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Chapter Thirteen
Rain splatteredon the window as Harrison looked at the tent in the back yard. The engagement party was supposed to be spread out and not cramped into the spacious, but not spacious enough house.
Today was the engagement party for his nephew, or was it ex-nephew now? Josh was Veronica’s brother’s son, but since he had been around the kid since he was young, he was considered family, which included an invite to the engagement party. An event that Harrison could have easily skipped if everyone wouldn’t have assumed it was because he didn’t want to see his ex. Though it would have been the reason, he didn’t want her friends and family to think she had that control over him still.
So here he was at this party, which was over the top and nothing short of what he would expect from his former sister-in-law. She and Veronica were like two peas in a pod, hence the unused tent in the back yard, catered meal, and hors d’oeuvre. There was also a small band playing classical music quietly in the corner who looked just as excited as him to be there.
“At least look like you’re enjoying yourself, Harrison.” James slapped him on the back.
“I would be if it had been outside. More room., he admitted to his ex-brother-in-law.
“I didn’t think that Veronica would be rubbing your face in the kids.” James’s eyes traveled to his dark-haired sister, who was dragging a blond boy of around two around and carrying a little replica in her arms. Both were in navy pants, white shirts, and little red ties. Adorable, if you were into that sort of thing.
“Didn’t take her and Steven long to pop out a few, did it?” Harrison finished his drink and looked at her also, the woman he had thought he would spend the rest of his life with. From the beginning when they feared an unexpected pregnancy that years later, they would spend large amounts of money to have … and fail at.
What he had told Sera this week had been a very condensed version of the story of his marriage. Even today, he knew that they would still be married if they had been able to have kids together. The garbage he had learned about her in the divorce would have never come out, and they would just be an old married couple now. No cheating, no huge blow-up fights over things they couldn’t control. Just them still in love with one another.
But lately, the certainty of not having kids was starting to wane. The woman she had become as they divorced might have been the real woman the entire time, a woman he didn’t like at all. But he had been unable to see it since she’d always been out of his reach until she looked his way one day.
It had been early fall of his sophomore year, and he had been introduced to her at a party. At the time, he had been pissed at his buddy for stealing his girl, a girl he had dated for a week. Today, he couldn’t remember her name, or nearly anyone else he had slept with in college before Veronica.
But once his eyes had landed on Veronica, he was a goner. For her, he was a nobody she used to piss off her parents, which worked. Until a year later, when her father had almost died of a heart attack, and he had seen how short life was and wanted to make her his forever. Yes, they were young and had nothing, but they eloped, and her parents had to accept it.
Veronica also had to accept that he wasn’t from a prominent family and never would be. It took years for her to stop trying to mold him into what she wanted in a husband. Law school had been her idea; it was a good one. Moving in with her parents had not been. He had been miserable in the big house with more space than people. Now he was able to see the house they once shared had been the same after a few years: just a place to show off their wealth, not be a family.
But they had made it through the hard times, and it had made them stronger, closer. When the harder times hit, he was unprepared for those. In the end, she had wanted something he couldn’t give her, so she had left him.
Now he saw her in a different light, a dimmer light. He didn’t like her, and he wondered if who he was today was just as bad as who she had been. Some days, he was sure he was.
“Nope, but you know how determined she can be. Have you met anyone yet?” James asked, his eyes moving across the room, away from Veronica and her perfect family.
Harrison had always liked Veronica’s brother. He’d taken his side in the divorce, which had caused a rift in their brother-sister relationship for a time. Now they were back as close as they had been, but Harrison was still friends with James. Just not as close as they once had been.
“No, no one special.” He looked around the room to avoid looking at James. The mess at work was on his mind.
His mind was playing tricks on him as they homed-in on a blonde in a jaunty ponytail carrying a tray of something around the room. She looked exactly like Sera Lovely; even her walk was the same. He followed her with his eyes as she walked and offered tiny pieces of food with a smile—Sera’s smile.
“Maybe soon,” James said, but Harrison couldn’t take his eyes from the woman as she slipped through the kitchen door with ease. Once out of sight, he could concentrate again.
“Yeah, hopefully.” Harrison had no idea what he was talking about anymore. “I have to go talk to someone.”
Leaving James, one of his only friends there, he headed to the kitchen. What was the director of HR doing as a caterer? He knew she made enough money not to need a second job. Maybe she had a twin? At this point, he hoped that her twin was a little less bitchy because she was just as sexy as the original.
Glancing around the room at the other waiters, he saw a redhead with a smile. Could she be the same redhead from the night at the bar? He hadn’t really been looking at her that night since her back was to him, but the hair seemed the same. There was also a black-haired woman with no smile at all.
At this point, he didn’t know what he was going to say if it was her. It wasn’t any of his business what she did when she wasn’t working. But she had been on his mind for days, and it was more than her working on this office mess. Over the past week, he had realized that she was interesting to talk to.
“Harrison, I didn’t know you were here,” his ex lied as she blocked his path to the kitchen. It would have seemed casual if he didn’t know her so well. Too well.
Her raven hair was in the same straight bob it had been in for years. Sleek and shiny, but severe. It accented the sharp lines of her thin face.
“I’ve been here the entire time.” His eyes still on the kitchen door, Sera was still in there.
“I must have been too busy to notice you. I have the kids, you know. They take up so much time.” She laughed as she rubbed it in his face.
“I saw that.” He pulled his eyes from the kitchen door finally and looked down into her cool green eyes, the ones he once loved to stare into.
“I don’t know if you know about our second, Jayden. He’s three months now. And Kayden is two, almost three,” the woman said.
