Page 69 of Worth the Risk

The memory of how she ran her nails through my hair, scraping them gently against my scalp as she wrapped her legs around me. The moment felt so pure and genuine, a pout on her lips when she finally opened her sleepy eyes.

“Ah, I can see the similarity.”

“Nothing ever happened between her and me.”

He shakes his head like he doesn’t really need to know, but I know it gives him peace of mind.

“She’s great.” He smiles. “Really funny and I love how outgoing she is.”

I can sense his apprehension so I decide to pry, our two clients clearly so lost in their own conversation we aren’t moving on from this hole anytime soon.

“But?”

“No, but really, just, uh…” He picks mindlessly at his golf shorts. “You ever been married?” he asks, changing the subject.

“Not even close.”

“Not your thing?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve never been against marriage, just wasn’t with the right woman.”

Until now.

“I did it.” He leans back in the golf cart seat. “The whole jump in with both feet when you’re young. We were twenty-two when we met and I fell hard, man. Like after one date I was telling my friends and family she was the one.”

“Did she feel the same?”

“Yeah.” He nods. “Yeah, I really think so. Celine, my ex, she was just as excited with her friends and family, you know, ready to start a family and all that. We decided to wait, though. I finished law school and spent a few years at one firm and then another before we had our daughter.” He smiles when he mentions her. “Best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you two. Not that it’s my business but Taylor mentioned you were divorced.”

“Yeah, unfortunately things didn’t work out like I thought they would, but you know, you roll with the punches.”

Finally, the two men stop arguing long enough for Nick to step up to the tee.

Great, here we go for another twenty minutes while he practices his swing fifty-nine times.

“Why are you telling me this, Miguel?” There’s clearly something on his mind, just like Taylor’s on mine.

I check my phone. It’s after seven now so I know she is up, probably having her coffee while she does her makeup. I like that after only two days, I’m already learning her routine, noticing how she gets ready for her morning, for yoga, for bed.

“Oh, I don’t know.” He shrugs. “I guess I’m nervous about getting back out there, entering the dating world in my mid-thirties. Starting over.”

“Are you still in love with her?” I’m not meddling but I also don’t think it’s fair to unnecessarily hurt Mia if he’s not ready for anything besides fun or a hookup.

“I’m not sure,” he says, a touch defeated. “I’m not sure if it’s love or the idea of her. It’s not like we were fighting all the time. I thought we were still in love when it all fell apart. It wasn’t a choice I made to divorce her; she filed and I didn’t fight it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t handle everything right in my marriage, but damn, I sure as shit wasn’t expecting to come home and find my wife in bed with the twenty-two-year-old neighbor.”

“Holy shit.” My head snaps up from glancing at my phone where I notice a text from Taylor. “Twenty-two-year-old neighbor?”

“Yeah.”

We sit in silence for a few moments, my mind trying not to imagine how I would feel coming home and finding Taylor in bed with another man. My stomach clenches and I remember she messaged me. I turn back to my phone, swiping my thumb across the screen to open to her message when I almost send it flying instead.

“Oh, shit, you catch it?” Miguel leans his hand forward in an attempt to help me.

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