Page 16 of Man Advantage

“Mmhmm. Growing up, I thought it was normal to always ask for tomatoes on your sandwich only to pick them off half the time.”

Bryan’s lips parted. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah. I finally asked her about it when I was a teenager. She said she loves the taste of tomatoes, and they really add to a sandwich, but if the texture is even slightly off…” He made a face and shook his head.

My ex-husband glanced at me. “That kind of sounds like Zane with lettuce.”

“It does,” I said with a nod.

Cam’s gaze flicked back and forth between us. “So he likes it, always asks for it, but will pick it off if it’s not exactly right?”

“If it’s even a little bit wilty…” I gestured like I was throwing something over my shoulder.

Cam wrinkled his nose. “I mean, can you blame him? There is nothing worse than lettuce when it’s all…” He shuddered.

“Oh God.” Bryan made a face. “Now that you mention it…”

I almost gagged myself.

At least that got us onto a more cordial path. The rest of the conversation was—well, it wasn’t chill and friendly, but it wasn’tso full of swipes or barbs. By the end, Bryan accepted Cam’s role as our children’s nanny during my custody weeks. And though he obviously wasn’t thrilled about it, he signed the letter my lawyer had written up that stated as much. Of course Bryan could still find other reasons to come after me for full custody, but I wasn’t saying no to a paper trail.

“Well.” Bryan faced Cam and extended his hand. “We’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”

“Looking forward to it,” Cam said brightly.

They shook hands, and then I showed Bryan out.

Though he didn’t say a word, I’d been married to him too long not to recognize his body language. The sharp footsteps. The hard set of his shoulders. The way he resolutely did not look at me, even when I opened the door for him.

I stepped outside and closed the door behind me so we’d have some relative privacy. “Well?”

He faced me, all his irritation on full display. “What?”

My own irritation threatened to bubble up, but I kept myself calm. “You’ve met him. You’ve agreed to him watching the kids during my custody weeks. Are we good now?”

He huffed and broke eye contact. “It isn’t like I have much choice, do I?”

“This whole situationwasyour choice,” I reminded him.

“It wasn’t a choice.” Bryan snapped, and there was a hint of hurt at the edge of his voice. “I wasn’t doing it for fun, okay?”

“Then why were?—”

“Because I’m trying to move on with my life,” he gritted out. “And it’s impossible to do when I still spend half the goddamned year at the mercy of your schedule.”

I straightened. “So, what? I’m being unreasonable because I?—”

“It’s not you being unreasonable.” His tone shifted to one full of fatigue and even some defeat. “Joint custody is what it is. Ican’t move out of Pittsburgh as long as you’re signed with the team.”

“And I can’t sign with another team because our custody agreement is contingent on my no-move clause. This isn’t easy for either of us.”

“No, it isn’t. But when we’re trading off custody once a week, I can get into that groove. When it’s at the mercy of hockey, though? And practices, and team meetings, and every other goddamned thing that drags you out of the house?” He shook his head emphatically. “I can’t do it, Trev. I just fucking can’t.Yousigned with the Rebels. Not me. I want to be able to live my life without the team having me on the same short leash they have you on.”

I gritted my teeth. “So you started dating another player?”

“That’s different,” he growled. “Tim comes and goes, just like you did. I can’t do much about that. But that doesn’t affect my custody of the boys.” With a heavy sigh, he looked right at me. “This hasn’t been fun for me, you know. Being divorced. It’s—it hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t been fun. I’m just trying to get my damn life into something more consistent and predictable.”

I swallowed. I’d been so furious with him—not to mention freaked out—over his ultimatum, I admittedly hadn’t given much thought to where he was coming from. Not beyond the certainty that he was trying to screw me out of joint custody. And even though I was tempted to point out that it was his choices and actions that had led to us splitting up, that wasn’t even worth revisiting. It wasn’t like we could go back, and it sure as shit wasn’t like I wanted to.

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