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“She forgot hers at home and found yours tucked into the back of the guest room closet. As you and I agreed, she still sleeps in the spare room when the kids are there. She didn’t want to come downstairs in the morning, looking inappropriate.”
“I heard Maisie is moving in with you. Doubt she’s gonna stay sleeping in the guest room.”
His face pales slightly, and he scrunches his eyes. “I was going to tell you when I dropped the kids off on Sunday.”
“I should have been the first person to know.”
The rest of the thirty-minute drive to Newbury is in silence. We pass the woods that surround the town on two sides, a place we used to go for hikes in as a young family.
He pulls over in front of the neighbor’s house. It’s an old habit from our teenage dating years, when he’d have to let me out at the house two doors down from my parents’ so they didn’t hear the car door close in the middle of the night and wake up.
When the car is parked, he turns to me with a hand stretched out on the back of my seat. I remember when he used to park here and put his arm on my seat this way. It was a different time, when we had different feelings for each other.
“It’s been two years—”
I hold my hand up to stop him. “No, Tyler. Don’t wax poetic about what we were and what we are now. Believe it or not, what happened tonight had nothing to do with unrequited feelings I have for you. Because there are none. I just had too much wine and a really bad idea, which led to me being handcuffed and arrested for the first time in my life, having my mug shot taken, sitting in a cell for far longer than I ever planned on, and being questioned by an impossibly handsome police officer.”
Tyler raises a brow at that last comment. “Handsome?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, wasn’t planning on saying that out loud. It just came out.”
He lets out an incorrigible laugh. “You’ll never change.”
Now, it’s my turn to raise a brow at him. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Both. Definitely both.” He unlocks the car door. “You owe Maisie a thank-you for tonight.”
“Yeah, well, she owes me an apology for stealing my husband, so let’s call it even.”
He shakes his head with a sigh. “Good night, Lyss.”
“Night, Ty.”
I slam the door and start walking down the quiet suburban street I grew up on, trying to figure out how my ladies’ night with Tara went haywire. While I should be condemning myself for the wicked behavior, I can’t help but replay a certain grin in my head. A brooding smile with a smolder that could torch a small city. I could go for a little fire lighting. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the heat of a man’s touch.
Little did I know one night of bad decisions would awaken something inside of me.
A man is the last thing I need in my life and the furthest thing from what I’ll allow. Still, it’s nice to know I’m not entirely dead inside. Just the thought of Officer Bronson gives me a small shiver. A quake. A very nice feminine quake.
“Maybe Iamstill drunk,” I say to myself.
Yes, nice smiles on handsome men are fun to think about. I’m an adult woman—and a feral one at that. That is, until I stand on the front path of my childhood home and see the bedroom light of my father’s room on, and suddenly, I feel like a sullen teenager, about to get in trouble for sneaking into the house late at night.
Divorce sucks.
So does growing up, even when you’re a divorced mother of two.
two
“I THOUGHT MY DAYSof seeing Tyler Landish drive you home were long over,” Dad comments with eyes on theValor County Gazetteas he sits at the kitchen table, drinking his coffee.
He’s sipping from the mug that reads,Smells like freshly signed divorce papers.It was a gift from Tara when I was declared legally single by the state this summer.
I walk over to the coffeepot on the counter and fill a tall Yeti thermos. With only five hours of sleep last night,I need the caffeine.
“And I thought your days of spying out the window were long over.” I give him a kiss on his head and watch his eyes lift over the top of his reading glasses.
“Does this mean a reconciliation is in the works?” he asks as I take a seat at the table.
