was she too incredible to just let go because he was worried about things that might never happen?

Maybe if he tried, really stayed aware of what he was thinking, he could start looking at the positive side of things more easily.

Although that wouldn’t start until after he went groveling to Shannon and begged her to accept his apology.

Two hours later, Duncan tracked Shannon down and pled with her to forgive him. It wasn’t easy to do because John glared daggers at him as he cradled his pregnant fiancée to his chest. Duncan didn’t like the censure he saw in John’s dark eyes, and he worried it had irreparably harmed their relationship.

No, damn it. He reworded the words in his mind. Though John was pissed with him right now, he hoped they could get back to steadier ground. He knew they could.

It felt strange being his own cheerleader, but maybe that’s what he needed to get his brain right.

John tracked him down later that day, as Duncan had expected he would.

“If you ever talk to her like that again, I will flatten you,” he hissed, the veins in his arms pumped and his eyes flat. “I understand you have a lot of shit going on in your life right now but that doesn’t give you the right to dump on her. She loves you, damn it!”

Duncan swallowed hard. “I know. And I love her too. I was speaking from my own insecurities and I wasn’t thinking of anyone else, I swear I wasn’t. The words were directed atme, not you and Shannon.”

John stared at him hard for a long moment before holding out a hand. Duncan circled the desk to shake it, then he leaned down to give him a strong shoulder bump.

“You need to get your head on straight, Wilde. You made her cry. I won’t tolerate that.”

Sighing, he nodded his head, feeling like the lowest of the low. “I know. I’m working on it, I promise.”

Duncan knew that John would never say anything about what happened between them, but the atmosphere in the office changed drastically. Shannon wouldn’t make eye contact and refused to talk to him unless she absolutely had to. She stopped bringing him drinks and she didn’t cook anything that Friday. The men sensed something had happened between them but cared enough for their own safety not to dig.

It took Shannon a solid week to start talking to him again as a friend more than a boss. In desperation, on his own birthday, he sent her a big bunch of flowers with a card that said, ‘I’m an asshole. I’m so sorry. Please smile again’.

He happened to be in the break room when they were delivered to her, and he saw her reluctant smile. She crossed the room and hugged him. “You are an asshole,” she muttered.

Then she smacked him on the shoulder, hard enough to sting.

All of the men in the room laughed as he winced.

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