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“Wolfe, what the hell?” she said.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“Get out,” she said.
“I will get out when I know you’re all right.” He heard her sniffling and knew without seeing her face, she’d been crying.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“I imagine you never want to talk to me. It’s fine. I can deal with that, truly, I can.” He held her close. “But I don’t want to go to bed knowing you’re in here crying. I’m a bastard, but not like that.”
“Wolfe, please, go back to the city and give me a divorce.”
“No.”
“Why are you making this so difficult?” she asked. “You got what you wanted, and now you won’t let me have any peace.”
“Ryan is not the man for you.”
“This isn’t about him. You need to stop thinking all of this is about him. This is about me and what I want. You can have your affairs with the women. None of them stay long enough after, and I’m sure you’ve got all the money in the world to buy their silence. I don’t care. Not anymore. I can’t even think of having a life while I still have your wedding ring.”
“You still haven’t put it on your finger.” He noticed she had defied his request. Nothing he could do about it, even as it did piss him off.
Rachel was a sexy woman. Her curves drew the gaze, and he had to watch a couple of dads today who happened to take a second glance. Not to mention how fucking happy Ryan looked walking beside her. He’d stolen the show though. Not that it was hard. Science was cool; he loved his son, and well, he happened to enjoy spending the day away from work to have some family time.
Today, for him, none of it was an act.
Everything Rachel had gotten today was real. Not that she’d believe him, not yet anyway, but he wasn’t giving up.
“Seriously, it bugs you that I’m not wearing it?” she asked.
“A lot of things are bugging me, but I’m the kind of guy who deals with one problem at a time. For now, the ring is a problem. I want you to wear it.”
“What does it matter?”
“I took three days to pick it out.”
“Please, I bet you got your assistant, Denise, to pick it out.”
He chuckled. “No need to sound jealous of Denise. She is a happily married woman with three grandchildren. I’m not going to tear up a happy family. I picked out the ring. I didn’t trust anyone else with the task of giving my future wife a piece of jewelry which would help cement her as mine for the rest of our lives,” he said.
“Oh. I had no idea. I always assumed you got someone else to buy it.”
“You can assume all you want, it doesn’t change the fact it’s not true. I picked it out for you.”
****
After Wolfe’s confession about the ring being the one he picked, Rachel found it next to impossible to sleep that night. What also didn’t help, she wouldn’t even get a reprieve the next day with work. Not only did she have the weekend off, as she shared rotational work with several women, but also, Benjamin had a sleepover for from Saturday into Sunday. It had been organized for a month. She liked to make sure she was ready before letting her son go off to someone else’s house. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust anyone. It was merely … she missed her son so much.
She did allow sleepovers though, and she loved to hear about the adventures he would tell her about. Her son had a wild imagination, and she often wondered if he’d become an author someday. It would be so amazing if he did. Not that she’d ever push him into a career she saw for him. No, just guide him to what he loved.
There was no doubt about it, she was turning into a crazy mom.
“You have all your clothes packed?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Your toothbrush. Soap. All of it.”
“Mom, we’re not going out into the woods. We’re going to Blake’s house. He has a pool.”
“Did you pack your swimming shorts?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Don’t worry, Rachel. We’ll take good care of him, and we have soap,” Lindsey, the mom who would be taking care of him, said.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to be insulting.”
“We have this every single time. First time I was a little insulted, but now, I just see you’re a first-time mom.”
“Yeah, you’d think I’d be able to control my nerves. Each time I arrange these, I promise myself I’ll get better. I really do, and then I’m here, in the moment and bluh, my mouth just wouldn’t shut up.”
Lindsey laughed. “So, erm, rumor has it Benjamin’s father has returned.”
Now she didn’t know what to say.
