Page 83 of Divorced from Number Thirty-Eight

---

Something that’s reinforced when he fixes me in place with a stare.

“You’re going to take care of her right?” he asks. “She needs someone steady and committed. Not for you to let that shit with Courtney?—”

And hell, as though he conjured up the she-demon herself…

The front door slams open.

And my ex strides into the house.

Twenty-Eight

Faye

“Oh, no,” I whisper.

“Is that?—?”

“Courtney,” the woman next to me, Veronica, says. I just met her today and she came with her sweet son, Alex.

And also with Ryan.

Whose behavior is…well…

Protective.

And maybe a bit possessive.

Hmm.

But I can’t let my author brain get ahead of me. There’s something closed-off about Veronica, as though she won’t ever—ever—be open to what Ryan wants to offer.

Yet, Ryan’s still here. Well, he and Alex are in the back yard, kicking around a soccer ball.

So…hmm.

“That’s Courtney?” Luna asks aghast, and something that had gone stiff inside me, a tight knot of unpleasantness, loosens. Partly because of her tone—the clear disbelief—but also because, even as close as these people all are, Courtney isn’t part of them.

But I am.

Or maybe, more accurately, I could be.

My heart rolls over in my chest.

“That’s Courtney,” Veronica confirms.

“But she’s so…”

“Beautiful?” I murmur.

Luna’s eyes flick to mine and my heart rolls back the other way when she shifts a little closer, pressing her thigh against mine, silently comforting me. “Yes,” she says softly, her gaze flicking to mine. “But also…very not Gray.”

Veronica tilts her head to the side, but it’s Kailey who speaks.

“They don’t fit,” she murmurs.

I study Courtney, the beautiful blond woman with a gorgeous body. Her hair is sleek, sitting in perfect beachy waves. Her clothes are sophisticated and compliment her slender curves. She could be on the cover of magazines, could have tens of thousands of followers on Instagram.

And though Gray is equally as gorgeous…

---