“Oh.” He shakes his head dismissively. “I’ve known that for a long time.”
“We have very different concepts of ‘a long time,’” I inform him. “A month is not a long time.”
“There’s no way in hell you think I’ve only known that for a month.”
“Fine, a few months,” I allow.
“Try again.”
I frown down at him. He’s calm now, lightly amused. His fingers move lightly up and down the curve of my back. I’m not in the mood to play guessing games. “Well, I’ve been sharing you with someone else for four years. Evenly, until a few months ago when she got pregnant again. I know you and I have always had… this,” I say, for lack of an adequate word to describe what’s between us. “But you must have been getting something from her you weren’t getting from me.”
He shrugs. “Nothing I won’t still have now. Frankly, sharing was kind of a hassle.”
I can’t keep my jaw from dropping open. “A hassle?”
“Not you,” he says, amused at how offended I am. His hands settle at the small of my back and he pulls me up to give me a little kiss. “You’ve always been my favorite disturber of the peace, even before you were mine. I’m looking forward to you hassling me for the rest of my life. Keeps me on my toes.”
“We did sister wives for you and you have the nerve to call the experience a hassle.”
Shaking his head, he says, “I mostly did sister wives for you. You didn’t want me to hurt Meg, so I didn’t. As long as we were all happy, it was fine. Once that stopped, I couldn’t justify the inconvenience any longer.”
I can’t close my jaw. It’s hanging wide open and I’m so flabbergasted, I don’t even know what to say. “But… but…”
“I don’t see the problem,” he states. “We all got what we wanted. No one got hurt.”
“You’ve been sleeping with someone else for four years.”
“Yes.” His tone seems to imply, “and the problem is?”
My eyes threaten to bulge out of my head. “Why would you do that?”
“I just told you,” he states. “I was already killing Vince—you think I should’ve compounded it by making you feel like you were hijacking me from your pregnant friend? You absorb guilt the way a sponge absorbs water; you’d have fallen apart. Meg agreed to the arrangement, you agreed; problem solved. I never intended for sister wives to go on this long, but you both seemed to get what you needed from it. I didn’t mind it. This isn’t that complicated to understand, Mia.”
Yes, it is! I can’t say that and sound like an idiot, but it totally is. “Didn’t you love Meg?”
“Sure,” he says, easily. “In a much more limited way.” He catches my hand, lacing our fingers together and kissing my knuckles. “I’m only in love with you. I would take my life apart and rebuild it to fit you all over again if you needed me to.”
My heart sinks under the weight of that tenderness bomb, but my brain holds steady at the helm. “Mateo… you proposed to her.”
He shrugs. “Well, I didn’t plan to take you back at the time. You were never going to leave Vince on your own, and for a while you two seemed fairly happy together. You wanted to move on and I let you. I figured it was for the best anyway. But Meg brought you back. Before Meg, you kept your distance from me. I only ever saw you in person on Sunday nights, and Vince was always there. If I couldn’t have you, I wanted you around as much as possible. People look at things through their own individual lenses. My settling down would’ve reassured you and Vince that the threat had been lifted. He would’ve been less vigilant and you wouldn’t have been afraid to come around anymore. Maybe you wouldn’t have been with me, but you would’ve still been there for all the important things in my life. Once I had you all lulled, you could’ve come by for dinner and drinks again. I may have even been able to convince you guys to move into the guest suite Adrian occupies now. If not, you still would’ve graced my table for holiday dinners and all the important things. Vince didn’t want children and I distanced you from your existing family, so with nowhere else to go, you would’ve ended up here. Long story short, the easiest and most effective way to install you in my life permanently was to settle down with Meg. I was fond of her, we had fun together. Meg was a good back-up; she just wasn’t you. I was fair to her. I gave her the life she wanted, met all her needs and desires. Does it matter if I didn’t entirely mean it?”