Sold to My Ex's Dad (The Auction)

She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me back before she pulls away and offers me a wobbly smile. As she gathers her things, I stand there not wanting to miss out on a moment with her and then walk her to the door, kissing her again before she leaves. Taking a deep breath, I turn and go back to the family room at the back of the house where Brett is waiting.

When I walk into the room, they both have their noses on their phones, and I can only imagine who they're talking to right now.

"We need to talk," I say. Then I glare at my son.

Chapter 15

Aspen

I don't even remember getting home, just collapsing on the couch and crying. No matter how much Evan stressed that it doesn't change things between us, in a way it does. That's his son, his family, his flesh and blood. As much as I hate to admit it, Brett should be important as me.

But then I also didn't want him to see me fall apart. Something about finding out Brett had proposed to this girl, and that she was the one that he dumped me for just hit harder than I expected. While I knew he would be dating, I didn't really care. But I just never thought I'd have to come face to face with her.

It's not that I still have feelings for Brett because I don't. At least not like that. Yet because of everything that was going on with my mom, I don't think I ever fully healed from what he did to me. Instead, I tucked it away and moved on because my mom needed me. Though I never dealt with it all, but now I don't have a choice.

Pulling myself up off the couch, I go into the kitchen and grab a tub of ice cream and a spoon. I also get my tablet and collapse back on the couch. Trying to distract myself with pointless videos online, I decide to look at my email first and check if I have anything from Willow. Seeing her message with the phone number and instructions to call her, I glance at the time. Since she's in Montana, which is an hour behind me, it's not too late. So I get my phone and give her a call.

"Hello." a deep gruff voice answers the phone.

"Can I speak to Willow, please?" I ask. Though he doesn't say anything right away and I almost wonder if we've been disconnected.

"Who is this?" he sounds almost pissed off.

"Oh, my name is Aspen. Willow and I..."

"Hang on.” He interrupts me without a second thought. Then there are some muffled voices before Willow finally takes the phone.

"Aspen? Are you safe? Did you make money? What happened?"

"Calm down there, tiger. I'm fine. I'm safe. I made more money than I thought possible, but I need to know that you're safe too and that you're okay."

"I'm plenty safe. Bennett won't let anything happen to me. By the way, that was my husband, Bennett, who answered the phone."

"So, you went through with it? You did marry him?"

"Yeah, but it is completely not what I was expecting. He lives up here on the mountain in a kind of secluded area. But his friends are really nice and all of them are married. It’s nice that their wives accepted me without a second thought. And I actually love it out here in Montana. It’s so peaceful and relaxing. But the best of all is that with Bennett it was love at first sight." I can hear the goofy smile on her face, and I know that smile. It's been a long time since she's had that smile on her face and I'm really happy for her.

"Now tell me what happened at the auction. Did I understand your email right? Brett's dad bought you?"

The next half hour is spent going over all the details of the auction and leading up to what happened tonight. All while stuffing my mouth full of ice cream.

"Wow, I don't even know what to say," she remarks after I finish telling her everything.

"That about sums it up. So here I am eating ice cream tonight instead of spending the night with him like planned."

"I know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but are you all right?" she asks.

Even so far away, I can hear the genuine concern in her voice. That’s one thing I like about Willow, you can always tell that she genuinely cares.

"Yes... No... I don't know. I knew it couldn't last, but I just didn't think it would go like this. Even though I had it all built up in my head that he was going to have a talk with his son, I knew it wouldn't go smoothly, but I expected it to go better than this."

"I bet he comes for you tonight. Just wait and see," Willow says, always the optimist.

"I don't know. But then there’s his son and I don't think he'll want to lose that relationship. They haven't always had it easy, but I know that his son means the world to him. Even when I was with Brett, I could tell how close they were." After talking for a while longer, I could tell she was trying to distract me, which I appreciated.

Before we hang up, Willow tells me I can call her at that number anytime, so I made sure to save it. Then I turned off the TV, put what was left of the ice cream away, and went to bed. With any luck, I can get to sleep and wake up feeling better and have all this be behind me.

I checked my phone before going to bed. There was nothing from Evan and my heart sinks. I was hoping for at least a goodnight text. Something, anything to let me know that he's thinking about me, even with everything going on. I lay in bed tossing and turning and I'm not quite sure when I fall asleep.