Page 52 of The Perfect Distraction

Chapter Fifteen

“Did I wake you?”

“No. I was reading.”

“Hopefully, you won’t be too mad at me, then.”

She sat up in bed and gathered the covers over her chest. “I’m not mad at you, Colton.” And that went for what had happened earlier too, although she held back, waiting to see what he would say.

“You’re probably wondering why I called.”

“I’m a little curious.”

“I felt bad about how I reacted when you asked me about Gretchen. I’m sorry for shutting you down like that.”

Picking at a loose thread on the blanket, she said, “You don’t owe me any explanations.”

“I know, but you were just being…”

“Nosy?”

“I was going to say supportive.”

“I understand why you reacted the way you did because I’m guilty of it myself. At first, it was difficult for me to talk about Christopher, and I only confided in the people closest to me. I was just offering to lend an ear if you needed it.”

He sighed, and she detected rustling sounds that might have been him getting into bed. Of course, that conjured up a vivid image of him perched on the edge of his bed naked while she’d touched him. Feeling overly warm, she shoved off the blankets and fanned herself.

“When we first got divorced, I kept the details to myself, mostly for Joey’s sake. I never wanted him to hear me badmouthing his mom.”

“Makes sense.”

“But a psychologist would probably tell me that I didn’t take the time to process what happened. I just shoved it down so I could function, you know?”

“I know perfectly well.” She’d had to put on a brave face in front of her co-workers and students even though she was grieving the end of a long-term relationship.

“I told you that Gretchen left me for another man.”

“Yes,” she said softly, hating to hear the pain in his voice.

“Well, what I didn’t tell you is that I found her in bed with him at our house in the middle of the day.”

Beth squeezed her eyes shut and clenched the phone in her hand. She could only imagine what that must have been like for him. Even though Christopher was currently dating someone, their break-up would have been infinitely harder if she’d found him with another woman. There was no greater betrayal, and her heart wept on Colton’s behalf.

“It was a weekday, but I left an important phone number on my desk at home, so I went there at lunchtime to retrieve it. There weren’t any cars in the driveway, so I had no clue that she was home until I walked in and heard noises from upstairs. At first, I thought we were being robbed, but then I heard a man’s voice and Gretchen laughing. Turns out she parked in the garage, and since I assumed she’d be at work, I was none the wiser.”

“Oh God, Colton.”

“Even though I knew, I had to see for myself. Crazy, right?”

But he didn’t wait for her answer. Now that he’d started talking, it seemed like he was in a hurry to get it all out.

“So, I quietly climbed the stairs and went down the hall. Of course, she hadn’t bothered to close the bedroom door because she wasn’t expecting anyone. Joey was at school, and I was supposed to be at the shop. What did she have to be worried about, right?”

The fingernails on her free hand dug into her palm as he relayed the story, and it was like she was right there with him. Even though she knew how the story ended, she waited for him to finish.

“I stood in the bedroom doorway for a few seconds. I just froze. There was my wife, the mother of my son, in our bed in the arms of another man. Do you have any idea what that felt like? Even knowing what I was going to find, I wasn’t prepared to witness it. Everything I believed about our marriage and the life we’d built disintegrated right then and there. How could I have been so blind?”

“Colton.”