She laughed. “I know. How do you think you were granted full custody? It didn’t help his case any that your brother Hunter was in the delivery room with you while Brian was out of town with She Who Shall Not Be Named.”
At that very moment, Brian walked out of the courthouse, his lawyer trailing behind, and Ellen—my ex-best friend and current girlfriend of my now ex-husband—walking beside him.
Brian and Ellen. It even sounded better than Brian and Willamina. I hated them both, although I didn’t hate that my marriage was over. It sounded bad, but the only reason I married Brian was because I’d stupidly found myself pregnant with his baby.
My marriage to Brian was doomed from the very beginning. The late nights working at the office. The weekend hunting trips with one of the guys. The extended business trips. I had ignored every last sign that things were not right.
I’d longed for someone to want me, and in the beginning, Brian had played the role perfectly. He’d known all the right things to say. He was romantic and knew how to sweep me off my feet.
The girl who had once dreamed of a very different life, with a very different man, was now a divorced, single mother.
Brian had known I still pined over Aiden. Known I had dreamed of another life, and sometimes I felt like it had been a game to him. His only goal was to get me to the altar before Aiden could.
He wasn’t the first guy I’d had sex with. I had waited pretty much all through college—until my senior year—when it started to become clear to me that Aiden wasn’t going to change his mind. And to be honest, I was growing tired of waiting. I knew I would never love a man like I loved Aiden, but one night, I gave in and had a one-night stand. It wasn’t anything like Bree and Ellen said it would be. It hurt like a bitch, and he was done before he even got me off.
Brian came into the picture a few years after I’d graduated college and moved back to Boggy Creek. He worked so hard to get me to go out with him, and, truth be told, it had been nice to have a man want me like that. Especially since the man I truly desired didn’t.
Brian glanced over and our eyes met. He had the nerve to smile and wink at me as he continued to walk down the steps, his hand wrapped in Ellen’s.
She, on the other hand, knew better than to even look my way. In some ways, I was more upset about losing her friendship than I was my marriage.
“I’d like to smack that smug look off of his fucking face,” Bree said, clearly abandoning her role as my lawyer and switching back to friend. “What a waste of the last two years of your life.”
The start of those two years flashed before my eyes. I had said yes when he’d dropped to one knee in front of my entire family on Christmas morning. I had told him the night before that I was pregnant. I hadn’t wanted to get married; a part of me still felt like I had betrayed Aiden in some weird way.
When I’d told Aiden about Brian while he was home on leave that New Year’s Eve, he’d seemed angry at first, even balling up his fists. Then he looked away. He’d worn a blank look on his face when he’d turned back and simply said that he was happy for me.
When Brian popped the question and outed my pregnancy to my entire family, I felt pressure to say yes. The look on my parents’ face alone was the driving reason I’d agreed, if I was being honest with myself. I sort of went on autopilot, and I said yes.
We’d dated for nearly a year before I got pregnant, and Brighton and Lacy both swear Brian knew I was going to back out of our relationship and the next thing you know, I was pregnant. I wasn’t on the pill, and he had always worn a condom. I couldn’t regret any of it because I had my beautiful son. There were so many times when I looked at Ben, though, and closed my eyes, wishing his father was Aiden and not the douchebag I’d ended up marrying. Stupid, foolish girl.
Brian made his way over to us, and Bree stepped between me and him.
“It’s okay, Bree,” I said as I squeezed her arm. She stepped to the side, but not before she shot both Brian and Ellen a death glare.
“I’ll have my lawyer contact yours,” Brian said, giving Bree a sharp look before he focused back on me. “About visitations.”
“Sounds fine by me,” I said with no emotion whatsoever in my voice.
He nodded, then looked at Bree and Ellen. “Can we step to the side and speak alone for a moment?”
“That’s not a good—” Bree started to say as Ellen’s eyes nearly popped out with shock at the idea that Brian wanted to speak to me alone. Did she not trust him? She’d be smart not to.
“It’ll be fine, Bree. Let’s just get this over with,” I said as I spun on my heels and walked a few feet away from the sideshow.
Brian cleared his throat and looked down at me. His dark blond hair was cut short, and he had shaved off the slight beard he’d gotten into the habit of wearing the last few years. He looked five years younger with a clean-shaven face. He was handsome, there was no doubt about it. It was the whole reason I was drawn to him in the first place. The blond hair and hazel eyes.
Complete opposite of Aiden. But in looks, Aiden won out. He was also cocky, confident, and had always known exactly who he wanted to be and what he wanted from life. Unlike Brian. He’d always needed reassurances about how I’d felt about him. How he looked in certain clothes. And he’d always complained about his job, working for his father at one of the banks in town.
“What did you want to say, Brian?” I asked with a bit of impatience in my voice.
“I just need to know your focus is on Ben right now, and not on your sex life.”
My mouth nearly dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you’re a beautiful woman, Willa. It’s been almost a year since you had Ben, and I’m sure now that we’re divorced you’ll be itching to get back out there.”
“Itching to get back out there?” I repeated, my voice filled with fury.
“Listen, I’ll always care about you, Willa. It’s just, I needed someone in my life who wanted the things I did. Who wanted me. Let’s call this for what it is, your heart was never mine.”
I sighed. “Brian, I’m not sure why you feel like you have to have this conversation with me. You made it clear the day I walked in on you fucking my best friend why you cheated. You needed someone who wanted the things you wanted in bed. Someone who didn’t want such a…what was the word you used? Vanilla? A vanilla sex life.”
He had the decency to look embarrassed.
“I don’t need to hear again how I didn’t keep you happy in the bedroom and how I never gave you my heart. We both knew this marriage wasn’t going to last. Come on, the only reason you asked me to marry you was because I got pregnant. From this point on, all I ask is that you don’t let your son down. He may not understand it now when you don’t show up for visits, but as he gets older, so help me God…if you hurt him, Brian…”
Brian laughed. “Are you threatening me now?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m stating a fact. There isn’t anything I won’t do to protect my son.”
He narrowed his eyes and took a step closer. “Our son.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “The same son you’ve seen maybe five times since he was born.”