Wife by Design

The third part he could handle. But it wouldn’t be right if he didn’t deal with the other two first.

“Your ex-husband is gay.”

“Yes.” Her chin started to lower, and with one finger, Grant held her face up to the moonlight.

“Did you know when you married him?” They’d been best friends since high school. They’d made a plan.

Because Brandon had needed help to overcome a lifestyle he didn’t want? Because he wanted a traditional family and Lynn was willing to give it to him?

“No!” At least his question had brought some fire back to her eyes. “I had no idea! Brandon and I… We… Our sex life was quite healthy.”

“Before you were married?”

“Yes. We were the stereotypical prom-night-things-got-out-of-control couple. Except that…it was…nice. And we knew we were going to be getting married as soon as we were out of college and so…it wasn’t a onetime thing. By any means.”

It was “nice”? If he’d had a woman say that about him afterward…

Lynn deserved to know what lovemaking was meant to be. With a man who could give her more than nice.

Whoa, Bucko.

“So you found out after Kara was born?”

The sand formed a hard mound under the arches of his feet. Tugging gently on Lynn’s hand, he sat down, pulling her with him. Her skirt flowed out around her, over his shin. With very little effort he could slide his hand up underneath it.

“She was five weeks old,” Lynn was saying. “I knew there was something different about him. I thought he was jealous of Kara. Of how she was completely monopolizing my time and attention. I was breast-feeding and only had eight weeks at home with her before I was going to have to go back to work and…as much as I knew medically about taking care of children, I had a ton to learn about being a mother.”

“I’d think it would be unusual if a woman wasn’t completely taken up by a new baby’s arrival. Especially a first baby.”

“Brandon was caught up with her, too,” Lynn said. “Which was probably why I let her take over so much. I thought we were doing it together. You know, she was another adventure on our path of life. The most incredible, most important adventure.”

One he was never going to have. With her. Or anyone.

“And then he told you he was gay.”

“Yeah. He’d never been particularly close with any of the guys in school—he always hung out with me and my friends, but that just seemed natural to us. I asked him once when he’d first had the idea he might be, and he said that he’d wondered a time or two, but put the thoughts down to having settled into a monogamous marriage that meant having sex with only one person for the rest of his life. He didn’t think it meant anything.

“Until he found out I was pregnant with Kara. Somehow having a daughter, a family, made him look at life entirely differently. He wasn’t as happy as I was—as he’d expected to be. He said he’d expected to feel like his life was perfect when we finally got pregnant, and he didn’t.

“Until he met Douglas. And everything fell horrifyingly into place.”

“He said that? ‘Horrifyingly’?”

“Yeah. If you knew Brandon you’d understand. He really does love me. And he knew what the truth was going to do to me. But he couldn’t lie about who he was. Not to me.”

“That’s when you went back to college, got your masters degree and nurse midwife certification and started a new life.”

“Brandon supported me so I could go back to school full-time and also be at home with Kara for most of the first year. I took what courses I could online. He knew being with Kara and getting my CNM certification were my life’s dreams.”

“Apart from you and him growing old together.”

“Right.”

“So he gave you what he could.” He’d rather have hated the guy.

“Yep. And he still does. He tries so hard to anticipate my needs and be there to fulfill them whenever he can.”

Just not her sexual needs.

Which could be where he came in.

And in a strange sort of way, he guessed, it worked.

CHAPTER TWENTY