Page 36 of A Different Husband

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“You’re my wife, Court, for better or worse, remember?”

“We both know this marriage is a sham.”

“It’s not a sham. Not to me, anyway.”

I patted the bed next to me and Flynn climbed in and got under the covers with me. “Can we stay here all day?”

“I think that would probably be best until you’re ready to try some real food.” I chuckled at his answer, but cut it short when it made me feel queasy. “Thank you for coming to get me and taking care of me.”

“It was my fault you were in that state to begin with.”

“Don’t,” I told him. “There’s no need to make excuses for what I did. You are right when you said it could have gone bad. I was so messed up emotionally that I didn’t even realize I was in a biker bar, and that was before the I ever drank the first shot.”

Flynn reached for his phone and queued up a video. “I wanted you to be able to see this.” I took it and saw what happened after I left his office the other day. I had to laugh at his cluelessness, but inside I secretly cheered Jeff on. He was a real girl’s guy.

“You should give Jeff a raise.”

“I’m sure he would appreciate that, considering I nearly fired him for insinuating things that weren’t true.”

“They looked true from where I was standing.”

“It has been brought to my attention that I may have also had a moment of cluelessness where my situation was concerned. I’ve worked with Kylie in the past and there has never been a time where I crossed a line with her. It’s been one of my rules since I took over my grandfather’s business when he passed. I don’t sleep with clients.” He coughed and then looked me in the eye. “And that was a rule before I was married. Afterward, the rule was amended to: ‘I don’t sleep with anyone but my wife’.”

I chuckled at that. “Good call, Mister.”

“I need you to know that I was never interested in her.”

“I had a moment of drunken clarity where I knew it wasn’t what it looked like, but it still hurt to see you carefree and laughing with someone else when I could barely catch a glimpse of you, let alone see you smile or laugh, or look happy to be near me.”

“Court,” Flynn whispered. “I have only seemed miserable because I couldn’t be around you lately. I promised to give you space until you sorted things and were ready to talk about what you wanted. I didn’t want to trample on that space, but it was killing me to keep my distance.”

“Let’s not do the space thing anymore,” I suggested.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

I wasfine when I woke up, especially since Flynn once again acted as my pillow. I could get used to sleeping with him again, if I wasn’t careful. It took me a minute, in my sleepy state, to realize we had already decided to work on being a couple. With any luck, I would get used to it.

Flynn shifted beneath me and it dislodged me just enough from his chest that I had to adjust my position. Unfortunately, when I tried to do that, I was hit with an echo of the nausea I had the day before. I stayed still for a minute and willed it to pass, but then Flynn turned fully onto his side and bounced the bed just enough that I couldn’t hold back.

I jumped and ran to the bathroom in a panic and barely made it to the toilet before I threw up whatever was left on my stomach from dinner last night. It wasn’t much, mostly stomach bile, but that didn’t stop my body from heaving like it was purging hangover demons from my body again.

“What the hell?”I groaned miserably as a pair of hands worked to pull my hair back from me again.

“I hate to break it to you sweetheart, but hangovers don’t last two whole days.”

“Maybe I was never really hung over and I caught a stomach bug.”

“Oh, no, you were definitely hung over judging by how drunk you were the other night. You might be right about the stomach bug though.”

“I’m sorry”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m apologizing in advance for when it’s you with your head in the toilet. I’ve wrapped myself around you both nights.”

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