AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dad, what the fuck?” Jazz exclaims. “You’re supposedly really into this guy, and yet you’re not even going to fight for him? You’re just going to let him think you’re an asshole cheater?”
“It’s not that simple,” I say with a sigh. “Deacon…he’s…good. He’s a really nice guy. He’s not going to want to be with me while I’m married, no matter what the circumstances. I should have been upfront with him from the start. Now I’ve turned him into a cheater, and I don’t think he’ll be able to forgive that.”
Jazz snorts. “Sounds like a fucking snoozefest if you ask me. Is he at least hot?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not answering that.”
“A non-answer always means yes, Dad. Everyone knows this.”
I give an exasperated shake of my head. “I’m sorry you came all the way back here to deal with this. But I really don’t think there’s anything to be done about it.”
Jazz looks at me for a long moment, and I can see the thoughts turning over in his eyes. Finally, he gives a decisive nod. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
CHAPTER25
DEACON
“He’s married,” I groan, just barely preventing myself from banging my head down on the table at the booth we’re seated at. “How could I not have known he was married?”
“Because he didn’t tell you?” Jackson suggests, one eyebrow raised.
I grunt. How could he not have told me, though? That’s the real question. “I just don’t get it. We talked about stuff. He told me bout all his anxiety issues, and about how his wide died.”
“He made up a dead wife?” Skyler asks, brows raised.
I shake my head. “No. No, I’m sure all that was true. The woman he’s with now must be his second wife.”
Skyler’s expression turns thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe there’s an explanation for everything?”
“Like what?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. But you’ve never met the wife, right? So maybe she’s really not in the picture anymore.”
“Except that he told me she was when I confronted him about it. I asked him flat out if he was divorcing her and he said no.”
Skyler winces. “Okay, yeah, that looks bad.”
“Hate to point out the obvious, here, but you guys did only ever meet up at his penthouse. It was a little other womany…or other man, I guess.”
Now I actually do bury my head against the table. I feel like such a dumbass. No wonder Tanner never wanted to try for anything more. He already has everything he needs at home.
But then, if that were true, why would he be out at bars looking for guys in the first place? And why would he be hooking up with me almost every night for weeks? I don’t know who to feel more sorry for, myself or his wife.
“For what it’s worth, I think Sullivan was way off in suggesting Tanner was only interested in you to get to him,” Skyler says, sounding more irritated now than he was just before when talking about Tanner’s marriage. “And he needs an ass-kicking for even thinking that would be the only reason a guy like Tanner would go after you.”
“He’s just being protective of me,” I mumble. “And you can’t kick Sully’s ass, because then Drew will kick yours.”
“Then I’ll kick Drew’s,” Jackson says, smashing his fist into his other palm as though relishing the thought of kicking the ass of his buddy and business partner.
“Then Sully will kick yours,” I point out, lifting my head from the table.
“Then I’ll kick Sully’s again,” Skyler says with a far-too-eager grin. “A never ending ass-kicking circle.”
“Or you could just not kick my brother’s ass in the first place,” I say dryly. “It’s not like he just pulled that theory out of thin air to hurt me. He had no idea I even knew Tanner, while Tanner knew all about Sullivan and never mentioned anything about knowing him.”
Skyler shrugs. “If you ask me, I’m pretty sure he just didn’t want to get you in the middle of whatever this whole thing they have is. Those two really don’t like each other.”
I eye my best friend curiously. “How do you even know about all that, anyway?”
