Chapter 21 We Need to Talk Matt

Chapter 21

We Need to Talk

Matt

It’s eight in the morning, and I’m sitting on my couch feeling hollow.

At six thirty, I picked up Rufus from the doggy ranch. Then I took him out for a walk so long he was giving me pleading looks by the end of it. Now we’re on the couch, his chin on my knee.

I didn’t sleep last night. Taking a four-hour nap and then calling it quits with the girlfriend is a bad recipe for a peaceful night’s sleep.

Right now, I want to call Hailey so badly. I just want to hear her soft voice. But I refuse to give her mixed signals. When I said I couldn’t do this again, I meant it. The slow grind toward disillusionment and divorce is fucking awful.

What can she possibly see in a guy who’s never around?

There’s still two hours until I have to be at the rink to watch video of our next two opponents. I should make coffee, but the weight of Rufus’s head on my knee is a comfort, and I stroke his head while I brood.

But then he lifts his chin suddenly, his ears perking up. A moment later, there’s a knock on my apartment door.

Hailey. I know it’s her even before I get up and cross the room. When I open the door, she’s standing there in a pantsuit and heels, two cups of coffee in her hands.

“Hi,” she says. “I heard everything you said last night, but there’s something you need to know.”

For a second, I don’t do anything. I don’t greet her or widen the door or even get out of the way. I’m too busy taking in her sweet face, its tentative expression so dear to me. I’m tongue-tied. I feel like she did the first few times we were in a room together.

Rufus picks up my slack. He gives a little woof of recognition and then dances his two front feet against the floor as if to say, “Well, don’t just stand there. Come in already!”

I manage to step backward finally, my intention clear even if I haven’t found my voice.

Hailey walks into my apartment, her long legs silky in a pair of sheer hose, her tight skirt tempting me. She walks right over to the sofa, sets the coffee cups on the table, and takes a seat. “Come here, Matt,” she says in a clear voice. “We need to talk.”

Well. Who’s schooling who these days? I do just as she asks, taking a seat at a respectful distance, giving her my full attention.

She hands me a cup of coffee and pops the lid on hers. “I know your wife told you that waiting around for you was torture. Well, I’m not Kara. My life is set up differently. And we’re not the same person. But there’s really no way I can predict the future.”

“I know,” I croak. “I’m probably an idiot for trying to.”

She lifts an eyebrow, but a smile hovers at the corners of her mouth. “You are, sir. But we’ll get back to that in a minute. I need to ask you something specific. Did your marriage end for any reason you haven’t told me?”

“No?” I try to imagine what that question might even mean. “She said she’d had it and asked me for a divorce. Seemed pretty straightforward to me.”

Hailey’s hands get fidgety on the rim of her coffee cup. “I spotted something that I think I should tell you, even though it feels selfish.”

Selfish? “Hailey, honey, you strike me as the least selfish person I’ve ever met.”

Her eyes lift to mine at this compliment. “Not so sure about that.” Our gazes lock, and her restraint falters a little. Her eyes turn begging, but then she gives her head a little shake as if to clear it. “You know I’ve been doing a lot of research on our client database.”

“Yeah. Trying to figure out if the expansion makes sense.”

“Good listening.” She gives me a sad smile. “Your ex-wife’s account came up on my file search. She’s a longtime customer of Fetch.”

“Right. That’s how I knew about Fetch in the first place.”

She nods. “Well, Kara has a standing lunch date on Fridays.”

“Yeah, with her parents and the girls. God forbid they miss a Friday lunch with Grandpa and Grandma.”

“No, Matt.” Hailey bites her lip. “Kara goes out to lunch with Dr. Daniel Bryant every Friday at noon. They like Sassafraz. But sometimes they mix it up at the Greenwich Bistro or the restaurant at the Drake Hotel.”

I try to picture it. “Okay. So they take the girls to their grandparents, and Kara and Dentist Dan eat out? I didn’t know that. But it makes sense, right? She wants a man who can keep a lunch date.”

Hailey sighs. “They’re really good at keeping their lunch dates. They’ve been having them for over two years.”

“Over…” I do the math. “That doesn’t sound right.”

Silently, she takes her phone out of her pocket and taps on an app. She taps again and scrolls. “I should probably fire myself for this indiscretion,” she mutters. Then she hands me the phone.

And it’s right there on the screen. Reservations going back two years. “They’re in his name. How stupid is my ex-wife? Jesus Christ.” I hand the phone back quickly because it’s tempting to crush it like a gum wrapper. “She cheated ?”

“I don’t really know,” Hailey says quickly. “It might not have been like that originally.”

My head throbs suddenly, and I rub my temples. “What am I missing?”

“Maybe nothing.” Hailey gets up and moves closer to me. She puts a warm hand on my back and strokes. Fuck, that feels good. I need her touch. “But I wondered about Kara and her dentist. Maybe the reason she convinced herself you weren’t a good partner was that she was in love with someone else.”

“Oh my God.” The last few months with her were so hard. Was there even a point to all the fighting we did? I was trying to save my marriage, and her demands grew by the day. Maybe it couldn’t be saved no matter what. “They…She went to a high school reunion. He was there. It was, I dunno, a year before I moved out.”

“They knew each other in high school?”

“She dated him. I don’t know the whole story.”

“Well…” Hailey hesitates. “I don’t know Kara, and I don’t want to guess what happened. But I thought you should know that maybe some missed nights at home weren’t the only problem.”

I cling to this idea. I love this fucking idea. I’m so tired of feeling like a jerk and a failure. “My head is kind of exploding here.”

She puts a hand on the back of my neck and gives the muscles a nice squeeze. “I know. I didn’t know what to do with that information. It’s really none of my business.”

“Sure it is.” I look at her, and all the hesitation is back in her expression. And that’s my fault. “I want it to be your business, Hottie. I really freaked out last night. But staying away from you was never going to work.”

Her hand leaves my body, and she scoots a few crucial inches away from me. “I need to go to work. You don’t have to figure out your whole life this morning, okay? Call me if you want to talk more.”

But that’s not good enough. “Wait.” I catch her in my arms before she can make her getaway. I draw her in and hold her against my body. “If I promise not to freak out like that again…” I take a deep breath of her sweet scent and sigh it out. “Can you forgive me? I’m not usually such a drama llama.”

Hailey laughs. “I’m not going to pressure you. I’m not going to beg. But I really don’t want to break up either.”

I beam at her. “Then let’s not.” My arms wrap around her for a tight squeeze, and she lets out a shaky breath.

We’re going to be okay. I’m going to be okay. I truly believe that now.