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He placed his hand over my mouth. “Nope. Don’t even say it. I’m not thinking about it. She’s still my little girl. She’ll always be my little girl.”
We laughed, and Nate released me. But I knew how he felt.
Jasper and Graham were pulled into other conversations, but Nate stayed with me. “So, what’s really going on with Jude?”
“Did he tell you anything?”
Nate shook his head. “No. Just that he needed some time alone. I would’ve told you he was at the cabin if I’d realized…”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know.”
“I take it this is about more than just his breakup with Chrissy,” he said.
I nodded. “Do you swear to keep this between us?”
“Of course.”
I looked around, making sure there was no one nearby. “I slept with someone. Someone who was important to Jude.” Even more so than I’d realized.
Nate arched his brow. “Interesting. I presume you’re not going to tell me who she is.”
“What matters is that I hurt Jude, and now he’s not talking to me.”
“Mm.” Nate sipped his scotch. “Is it serious? With the person you slept with.”
I nodded. “We wouldn’t have planned to tell Jude if it weren’t. But then…” I shook my head. “He found out before we could tell him.”
Nate winced. “Yikes.”
“Yeah. It was—” I smoothed down my beard. “Bad.”
“How bad?”
I stared at the floor briefly. “He told me he never wants to speak to me again.”
Nate winced, and it took me back to that night on the yacht. I kept reliving it over and over. Jude’s expression of hurt and betrayal. The pain that continued to lance my heart.
Jude and I had never gone this long without talking. I’d never hurt or disappointed him so deeply.
I sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I want to fix it, but I don’t know how or if I even can.”
Nate considered it a moment then asked, “Could you stop seeing her?”
The mere suggestion made my chest ache. “No. That’s not an option.”
I loved Kendall, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. But it was destroying my relationship with my son.
“Wow.” Nate’s eyes widened. “Itisserious, then.”
I nodded. “I love her. But it’s more than that. Even if I stopped seeing her, it wouldn’t undo the damage I already caused. I still don’t think Jude would forgive me.”
“Damn.” He rubbed a hand over his chin. “Who the hell is she?”
When I didn’t answer, he decided to try to guess.
“I can’t imagine you getting back together with Tori,” he said.
I shook my head. Tori and I had always been good friends. Friends who had gotten pregnant after one drunken night together in college. I’d proposed because it had felt like the right thing to do at the time. But I hadn’t loved her. Not the bone-deep, earth-shattering way I did Kendall.
