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Jayden had been Vic’s best friend for as long as either of them could remember. Hell, probably since birth. The second-born of the Lattimores, Jayden was wealthy, handsome and Vic’s age. Once Vic had been single again, and it’d been clear that Aubrey wasn’t changing her mind and coming back to him, Jayden had been there for him. He’d acted as Vic’s wingman whenever they’d gone out, and vice versa.
Jayden didn’t take life too seriously, which, at the time, had been exactly what Vic had prioritized. Considering a future with anyone other than Aubrey had been too painful—it still was. But what Jayden did and had always taken seriously was his family’s ranch.
“Alexa is checking in with the PI again,” Jayden said, circling back to the topic they always seemed to be talking about lately. The fate of the ranches was still up in the air, and it’d been impossible not to bring it up whenever they were hanging out. Alexa was Jayden’s younger sister, and also the family attorney. She had been in direct contact with private investigator Jonas Shaw, who was looking into the issues on the ranch. “Whenever she finds out more, I’ll send her over to update you and your family. We’re in this together.”
“Appreciate it.” Vic tipped his can of beer to his lips.
“Hey, what are better-looking best friends for?” Jayden grinned. The asshole. “Now are you going to tell me why you’re messing with Aubrey Collins, or are we going to pretend that isn’t going on?”
“I’m not messing with her.” Vic heard the defense in his own voice.
“Okay. So you’re not sleeping with your ex-girlfriend, who doesn’t know she’s your ex-girlfriend, thanks to a knock on the head?”
“Don’t tell me I have to convince you that my motives are pure, too.”
“Are they?” Jayden hopped off the fence railing and landed in the grass, then he reclaimed his own beer can that had been resting on the fence post. “What’re your plans with her, anyway?”
Vic hopped down as well, one hand in his pocket as he finished off his beer. Jayden didn’t want to hear this, but he’d asked, so here went nothing. “I’m winning her back.”
His best friend’s dark eyebrows shot up. “And when she remembers she hates you, then what?”
“She’s changed. I’ve changed. Back when we were arguing over graduate school and whether or not she was ready to be a mother, we were kids ourselves. I know I was an arrogant asshole—”
“Was?” Jayden laughed, then held up a hand. “Last one.”
“Yeah, sure.” Vic balanced his empty can on the fence post. “Are you honestly telling me you’re happy bedding women who don’t stick around?”
“Yes.” Jayden didn’t flinch. “Are you sure you’re ready to trade your single status for a woman you haven’t been with for a decade? She has a life you know nothing about, Vic. You don’t know each other. You only know who you used to be. When she remembers she threw the engagement ring at you, she is not going to be happy you have been lying to her this entire time.”
“I’m not lying!” Vic shouted. He couldn’t frame it that way or he’d lose his mind. “Not really. I’m just...not filling in the gaps. Which her doctor asked me to do, by the way.”
“I sincerely doubt her doctor’s orders had anything to do with you taking her to bed, or tricking her into falling in love with you before she remembers why she doesn’t.”
“Dammit, Jayden.” Vic didn’t know what else to say—probably because what his best friend had said sounded true. And worse, it felt true.
“Look, I’m all for you reconciling with Aubrey. She’s great, and she makes you better. You two used to be inseparable. I remember what a miserable jerk you were after she left.”
“Thanks a lot,” Vic grumbled.
“But,”Jayden continued, “this needs to be done under honest pretenses. Tell her the truth. She’s strong. She can handle it. The question is, can you?”
“I can handle it,” Vic said automatically, though he wondered if he could. Telling her the truth might break her heart and simultaneously land him back in the miserable-jerk stage Jayden had described. “I’ve given her nothing but solid reasons why we belong together. She’ll understand my motives.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“I’ll convince her. I’m not going to let her walk away this time without her knowing how I feel about her. Life isn’t going to work out if we try to find someone else to fall in love with. I’ve been out there and tried, and I assume she has, too.”
“She doesn’t remember that, either, I’m guessing. The trying-with-other-people part.”
Vic shook his head. “She thinks we’ve been together nonstop for fourteen years.”
It sounded bad when he said it aloud. Like he was trying to manipulate her into being with him. Except for one thing—
“She loves me.” Vic watched Jayden’s face fall. “She tells me over and over. I want to tell her not to, that she doesn’t have to, but...” He rubbed a spot in the center of his chest, the one that had been aching with longing for weeks now. “It feels good, man. It feels really, really good to hear her say that to me again.”
Jayden palmed Vic’s shoulder in support, his expression broadcasting both sympathy and warning. The man was as close to a brother as Vic had ever had, which was why he would listen to whatever Jayden said next—even if it hurt. By the look on his face, it damn well might.
“It should feel really, really wrong. What you and Aubrey have currently has an expiration date. You love her, you want to marry her and walk into forever together, that’s fine. I’ll be the first in line at the funeral for your single-guy status. But you have to level with her. She deserves not to be the last one to know, Vic. If you love and respect her, tell her. Otherwise this ticking time bomb is going to reach zero and then...” Jayden spread his hands and made an exploding sound.
His best friend had put into words everything Vic knew in his heart to be true. His excuses were good ones, arguably honorable. He’d come back into her life—again—for her. To help her through her healing. With a practically clean bill of health, she’d soon be returning to work. He couldn’t follow her everywhere she went in case someone told her the truth—he couldn’t delay the inevitable. Someone would let slip that Aubrey and Vic hadn’t been together for a decade, and then she’d never forgive him.
It was time she learned the truth about what had happened. Even if it meant he would be fighting harder for her than he’d fought before, he would tell her the real reason why her engagement ring was in his dresser drawer.
He’d proposed years ago. She’d chosen not to marry him in the end.
