Page 29 of Second Chance Husband

“It’s just like I said. We have one cabana, and two sets of suites. There are full king beds on either side of the suites, as well as a common area with multiple bathrooms in one, and one main bathroom in the other. This is what the reservation is,” the lady was saying, and I didn’t like her tone.

My brothers were giving me an odd look, as if judging my reaction, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say.

As they went into the details, and Paisley pulled out her printed and digital reservation items, we realized we were getting hosed. It didn’t matter what Paisley had on paper, or what we had paid for, we were going to be forced to take what was left or leave.

When Greer and her husband showed up, they joined in the conversation since they had been on the same reservation, and had signed for what we had asked for, and were not getting.

None of it made sense, and all I knew was now we were holding keys, and I was royally fucked.

Because I wasn’t going to be sharing a room with Paisley per se, but I was going to be sharing a suite, a bathroom, and a door with my ex-wife.

It was that or splitting up families.

Part of me wanted to sleep on my brother’s couch and call it a day, and the rest of me knew I needed to be an adult about the situation and just deal with it.

I truly did not want to have to share a roof with my ex-wife.

Not because I hated her, not because I couldn’t stand to be alone with her.

No, the exact opposite.

Because part of me routinely wanted to be alone with her. Part of me missed her.

Part of me wanted her.

And that part was going to have to get with the program. I was going to be sharing a room with my ex-wife.

And there was no way I was going to be able to get out of this.

I met Paisley’s gaze, as everyone looked cautiously upon us, and I knew it was going to be a long fucking vacation.

At least there was alcohol. Alcohol would save me.

And I would just pretend that I wasn’t going to use it as a crutch. I tried to have resolve, even as I watched Paisley bend down to pick up her bag and told myself it was going to be a really long fucking night.

Chapter Eight

Paisley

I wasn’t quite sure why I was even here. The fact I’d not only said yes, but traveled all the way into the mountains with the Cassidys didn’t make any sense.

I was just the family friend. The auntie to two beautiful girls, but no longer by familial ties. Maybe if I had stayed married to August all those years ago, I would have been able to truly understand and be connected in that way but that had never been in the cards. Especially when it hadn’t been my choice to begin with.

It was odd that I kept thinking about that, that no matter what happened in my life recently, it always came back to August.

Then again it made sense. I was hanging out with his family at a beautiful lodge and resort in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. And his family was laughing and drinking and eating and just enjoying themselves. And I was doing my best not to act as if I was afraid of what was going to happen next. After all, my life felt as if I were falling into an abyss, and nothing was making sense.

Because August was their uncle, and I was their auntie because I was best friends with their moms. Everything needed to calm down, to slow down. And yet, it was all I could do not to take two steps back and realize that maybe I shouldn’t have come.

I had to ask myself exactly why I was sitting here, why I couldn’t just pretend like I had always done before.

I sipped my champagne cocktail and watched the two little girls run across the field, with the Cassidy men following them. The guys had their arms up, pretending they were some form of Sasquatch or bear or other terrifying animal, while the little girls screamed and giggled, before they were all tackled to the floor, everybody laughing. Greer was following them, phone in hand as she recorded the moments, and I sat on the lounge deck, drinking away and pretending to relax.

I was never truly good at relaxing honestly.

“So do you want to talk about it?” Addison asked, and I frowned and looked over at my friend. Addison sat on one side of me, Devney the other. I was grateful for the two of them as they stood by me no matter what and had given me time and space after the divorce announcement, but we hadn’t talked about it in detail. The distance and lack of delving into the situation was on me, and I needed to worry about what all of this meant. I needed to come to terms with the fact I wasn’t up front with my best friends.

My best friends had been amazing, comforting, caring, and not too nosy. However, I knew my time of hiding in my feels when it came to at least Jacob were at an end. After all, there was only so much hiding I could do. It wasn’t as if anybody other than August knew why the two of us had been divorced. It had been a subject off limits to everyone, including the two of us. We had never discussed it, and our families had never truly discussed it. Maybe he had with his brothers, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know. Perhaps that was bordering on unhealthy, but I didn’t care in that moment.

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