That jerk tormented me the whole night and to have the nerve to act as if—
“We’re going to have a sleepover this entire week, kid,” I tell Ethan. “I’ll pull a mattress into your room.”
His eyes light up in excitement just as Grayson storms out from the kitchen, waving his fork.
“Now hold on a minute. I just—”
“Get out, Grayson.”
He opens his mouth and then retreats, sulking. “I was just asking. Don’t know why you’re so mad at me. I was drunk.”
If Ethan wasn’t here, I’d take off my shoe and throw it at his head.
The front door opens, and Linda walks into the dining room with a bottle. “Grayson, I found this outside. Did you finish all this in one go? You know this is really potent.”
Her eyes meet mine, and she immediately hides the bottle behind her. “Where’s Grayson?”
“In the kitchen.”
Grayson just sighs heavily from the other room, and I pretend not to hear.
“Daddy’s being punished for being naughty,” Ethan announces gleefully.
Linda just shakes her head, and as she walks past me, I hear her laugh quietly. “I’m sure he was.”
She heads straight to the kitchen before I can ask her what she means.
I hear her speaking to Grayson in the kitchen, but no matter how much I strain my ears, I can’t hear what they’re saying. Ethan realizes what I’m trying to do and kicks his legs under the table as he says, “She’s asking him why he’s in the doghouse. What’s a doghouse, Miranda?”
I tuck my tongue in my cheek. “It’s a figure of speech. Don’t worry about it.”
Ethan shrugs and then tilts his head toward the kitchen and whispers, “Now Daddy is saying you get mad all the time for no reason—”
“What?” I slam my fork down, and the people in the other room go silent. “He said what?”
After a moment, Grayson’s voice floats over. “Ethan, come here.”
Ethan makes a face. “Uh-oh. I’m in trouble.”
He slides off his seat, and I frown. “What’s wrong?”
Ethan gives me a guilty look. “I’m not supposed to eavesdrop.”
As I watch him shuffle into the kitchen with a meek “Yes, Daddy,” it occurs to me that he was able to overhear the conversation from another room while I could barely make anything out. My heart races, and I recall what Grayson asked that day on the patio.
Does that change anything?
Whatever Grayson is, whatever Ethan is, it doesn’t change the fact that they are both so important to me. I should no longer be surprised by these small revelations. Have I wondered? Many times. But whatever the truth is, if it was something he could tell me, he would have. I’m not the kind to go digging for secrets.
But then what does this mean? Was his ex-wife like them as well? What about me and him? Is that even possible?
I look down at my cold eggs and feel a stab of pain.
Last night, Grayson looked so vulnerable, so lost, that I wanted to hide him in my arms. I always thought he was throwing money at me because he thought that’s what I wanted. But it turns out he thinks it’s the only way to keep someone by his side. And that broke my heart. For someone so confident and cocky, for him to think that nobody could want him for anything aside from his money…
I don’t know when I started falling for him. I can’t name a place or a time, but I know that when he asked me to leave him and Ethan, my heart broke. I’ve never had anyone protect me the way he does, not to mention piss me off the way he can. He makes me want to strangle him and kiss him in the same breath.
That’s why this fake engagement was so easy, why I didn’t resist as much as I would have months ago. Even if it was only for a short time, I wanted to live out this dream. And then for him to ask me not to leave in that drunken stupor, asking me what I wanted in exchange, it made me want to weep.
