Page 25 of A Different Husband

“Yeah, you have always hated him.”

“I don’t hate him. I just didn’t like him for you and didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. I’d have to care about the asshole to hate him.”

“What am I going to do?” I asked her after we both sat there quietly for far too long.

“About Beckett? You already married another man, I say ghost his ass and forget he ever existed in your life.”

“Obviously,” I rolled my eyes as I said that and then smiled at my friend. “I meant about the mess with Flynn. It feels like no matter what I do, everything is going to come out wrong. I know he was mad at me, and I think it was because when Beckettasked me not to sleep with Flynn, I didn’t tell him that it was too late.”

“I’m sure that did hurt Flynn. It probably felt like you were ashamed to have gone there with him.”

“I’m not. I wasn’t. That’s so wrong.”

“Maybe so, but I guarantee that’s how he felt.”

“How do you know?”

“Because that’s how I would have felt if I were in his shoes.”

“Dammit, how do I fix this? I’m angry that he was so cavalier about our intimate moments. They’re supposed to be private between the two of us only.”

Hadley took her time before she answered me. “What you have is a little communication problem. I’d bet a lot of money that Flynn doesn’t know that younevertalk about your sex life.”

“I kind of did with him after our first night.”

“Well, that’s new. I guess that makes it harder for him to understand why you didn’t tell Beckett.”

“Yeah, I suppose it does. I’ll talk to him, but for now, can I spend the night with you? I don’t want to deal with the adult relationship stuff right now.”

“You are always welcome here, but only for one night, because any more than that is wallowing and wallowing leads to festering, and then things start to deteriorate further.”

“I get the picture. I promise, one night only, then I’ll go home and talk to Flynn.” I turned my phone off and lounged back on Hadley’s couch as she moved closer to me and hugged into my side.

“It’s going to be okay, bestie. You just need a night to clear your head and gain some perspective.”

Chapter 16

FLYNN

I joltedawake and before my brain came online to tell me why, my heart started to race. I was on the couch, in my living room, and all the lights were on. That wasn’t normal. A quick glance at the clock in the kitchen told me I’d dozed off for only an hour. Courtney didn’t have work because of the three-day weekend, so after the disaster in my office with Beckett, I came back home to try to catch up to her here.

How in the hell had I fallen asleep on the couch?

It dawned on me in the next second that the house was too quiet.

“Courtney!”

I jumped up and ran to our bedroom only to find the bed still made and nothing had changed from how it was left the day before. Where the hell could she be? I went back to the living room and found my cell phone burrowed down into the cushions. Once I dug it out, it was clear that my wife hadn’t tried to call or message me either. It had already been four hours since she left my office.

I tried to call her, but it immediately kicked to voicemail. Either she had her phone off or my wife decided to block me.

Great!

I sent a text to her next.

Flynn: Sweetheart, I need you to call or message me that you’re okay. You can hate me if you need to, but please let me know you’re not hurt or in trouble somewhere.

I wanted to add that she needed to let me know she hadn’t gone to my cousin, but that seemed like the wrong thing to do. I was pretty sure she hated him more than me.

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