So I canceled her credit cards. She realized I meant business when her card was declined after she tried to pick up the tab for a ten-person brunch with women she barely tolerates. You want to piss off a woman who only loves you for your money? Take away her black card.
And that’s when things started going downhill. And fast. I tried explaining that I just wanted to be more responsible with our money. She, the woman who has not worked a day in her life, tried to give me the whole “why have it if you can’t spend it” argument. She even tried crying and begging when I returned the crocodile umbrella.
That was when the arguments started and the sex stopped. Turns out, we agreed on very little when you take sex out of the equation.
Between cutting off her card and my increased hours to get the clinic off the ground, I truly started seeing Annika for who she really was.
Spoiled. Gold digger. Attention seeker.
Since then, we have completely fallen out of love. Hell, these days we barely like each other. But divorce isn’t in the cards. Well, it could be. It will just be a messy, complicated, pain in my ass due to Virginia requiring six months of separation before you can file for divorce.
And expensive. Really fucking expensive.
Though, there is one difference between this marriage and my last: This time I got a prenup.
With Innovative Medical being established before our marriage, I wanted to make sure that I, and the business, were protected. Even now I can’t believe Annika signed it without much of a fight. Probably because she thought her self-proclaimed “golden pussy” would keep me around forever.
Yes, she actually told me when we first started dating she had a golden pussy. Again, that should have raised a red flag.
However, in this prenup, if one of us were to cheat on the other, everything is null and void. All marital assets are back on the table. If she cheats, she gets nothing. If I cheat, she can take me for all I’m worth, including Innovative.
And it’s a lot.
So, despite the fact I love sex more than I love running, good scotch, and hot women, I have been frustratingly celibate for months.
And my dick knows it.
Shaking away the feeling of horniness and overall hatred of my situation, I gather my car keys and the bottle of water that is partially responsible for me having to deal with Annika tonight.
I knew I should have gone to the program straight from work.
And I don’t know what makes me ask the next question, but I do. I’ll analyze the why later when I’m three fingers of scotch deep.
“Are you happy?”
My words take her by surprise, and for a second, I think I see behind the fake eyelashes and mask of makeup. Before I know it, her cold eyes and fake smile return.
“I’d be happy if my husband wouldn’t spend so much time at work. I’d be really happy if he bought me things like he used to. And I’d be extremely fucking happy if I heard you were back to fucking nurses so I can get the money that you are holding back on me.”
I walk toward her, which takes her a bit by surprise, as I lean in and kiss her cheek. It’s not a quick one. No, this one I’m making sure she will feel for the rest of the night. So she remembers what I’m about to say.
“And I’d be happy if my wife wasn’t a stuck-up bitch who could at least pretend to love me for more than my credit card. And if you are waiting for me to fuck up, you’ll need to keep waiting, wife. I’m in this for the long haul. And I don’t expect to lose.”
And with that, I take my keys and the damn bottle of water and head to my car. I have a music program to get to.
Chapter Six
Garrett
There was one good thing about my impromptu confrontation with Annika—I made it just in time for the program. Which, under that definition, means on time enough not to miss Cullen’s first school performance, but late enough to not have to make mundane chitchat with Mark and Charlie.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my brother. And my sister-in-law is an absolute angel for loving my former-Navy SEAL brother turned private security firm partner pain in the ass. But I know what kind of conversation would happen if I were to have arrived ten minutes earlier. It would have been a continuation of the one Mark and I had in my office just a few months ago. And pretty much every time I see him.
“How’s the practice?”
“Oh, Annika didn’t come?”
“Is everything OK?”
“You know you can talk to us.”
And I know I could. If I wanted to. What would be the point? I’ve made my bed. And I’m lying in it.
Alone.
I enter the school auditorium just as the lights are dimming and catch sight of Mark and Charlie, pointing to the seat they saved for me.
“Thanks for getting here early,” my brother digs.
“No problem, Twilight.”
My brother rolls his eyes at my use of his former SEAL call sign, but before he can send an insult back my way, the curtain opens to Cullen’s class standing on stage.
And yes, my brother’s call sign was Twilight and his son is named Cullen, after the former movie vampire. That is not a coincidence. That is my sister-in-law’s fucked-up sense of humor.
She’s fucking awesome.
I scan the group looking for Cullen, and luckily, he is right up front. While the other kids are waving their hands at their parents in the audience, my nephew is whispering into the ear of the little girl next to him.
That’s my boy.
I don’t have much time to be a proud uncle because my attention is immediately grabbed by the woman who walks on stage in front of the class.
“Holy shit. Who is that?” I don’t mean to, but I say it in a very loud whisper.
“The old guy is the music teacher. But I’m guessing you are talking about the blonde. That is Cullen’s teacher,” Mark whispers back. “I’ve only met her a few times. Charlie is ready to nominate her for sainthood.”
I don’t know anything about being a saint, but I’d definitely worship her body every day and twice on Sunday.
I take her all in, and I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t had sex in a very long time, but I can’t stop staring at her. Blonde hair just past her shoulders. Breasts that look to be just big enough to fit in my hands. Curves that are subtle, but you know they exist underneath the long dress she’s wearing. One that shouldn’t be as sexy as she makes it and I’m sure comes with a helluva smaller price tag than anything Annika would ever be caught dead in.
Simply said: Cullen’s teacher is fucking hot.
I don’t remember what happens over the next thirty minutes. I’m pretty sure the kids sang a few Christmas carols. Don’t ask me which ones. I think I heard parents clapping. I might have clapped as well. I saw parents holding up phones to video their child’s performance, and that’s only because I saw them in my peripheral vision. I was too busy looking at the beauty who is Cullen’s teacher and casually adjusting myself because I’m getting slightly hard from the sight of her.
At least, that’s what I was looking at until I saw fingers snapping in front of my face, shaking me from my tunnel vision.
I look up from my seat to see a furious Charlie staring down at me, Mark standing behind her with Makenna on his hip and a smile on his face. I know that look. It’s the smile he used to give me when he knew our mom was about to lay into me for something.