Hate to say it, but I can’t. I’m swamped at work this week. Gonna be working late every night and will probably work through the weekend.
Okay, no problem. Let me know if something changes. I can be flexible.
Relief washes over me and I lean back in my office chair, hands locked behind my head. I need to get some more staff on board. Hell, I might even have to pull Dad out of retirement for a couple of months, just to get caught up. He’d help out in the field, but this mess...
I glance around the office again and my gut tightens. This mess is all mine.
“Might as well get to it,” I mutter to myself before sitting up again and digging in. I spend a half hour sorting shit into piles of bills to be sent out, bills to be paid, payroll and insurance documents, and quotes, leaving the paper files my old man loved to work from in a heap of their own. I’d love to get everything online sooner or later, but I don’t have time to think about it now.
I pick up my phone to call my bookkeeper, Greta, to see if she’s feeling up to coming by to grab these bills, when Craig, my lead guy, walks into my office.
“What’s up, man?” I ask, locking my cell again.
He doesn’t say anything, just continues forward until he drops down into the chair opposite mine with a bone deep huff.
He’s a big guy. Has the whole biker thing going on, with the shaved head, beard, and tattoos up both arms. He’s my height, but he’s got at least seventy-five pounds on me. And yet he looks like someone just took away his birthday.
“What’s wrong? Something happen? Everyone okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, everyone is fine.” He runs a hand around the back of his neck and braces his elbows on his knees.
“Dude, you’re freaking me out.” In fact, I can’t keep my head from going to the worst possible thing he could say to me right now. “You’re not allowed to quit.”
He frowns. “What?”
“I swear to God if you tell me you’re leaving, I’ll—”
“I left Rachel.”
Holy shit. He and Rachel have been together forever. Since high school. They have two kids. “Why?”
“I don’t know, man. It’s just... shit’s been hard. Really hard. All we’ve done for the past year is fight.” He scrubs his hands over his face and I feel like a prick for not picking up on it sooner.
“Wow. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” I’m not sure what to say beyond that. Fuck knows I’ve never been successful in my own relationships. Case in point the fact that my longest relationship is with a woman I was never even in a relationship with.
“That’s why I’m telling you. I officially moved out over the weekend, but I’ve been staying at Aiden’s place for a couple months.”
A couple of months? “Dude...”
“I know.” He sits back in the chair and sighs. “I wanted to let you know before you heard the rumors. I’m sure they’re going to fly.”
“You know I don’t buy into that shit.”
“Yeah, well...” His gaze meets mine and he swallows hard. “Maybe they’re not all rumors.”
A shiver slides down my spine. “Okay...”
“I’ve been seeing someone.”
Holy hell. This is Craig. My number one guy. How the hell did I miss all of this?
“But it didn’t start until after Rachel told me she wanted a divorce. That’s the part that’s probably going to get misconstrued and for obvious reasons.”
I almost don’t want to know. “Who is it?”
“Cady.” My jaw slacks open and he nods. “Like I said, no one is going to believe it just started up again.”
Craig is Aiden’s age, so he was getting ready to graduate when I was entering high school, but even I remember the shit show that was him and Cady Reynolds being hot and heavy before he and Rachel got together. Pretty sure I’d heard something a while back about Rach and Cady getting into it at a PTA meeting because of Craig, too. I want to believe what he’s telling me, but I can see how others might not give him that benefit.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know. I might need some time off here and there for court, but it shouldn’t be more than a few days.”
“What about the kids?” I won’t judge his decisions where his relationships are concerned—I have no right—but the dad in me is a different story.
“They’re doing all right other than Mason being pissed at me.” He shrugs. “Guess I’d rather him hate me than Rach. She needs him more around the house right now than I need him to like me.”
I nod. Mason turned nine around Christmas. He’s come into work with Craig a time or two over the years and is a pretty good kid. Reminds me of an older version of Jett.
“That’s gotta be hard, having your kid taking sides like that.” I can’t imagine putting Jett in that situation. Then again, maybe I already have and he’s just too young to hate me for it yet. Shit.
“Yeah, it’s not fun, but it is what it is.” He pushes to his feet and tucks his hands into his pockets. “Anyway, I should get back to work. Can’t let my personal life impact my professional one.”
I stand too and offer a hand. “I appreciate that, man. But work aside, if you ever want to grab a beer or go fishing or something, let me know.”
“Thanks, Jesse.”
He leaves and, though I really should follow him to Murphy’s place, I stay back for a minute, my head stuck on something I haven’t thought about in a while.
There always seemed to be plenty of time, but given Hayden’s split from Lane, I suspect our little boy is going to have questions a lot sooner than we’d planned about why we aren’t together like most moms and dads he knows. And, honestly, I have questions, too.
I don’t want to push her. For Christ’s sake, it’s been a handful of days, but if there’s even the slightest chance she’s changed her mind about us, I want to know. I’ll be patient, but I want to friggin’ know.
I grab my phone off the desk and thumb a quick text.
Hey, do you have a couple minutes to talk later? Maybe tonight after Jett goes to bed?
She responds right away. Sure. Everything okay?
Yep. Just let me know when he’s asleep.
HAYDEN
Jesse’s text has lingered in the back of my mind all day, but I’ve tried not to dwell on it too much. I’m positive he wants to talk about “Kayla”, but frankly seeing them together was enough. I don’t need the details and I certainly don’t want to hear about how great she is.
But, in a way, I hope that’s exactly what she is. Because Jesse deserves someone great. Someone who wanted him and stuck to her guns until she got him. Unlike me, who’d been too afraid to tell him how I felt. Too afraid to ask for something I thought he’d never want to give.
My heart hurts knowing that he gave up on us, but it was foolish of me to think there was any way he hadn’t. It was also selfish, because Jesse has the biggest heart I know and not sharing it with someone special would be a travesty.
His family obviously has reservations about this woman and it would be easy for me to jump on board, as well. But I won’t. Instead, I’m going to smile through whatever he has to tell me, even if it rips my heart from my chest and runs it through a shredder. I’m going to support him in whatever way he wants me to, because that’s exactly what he’s done for me for the past four years.