Page 22 of A Different Husband

I didn’t bother to answer him. Instead, I stood up and grabbed my purse. “You can leave my box of things with my parents. I don’t want to see you again. I’ll drop anything of yours off with your parents.”

“Please, don’t do this.”

I turned to leave and could have sworn I saw Flynn walk out of the restaurant. I got ready to chase after him, but Beckett caught hold of my arm again. “You never answered the question.”

“And I don’t plan on it because what I do and who I do or don’t do it with is none of your damn business Beckett Robeson.” He flinched back as I snatched my arm out of his grip.

Chapter 14

FLYNN

Courtney didn’t answer him.

I rubbed my hand over my chest as it really settled in that she refused to tell him that we had not only slept together on our wedding night, but continued to do so. We hadn’t missed a single night, or morning for that matter, of getting very acquainted with one another’s bodies. Beckett didn’t need those details, but she could have at least said it was already too late to demand her fidelity, especially from me - her husband.

She didn’t. I had planned on putting my cousin in his place and telling him to stay the fuck away from my wife, but when she refused to answer, I had to wonder if it was because she was holding out hope that they would still get back together. I had missed the beginning of their conversation because my last meeting of the day ran well over when it was supposed to end.

I hated that I wasn’t there to walk her in and put up a united front against Beckett, but considering what I’d just witnessed, maybe it was for the best that time got away from me at work. How else would I know that she still wasn’t over him. I wasn’t stupid. They had been together most of their lives as friends, dating, and as an engaged couple. It took time to get over arelationship that long. He was her first love, and that wasn’t something I would ever even think possible. Still, when she didn’t tell him we had already been intimate, something inside me broke. Maybe it was my hope for our future.

We hadn’t talked about taking our marriage to a real place, so that was my fault. I assumed when we had sex, and then kept having it, that it was a mutual decision to behave as a truly married couple moving forward. I hoped that it worked out for us in the end. Courtney never said if she was on the same page with me. I was beginning to think her silences spoke louder than anything she did say.

By the time she got home, I pretended to be crashed out on the couch in the living room. My wife tried to wake me up to come to bed, but I groaned and flipped over so my back was to her.

“I know you’re not asleep. I saw you at the restaurant just before I left.” She said in her normal speaking voice. She waited to see if I would turn back over, and when I didn’t, she turned and walked away. I was up and out of my house before she had to get up and get ready for work. Maybe it was immature, but I wasn’t ready to face her. Part of me didn’t want to know the reason she refused to answer him, or what kind of agreement they came to after I walked away.

It was nearlylunchtime when my assistant, Jeff, let me know that I had an unscheduled visitor. There was no reason it should have been Courtney, though that was why I told him to send them in. I wondered if maybe she hated sleeping alone the night before as much as I did. I was not pleasantly surprised when mydoor opened and my cousin walked in, only to turn and shut the door behind him.

“We need to talk.”

“I don’t see why,” I answered back before shifting my attention back to the file in front of me. None of the information there made it to my brain because I was too busy trying to talk myself out of throwing my cousin out the window and down into the middle of mid-day traffic.

“Flynn, she’s still in love with me.” He tossed out a laugh that sounded more nervous than self-assured. “She’ll always love me. I was her first everything.”

“How quickly you forget. You were also her first heartbreak and her second and third, and…” I stopped and pretended to think about it for a minute. “How many times did you break her over the years?”

“I didn’t break Courtney. We’ve had some disagreements, but none of it enough to stop me from holding that number one spot in her heart.”

“Is that why you let her go, so you could fuck around on her, and you didn’t think she would care if you were on a break?” I asked. He started to nod and then caught himself.

“I was doing you a favor. How the hell else were you going to find a wife in time?”

It was my turn to laugh. “I could have found a wife a year ago when the money became available to me at 25, Beckett. It wasn’t that important to me.”

“But Sean’s company.” My cousin’s brows furrowed inward as he mentioned the reason I ever even considered getting married in the first place - to save my father’s dying business.

“My dad’s business isn’t really my problem, Beckett. I’d love to help him out, but he wouldn’t have held it against me if I chose not to marry until I found the girl of my dreams.”

“Then you can get an annulment.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Not gonna do that. First of all, I’m married now, and have to stay married for at least six months in order to fulfill the conditions of the Will. Then there’s the other pesky little problem.”

“What problem?”

I stood and walked over to the window to look down at all the people marching around on the street. “Remember, when you see her happy with someone else, whether it is me or another man eventually, you were the one who pushed her there. You cheered as she went, all so you could fuck other women without feeling guilty for it.” I chuckled at his puzzled image reflected in the window. “Must be nice to be able to do your random women without having to hide. Then again, I think sneaking around felt more appealing to you, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I might not have proof, but I’m also not stupid. Courtney thinks you were each other’s one and only but people talk. You fucked around on her in high school and did the same while you were in college. You’ve probably already fucked your way through all the women at your office too.”

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