by A. M. Myers
“See? Like magic.”
“I’m impressed.”
The hostess interrupts us before she can say anything else, dropping off a basket of rolls and a pitcher of water before assuring us our waitress will be by in a minute. Once she’s gone, Violet flashes me an expectant look.
“Give me one random fact about you, Wyatt.”
I arch a brow as my mind goes blank. “Uh, like what?”
“Too vague?” she asks and I nod. “Okay. How about this, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a private investigator and a member of the Bayou Devils MC.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of you guys! You help women in domestic violence situations, right?”
I nod, grabbing a roll from the basket and slathering it in butter. “Yeah. What about you? What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a cosmetologist but I don’t really consider it work since I love it so much.”
I nod as a waitress stops at our table and flashes us a smile. “Good evening, you two. I’m Kelly and I’ll be taking care of you tonight. Can I get you started with a beer or glass of wine, maybe?”
“I’ll take a glass of red wine,” Violet says and Kelly turns to me.
“A beer, please.”
She nods, slipping her pen and notepad back into her pocket. “I’ll be right back with those.”
“So,” Violet says as soon as she leaves. “We’ve covered what you do but what else can I ask you? Hmm…”
Leaning back in my seat, I cross my arms over my chest and watch her run through all the questions she’s been thinking of all damn day with a smile on my face. Finally, she meets my gaze.
“How old are you?”
I arch a brow. “Is it important?”
“No,” she answers with a shrug, a lighthearted smile on her face. “Just curious but now that you won’t answer, I’m a little concerned.”
“Well, there’s no big mystery. It’s just a number.”
She narrows her eyes but they still dance with playfulness. “If it’s just a number, why won’t you tell me?”
“Because you’re so damn cute when you’re suspicious.”
Her lips part and a blush stains her cheeks as she pulls her gaze away from me. “Oh.”
“But, to answer your question, I’m thirty. Now it’s your turn.”
“Oh, Wyatt,” she whispers, shaking her head as her eyes connect with mine. “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman’s age?”
I shrug. “So I’m rude, then. And see, now I’m concerned since you won’t tell me.”
“I’m younger than you,” she answers and I lean forward, narrowing my eyes and pretending to study her.
“Please tell me you’re at least eighteen.”
A laugh bubbles out of her. “Flattery will get you everywhere, sir.”
The waitress stops next to the table, interrupting our banter and after passing both of us our drinks, she pulls the notepad and pen out of her apron again.
“Y’all ready to order?”
Shit.
I haven’t even glanced at the menu.
“I’ll just get the steak,” I tell her, guessing it is a pretty safe bet for a steakhouse and she nods as she jots it down in her notepad.
“How would you like that cooked?”
“Rare.”
She nods. “And your sides?”
“Potatoes and whatever vegetable you’ve got.”
Kelly turns to Violet, who slaps her menu shut. “I’ll get a half rack of ribs with a salad and mac and cheese.”
Once Kelly leaves to give our orders to the kitchen, Violet leans back in her seat and studies me as her fingers drum against the table top.
“Come on now, darlin’. I know you’ve got more questions brewing in your pretty little head.”
She nods. “Okay, but remember you asked for it… Have you ever been married?”
“Yes,” I answer, nodding my head as Piper’s face pops into my mind. She nods, looking a little more apprehensive than she was a moment ago. Shit. I knew Piper was going to ruin this damn date.
“How long ago?”
I scrub my hand over my jaw. “Ten years ago.”
“Oh, wow,” she says as her eyes widen. “You were young.”
“I was.”
“High school sweethearts?” she asks and I nod, that all too familiar pain reaching back into my chest and constricting my heart.
“Yep.”
She studies me for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Are you still in love with her?”
“No,” I scoff, shaking my head. “Definitely not.”
“Look, Wyatt… I’m not going to be mad if you are but I’m also not willing to invest myself into a relationship with someone who is still hanging onto feelings for someone else so just be upfront with me.”
“My wife left me for another man when I was deployed,” I tell her, pain ripping itself through my body as those memories come rushing back. “So the subject is not one of my favorites but I haven’t seen her in ten years.”
She breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“Now it’s my turn to ask you an uncomfortable question.”
“Shoot,” she answers, nodding her head. Shit… do I really want to ask her this and potentially ruin this when it’s going so well? Then again, I certainly don’t want to get to the end of the date only to realize she’s just looking to head back to my place for a one-night stand.
“What are you looking for? ‘Cause I gotta be honest, I’m kind of over casual.”
Nodding, she lifts her wine glass and takes a sip before setting it back on the table. “I’m not looking for something casual either. I had my fun but I’m ready to settle down with someone special.”
“Since you asked about my past,” I prompt, toying with the beer bottle in front of me. “I have to pass the same question off to you.”
“Have I ever been married?” she asks and I nod. She shakes her head. “No. Came close once but things didn’t work out.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her because it seems like the right thing to say. She smiles.
“Don’t be. I was heartbroken at the time but I realized that it was for the best. He and I wanted different things from life and it wouldn’t have been fair to either of us to go through with the wedding.”
I nod. “How long has it been?”
“Eighteen months.”
Sucking in a breath, I lift my beer bottle off of the table and take a sip as thoughts race through my mind. What the hell does it say about me that, after ten years, I’m still reliving my breakup with Piper and asking myself “what-if” when she split from her fiancé only eighteen months ago and she has already come through the other side?
“Okay, so what else should I know about you?” she asks, pulling my focus back to her as she arches a brow and takes a sip of her wine. “Do you have any kids?”
I shake my head as my chest aches. “No. I can’t wait to have a couple rug rats, though.”
“Oh,” she whispers, her smile falling away as pain streaks across her face for a second before she gets it under control. “Well, shit.”
“What is it?”
Sighing, she sets her wine glass down on the table. “That’s the reason my ex and I split. He wanted to have kids and I… don’t.”
Well, shit.
“And this was going so well,” she says, pain in her voice and when I meet her eyes, she blinks away tears. I drop my head as my stomach tightens and my limbs feel heavy. “I’m so sorry. I have to go.”
Without another word, she grabs her bag and stands up, not even sparing me a glance as she marches toward the front door with determination in every step. I shake my head and scrub my hand over my face before grabbing my bottle of beer and chugging half of it.
“Oh,” someone says and I glance up. The waitress stands next to our table with a tray in her hand.
“Could you just throw those in boxes and I’ll take it to go?”
She flashes me a sympathetic look. “Sure, sweetie.”
While she hurries off to fulfill my request, I lean back in my seat and finish off my beer before gazing out at the rest of the dining room. The couple at the table across from me keep looking over at me with sympathy on their faces but I ignore them as I start picking at the label on my beer bottle.
God, this is so fucking stupid.
My mind goes back to earlier when I promised myself if this date didn’t work out, I would delete my account and I pull my phone out of my pocket to do just that when I see the message from a woman named Eden.
Jesus Christ.
Apparently I’m a complete idiot because as I read her cute little introductory message, I can’t help but wonder if I should keep trying. I mean, yeah, dates one and two didn’t end well but I was really starting to like Violet and I think there could have been something there if the whole kids thing hadn’t gotten in the way.
Shit…
Am I really going to keep doing this?
Isn’t this the goddamn definition of insanity?
Staring at her message, I shake my head and click reply as every cell in my body screams that it’s a bad idea but I can’t stop now. Not when it feels like maybe I was finally getting somewhere.
Besides, third time’s the charm, right?
Chapter Six
Piper
“Good morning,” Eden practically sings as she breezes into the office and I turn in my chair, arching a brow as I raise my coffee cup to my lips and take a sip. What the hell is she so cheery about this morning? Eden usually isn’t much of a morning person. She points to the steaming mug in my hand. “Please tell me there’s more of that.”
I nod as I study her. “In the back.”
“Thank God!” she exclaims, dumping her stuff on her desk before slipping behind the curtain that hides things like our microwave, fridge, and coffee maker.
“Late night?”
She steps back into the office with a grin on her face that completely gives her away as she leans back against the door frame and lifts the steaming mug of coffee to her lips. “Yeah… I saw this commercial for a dating site last night and decided to sign up.”
“And that’s why you have that stupid grin on your face?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. A blush creeps up her cheeks and I shake my head. “Oh my God, you already met a guy, didn’t you?”
She nods. “Yeah, I did. God, Pipes. He’s just…” She struggles to find an adequate word and finally just clenches her fist in front of her as she makes a noise of frustration.
“Yeah?” I ask, forcing a smile to my face as I try to ignore the pang in my chest. It’s certainly not Eden’s fault that my life has turned out this way and I’m not going to do anything to bring down her stellar mood. Even if I have been in a funk since I realized how much having a baby was going to cost me.
“Oh, by the way…” Eden says and I glance up at her. “I was thinking about your baby issue…”
Sometimes, I swear this girl can read my mind. I nod and take another sip of my coffee. “And?”
“And I really think you should just find a guy, tell him you’re on the pill, have some meaningless fun, and when you get pregnant, you can just break things off.”
I scrunch my nose up. “That’s… dishonest and also a really good way to end up with an STD, Edie.”
“I know,” she sighs, her body deflating. “I’ve just been trying to come up with any other options for you. I still think you should try signing up for this site I found last night. You never know, babe. You could meet your soul mate.”
Turning back to my computer, my chest aches something fierce at her words. I’ve already met my damn soul mate and I fucked it all up. God, I wish I could go back to that day and make a different choice. Shaking my head, I push the thoughts from my mind and turn back to her.
“I’m not looking for a soul mate. I already had one of those.”
“Who says you just get one?” she asks and I have to stop my body from recoiling as I imagine another man filling Wyatt’s place. It’s… just not possible.
“Me.”
“But you could finally be happy again, babe.”
I shake my head. “I just don’t see it happening. Wyatt was… is still…”
She shakes her head as she sets her cup of coffee down on her desk and grabs her phone. “Forget about him. You have to see this guy I was talking to last night. I’m telling you, he’s the complete package and oh so very yummy. Wouldn’t that be better than being alone and miserable?”
I roll my eyes as she rolls her chair across the hardwood floor to my desk and thrusts her phone in my face. I scoop it up and glance down at the screen, sucking in a breath as my stomach flips and a fist grips my heart and squeezes. My head spins and each breath I take rings in my ears.
“Eden,” I breathe, my voice barely audible as a couple tears slip down my cheeks. I glance up at her and her eyes widen as she reaches for me.
“What is it?”
I glance back down at the screen. “It’s Wyatt.”
“Yeah, I know his name,” she says, rolling her eyes at me like I’m the world’s biggest idiot. “I can read.”
I shake my head. “No, Edie… that’s my Wyatt.”
“What?” she hisses, grabbing her phone and looking at his photo before looking back up at me as my heart thunders out of control in my chest. He looks even better than the last time I saw him… God, how long has it been? Four years ago? I shake my head again, unable to believe it hasn’t been longer. Each day without him feels like an eternity and I have carried this gnawing ache around with me since the moment I walked away from him.
My mind drifts back to the first time I met him after I went to live with my Aunt Myra. I was in a bad place then, walking around in a fog of pain and fear and then he was there, shining through the darkness like a beacon. He became my savior, my best friend, and the absolute love of my life.
“Piper?” Eden whispers and I glance up. Her look of concern grabs my attention and I look down at my lap only to realize that I’m trembling as more memories from my childhood come rushing back. There was once, just after I moved in with Aunt Myra, that Wyatt took me down to the pond behind our houses to go swimming. Back then, I was afraid of everything, even my own damn shadow, so when he jumped off the dock without me, I stood there frozen and shaking as I stared down at the calm water beneath me, fear gripping my heart. Wyatt circled back around to see where I was and when he saw me standing up on that dock, he raced back to me and held my hand as we jumped in together. That’s always the way it was between us - I was scared of everything and he was my white knight - but that’s always where our biggest problem lied. When he deployed, I didn’t know how to just exist without him and…
Shaking my head, I push the memories of those days from my mind as I glance up at Eden again. “Please, Edie. Please don’t go out with him.”
“Of course I’m not going to go out with him,” she snaps, looking all sorts of offended as she sets her phone on my desk. “What the hell kind of friend do you think I am? This isn’t just some high school fling that you dated years ago. This is your Wyatt…”
Her words trail off as a slow smile stretches across her face.
“What the hell is that look? I don’t like that look.”
Her grin widens as she grabs her phone again. “I was just thinking… what if I message him again and set up a date…”
“Eden!” I scream, betrayal ripping through me as I stare at her with wide eyes but she just giggles.
“But instead of me, you’ll show up.”
I shake my head as she continues grinning at me like this is the best damn plan in the world. “What? That’s insane!”
“No,” she insists, shaking her head as she grabs my arm. “Hear me out. For years, I’ve heard about this incredible, epic love you and Wyatt had…”
“And?” I growl, cutting her off. “It didn’t matter in the end, did it?”
“Thos
e were extenuating circumstances, Pip-Squeak! That’s what I’m saying. I’m willing to bet that if your love was as strong as you claim then he never got over you either.”
I shake my head, unable to take my eyes off of her. Oh, God, she’s finally lost it. “I… that’s… No way, Eden. I saw him… He was happy… He was moving on with his life.”
“You saw him for all of what? Five minutes? And besides, that was four damn years ago. You have no idea what’s really going on in his life.”
“But,” I utter, motioning to her phone. “To just ambush him like that… I mean, what the hell would I even say?”
She grins. “Hey, Wyatt. Wanna have a baby?”
“Oh my God, you’ve officially lost your mind if you think this is a good idea!” I yell, rolling my eyes and ripping myself out of my chair as I grab my coffee mug and slip behind the curtain. Grabbing the pot out of the machine, I pour myself another cup as her idea starts to nag at me.
No, it’s absolutely insane.
I can’t.
But the thought of seeing Wyatt again after all these years, it makes my heart race and my stomach flutter with the good kind of nerves.
“Just listen,” she says as I walk back into the office, holding her hands up in front of her like I have a loaded weapon in my hands. I glance down at the hot cup of coffee in my hand and shrug. I suppose it would do in a pinch. “I know, right now it sounds crazy and admittedly, it is a little out there but what if you don’t? What if we just let this go and you spend the rest of your life alone, with no babies and wondering what would have happened if you had just gotten the courage to meet him?”
“Stop making sense,” I mutter, bringing the cup of coffee to my lips as her words bounce around in my head. Eden grins.
“I can’t. Come on, you know it’s a good idea.”
I pin her with a glare. “It’s an idea, I’ll give it that but I haven’t said a word to him in over ten years, Edie…There is no way in hell he’s still hung up on me.”
“Then answer me this, why hasn’t he signed the divorce papers in the four years since you sent them to him?”
