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Vivi was supposed to sleep in one of the spare bedrooms. I set it up for her and everything. But she got that wide-eyed look, all wobbly bottom lip, and said that she wanted to sleep with us. As soon as the words left her mouth, Avery scooped her up in his arms and deposited her right here.
It’s new for her, he justified.
What he really meant is that he’s a giant pushover. I mean, the girl’s got far better adaptability skills than anyone I know, including me. For example, the time I moved an hour away from home and my first bright idea was to get drunk and sleep with my best friend’s brother.
Me? Not adaptable in any way. Vivi? Made two total strangers her new grandparents in a matter of minutes. Avery’s just got a soft spot for her. It’s sweet, and I can’t blame him.
“Just trying to wrap my head around how much my life has changed so quickly,” he whispers, climbing under the covers. He tucks them carefully around Vivi and strokes her pink cheek with his knuckle.
At the apprehension that tenses my body and creeps into my face, tipping my mouth, he reaches across Vivi and cups my cheek. “Hey. It’s not a bad thing. Not at all. I love my life right now. Wouldn’t trade it for a damn thing.”
“Even the cat?”
He chuckles, tugging me up so I can meet him in the middle for a kiss. “Even the damn cat.”
We settle into the darkness together, the sliver of moonlight that slips through the shades casting a soft glow over Avery and Vivi. Happiness radiates through every fiber of my being. I know it hasn’t been long, and I know it wasn’t long ago that I was swearing off men altogether, re-evaluating my life after what felt like the biggest betrayal. And so I’m kinda not sure how I got here but—okay, wait. That’s a lie. I know how I got here. I got here because of a very persistent, pushy, arrogant man who refused to take no for an answer.
“What are you thinking about over there?” Avery’s quiet voice carries over the mattress, his fingers finding mine on Vivi’s back. “I can hear the wheels turning.”
“Aaron never did this.” The admission slips past my lips before I can stop it. I don’t mean to talk about him in front of Avery, but I can’t help comparing the two. They’re so drastically different, and since Avery walked into my life, I’ve realized how much I was missing all those years, how our relationship had emptied me of everything I had left.
Avery, though. Avery breathes the life back into me, making it better than it was before. Everything is new and fresh, and I finally feel like I can bloom into the person I was always meant to be.
“Every time Vivi slept over, he disappeared for the weekend. Stayed over with his friends.” Or his other girlfriends, for all I know. “He barely spoke to her, hated that he couldn’t understand what she was saying. He made her cry once.” I’d never thought he was mean until then. I’d just thought he was uncomfortable around babies. I even convinced myself things would be different when it was our own baby. Thank God I never had to find out. But when he made Vivi cry because he couldn’t understand her words, that was the last straw. It was only a couple months ago, and I never brought her around him again. I refused to put her through that.
“You love her so much,” I whisper as a single tear tracks a path down the side of my face, rolling into my pillow.
Avery’s fingers squeeze mine. “I do. And I love you so much, too. I’d do anything for you two.” He brings my hand to his mouth, soft lips dusting across my knuckles. “My strawberry girls.”
A laugh mixes with a cry and I sniffle, trying to get a hold of myself. I’m so lucky to be where I am now, surrounded only by people who love and support me.
“Can I ask you something, Claire? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, if you’re not ready.”
I know where this is going without him saying the words. Quite frankly, I’m surprised we haven’t had this talk already. That Aaron cheated on me was one of the first things Avery learned about me.
“You want to know how I found out?”
His answer is a heavy sigh as his fingers trace up and down the length of mine.
I think back to that weekend, the one that would ultimately change my life for the better, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I was emotionally devastated for all of two hours, before my sadness flipped to rage. That rage emerged the second Aaron strolled through my door, whistling like he didn’t have a care in the world. Until he saw Dex sitting with me on my couch, holding me.
“He said he was spending the weekend at his friend’s cottage, helping him get it set up for the season. He didn’t even leave the city. How careless is that? I didn’t have Vivi that weekend. I could have gone out with Charlee, might have run into him anywhere. But I guess he decided it was worth the risk. Or maybe he just didn’t give a damn anymore.”
Avery shifts closer, wrapping one long arm around me and Vivi, holding us tight, like he’s trying to protect us. He’s quiet, just listening patiently while I find my words, tell my story.
Just another thing Avery gives me that Aaron didn’t. Listening, patience.
Why do we choose to ignore these things for so long? If I could go back in time and smack myself upside the head, I would.
“Dex went out to a club with some friends. Um, Rebel, I think?” I choke out a bitter chuckle, the irony of the name not lost on me. “Dex spotted him at dinner with a blonde who was obviously not me. Couple hours later, found them on the dancefloor, making out. And then again out back with his, um…hand…inside her—”
“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Another kiss to my knuckles. “You don’t have to say.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. I’m glad it’s over, but it still hurts to think about it, how intimate they were in public, for anybody to see. And in the city where we lived together.
“He didn’t notice Dex, I guess. Dex came by first thing in the morning. He didn’t want Aaron to come home and…he didn’t want me and Aaron to have…sex…before I knew.” God, what if we had? He always came home extra ravenous after a night or two away. Thinking about that now makes me my stomach roil. How many times did Aaron come home and fuck me after being inside somebody else all weekend long?
A tiny sob squeaks past my lips as I remember how worthless I felt, how embarrassed I was that Dex had witnessed it all, that he had to come over and be the one to break my heart.
