His head bent and he shoved his face in my neck. “I missed you,” he whispered against my skin.
I started struggling again, squirming against his body but his arms only wrapped tighter around me and I felt his lips slide up to my ear.
“She cheated on me,” he whispered and I went still.
“Sorry?” I asked.
His head came up. “Hayley. Traded up for a new model.”
Oh my God.
He continued. “I made more money than Scott. Her new guy is a doctor. A surgeon. Obviously he makes more money than me.”
I didn’t know what to make of this, though I’d always suspected Hayley was with Brad because Scott, her husband, wasn’t as successful as Brad, my house was bigger than hers and she could only afford Griselle to come once every two weeks, not once a week. I also knew by things she said she wanted more. I didn’t want to think ill of my best friend so I’d let her little comments slide, dozens of times, but they always made me feel weird.
Now, I knew.
I had the inappropriate desire to giggle.
Instead, I started, “Brad –”
“She’s been fucking him for two years. Even while we were going through what we went through, Hayley knowing I was doing it for her, she was working her next move. He finally left his wife for her. Hayley’s gone, Ree. Been gone awhile. Turned her back on me, Audrey, Janet, Colleen, all of them. She hasn’t spoken to them in ages… or me. She’s on hospital charity committees now. Thinks she’s high-brow. Hobnobbing with society.”
Well that explained the e-mails. Now they all knew just exactly what Hayley was. All of them. Even Brad.
That desire to giggle got harder to bite back.
“This isn’t my problem,” I reminded him.
“Honey –”
“Brad, let me go, it isn’t my problem,” I repeated.
He pulled me even closer and his face dipped down. “I’m here because you were right. We can work on this. We can go back to what we had.”
I started struggling again. “No we can’t.”
“We were good together once. Then you started to let yourself go…”
I jerked back but not successfully out of his arms and my eyes narrowed on him. “I started to let myself go?”
“You know I don’t like a woman to carry extra weight,” he explained.
He could not be believed!
“I started eating because I sensed you were fucking around on me!” I shouted.
“Darling –”
“Stop calling me that!”
“You’re back,” he replied, his eyes going over my hair and down to my chest before coming back to mine, “better than ever.”
I stopped pushing against his wrists and pressed my hands against his chest. “Get out!”
He ignored me. “And we can be back and better than ever.”
“Seriously, this is not cool.”
His face got in my face. “I know what you’re doing with that guy. I get it. It hurts, honey, you got yours back. We both struck our blows, learned our lessons, now we can move on.”
“I wasn’t striking a blow, you jerk, we’re divorced,” I shouted, losing it. “You fucked Hayley, carrying on with her for five years while we were committed to each other and bound legally! You wanted out and I let you out and moved on. Tate has not one thing to do with you!”
“Honey, you know you want me back. You practically begged to take me back even knowing what happened. You fell apart when I left.”
I started pushing, squirming in earnest, rearing back and shrieking, “Fuck you!”
Finally, I was getting somewhere. He was struggling to control me.
“Ree –”
“Let me…!”
I didn’t get out the word “go” because I was suddenly released but Brad wasn’t the one who released me. Tate was there, drenched in sweat wearing a white t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, black sweatpants which were cut off at mid-thigh and running shoes. We’d been so entrenched in our drama that we didn’t hear him come in.
Tate had hold of the back of Brad’s golf shirt, he pulled him back then let fly and Brad staggered five paces before he righted himself.
He planted his feet and scowled up at Tate. “Put your hand on me again and I’ll sue!” Brad shouted.
Tate advanced, not saying a word. Then he put his hand on Brad, scrunching the material of his shiny, blue golf shirt in one big fist and shoving him backwards to the door. Once there, he jerked him forward making Brad lurch like a ragdoll. Brad’s hands went to Tate’s wrist to pull it free, Tate leaned beyond Brad, yanked open the door and then shoved him through.
Brad reeled back and righted himself halfway across the wide hall.
“You asshole!” Brad shouted.
“I see you again, it won’t be pretty. I find out she sees you again, you’ll be breathin’ through a fuckin’ tube. You get me?” Tate growled.
“Fuck you!” Brad yelled.
Tate shut the door. I stared at it, frozen to the spot.
Tate turned to me.
“How’d he get in here?” Tate asked.
I was still staring at the door but at his question my head jerked and I looked at him. “I opened it.”