My old pal was clearly trying to go at this delicately, which to be fair, was not in his wheelhouse. “But you and Thadly? This is the real deal?”
Was it so unlikely? “Of course! But there’s a tiny problem that has to be resolved before I can marry him.”
“How tiny?”
I had to tell someone, anyone. Even if I kept the details to myself, this news was bursting to find voice.
“I need to divorce my first husband.”
Jason looked like I’d walloped him over the head with the large, shiny trophy taking center stage in his backyard.
“Did you say … you mean you’re …”
I hissed at him, “Keep it down, dummy.”
“Married?” he shout-whispered. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Drank a little vodka, sang a little Elvis, got a little married.”
“A little married?” He looked around, as if he expected to find my co-conspirator-in-nuptials in the vicinity. “How did this happen, Lo?”
How could I explain that I had let Russian charm, a killer smile, and Arctic blue eyes sway me from the straight and narrow? Jason didn’t know my history with Nazarov, or at least not the signposted version. I couldn’t tell him the who, but I could share the what.
“I was meeting a client in Vegas?—”
“It’s someone you represent?”
“No. But I met someone else, had a fun night, and didn’t even realize what happened until recently when he showed up with the proof.”
Jason’s eyes flashed. “Is this guy threatening you in some way?”
Define “threatening.”
“No, it’s just neither of us realized what we had done until several months later and now we need to get it annulled. It’s merely a formality but …” I cast a glance toward Thad.
“You don’t want to tell the Thadster?”
“No, but I will. Soon. Though it happened before I met him. In fact, waking up that morning and realizing I’d gone a little crazy with … a stranger … was the kick in the keister I needed to get my life together. And that was before I realized just how crazy it all was.”
“What do you need from me?”
Thank God for Jason. I loved that he was now living in Chicago so I could share my troubles—or a sanitized version of them—with him in person.
“Nothing. I just wanted to tell someone, and you’re my someone.”
A little voice in my head chided, not Thad, then?
Jason squeezed my arm. “Pretty wild, I have to say. Doesn’t sound like you, to be honest. You’re so …”
“Common-sensical?”
“I was going to say ‘cautious.’ You’re naturally suspicious of guys, which can be healthy but also limiting.” Jason was the one person apart from Sadie and Gunnar who understood how my relationship with my father had left me distrustful of men. Having an ex-con in the family had solidified the mortar in the brick wall around my heart. “Getting drunk-married to a stranger isn’t really tracking with the Lo I know.”
Because he’s not a stranger.
But I couldn’t say that. I planned to deal with this mess myself, and the last thing I needed was Jason getting involved because he and the groom were friends. I probably shouldn’t have told him but part of me wanted the world to know that I wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud after all. I could do wild and crazy like the rest of them. So I wouldn’t be asking for a sperm donation like Franky or escaping my wedding out of a church bathroom window like Summer, though I sincerely wished I had made a getaway before this entire mess engulfed me.
“Look, I screwed up and?—”
