Page 81 of The Plus One Professional
I touched my hand to my chest. “Me?”
“She said she saw me looking at you all day. All weekend, in fact. And the night before the wedding, she accused me of being with you.”
“But you weren’t.” I shook my head. “I’ll tell her that if you want.”
His jaw set firmly as his shoulders straightened. “It’s over. It doesn’t matter. We started fighting about you, but I’m glad we did because it all came out. She’s not pregnant. She says she believed she was when she told me. She took a test that was a false positive, which is what she showed me. But then, when she went to the doctor’s, she found out she wasn’t, and she didn’t come clean. She said she thought that I was just afraid to commit and that once we were married, it would all be okay. But how can it be when it was all based on a lie?”
I sat silently. All I could think was how Billie was going to react when she found all this out. Once again, my big sister was right about someone.
“She asked me, point blank, if I was in love with you, and I told her the truth. I am. I think I always have been, but I just…I don’t know; I thought you’d always be there. But seeing you at the wedding with Cole… did something to me. I realized I’ve never seen you with someone.”
Simon’s confession had my head spinning. Duke must have sensed my anxiety because he hopped up onto my lap, something he only ever did when I was emotional. He curled up in a ball, as I began petting him as I tried to process what I’d just heard.
Simon scooted forward on his chair. “I love you, Bay. I want to be with you. I want to marry you.”
“You got married yesterday,” I repeated, because I’d been there. I’d planned it.
“It’s not legal. I didn’t sign the license after the ceremony. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
He didn’t sign the license?
“Bay?” His voice was raw.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” This was too much for me to deal with on two hours of sleep. Especially when my brain was obsessing over what Cole had wanted to tell me.
“Please, Bay. It’s you. It’s always been you. I want to marry you. I want us to have a family.”
It was the words I’d been waiting to hear for twenty-two years. But all I could think about was Cole, and how I wished it was him sitting across from me.
34
COLE
Thank you.
Those two little words played like a record skipping in my head as I jogged up the stoop of my building. My chest was tight, and beads of sweat dripped down my back. I couldn’t stop hearing Bailey whisper those words against my neck and feeling the gut punch every time I did. Who knew that two tiny, innocuous words could feel like a hot dagger twisting in your heart? Not me. But they did. Not the words themselves, but what they represented.
Just like with Layla, I’d done what I was hired to do. I’d made Simon jealous, and now they could live happily ever after. Except, unlike Layla, Bailey hadn’t actually paid me. So, I’d been a fool for free.
When I got home earlier this morning, I’d tried to put the entire weekend behind me. I’d taken the boys to the park and Carly out for a boba drink. Then, I’d cooked dinner, cleaned, and showered. I’d tried to go to bed early since I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the past seventy-two hours, and I had to be at the job site before dawn tomorrow morning. But all I’d done was toss and turn on the couch, hearing Bailey’s voice, feeling her lips brush against my neck as I held her in my arms, and her thanking me for being the bait to get her ex back.
In a failed attempt to burn off some of my anxiety and clear my head, I’d gone on a ninety-minute run. I would have stayed out longer, but since I had to be up in four hours, I figured I might as well try and get to sleep. So, I was home, for all the good it was going to do me.
My legs were heavy as I trudged up the six flights of stairs. Every time I was tired and walking up these steps, I thought about Sara. We didn’t have an elevator in our building, but she never complained, even though I knew that she was in pain. I needed to find another place for us. Somewhere with no stairs or a lot fewer stairs. More square footage. A backyard for the boys. Another bathroom.
I should be focusing my mind on that goal. Instead, all I could think about was Bailey. The silky, soft strands of her hair. The fresh floral scent of her body. The sweet, melodic sound of her voice.
Being with her was the first time I’d felt peace…maybe ever in my life. When I was with her, the world didn’t feel like it was closing in on me or that the weight of it rested solely on my shoulders.
But it was over. I wasn’t an idiot. The only reason an ex would show up on someone’s doorstep the day after his wedding would be to get her back. She’d been in love with him since she was fourteen. There was no way I could compete with that sort of history.
I put the key in the lock and turned it quietly. Before I opened it, I heard voices on the other side. Female voices.
Carly must be up with Sara, I thought. I took a deep breath and mentally prepped myself to answer questions as to why I’d gone out on a run at midnight. When I stepped inside and looked up, I saw that was not what I should have prepared myself for.
It seemed Bailey wasn’t the only one who had an ex showing up. Lindsay was on the couch with my sister. And from the looks of it, she’d been crying. Lindsay, that is, not my sister.
“Lindsay? What are you?—”
