The Last Man She Expected

by Michelle Major

  Mara shook her head then shifted to glance at the parents huddled a few feet away. “There’s another dad helping coach since Parker returned to Seattle. Kind of intense. He yelled at Evie.”

  Brynn let out a strangled snort. “Oh, no, he didn’t.”

  “It’s okay, Mama Bear.” Mara patted the top of Brynn’s head. “Evie might be shy, but she’s also discovered quite the mulish streak. The assistant dad also yelled at the girl who’s always bullied Evie, and my kid stuck up for both of them.”

  “Good for her.”

  “Yeah. Josh missed the whole interaction, and he put Evie in on defense. So far, she’s let three balls roll by without moving.”

  “A peaceful protest. She’s a nonconformist at age five. I love it.”

  “I doubt the other parents feel the same. She might get kicked off the team.”

  “Josh won’t let that happen,” Brynn promised. “He’s a stand-up guy.”

  “Unlike his brother?”

  “I’m sorry you’re hurting,” Brynn said with another shoulder squeeze. “But I can’t believe Parker used you. I don’t want to sound naive. It’s simply not the guy I know.”

  “Me neither.” Mara sighed. “I’m worried I didn’t really know him. What if I was too distracted by the chemistry and easing the loneliness of single parenting?”

  “It’s so darn lonely.” Brynn’s voice sounded wistful.

  “Evie’s hurting, and it’s my fault. I essentially cut her father from her life and now I’ve let her get close to a man I knew wasn’t in it for the long haul.”

  Brynn stepped away then turned to face Mara. “Did you actually know that?”

  Mara shook her head. “I’m too confused to know anything at this point. Other than I have to do what’s right for my daughter.”

  “Okay.” Brynn nodded, almost more to herself than Mara. “First things first. You need to talk to your ex.”

  “I called his office and made an appointment to meet with him next week. If he wants to be a real dad to Evie, I’m going to help him.”

  “You also need to figure out what’s going on with him and his new wife.” Brynn leaned in. “And with Parker. Attorney-client privilege only goes one way. Your ex can tell you what happened at that meeting.”

  “I’m not sure I want to know.”

  “Ask anyway.”

  Mara sniffed. “Are you this brave in your own life?”

  “Heck, no.” Brynn flashed a cheeky grin. “But I did respond to one of my online matches last night. We’re meeting for coffee next week.”

  “Nice. I want to hear...” Mara gasped, her lungs constricting, as Evie suddenly ran at a girl from the other team with high pigtails dribbling the ball toward the goal. She’d never seen her daughter move so quickly, and definitely not on the soccer field.

  Looking not at all like herself, Evie stole the ball and began to run down the field. The pink tip of her tongue poked out from between her lips as she concentrated on her ball handling. Maybe Parker had missed his calling as a youth soccer coach because Mara barely recognized her daughter.

  She could hear the players and parents cheering through the ringing in her ears, but all her attention remained on Evie. When she got close to the opposing goal, the girl planted her feet for an instant then ran at the ball, sending it sailing into the air. It hit one of the goalposts and Mara cringed, her heart in her throat. But instead of bouncing away, the ball dropped into the goal.

  Evie had scored.

  Brynn shouted and hugged Mara. “She is the second coming of Messi.”

  As Evie’s teammates surrounded her, Mara met Josh’s gaze across the field. Grinning, he held up his hands as if to ask how that goal had just happened.

  She shook her head as she returned his smile.

  A few of the parents congratulated her. Despite the still-intense pain over losing Parker and her fears with regard to talking to Paul, Mara’s heart felt full.

  At the end of the game, she hugged her daughter, crouching down so she and Evie were at eye level. “That was an amazing goal.”

  Evie nodded, glancing over her shoulder. “I’m going to hang out with my friends,” she said, pointing to where the rest of the team stood together, enjoying cake pops one of the parents had brought for an end-of-game celebration.

  “Sure,” Mara said, chest squeezing. “I’ll be here with the other mommies and daddies.”

  “Can we call Parker later?” Evie asked, wiping a hand across her forehead. “I want to tell him ’bout scoring.”

  Mara’s lungs felt like they’d been flattened by a semi. “We’ll see.” She smiled and ruffled Evie’s hair. “Go get your cake pop, girl.”

  “’Kay. Love you, Mommy.”

  “Love you, too, Evie-Stevie.”

  Mara curled her hands into fists, welcoming the pain of her nails digging into her palms. Her daughter wanted to call Parker. How were either of them going to let him go?

  * * *

  Parker sat behind his desk the following Tuesday, frustrated beyond belief at how much trouble he was having reacclimatizing to his regular routine.

  It was as if he’d been on some stellar once-in-a-lifetime vacation for the past few weeks instead of scrambling to renovate an old lumber mill in a town he’d left in his rearview mirror a decade earlier.

  But he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that his normal life no longer fit the man he was...or more important, the man he wanted to be. Sunshine and blue skies had met him in Seattle, a few more weeks of fall before the winter gray permeated everything. For Parker, the landscape paled in comparison to Starlight, although he understood that had more to do with the depth of his emotional ties than anything else.

  He glanced up when someone knocked on his door. Josh stepped into the office.

  Parker immediately strode forward and wrapped his brother in a huge hug. “Man, this is a surprise. Good to see you. How are things? How’s Anna? Does she miss me?”

  Josh’s eyes widened with shock as Parker pulled away. “Um...you know it’s been less than a week since you left?”

  “Yeah.” Heat flooded Parker’s cheeks. He was acting like an idiot, greeting his brother as if they’d been separated for years. It felt like a lifetime ago that he’d driven out of his hometown. Since returning to Seattle, he hadn’t slept more than a few hours a night and he had trouble focusing on anything.

  “She misses you,” Josh said gently.

  Parker cleared his throat. “Bring her into the city. We can show her the pier and go to the aquarium. I’ve heard it’s—”

  “I was talking about Mara.”

  “Don’t go there,” Parker said. “You know there’s no chance for us.”

  “Never say never.” Josh smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Lucky for you, I have my own woman trouble to deal with at the moment. You’re off the hook for now.”

  “Are you dating someone?” As far as Parker knew, his brother hadn’t been with a woman, even casually, since the divorce.

  “Jenn called yesterday. She wants to see Anna.”

  Parker cursed under his breath.

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “Sit down.” Parker walked behind his desk again and slid into the chair. Damn. He could feel the tension radiating from his brother. He’d been so happy to see Josh, he’d missed it at first. He’d missed so much.

  “Of course I want Anna to see her mom.” Josh grabbed at his head with both hands, leaving his hair standing on end like Parker remembered from when they’d been boys. “Everything happened so fast when she left. I was dealing with the cancer treatments and then the bills, so I didn’t exactly process any feelings around my marriage. There wasn’t time. I had to keep moving...”

  “Moving forward,” Parker murmured, as he’d told himself on the drive out of Starlight.

  �
�Yes,” Josh breathed.

  “Do you still love her?” Parker felt compelled to ask. Once again, he realized he’d failed his brother. Almost a month living under the same roof, and they hadn’t talked about the details of Jenn leaving or how Josh felt about it now. Divorce was business for Parker, but if Mara had taught him one thing, it was that the emotional toll of ending a marriage left way worse scars than any financial ramifications.

  Much like it had been with their father.

  “Not in the way a husband loves a wife,” Josh admitted. “Although I’m not angry, either. I’m...” He shook his head. “Empty.” The word sounded wrong coming from Josh. His brother had the biggest capacity for love Parker had ever seen.

  “You’re not empty. I’ve seen you with Anna. Hell, with the soccer team. You connect with every subcontractor that works at the mill. You aren’t empty.” Parker took a breath. “If you’re empty, I must be a cavernous void of emotion.”

  Josh laughed. “Only a little.”

  “What do you want to see happen with Jenn?” Parker asked after a moment.

  “In the divorce we agreed—”

  “I don’t care what came before. Tell me what you want, and I’ll make it happen. No offense to my former sister-in-law, but I’ll cut her off at the knees if that’s what it takes to protect you.”

  “Stop.”

  “I’m serious.”

  Josh sighed. “I know, and I appreciate it. Remember what we talked about before you left? You don’t have to be some merciless tyrant. That’s not why you became a family law attorney.”

  “Divorce attorney,” Parker corrected.

  “Don’t pretend like you weren’t changed by your time in Starlight. By Mara.”

  “I’m not discussing her.” Just hearing her name made Parker’s pulse quicken. “If you want help with your ex-wife...in any capacity... I’m here for you. But nothing about my life is going to change.”

  “I do want help with Jenn.” Josh laughed without humor. “Not cutting her off at the knees, but I have a tendency to roll over when faced with conflict. I never learned how to manage it with Dad, but now I can’t stop myself.”

  A tight ball of regret formed in Parker’s throat. “If you need me to be strong for you...”

  “I need you to teach me to be strong for myself and for Anna.”

  “We can manage that,” Parker promised.

  Josh’s shoulders sagged and when he smiled, it finally reached his eyes. “You help me and I’ll teach you how to be vulnerable.”

  Parker barked out a laugh. “No thanks. Full up on vulnerable over here.”

  “You haven’t even scratched the surface.”

  “Which is just how I like it.”

  “You don’t like being alone,” Josh said quietly. “You don’t like living without Mara.”

  Parker should have argued but why bother? He wasn’t going to fool his brother.

  “Let’s figure you out first,” he answered instead. “Then we’ll worry about me.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next morning, Mara pressed her fingers to the picture window in the lobby of her ex-husband’s company headquarters. From this vantage point, she had an unobstructed view of the Space Needle, Elliott Bay and the Cascade Mountains to the east. Little did she realize when this had been her workplace that one day she’d leave it behind and make her home in the picturesque valley.

  She remembered the first time she’d walked into the expansive space on the thirty-fifth floor of the tallest high-rise building in downtown Seattle. She’d been both overwhelmed and slightly awestruck, willing to do anything to prove she could make it in the real world.

  Now she could laugh at her younger self. If that girl had known how real things would get...

  “Mara.”

  Paul looked the same as she remembered. Her ex-husband was just shy of six feet tall with a lean build he highlighted by favoring expensively tailored suits. His hair remained dark brown with a few slashes of gray near his temples, giving him an air of maturity that wasn’t always reflected in his behavior.

  To her surprise, she had no immediate physical reaction to seeing him. The anger, hurt and bitterness that had been her bosom companions for so long didn’t make an inkling of an appearance. Instead, a sense of peace seeped into the very fiber of her being. This man had no power over her, and the pain he’d caused was part of her past.

  She was smarter now, stronger too. Maybe not all the time or in every situation—Parker’s face drifted into her mind and she forced it away. For Evie and for herself, Mara would stay in control.

  “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me,” she said, offering a small smile.

  Paul blinked, as if surprised by her amicable tone. “I’m glad you called.”

  The young assistant who stood a few paces behind him, a woman Mara didn’t recognize, cleared her throat. “Do you need anything, Mr. Reed?”

  Paul kept his gaze on Mara. “Coffee?” he asked. “You used to take it with too much sugar.”

  She wanted to laugh at the censure inherent in his comment. During their marriage, that kind of veiled criticism would have sent her into a tailspin of self-incrimination.

  “Sugar doesn’t do it for me anymore,” she said then met the beleaguered gaze of his assistant. “Nothing for me. Thank you.”

  The woman nodded and scurried away.

  “Let’s talk in my office,” Paul said.

  Mara followed him down the hall, aware of the stares she received. She kept her eyes trained on her ex-husband, not wanting to reconnect with anyone from her former life. She might be making peace with her past, but she was still aware the coworkers she’d thought were her friends had turned their backs on her during the divorce.

  They entered the large corner office and Paul immediately went to stand behind his antique cherry desk, the one Mara had found online and had shipped from Chicago when she’d redone his office.

  “You didn’t change anything,” she murmured, turning in a circle to survey the room.

  “I like my office,” he answered simply.

  “Me, too,” she agreed. She’d spent months working on the design and choosing the decor. It had been one of her first big assignments within the company and marked the beginning of her romantic involvement with Paul. In hindsight, she realized he hadn’t needed his office space redecorated but had used it as a reason to spend time with her. His intention hadn’t mattered, though, because she’d loved what she created.

  “I’m assuming the purpose of this meeting isn’t to reminisce about your undeniable talent for design?”

  “No,” she answered, taking a slow step toward the desk. “Although I’m intrigued by your description of me. That’s quite a change from what I remember in the courtroom.”

  “We were at war.” Paul lowered himself into the chair. “Now we aren’t.”

  Could it truly be that uncomplicated? He’d gone after her because it was what people did in a divorce, and now time and perspective had softened him.

  Paul was not a man who could normally be described as soft. From the hard angles of his tanned face to his unwavering need for success in business, his focus was laser sharp and legendary. He’d focused on destroying her and had nearly succeeded. But now...there was something in his features, a gentling she wouldn’t have noticed if she didn’t know him so well.

  “You really love her.” Mara dropped into the chair across from the desk, her knees weak.

  “Evie? Of course I do, Mara. She’s my daughter. I may not have been—”

  “Aimee,” she clarified. “Your wife. You love your wife.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m not discussing my marriage with you.”

  “She came to see me.”

  “Why?” he breathed.

  Mara wasn’t sure how much to reveal. Aimee had a
sked her to intervene, but the other woman’s pregnancy seemed too private to mention if Paul didn’t already know. “She loves you, too. Very much.” Mara flashed a sad smile. “She’s afraid you’re going to do to her what you did to me.”

  Silence stretched between them, punctuated by the rhythmic tapping of his gold pen on the desk pad.

  “It’s different,” he said finally. “I’m different.”

  Maybe Mara should have been hurt by the words. It would have been easier to process if he were to treat his current wife with the same callousness he’d shown Mara. But she didn’t want that for Aimee or for Paul. If Evie were to have a relationship with her father, Mara wanted him to be happy. She wanted anything that would benefit her daughter.

  “Have you told her?” Mara leaned forward. “She knows you met with your divorce attorney.”

  “Parker?” Paul sniffed. “So what? My business meetings have nothing to do with—”

  “You love her,” Mara interrupted, in no mood to entertain Paul’s blustering. “I didn’t ask for Aimee to come to me, but she did. Talking to the man who facilitated the failure of your previous marriages doesn’t give a wife a ton of confidence in your commitment to her.”

  “Those failures were on me, not Parker.” His gaze dropped to the desk. “I failed you most of all. I failed our daughter.”

  “It’s not too late.”

  He jerked up his head. “For you and Evie,” she quickly clarified, swallowing back a burst of hysterical laughter. “I’m not looking to reconcile. Despite your best efforts to ruin it, I believe your marriage to Aimee is strong. I’m glad she makes you happy, Paul.”

  “Are you happy?”

  Mara’s chest tightened. “I’m working on it. Evie makes me happy. She’s amazing.”

  “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to her. I did talk to Parker, and he wasn’t as compassionate as you in telling me that I’m acting like an insufferable tool.”

  Mara felt her mouth drop open. Parker had said that to Paul? It didn’t make sense. When she’d accused him of supporting her ex’s bad behavior, he hadn’t denied it. He hadn’t put up any sort of fight. She schooled her features, not wanting Paul to see how much this affected her. “Another surprising description, especially coming from a man you pay.”