I groaned as I rolled over, the sheets tangled around my legs. My arm automatically reached out for Ty, forgetting what had happened last night. As soon as I felt the empty, cold space, it all came flooding back. Her.
His wife. I still couldn’t believe he had a wife and hadn’t told me. It was time to deal with whatever was going to be thrown my way today, but I didn’t want to move out of this bed. I wanted to stay here and pretend the outside world didn’t exist.
In here I was away from it all, all the secrets.
I sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I had to get up, for Eli and Miss Maggie, they were probably wondering where I was anyway.
“Mornin’, sweetheart.” A gruff voice said from the corner.
I squeaked, my hand flying to my chest. “Ty,” I breathed.
What was he doing in here?
My head and my heart were in a war. My head was telling me that I shouldn’t trust him, he had lied. Well maybe not lied, but he didn’t tell me and it wasn’t like it was a little thing to just not tell me. Having a wife was a big thing, such a huge part of his life that he should have told me about.
But my heart?
That was telling me to trust him, to hear him out. He wouldn’t hurt me; he’d done nothing but protect me since I’d walked onto this compound.
Right now, my brain was winning the war and I knew that he could see that.
“Just hear me out,” he said as he stood up, holding his hands up in the air as a sign of peace making.
Shaking my head, I pushed the covers aside, slid off the bed, and made a beeline for the door. Pulling on the handle, I flung it open and walked as fast as I could but compared to his giant leaps that he calls steps, I didn’t make it far in front before he was right at my back.
“I don’t want to hear anything, Ty.” Stomping down the stairs, I turned into the kitchen.
“Kay,” he growled. “Just listen.”
“What? Listen to how you turned me into a home wrecker?” I pushed the button to start the coffee pot and spun around, leaning against the counter. “Don’t you think that was something you should have told me before we…you know.” I waved my hand in the air to get my point across.
He smirked. That insufferable smirk that always made me smile. This time was different though, I wouldn’t allow him past my walls. Nope. He was staying firmly in front of them.
“When we slept together?” he stepped forward.
“Yeah.” Clearing my throat, I turned to pull a cup out of the cupboard.
“Let me get that for you, sweetheart.” His breath fanned across my neck, causing a shiver to roll through my body. Why did he always have this effect on me?
I watched his hand wrap around the cup and bring it down to the counter. He didn’t step back, instead he pulled the coffee pot off its holder and poured me a cup.
“I should have known to wait until you’d had this,” he chuckled.
I released the breath that I had been holding when he stepped back, hanging my head. How did he do that?
He could disarm me without me even knowing. Damn it, I could never stay mad at him, it wasn’t fair.
“Fine,” I huffed, turning to face him. “I’m listening.”
Waving his hand to the small table and two chairs that sat in the kitchen, he said, “Let’s sit.”
Blowing out another breath, I stomped forward and slumped into the seat that he had pulled out for me. Ever the gentleman.
“First, I want to say that I never intentionally lied to you. I didn’t tell you because…well…shit.” He ran his hand through his hair then dropped it onto the table.
I could see that he was struggling to tell me. Scanning his face, I noticed the dark circles that had appeared under his eyes. He looked worn out and I hated seeing him like that.
“Ty…” I was in two minds. It was true, he hadn’t intentionally lied but he still hadn’t told me.
But then, I still had secrets. Things that none of them knew about. Could I really be mad at him for not telling me?
“No, let me get this out,” he said, looking anywhere but at me.
“Okay.” I lifted my cup to my lips and took a sip of the sweet nectar.
“Me and Serena were married right out of high school,” he said, not bringing his eyes to mine. “I thought I loved her, I really did. But when I went away, I didn’t know half of the things that went on.”
So that was her name. Serena.
His fingers started drumming on the table, the beat relaxing me slightly. I’d become so used to hearing it that when Ty wasn’t doing it, it felt strange.
“It wasn’t until that day,” he croaked. “That day changed everything. I saw her for what she really was and then I started to find out all the shit that she had been doing while I was away. All the men she was sleeping with.” He looked up, his brown eyes flashing as he said “In my bed.”
“Ty.” I leaned forward, placing my hand on his. “I’m sorry.” I never expected that to come out of his mouth.
He laughed. “The men didn’t bother me, it’s what else she did…” I watched as he swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing up and down. and his chest moving as he took big breath.
“What happened?”
“I can’t…” he said, his voice cracking.
Frowning at him, I gulped down the lump that was forming in my throat. Was this what it felt like when I told him I wasn’t ready to talk about Max? Because right now I hated the feeling that was rolling through me.
“I understand,” I whispered, although what I really wanted to say was ‘tell me’.
“I walked out on her,” he said, his eyes a mixture of anger and sadness. “I asked for a divorce but she wouldn’t sign the papers.”
“So…she’s only your wife legally?”
“Yeah.” He turned his hand so his palm was against mine and squeezed lightly. “She means nothing to me, sweetheart. I swear.”
Nodding, I tried to take it all in. I was a hypocrite. I’d walked off, not allowing him to explain while I still held so many secrets. Secrets and lies that he never pushed to know.
“What about that?” I said, pointing to the lipstick on his shirt.
“What?” Pulling away, he looked down at his collar and rolled his eyes. “She tried to attack me.” My brows flew high on my forehead. “With her lips.”
“And…”
“I pulled away, sweetheart. There’s only one person’s lips that I want to touch.” I squirmed in my seat. His eyes flashed with desire as I moved. Realizing that all I had on was a t-shirt, I tried to pull it down a little.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, bringing his attention back to my face.
“What for?” He frowned.
“I walked away and didn’t give you chance to explain. I know there’s still things that you don’t know about my past and I want to be able to tell you. But…”
I looked around the room, scared to look him in the eyes and find that he wanted me to tell him right then. I still wasn’t ready. I didn’t know whether I ever would be.
“It’s okay.” He pushed up out of his chair and walked toward me. Crouching down so that he was the same level as me, he cupped the side of my face. “When you’re ready, I’m here.”
“I’ll try.” I swallowed. “I’ll try to open up to you.”
“Okay, sweetheart.”
“But, you need to try too.” I raised my brows in challenge. If I was going to open up, then so was he. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that there wasn’t more to that story. Much more. But I knew that to get him to open up about it, I needed to as well.
It was only fair.
“Okay,” he huffed.
Smiling, I leaned into his hand. I hated not being able to talk to him last night. Knowing that he had sat in that chair all night, probably not getting a wink of sleep, had butterflies swarming in my stomach. He was always watching over me and that in itself, made me feel safer than I ever had.
He moved forward, closing the distance between us.
“We good?” he asked against my lips.
“We’re good,” I said on a breath and closed the distance between us.
I could have pulled away from Ty completely, been mad at him for not telling me. But what about what I wasn’t telling him?
He didn’t know half of the things that went on with Max, he didn’t know what the daily struggle that was involved with living with him. He had no idea of the number of scars I carried on the inside, not just on the outside.
There was no way that I could criticize him for not telling me when I was doing exactly the same.
Knowing that there was more to the story than he had told me, made me wary. I hadn’t been given the full story and I was doubting that I would be told what had actually happened.
But as I sat here at the meeting table, looking at Ty, I didn’t doubt what he had told me. I trusted that when he said she hadn’t been his wife for years, that he meant it.
One thing that I did doubt was me, whether I would be able to tell him my secrets.
I had been dreading this meeting since I came back on the compound after the charity function. Miss Maggie had kept my mind off things while she had been here but as soon as she went home last night, my stomach rolled.
Knowing that we would have to talk about her, Serena, made me feel sick. I knew that we all had a past but I needed to digest the information that I’d been given. I hadn’t been able to do that just yet.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from flicking down to Ty’s left hand, imagining the wedding band that would have once sat there.
That, at least, was one thing I hadn’t done. Max was all up for getting married but having Corey away gave me an excuse to wait. At least that came in handy for something.
“Ready?” Ty said to all of us, although his eyes were on me.
They had all been distant with me since the charity function. I understood that they didn’t know what was happening, or how to take the news that Ty’s wife was back in town. To be honest though, I was glad they had kept their distance yesterday. I just wanted to spend time with Eli and Miss Maggie and forget about everything that had happened. Now, it was time to face the music.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head and picked up my pen that sat on top of the notepad.
“Where do you wanna start, boss?” Evan said from above his laptop screen, his eyes flicking to me and then back to Ty.
Rolling my eyes, I said, “Let’s start with Serena.” May as well start with the one subject they were all scared to talk about around me.
You could have heard a pin drop with the silence that greeted me.
“Seriously? It’s fine. We’re fine,” I said way too high pitched to even remotely come across as ‘being fine’.
Ty leaned over, his hand resting on my knee and whispered, “You sure, sweetheart?”
“Yeah.” I gritted my teeth from saying anything else.
What they didn’t realize was, they were making it worse. If they didn’t make a big deal out of it, and just got on with what we needed to discuss, then it would be fine. I kept saying that word ‘fine’, but I really was fine.
At least, that was what I would keeping telling myself.
“Right,” Luke said, clearing his throat. “So, Serena and Daley are working together?”
“Seems that way,” Ty said, pulling back away from me.
“So is the charity even a real charity? Or is it just a front?” Kitty asked, leaning forward in her seat.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Evan answered. He was still tapping away at his laptop, his face in deep concentration.
“If it is just a front, that means that they’re working together. But if it’s not a front, then it could just be Daley.” Ty looked to all of us, gaging our reaction.
There was no point in them speculating, we needed hard evidence one way or another. Without it, we hadn’t got a clue who was behind it.
“I think we need to find out if the charity is real before we start speculating, we won’t know until then.” I leaned back in my chair, not looking up. I couldn’t cope with the sympathy in their eyes when they looked at me.
“Yeah, but if it’s Daley using Serena, then should we tell her?” Evan asked.
My nostrils flared as I listened to Evan. Why was it, that he automatically assumed Serena was the one who didn’t know? I saw the look in her eyes when she told me she was Ty’s wife.
I saw that same look in Max’s eyes every day for years. There was no way that I could have been mistaken, I’d seen it too much.
“Wow.” I lifted my eyes to him, “Really?”
“Wh-What?” Evan frowned.
“Why are you so quick to think it’s him and not her? Maybe she’s the one using it as a cover and he has no idea what is going on right in front of him.” My voice became louder the more I spoke. I was starting to feel out of control and I never felt out of control anymore, at least not like this.
“Yeah, alright then.” Evan snorted, rolling his eyes.
He’d dismissed me completely. I’d never thought that Evan would do that, he’d always listened to me.
I pushed back slowly on my chair, the legs scraping against the floor.
“Kay-”
“No!” I ground out. “I can’t deal with this; I need to…” I took a deep breath and looked around the warehouse, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I had no idea what I was thinking, what I was doing, or what I was feeling. It was obviously too soon to be talking about her.
“Why don’t you take a break? Go back to the house for a while?” Ty said, standing up. He placed is hand on my lower back, trying to steer me away from the table.
Sparks shot through me at his connection. I gritted my teeth and pulled away, not being able to cope with him touching me at the moment. Nodding my head, I stepped away from the table. I needed to get out of here.
“Want me to join you, chica?” Kitty asked as I rounded the table.
“Sure,” I puffed out and pulled the door open, not waiting for her.
This was one of those times that I just wished I could pick my phone up and call Corey. He’d be able to get through to me, help me sort through all of these whirling thoughts going around in my head.