Page 112 of How We End
“Yes.”Dana glanced over her shoulder.“It’s hard not to love him.He knows all the right things to do and say.I really thought he’d settled down when we got married.I was so stupid.He was gone all day and night doing god only knows what.Then you came along.”
“I’m sorry.”I really was.I never had to face any of my other clients’ wives.They were faceless names.
“For what?If it wasn’t you, there were a hundred other women in the city.He used to say he couldn’t do this job unless he was in bed with it.”Dana walked over to the large windows that looked out onto the Strip.“I hated you when he first brought you here,” she said over her shoulder.“You were the type of girl Maverick would’ve married if your father could give him the seed money to grow his dream.You were young.Stunning.And so eager for his attention.”
She walked over and sat down next to me.“And then I got sick.And you took a burden from me.I didn’t have to worry about where he was or what he was doing.I knew he was with you.I knew you’d send him home.”She took my hand.“You lessened my burden.You did all the things I couldn’t.And I got all the things you deserved.A husband who sat next to me during my chemo.Who brought me flowers and made sure I had a personal chef.”She examined the large diamond that sat on her finger.“And now he’s left you with nothing.Moved on to some twit who doesn’t have enough brains not to wear perfume or lipstick.”
“He wouldn’t be that stupid, would he?”
“See for yourself.”Dana nodded to the bedroom.
That was what was different about the space.I walked into the bedroom.The smell of perfume hung in the air.In the bathroom the counter was littered with bottles of perfume and skin care.Tubes of lipstick and makeup.All things I never wore with clients.In the closet, clothing and other personal things.She had staked her claim.
“I assume those things aren’t yours.”Dana sounded tired.
“No.I have much more expensive taste.”I tried to keep the hurt from my voice.I shouldn’t have been hurt.Maverick had made it very clear I was insignificant in his life.
“That fucker.How could he cheat on us?”Dana sat down on the bed.
“On us?”I laughed.
“Yes.”She smiled.“Christ, Wyatt, for sixteen years you and I have been more partners in this marriage than Maverick and me.”
I sat down next to her.“You know how silly that sounds, don’t you?”
“Yes.”She scanned the room with indifference.“My therapist says I had the healthiest dysfunctional marriage she had ever seen.She caressed my cheek.“After the cancer, I was told I wouldn’t be able to have kids.Not that Maverick wanted them.And then one day there you were, scared and alone.I was so angry.What kind of mother would leave her daughter broken?Leave you to a wolf like Maverick?I should’ve made him send you home, but I was selfish.For the first time in a long time, our marriage was working.”She let her hand drop.
If my mother thought the same as Dana, I would’ve gone back to South Dakota and lived a life like my sister.There were some days I hated my life.But this life had given me so much.I traveled.I mingled with the rich and powerful.I learned so much about myself.This life made me who I am today.
And it gave me Julian.
“Something has changed, hasn’t it?Maverick would never leave you.”
“I met someone,” I confessed.
“The hockey player?Julian Silver.He’s very handsome.That’s what pisses Maverick off the most.You traded up.”
“I know what you think.”She would think the same thing Maverick thought.“It won’t last.That he’ll never be able to get over what I was.”I thought when I quit, the worst was behind us, but what I did would always be a shadow that hung over us.
“I think that this Julian truly loves you.And that is why Maverick is acting like a spoiled brat.”She took a deep breath letting it out, her eyes scanned the room.“At some point I thought it would quit working.Christ the man is almost sixty.I don’t know if I have the energy for another one.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”I was part of the problem.I had always thought she had agreed to this, but now I saw it was Maverick.
“Don’t be.We are all victims of a circumstance beyond our control.It’s not your fault men are so desperate they’d pay a pretty girl to jerk them off.”Dana stood.“I should go.Thank you for meeting with me.I wish you the best of luck, Wyatt.You deserve happiness.”
I stood.“You deserve some too.”
“Making Maverick miserable is all the happiness I need.And don’t worry about the place in Henderson.Stay as long as you like.I really hope you find some happiness.But please stay away from my husband.We are both getting too old for this bullshit.”She patted my cheek as she left.
This was it.Time to pack up Cassidy’s life.I’d miss her.But I was also excited for Wyatt’s life finally to begin.I watched the neon of the Starlight Sands sign flash one last time.
Then I closed the door on this chapter of my life.
CHAPTERFIFTY-THREE
WYATT
April 2
