“Luke,” Wes greeted me.
“Hey, brother. You want something to drink? Beer, soda, water?” Wyatt asked.
“Yeah. I’ll take a beer.” Wyatt grabbed one from the fridge and passed it to me. “Thanks.”
“What’s going on? You said something to Jules?” Reid asked.
I glanced around the room. Wyatt and Reid obviously knew about the affair since they were the ones to tell me. The lack of surprise on Wes’s face was to be expected. Wyatt and Wes were best friends. Hell, Wes was one of my good friends too. It was only in our capacity as an officer of the law and a private investigator that things could get heated.
“Yeah. But first…” I leveled a glare at Wyatt. “Why the hell are you here instead of home with your fiancée and baby?”
“They wanted to keep Maeve overnight. Her blood pressure was kind of low, so they are monitoring her. They kept Vedawith her but kicked me out.”
“They kicked you out?” The anger that was already at the surface surged on Wyatt’s behalf.
“Technically, Maeve kicked me out. Apparently, my taking care of her and making sure she was comfortable was considered ‘fussing over her.’ Dad’s got Jane for the night, so I came by here to brag about my kid to Wes.” Wyatt nodded in Wes’s direction, a giddy smirk on his face. He was bouncing with endorphins, a proud father.
“So, what happened with you?” Reid asked.
Wyatt’s smirk dimmed with the change of conversation. Wes raised his brow, waiting for my answer.
“You were right. She admitted she’s seeing someone else.”
“What the fuck,” Wyatt growled.
“That’s fucked-up. I can’t believe she would do that to you,” Reid said.
“She tell you with who?” Wes’s low voice rumbled.
“Nope. She told me she needed to talk to him first. Must want to be the one to tell him she’s pregnant before he hears it from someone else.” I cracked the beer can open and pulled a long sip. A beat or two of silence followed my words before all hell broke loose.
“Holy shit.” Reid’s soft words echoed through the garage.
“Fuck,” Wyatt yelled. “I cannot believe that bitch.”
“Hey,” I warned him. Defending Juliet was the last thing I wanted to do, but respect for women wasn’t limited to only those I liked at the moment.
“Sorry. Onetime pass, brother. But that’s fucking ridiculous.”
“You want me to find out for you?” Wes asked.
“No. Yes. Fuck, I don’t know.” My head was swimming.On the one hand, I really wanted to know who was fucking my wife. This was a small town, and Juliet’s refusal to tell me his name meant that I probably knew the fucker. But on the other hand, did it really matter? Whoever that piece of shit was who fucked someone else’s wife, he wasn’t the one who stood at the altar making promises of forever. “No. Just leave it be.”
Reid pushed further down on the couch, making room for me to sit. I told them about what happened when I got home. Our fight, her admission of the affair, the bomb that she was pregnant.
“What are you going to do?” Reid asked.
“I don’t know. Get a divorce. I know that much, but that’s about where my plan ends,” I sighed, resting my head against the back of the couch.
“Maybe it’s for the best, brother. You weren’t happy,” Wyatt treaded carefully.
My chest ached, despite the fact that he was right. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I said.
They moved the conversation on to something else, but I wasn’t listening. My mind was spinning. It wasn’t even the affair, necessarily. It was the lack of respect, the betrayal of the life that I thought we were building. Maybe I still needed more time to process, but right now, sitting on Wes’s couch, I didn’t feel heartbreak or devastation. I was sad. I was angry. I was resentful. But shouldn’t I feel the sharp pain of a broken heart? Maybe Juliet was right. Not that I had given my heart to someone else, but had I actually given it to Juliet, my wife, at any point?
“Redmond’s arrest was a big deal though.” Wyatt’s words captured my attention.
“Yeah, it was. Nice work, Detective Wilder.” Reid slapped me on the shoulder.
