Page 12 of The Drummer's Heart

“Why not?”

“The living room is right outside Mimi’s bedroom. If she hears one of us out here, don’t you think she’ll wonder why we aren’t sleeping together?”

He grimaced. “I hadn’t thought of that. Shit.”

“Butyouespecially can’t sleep in the living room. You’ll keep her up with your snoring.”

“My snoring is not that bad. I only do it once in a while, mostly when I drink a lot. And I haven’t had more than three drinks in one sitting in…years.”

Interesting. A three-drink maximum certainly hadn’t existed when we were together. “Okay, but when you do snore, it’s bad,” I told him. “Do you not remember the time you woke up the Mackey’s toddler who was sleeping in the apartment next door?”

“She was a light sleeper.” He chuckled.

“She told her parents she thought there was a bear in her room.”

“Dramatic.”

“A grizzly bear…” I laughed.

Atticus laughed, too. I’d forgotten how much I missed the sound of his laughter.

He went to fetch his suitcase and rolled it into the bedroom. “Anyway, I need to take a shower,” he said as he unzipped it. “It’s been a long day. We’ll figure it out.”

We’ll figure it outwasn’t a solution.

Atticus yawned and stretched. His shirt rode up a little, showcasing the ink on his torso, making me all too aware of the gorgeous body I’d craved every day for the years we’d been apart—a body that no longer belonged to me, but to the world.

“Be back,” he said.

I managed a nod.Take all the time you need. So I can breathe.

After Atticus disappeared down the hall into the bathroom, I sat on the bed and let out a long exhale. It was the first moment of peace I’d had since he’d gone for that walk before dinner. But only a few minutes went by before I yearned for his return. I knew this experience would be difficult, but I’d underestimated this painful longing.

Honestly, how did that man keep getting more handsome with age? When we’d divorced, Atticus was thirty-one. At thirty-four now, he was hotter than ever. He looked younger than his age despite the few gray hairs around his ears that probably only I noticed. Even those were damn sexy. Whenever I found myself thinking this way about him, I promptly reminded myself of all of the women he’d been with since our divorce. I’d heard stories from a friend who worked on a Delirious Jones tour, and there was plenty of other evidence as well. That snapped me back to realityrealfast—at least for a moment. I had no right to be jealous—we weren’t together when any of it happened—yet it still hurt like a motherfucker.

The second Atticus came out of the bathroom, though, I was once again reminded how futile it was to try to forget my attraction to him. White towel hung over his neck, his sculpted chest glistened as beads of water traveled slowly down his torso to his carved V and into the tempting abyss beneath his shorts. The sad fact was, my ex-husband, Atticus Marchetti, would always be my dream man physically. He would always be the one I compared all others to. No amount of time apart from him had changed that.

Atticus ran the towel through his wet hair. “Did you come up with a magical solution to our sleeping issue?”

I stared up at the ceiling to keep from looking at him. “Yes. I plan to disappear into thin air, so we don’t have to deal with it at all.”

“Wouldn’t that be an interesting superpower? I could’ve used it that night I ran into you and Julian. Except I still would’ve punched him. Just would’ve disappeared right when the cops came.” He winked.

I really wished he hadn’t brought up Julian. But since he did… “It wasn’t necessary for you to go after him like that.”

He glared. “Trust me, it was.”

“You don’t see me going after…” I tilted my head. “What’s her name…Kylie?” A rush of jealousy shot through me. Of all thewomen I knew Atticus had been with, she seemed to be a regular in his life—at least from what I could surmise from photos taken whenever he was home in L.A.

“Riley,” he corrected. “And I wouldn’t care if you did go after her. In fact, I’d pop some popcorn and watch that shit.”

I rolled my eyes.

He tossed the towel onto a chair in the corner. “But you see…” He walked toward me, causing my skin to prickle. “There are some key differences between the two situations. Riley wasn’t your friend at one time, like Julian was to me. She’s also not even my girlfriend.”

I wasn’t going to touch the subject of Julian being one of Atticus’s former friends, so I focused on the second part of his statement. “Why do you waste her time, then, if she’s not your girlfriend?”

“We have an understanding. She and I hang out when I’m in town, but it’s not monogamous.”

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