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Dane watched as Lucy hugged their son.
Ryan wasn’t so bad to live with, but Dane did insist he spent the weekends with Lucy and Lewis.
He nodded at the man who’d fallen in love with Lucy. Dane had wanted to hate him. Had nearly caused Lucy a whole heap of trouble when he got back to Greater Falls.
The start of his return hadn’t gone well. He came back with a plan, a course of recompense, but the pain of knowing all that he lost had been too much.
Each day, he had to see everything he’d given up. All that he had lost. Dane knew he’d never been a good person.
Until it happened, he’d been a selfish, manipulative asshole. He had only seen what he wanted. Not cared what others had thought.
“Hey,” Lucy said.
“Hey,” he said, offering her a smile.
The person he’d hurt the most in the world was this woman right here. He shouldn’t have married her.
Lucy deserved a good man. Back then, he’d known she was a ray of sunshine. The kind of woman men took care of. She was a good, strong woman, and had proven it time and time again. He’d nearly broken this woman. There was a time he had her, but he had well and truly lost her. He saw the way she was with Lewis. It was the same way she’d been with him in the beginning.
“How is Ryan?” Lucy asked.
“He’s a good kid. Got a deadbeat for a dad. Hopefully, I can show him the error of that asshole’s ways,” Dane said.
Lucy chuckled. “You’re not a deadbeat, Dane.”
“You and I both know I have no right to call our children mine.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “He treating you right?”
“Yes. He’s a good man, Dane.”
He hated that Lewis was everything he wasn’t. Lewis had fallen in love with a woman who had not one, but three kids with a man. Dane couldn’t have done that.
“Good. If he … you know, if you’re ever in trouble. Call me.”
Lucy sighed. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
“You seem different.”
He laughed. “Is that because I’m not at the clubhouse using the women for my own pleasure? Hurting you as I go? Being a complete waste of space?”
Lucy sighed. “Stop it.”
“I can’t.”
“Dane, you can’t change what happened.”
“Why don’t you want me to suffer?” he asked. “Why don’t you want me to be hurting? Most women would be. Let’s face it, Lucy, I wasn’t a good guy. I was an awful husband. I married you and not once was I…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Faithful?”
He nodded.
“You know, I would lie in bed awake at night, knowing you were with another woman. I promised myself this would be the last night. I’d wake up, and you’d be home, and you would bring flowers or something for the kids.” She sighed. “I knew you were a bastard, Dane, but when it mattered, you loved your kids. Deep down, I know you loved me and I also knew you hated doing what you were doing. It was the craziest of things.”
“I lost you.”
“Dane, did you ever truly have me? Our marriage was … a disaster. The only good thing to come of it was our kids.” She tucked some hair behind her ear and glanced back at Lewis, who was waiting for her. “I sometimes think people have a way of affecting others. Like it’s destined to happen. You and I, we weren’t meant to be together, but without us, we wouldn’t have our babies.”
That sounded like a whole load of bullshit to Dane, but he didn’t say anything. The truth was he’d fucked up big time. There was no getting away from it.
He loved Lucy with all his fucking heart, but rather than cherish her, he’d been greedy and selfish.
“I love you,” he said. “I’m telling you that because you have a right to know.”
“I love you too, Dane, but I’m not in love with you. I haven’t been for a while. Long before you left.” Lucy smiled.
“I’m not going to fail again.” He had too much to lose. This was the vow he’d made. The one he promised.
“I know. I’ll bring Ryan back Sunday.”
“He’s a good kid. I’m fixing him.”
“I don’t think he needed fixing, Dane. I think he just needed his daddy.”
Chapter Eight
Sunlight streamed through the break in the curtain, but Damon had no interest in the morning light. Not when he had the most beautiful, sexiest woman in his bed.
Teri lay on her stomach. One arm beneath her head, the other flat on the bed, one leg kicked out to the side with the other straight down.
The blanket had ridden down in the middle of the night, exposing her back and the soft curve of her breast.
Damon laid his hand flat on her back before tracing a path across her breast. She released a moan, and he watched as she opened her eyes.
