The Good Father

But he couldn’t tell Jeff any of that or he’d be breaking his word to Ella. And Chloe, too.

“No kidding,” Jeff said, leaning back to assess Brett, a grin forming on his face. “So that’s what this is about? My sister? How’d it go?”

“How’d what go?”

“You and Ella. Last night.”

Brett shook his head. “There is no me and Ella,” he said, taking a long swig from the mug of beer. He was definitely going to want another one.

“You want me to talk to her?” Jeff asked, drinking much more slowly than Brett was. “I know she was pretty broken up by your divorce, but I’d also bet my life on the fact that she still loves you. You take it slow and you’ll have her back...”

“Stop,” Brett said. How in the hell had this become about him and Ella?

“I’m serious, man. She hasn’t dated anyone seriou

sly since you. That’s pretty telling, if you know what I mean.”

Ella hadn’t had a single relationship in four years? What a waste.

And the selfish part of him, the part he’d inherited from his father, was secretly glad. He’d mattered to her. As she’d mattered to him.

Even though it didn’t change anything—to the contrary, it confirmed his choice to set her free before their relationship deteriorated as his parents’ had—there was comfort in knowing that he’d mattered.

“I’m serious, Jeff,” he said, pulling his mind back from the other space. “There is nothing between Ella and me, and I don’t want there to be. Period. That’s why I divorced her.”

“And seeing her again hasn’t changed your mind?”

“No.” He didn’t waver on that one. Not even in the darkest recesses of his mind. Seeing his ex-wife again had only made his path more difficult. Which was why he had to get this thing with Jeff and Chloe resolved and get out of their lives again.

Back where he belonged.

Alone.

He sipped.

He wasn’t one of them anymore.

“So what’s this about, then? You want me to tell her to leave you alone? I’d hate to do that. She’s been hurt enough, you know.”

Brett had never told Jeff why he and Ella had divorced. He’d never even attempted to justify his actions. Nor had he ever tried to get Jeff to take his side against Ella. There was no side to take.

Ella had been a great wife. The best. She’d deserved the best husband in return.

Ironic, really, that Ella had never put any stock in the potential for violence within him—thinking his fears groundless to the point that he’d ceased speaking to her about them long before their marriage ended. And yet here she was thinking that her brother, who was the least likely candidate for domestic violence, posed a threat to his wife and son.

“Chloe said something yesterday about you two,” Jeff said. “That’s what got me thinking in that direction.”

“Chloe did? What would she know about me and Ella?”

“Just what you know. That Ella called you about checking up on me. And then she put you in touch with Chloe so you could go see her. I guess Chloe was hoping that once you two saw each other again...I don’t know. You know how women are.”

He and Ella were not going to get back together. Ever. And if Ella had given Chloe any reason to suspect differently...

For a second, Brett felt a tiny flutter of the unfamiliar inside him.

And then...nothing. Just like him and Ella. He was going to have to make certain that she understood that. Unequivocally.

Though, after the way he’d reacted to her miraculous pregnancy—with no sign of positive emotion at all—he found it hard to believe Ella would ever want a relationship with him again.