Page 8 of A Different Husband

“Because he never told you otherwise. I think any sane person would have assumed that nothing changed about your relationship.”

“Any sane person wouldn’t have offered me up to marry his cousin for money that we didn’t need.”

“Well, this is Beckett we’re talking about,” Flynn teased. “Sorry, not the time for jokes.”

“No, it is because everything feels like a bad joke, only someone forgot to tell me the punchline so I can laugh about it.”

We were quiet for most of the ride back to his house. It was only when we pulled into his driveway that I realized that was where we had been headed the whole time. “I thought you were taking me home?”

Flynn shrugged his shoulders as he got out of the car. Once he was at my door, he opened it and held his hand out to me. I took it, despite being confused about why we were there. “My cousin has a key to your place, right?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you might want to be somewhere he couldn’t get into easily, at least for the night.”

“Thanks, I hadn’t thought about that.” I didn’t bother to add the fact that I didn’t think Beckett cared enough about me to come to my house anyway. He was too busy juggling his other women to care about how heartbroken I was. My house was actually a guest cottage on my parents’ property. When they bought the place, the cottage was originally supposed to be my mom’s art studio, since she was a painter and sculptor too. Unfortunately, arthritis and other health issues hit her too hard to continue. When I came home from college, my parents offered the cottage to me, so that I could save for my wedding, honeymoon, and a home that Beckett and I could start a family in.

They had even suggested that they would be okay with Beckett moving in too, so that he could also save for those things. My parents were very traditional, so to make that concession had been a stretch for them. Beckett declined their offer, saying he wanted to do everything with me the right way. It made my parents respect him more. In hindsight, it made me wonder how long he had been plotting his freedom. Why couldn’t he have spoken up sooner? It would have saved me a ton of money on awedding. Even if I wanted to help Flynn out, we could have had a quickie marriage at the Justice of the Peace and been done with it for less than two hundred dollars.

I followed Flynn into his house. It was a beautiful space with a huge backyard and a sunroom to die for. As an artist, I could spend all day in that room, or out in the yard, painting. I wasn’t sure why he chose the house, since he had been a serious bachelor as long as I’d known him and his house was made for a family. In fact, when Beckett and I discussed what kind of home we wanted to buy in our future, I told him I wanted one exactly like Flynn’s.

“I’ve always loved it here,” I murmured.

“Yeah?” Flynn asked as he turned to close and lock the door behind us.

“It’s the perfect home to raise a family.” I blushed profusely as I realized that it might sound like more than what I meant.

“That’s why I bought it.”

I turned to look at him. “I don’t understand. You haven’t even dated anyone seriously.”

“No, I haven’t. That doesn’t mean I didn’t think about my future when I bought this place. I wanted a nice piece of property and a good home for whenever the time came to be serious.”

“And you don’t think your future wife and mother of your children will care that it was once the bachelor pad you brought all your women to?” I asked and immediately wished I wouldn’t have when the tips of Flynn’s ears turned red and he ducked his head in what could only be embarrassment.

“I guess I hadn’t thought about that,” He mumbled.

“I’m sorry. I have no room to judge anyone. I’m marrying my former fiancé’s cousin. At this point, I’m doing it to spite him. I’m sure one day, if I ever date again, I’ll have to explain that, and Lord knows, I’ll sound like a crazy woman.” I chuckled. “Maybe we’ll need to stay married to one another, Flynn. I’mnot sure anyone else would have us.” I winked at him to let him know I was kidding, but his grin said something different. Again, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to think too deeply on it until he spoke.

“I don’t think that would be a bad thing, Court.”

“Oh!” It was the only response I was capable of as Flynn’s ears burned hot again before he turned to head to his kitchen. I followed behind as my brain tried to process and finally gave up because I was too overwhelmed to consider living a life with my former fiancé’s cousin.

“Can I get you anything?” Flynn offered.

“I’ll take water.”

Flynn’s brows rose in question, or maybe shock, as he turned to grab a glass out of the cabinet. “Figured you would want something stronger after the bar.”

I shook my head. “Nope. If I hit the strong stuff, I’m not sure I’d come back up for a while and I need to be sober to marry you this weekend.”

Flynn put the glass down on the counter and moved to stand in front of me. “Courtney, I appreciate your willingness to do this, even if you thought you wouldn’t have to follow through. I won’t hold you to it, though. I would never force you to marry me.”

“You aren’t forcing me.”

“No, but I’d rather your only reason for doing this not be to spite Beckett.”

“You don’t think he deserves it?”

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