Page 21 of This Time Around
I pressed play on my laptop again and Camilla filled the screen.She was sitting in a chair, across the desk from the late night talk show host who I used to consider a friend.
He was also someone she slept with when we were married.
He must have been a better actor than me too because he looked as though he believed the bullshit Camilla was spewing.On late night fucking television to millions of viewers.
Last night.
“This is bullshit, Max.All of it.Why is she doing this?”
“Perhaps she means it and can’t think of a better way to apologize to you?”
I slammed the computer closed and pushed off the bed.He could barely hide the snark in his voice.
“Right.And I bet this doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that her attorney has most likely reminded her, again, how ironclad our prenup is and there isn’t a chance in hell she’s getting anything she wants since we now have a list of at least a dozen men she fucked during our marriage.”
Vomit rose in my throat.A dozen men.Those were the ones my private investigator I hired before heading to Kansas had been able to uncover in two weeks.
How was I so damn clueless I never saw it?Never even suspected it?
Worse, why was I suddenly so blasé about hearing that information?
Through the phone line, Max chuckled.“I would imagine it has something to do with that.What are you thinking?”
“Camilla is a manipulative whore.”
“Ouch, Coop.I know you’re hurting here, but —”
“But nothing.Camilla has proven she’ll do anything she wants, use anyone she wants in order to get her way, and I’m done with her.She gets exactly what she brought into our marriage and nothing more, and there isn’t a single fucking thing she can do to persuade me otherwise, not even begging for my forgiveness on national television.”
Silence filled the phone line and my head.For the first time since walking into my home and seeing Camilla with another man, the thick band squeezing my chest so tightly it hurt to breathe had loosened.Her apology meant crap and giving it while sitting across from another man she had screwed proved it.
She’d do anything she could to get ahead.That was Camilla—nothing but show, and I was the fool for falling for it for so damn long.
Thank goodness no one had discovered where I was yet.Which probably partly explained her flair for the dramatic.She didn’t know where I was and the lack of attention from me had to be driving her crazy.
For a moment I considered backing out of going with Rebecca.If people in town saw that spectacle on television the other night, my face on their television so recently might make it easier to recognize me.
Screw it.I wanted that drink out somewhere with Rebecca, around other people.
“I gotta get going Max.”
“How are things there?”
Difficult and complicated because I wanted to fuck his favorite niece, nothing he could ever know.
“They’re fine.”
“And Rebecca?How is she?”
Beautiful.Admirable.Strong.There were a hundred words I could use to describe her on the tip of my tongue.None I could tell him.“She’s good, Max.And she’s working me hard, just like you wanted.”
Cattle ranching was no joke even if I was starting to enjoy it, but I needed a night off, a night away from being either alone, or alone with Rebecca.
“Good.”I could practically see him smiling through his contented tone.“That’s good.I’m glad you could be there to help her.She’s stubborn, that girl.Take care of her, okay?And yourself.”
“Will do.You’ll get word to my attorney for me then?”
“Anything, Cooper.I’d do anything for you.”
That loosened band around my chest warmed and relaxed further.Max was always a good man.A cutthroat agent, demanding, and successful and he’d ruin anyone who crossed him, but deep down, he was as good as they came.
“Thanks, Max.Have a good night.”
I tossed my phone onto the bed after we disconnected and shoved thoughts of Camila’s latest tactics to the back corner of my mind reserved for politics, which I used slightly more often than talking about the weather.
I finished getting dressed and was at Rebecca's front door at six-thirty, needing that drink at the bar and a night out more than I had ever needed one in my life.
