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I give him a relieved smile. “Thanks, man. I’ll owe you.”
He waves that away as we start walking. “Nah. I put my drinks on your tab last night.”
When I just nod, he gives me a look through narrowed eyes. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Fine.”
We walk in silence for a full minute before Wyatt speaks again.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” he says. “But I think you’re full of shit.”
This time I do laugh. It’s quick, but it makes Wyatt smile in answer. We reach the coffee shop, and he opens the door, motioning for me to enter ahead of him.
As we join the line to order, he says, “You can tell me if I’m overstepping. I’ll leave you to your misery. But if you need to talk, I’m a good listener.”
I glance over at him. I only met this guy two days ago. I barely know him. I know Luke considers him family, along with the rest of the Kings. It’s why he invited them all to his wedding. Which means they’re probably good people. Luke is an excellent judge of character. He also told me and Linc how the King family welcomed him as one of them as soon as they found out he was Mya’s brother. For a man who grew up with the kind of family Luke did, I know it meant a lot to him to have people who cared about him without any conditions.
I think about Wyatt’s offer as we stand in the slow-moving line. He doesn’t know anything about me or Layna. He’s an impartial party. Maybe that’s just what I need right now. Linc is my brother and I know he has my back, no matter what. But he’s also biased in my favor. He can’t be trusted not to tell me what I want to hear. Maybe I should talk to Wyatt. Get an outsider’s opinion. I don’t have to give Layna’s name. I can keep it vague.
“Yeah,” I say. “Maybe it would be good to talk about it.”
Wyatt flashes me a smile. “Good. So many people avoid talking about their issues. You’d be surprised how much can be resolved by a simple conversation.”
I nod, thinking of how I might have avoided this whole situation with Layna if I’d just told her how I felt months ago. But Linc was right. I was too much of a chicken shit to put myself out there. But I don’t say any of that to Wyatt. Instead, I nod as we step forward to place our coffee orders. When we have our coffee in hand and Wyatt has a cream cheese Danish, we make our way over to a table in the corner. He bites into his pastry and sighs as he chews. I sip my coffee and wait. Finally, he stops chewing and looks at me.
“Okay, go,” he says. “What’s got you looking so rumpled this morning?”
I sigh, trying to think of where to start. Finally, I decide to start at the beginning.
“There’s this girl,” I begin.
“There always is,” he says.
“Right,” I agree. “Well, she and I have been doing a kind of friends-with-benefits thing for a while.”
“Oof,” he winces. “Friends-with-benefits never works out.”
I feel slightly annoyed by the interruption. Especially if he’s just going to interrupt to tell me what I already know. I shoot him a pointed look.
“I thought you were a good listener.”
He grins. “I am. I swear. No more interruptions, I promise. Continue.”
I narrow my eyes at him for a moment, but I’ve come this far. I can’t stop now.
“Well, it’s been going on for a while, like I said. Neither of us wanted anything serious. We both knew that going in. But then she decided she wanted to end it so she could give dating a try.”
I look at Wyatt, expecting him to interrupt again, but he keeps quiet. He does look as if he’s trying to hold back a comment, though. I decide to ignore it and keep talking.
“So, I backed off. Gave her my blessing,” I say. “But the truth is, I’ve always wanted more with her. I just never told her. I figured she’d go on a couple of dates and realize she missed me and that she maybe wanted to give dating me a shot.”
Wyatt’s expression shifts to one of sympathy. “I’m guessing that’s not what happened?”
I shake my head. “She started dating someone. It looked like things were getting serious. I tried to launch a plan to show her she should be with me, but it didn’t work.”
I take a breath as I try to decide how to explain last night and this morning in a tactful way. I finally decide that there’s no way I can explain without Wyatt understanding exactly what happened between me and Layna. So, I just plow ahead.
“But last night she showed up at my hotel room,” I say. “She said she dumped the guy. That he wasn’t right for her. And she was dressed for‘benefits’, if you know what I mean.”
