Page 26 of Resilient Rhythms
I look at Mav, not at all surprised that he’s still studying me. Does he want to kiss me? Do I want him to?
He dips down and my heart lurches into my throat.
Mav presses his cheek against the crown of my head. “Nice strike, beauty. The Bowling Tones are lucky to have you.”
SEVEN
MAV
“Is that a fucking joke?”I mutter, bewildered. Glancing around the coffee shop, I look for hidden cameras. “Are you serious, Aid?”
Aiden chuckles, leaning back in his seat.
We’re at Java House, grabbing a cup of coffee, and discussing some very important legal implications that I somehow overlooked. Entirely.
“You’re still married,” he repeats, amused. He should not be amused.
“That’s not possible.” I shake my head, keeping my expression calm. But on the inside, my organs feel too close together, my blood too hot, my body, completely discombobulated. What the hell is Aiden saying? I look around the coffee shop again, waiting for the punchline. No one is paying attention to us. My neck snaps back to Aiden. “Mckenna signed the papers. She?—”
He leans forward, moving my coffee mug to the side. “She did,” he agrees. “You didn’t.”
“I—what?” I mutter, squinting as if that will help me recall that hazy time of life better.
But those days were a fucking blur. I had just gotten out of rehab and I was so intent on doing the right thing, on making amends, that I tried to free Mckenna from me. From the destructive habits I brought into her world. I didn’t want to taint her anymore and so, I asked for a divorce.
I watched as she pressed the pen into the paper and scrawled her name in angry letters. I absorbed the tears that fell from her navy eyes. I clutched those papers to my chest and strode out of the brownstone without a backward glance.
And then…and then, I went to Costa Rica.
“You sent the papers to me,” Aiden continues, as if trying to jog my memory. “But you never signed them, Mav.” Aiden reaches into his bag and pulls out a manila folder. He removes the stack of papers and my breath catches in my throat.
Petition for divorce.
Dissolution of marriage.
Divorce agreement.
Nausea curls in my gut. I never want to see those dreaded pages again. Needing something to do with my hand, I pick up my coffee mug and take a long sip. It’s not hot enough to burn the roof of my mouth and right now, I wish it would. I wish anything could pull me from the mental agony of recalling that day with Mckenna, of reliving the heartache I caused my beauty.
“So, you need to sign these and then, I can file them and make it official.” Aiden slides the stack of papers across the table. His eyes dart around the space. “I told you we should have met at my office, Mav. You really are a stubborn bastard.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
I drop my palm to the center of the stack and stare at the black ink that appears in the spaces between my fingers. “I’m not signing.”
“I—what?” Aiden sputters.
Shaking my head, I smack the stack. “I’m not signing.”
“Maverick.” Aiden frowns. “You asked for a divorce. You wanted?—”
“I know what I asked for.” I cut him off, not wanting another fucking reminder. “But it was a mistake. Mckenna and I…” I blow out a sigh. “We’re not over, Aiden. We’re unfinished business.”
My lawyer stares at me for several seconds, as if trying to make sense of the words coming out of my mouth. “You have to tell her, Mav. If you don’t sign, she?—”
“Of course I’m going to tell her,” I interject again. What kind of a man does he take me for?
“This changes?—”
