“Where the fuck was this wisdom a year ago?” I asked.
“Sitting in some dumbass vault while I drooled over women, man. But being with Anna and owning my own business? It’s given me time to think and reevaluate things. I like where I am, so I want to figure out how to make this current state of life better.”
“Sounds like we got dreams coming true all over the place,” I said.
/> “You’re damn right we do. But it isn’t always rainbows. Building our business taught us that. And with Hailey? And Anna? We’re building something from scratch. So expect the road bumps and the fights and the moments where you wanna give up, man. Because they’re coming full force.”
I looked back over at the gallery and saw Hailey come out. She looked exhausted, and I made room for her to come sit with us at the diner. I watched as she waddled to her car and opened the door. Then her eyes panned up to me and found mine. She studied me as I looked at her through the window of the diner, my hand raising to her and beckoning her to come over.
But instead, she dropped herself into her car and drove off.
“Looks like someone had a bad day,” Drew said.
“I need to go.”
“Whoa, whoa, man. Wait a minute,” he said.
“She’s upset. I have to go after her,” I said.
“Just give her some space to breathe. Hailey’s always been that way, right?”
“Not always. I mean, I don’t know. Look, she’s carrying my child, and she’s not okay. I have to go make sure she’s—”
“Bryan, sit the fuck down,” he said.
I sat back down into my seat as Drew released my wrist.
“Just finish your dinner and then make your way home. Give Hailey some time to decompress. In the past, you pushing and poking and prodding didn’t get her to open up any fucking sooner. So try something different. Give her space to process.”
“She’s not okay. You saw that look. The way she was hunched over and walking.”
“And my advice still stands,” he said. “Finish your food and give her some space.”
“Part of my duties as her future husband is to be there when she’s had a bad day,” I said.
“And the other part is understanding when she needs you to butt out. And that look? It had ‘butt out’ written all over it,” he said.
“Drew, I—”
“Man, if there’s one thing I know about women, it’s to not go looking for trouble when there’s no trouble to be found. Right now, you’re making assumptions based on a look from across the street. Anything could be wrong, and if you assert yourself too soon or start making assumptions while she’s racing with hormones and exhaustion, you’re gonna make things worse.”
I sighed as I grabbed another french fry and tossed it into my mouth.
“There ya go. Now. Tell me about the foundation. How’s stuff with all that going?”
Chapter 20
Hailey
Of course, he would be at the fucking diner with Drew. Of course, he would ask me to come over like nothing was wrong. He didn’t think I was onto him, but I was. It was no coincidence that he was over there the same afternoon that his two-faced bitch came stomping into my gallery. Maybe they were going to meet up after his fun little dinner with Drew, or maybe they were going to walk the beach after I left the gallery.
Either way, I sure as hell wasn’t having dinner with him.
I got into my car and took off down the road. I was ready to get home, sink myself into bed, and go the fuck to sleep. There was no way in this world Bryan didn’t know that woman. She knew intimate details about his life, about his tattoos on his body and his family’s cabin when John was still alive. She knew them. Both of them. And she knew about his work at the foundation.
There was no way that woman was lying about all of that. And even if she was, what the hell was her motive? Coming in there and making comments about my weight and how Bryan was going to leave me over it. Those were the tactics of an overconfident other woman. Someone Bryan might’ve fucked around with on one of our ‘off seasons’ or some shit. Maybe she was trying to wiggle her way back into his world by trying to shove me out by casting seeds of doubt that would rift us apart.
And if that was her plan, then it was fucking working.