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“It’s just the first installment.”
“Thanks.”
There was a silent pause.
“You have a good time last night?” Matt asked.
“Sure,” TJ answered easily, focusing hard on the festival events and not what had happened in his driveway afterward. “You?”
“It was great. Tasha said it was the highest attendance ever.”
“Good to hear. The kids had a great time.”
Matt smiled. “Heidi is adorable.”
TJ returned the smile. “She is that.”
It was amazing how quickly he’d grown to love Heidi. Not to mention Eli. TJ’s son was smart and reliable, energetic and growing stronger by the day. TJ’s pride in him grew by leaps and bounds.
“Did a lot of dancing,” Matt ventured.
TJ’s radar went up. “Everyone did.”
“Not everyone danced with Sage.”
“Not everyone is married to Sage.” As he said the words, TJ’s mind moved involuntarily to her offer.
She was his wife. And she’d offered a physical relationship. And he’d turned her down. He had done the right thing, hadn’t he?
“How’s that going?” Matt asked. “The being married thing.”
TJ stared at his friend. “Are you getting at something?”
“I’m curious. I know what you did. I get why you did it. And, honestly, I admire you for it. But I saw how you looked at her last night.”
“I didn’t look at her last night.” As the words came out, TJ realized how ridiculous he sounded. “You know what I mean.”
“You did.”
“We were dancing. So yes, I looked at her.”
“You’re attracted to her.”
“You’re out of line.”
“I’m just saying…”
TJ came to his feet. “What are you just saying?”
Matt stood too. “I guess I’m saying give it a chance. I saw you smile last night. You looked happy, happier than I’ve seen you…since…”
“I’m not happy.” TJ wasn’t happy this particular moment.
Matt was suggesting TJ had moved on from Lauren. That was wrong. Sage might be an incredible woman, and Eli and Heidi might be great kids, and TJ was determined to do right by all three of them. But they weren’t Lauren’s replacement. TJ wasn’t moving on to a fairy-tale ending without her. What kind of a man would do that?
Matt held up his hands in surrender. “Okay. But if you ever want to talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yeah, right.” Matt’s sarcastic edge obviously came from knowing TJ for years and years.
“She’s sexy, okay?” TJ blurted out.
“No kidding.”
TJ shot him a glare.
“From an objective point of view,” Matt said. “Hey, I’m married. And Tasha’s sexier than any woman in the world.”
TJ disagreed with that. “She’s…” He struggled to put his perception into words. “Her smile, and the way she moves. When she laughs, and you should see her playing with the kids.”
A memory of a game of Frisbee came into his mind, Sage leaping in the air and sprinting across the grass, barefoot, laughing, her toned, tanned legs in the bright sunshine.
“It would be strange if you weren’t attracted to her,” Matt said.
“I can’t do anything about it.”
“I get that.” Matt sat back down. “The two of you have an agreement.”
They’d had an agreement. And it was a smart agreement, a marriage of convenience, each living their own lives, sharing responsibility for Eli while staying out of each other’s way.
That was, until last night, until Sage tried to change the terms, until TJ realized how very badly he wanted to change the terms as well.
“TJ?” Matt prompted.
“What?”
“You zoned out.”
“I’m… It’s… Crap.”
“What?”
TJ dropped into his chair. “She offered. Last night, she said we should have sex with each other.”
Matt’s eyes widened.
“And not just last night. It wasn’t a heat of the moment kind of thing. She very reasonably and rationally made a case for us sleeping together on an ongoing basis.”
Matt remained silent.
Now that TJ was rolling, he found he didn’t want to stop. “She said we both needed a sex life. She said she didn’t want to have an affair. You have to admire that. I admire that. But she said the only solution was for us to sleep together, with each other.”
TJ closed and straightened the Mumbai agreement, tapping the edge sharply against the desk. “Like some kind of friends with benefits arrangement. But we’re not friends with benefits. We’re married to each other. And for Eli’s sake, we have to stay together. If we let it get complicated, somebody’s going to get hurt.”
