11. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Tripp

June and I had been talking and going on the occasional lunch date for the past few months. Nothing had progressed beyond a rekindled friendship because despite her lack of concern over the fact that she wore another man's wedding ring, it bothered me that she was still married. We had already been down this road once before the previous year. She proved then that there was more to the eye than the picture she kept painting for me.

That was my concern until about five minutes ago, when I saw the man June was married to walking out of a hotel in Augusta with a woman on his arms who wasn't June. In fact, the woman looked suspiciously like June's cousin, but since I hadn't seen her in years, I could have been wrong about that fact.

As soon as he tucked the woman into her car and sent her on the way, he glanced up and noticed me watching him. With what looked like a deep sigh, he squared his pudgy shoulders and ambled his way across the street to where I'd been standing.

"I know who you are," he insisted immediately. "And from the look on your face, you know exactly who I am. June must have told you we don't have a typical marriage. You can inform her of my affair, if you need to, but she won't care." He shrugged his shoulders with all the indifference that gesture implied.

"Why stay married?"

The man chuckled. "Stipulations of the contract. If we stay married until her father kicks off, things go smoothly with us splitting the inheritance and going our separate ways." He eyed me curiously though and once again, that little nudge in my gut told me that there was something more disturbing about the situation than I originally thought.

"When I married her, I thought the arrangement would be tolerable. She seemed like a stable, likable, well-adjusted woman with a good head on her shoulders. Truthfully, my expectations were to be equal partners in business and maybe even develop a healthy appreciation for one another."

"So, why didn't that happen?"

"You."

"Me?" I asked, slightly startled by his response. "You've been married for years."

"Fifteen, to be exact."

"So, how did I factor in that? I was still happily married to my wife and raising our kids when the two of you entered into this arrangement."

"Yes, well, you might have forgotten all about June until recently, but you have always been her favorite obsession." He shook his head and then offered me a grave look. "Be careful getting involved with a woman who is that obsessed. There's something not quite right with my wife."

"Says the man who just put her cousin into a car after a stay in a hotel with her." It was a bluff on my end because I hadn't been sure that's who he had been with until that moment.

The man nodded. "Indeed, I did. June's cousin has passion and grace that my wife will never possess. My marriage is nearing its end, and when it is over, I can finally go live my life happily with the woman I truly love."

It was my turn to warn him away. "Knowing that whole family, I think you might be barking up the wrong tree there, too."

He grinned widely at me. "Neither of those women are my true love," he admitted. "One of them is business, the other is to scratch an itch until I can get to the one who got away." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Though, considering all I know about June and her obsession, maybe I should rethink rekindling things with an old flame. Maybe when it doesn't work out the first time, it's not meant to work out ever. In your case, I'd heed that warning, but something tells me you're too stubborn to take good advice from a man who might be in the know - whether you respect his position at all or not."

"I respected you enough not to sleep with your wife while she was still your wife."

"No need to sell yourself short on my account in that department. Maybe, trying to fuck that icy prude will remind you why she is an ex and help you to get her back out of your system again, so you can move on."

He didn't wait around for me to say anything, and there was no need for me to jump to June's defense either. The two of them had obviously attempted a real marriage at some point before giving up on one another. It made me wonder if June would be the same as she had been when we were younger. Her prudishness back then had been somewhat endearing because I'd thought she was just being bashful thanks to inexperience and her mother's warped views of intimacy being pushed at her for so long.

Her husband's assessment made me question my judgement in considering the option of going there again. Then, Davina's pretty face popped into my thoughts. I couldn't have the woman I truly wanted because she was just too far out of reach, especially ever since she left the clubhouse. If attempting to move on with my ex managed to work thoughts of her out of my system, so it was easier to get over the ‘what could have been' thoughts, then that was what I'd do.

Maybe, if I was lucky, things would be different, and we'd be able to make something of this second – I guess maybe third – chance we'd been given. That didn't stop me from feeling a little bit sick when I thought about introducing June to the kids, or for that matter bringing her around my VP - a man I still considered my brother-in-law. There was no way Mack would ever accept June back in my life. Still, something told me that I needed to keep her close for some reason that I couldn't put my finger on just yet.

Maybe it was fate sending me a message. My gut instincts were screaming two very different things at me. Keep her close and send her packing. I wasn't sure which to listen to, and assumed most of the latter was due to our history and residual guilt I felt when I thought of my late wife. Time would tell which instinct I should have listened to. With both of my kids being back in town and our family finally together again, I didn't know how to navigate all the aspects of my life without rocking the boat, let alone sinking it.