Sebastian

Teasing Delaney was incredibly hard since it also meant teasing myself. It had taken all my restraint to leave her house for dinner rather than dragging her back to her bedroom. I blamed my arousal for the fact that I hadn’t noticed Delaney’s distraction earlier.

So far, we’d just made small talk over dinner. Something was bothering her, and I was pretty sure it had to do with her cousin’s visit. We’d texted several times throughout the day, and she’d seemed fine.

“Did your cousin come with bad news?” I asked, figuring there was no reason to beat around the bush.

“Yes,” she admitted with a sad sigh. “My mother-in-law, my ex’s mom, is sick. She didn’t mention being sick. This whole mess is complicated, and it involves my ex, so maybe we shouldn’t talk about it.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“We just started dating,” she explained. “You don’t want to hear the ugly sordid details of my wretched marriage.”

“How about if I tell you my ugly story, and then you can tell me yours?” I suggested. Eventually, someone would bring up Tessa. At first, I’d done everything in my power to avoid thinking about her. Now, it didn’t hurt nearly as much.

“That sounds reasonable,” she agreed.

“I broke up with my fiancée just over two years ago when she tried to poison me,” I began, waiting for Delaney’s reaction before continuing.

“You win,” she said with a shake of her head. “Your ex is much worse than mine. Cody never tried to kill me.”

“She claimed she wasn’t trying to kill me, just make me really sick,” I added. “After I caught her cheating on me with one of her college professors, I told her it was over. Since we were living together, I decided to be reasonable and move to the couch while Tessa worked on finding a new place to stay. She was really nice to me, even fixing me meals on occasion. I thought she was just trying to get me to forgive her. Then I started getting really sick. She became the doting caretaker, and I was starting to think I might be able to forgive her for cheating on me. According to her, that’s all she wanted, but I’m not sure I believe her.”

“How did you find out about the poison?” Delaney asked. I could tell she was having a hard time believing something like this could happen in real life. It wasn’t easy for me to believe at times, so I knew how she felt.

“She bragged to her friends and one of them called the police,” I explained.

“This is insane, Sebastian,” she said with a shake of her head. “Is she in prison?”

“She served her time in a psych ward, and she was released a few months ago, shortly after I moved back up here.”

“Is she dangerous?” she asked.

I shook my head. “She has some issues, and I guess they have her on meds to help with them.”

“You’re a lot calmer than I would be in that situation,” Delaney remarked. “I’m freaking out about my ex being in the area and all he did was cheat on me.”

“Your ex is out here?” I asked.

She nodded. “That’s what my cousin told me. This is what I get for rebelling as a teen.”

I chuckled. “What does this have to do with you rebelling as a teen?”

“We’re not done talking about your ex,” she argued.

I shook my head. “My ex poisoned me, so I can get away with the short explanation. Tell me how your rebellious teen years led to the situation you’re in with your ex.”

“As you may recall, I’m the daughter of a preacher,” she began.

I nodded. “I imagine you were quite rebellious as a teen.”

She shrugged. “Other than refusing to go to church, not so much before I started dating Cody my senior year of high school. I’d never been his type, so I was shocked when he asked me out. He was the popular guy who always had some perky blonde at his side. I agreed to go out with him because I was a dumb teen girl who’d watched way too many movies where the popular guy realizes the nerdy girl is the one he’s always been looking for.”

“You were not the nerdy girl at school,” Sebastian scoffed. “I know nerdy. I perfected nerdy in high school.”

She giggled. “I believe you. And no, I wasn’t a nerdy girl, but I was kind of in my own world, so I didn’t have many friends. I was always dreaming of stories to write. I also didn’t care much for fitting in with the crowd.”

“A rebel loner,” I deduced. “That makes more sense than a nerdy girl. Rebel loners are hot.”

“That only works for guys in high school,” she argued. “For girls, if you’re a loner, people just think you’re weird. At least, that’s how I felt when I was in high school. Still, I’ll go with that description because it makes me sound more badass than referring to myself as the weird girl.”

“I thought you’d like that term,” I told her with a grin. “So, the rebel loner and the jock hooked up senior year of high school, fell in love, and got married.”

She shook her head and looked down at her half-eaten slice of cake with a laugh. “Not even close. The rebel loner got caught fooling around with the jock in the back of her daddy’s church. After that, we got to have a lovely shotgun wedding our senior year of high school. Cody definitely didn’t love me. In fact, I was just an experiment. We weren’t married long before he was back to screwing pretty blondes. If I had to guess, I’d say he never really stopped screwing them.”

“It must have been rough being married that young,” Sebastian remarked.

“Actually, it felt more like we were playing house,” she admitted. “His parents put us up in a nice little cottage behind their home. Most of the time, I was there alone. Cody didn’t have time for me with all his girlfriends. It seemed that being forced to marry the preacher’s daughter gave him a tragic hero status. People believed I trapped him into it, and Cody did nothing to correct their misconceptions.”

“I’m surprised you put up with that,” he said with a shake of his head. “You don’t seem like the type to tolerate being treated that way.”

“I’m not, and I wasn’t back then either,” I assured him. “I lasted two months before I left Cody and moved back home. When I told my parents he was cheating on me, they were fine with me leaving him. That is until Cody went crying to them about how much he loved me. He swore he was sorry for screwing up. He even claimed to have realized how much he’d sinned.”

I snorted. “And your parents bought it.”

She nodded. “My father is big on forgiveness. It’s one of his best qualities, so I don’t want you to think I’m complaining about that.”

“Did you believe him?” I asked.

“Not at first,” she replied. “As it turned out, he really did regret screwing up. Apparently, by leaving him, I became the biggest challenge he’d ever had. There was also the fact that he looked bad when I left him. He was determined to find a way to win me back, and he started trying to prove to me how much he loved me. Cody was a rich boy with full access to his trust fund, so he had the money for all the big gestures. It started with flowers, moved on to jewelry, and he even bought me a car. Everyone thought I was crazy for not going back to him. Eventually, I got a lecture about how important it was to try to make our marriage work. My parents were ashamed of me for not at least giving Cody a chance when he was so obviously in love with me. At least, everyone else thought he was in love with me.”

“Are you serious?” I asked. “He cheated on you. It sounds like all he was worried about was his ego.”

“That’s true, but I was still a dumb kid who went back because I figured if everyone else thought it was a good idea, maybe I was wrong,” she admitted with a sigh. “Some rebel loner I turned out to be. At first, Cody was very attentive—annoyingly attentive at times. That actually lasted for almost a year after we graduated. I’d originally planned to attend college in New Orleans, but my marriage made that impossible. Cody started taking online classes and working at his mother’s law offices. I don’t think he did much there, but according to him, he was practically running the office. As for me, I started writing more. I took a few writing classes online, and I even finished a book and sent out some query letters to agents. They all turned me down, but I still felt like I’d found what I really wanted to do. Writing made me feel good. Cody started cheating on me again. When I told him I was leaving, he hit me. Then he stole some of my writing and started showing it to everyone around town, claiming it was proof I was a whore, as if that justified him cheating.”

“That asshole needs his ass kicked,” Sebastian grumbled.

“I totally agree, and he did get a kick in the balls financially,” I explained. “He and his parents didn’t want anyone to know about him hitting me, and his parents also felt guilty. I left town with enough money to move out here and only work part-time while I was writing and going to school. My parents supported me leaving, but they still don’t like my writing, and occasionally, one of them will say something to piss me off. My mom sometimes brings up things I could have done to make my marriage with Cody work.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I demanded.

“Nope,” she replied. “My mom has trouble with reality when it doesn’t fit what she wants to see. I occasionally have to remind her that Cody cheated on me and hit me.

“How could she forget something like that?” I asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“My mom is sweet, and she seems perfectly in control of everything as a minister’s wife. She runs from one event to the next, and she can quote the bible, but most of her life flows smoothly because of sticky notes she leaves all over,” she explained. “She has some mild brain damage from an accident in her teens. Cody’s actions aren’t on a sticky note because the memory upsets her, so my dad doesn’t want her to remember. He hates it when I remind her.”

“Does it bother you that she doesn’t remember?” I asked. It couldn’t be easy for her to hear her mom talking kindly about a man who’d treated Delaney so badly.

“Yes, and it’s part of the reason I moved out here,” she explained. “I understand why my dad doesn’t want her remembering Cody hurting me, but I couldn’t pretend all the time. I’m happier away from my hometown, anyway.”

“And now your ex is out here,” I stated. “What do you suppose he wants?”

She sighed before responding. “My cousin thinks he’s going to try to get me to take him back.”

“After all this time?” I asked, doubtfully. “Don’t get me wrong. A man would have to be a fool to let you go, but it’s been a long time.”

“Cody’s mother is forever trying to convince me to give him another chance,” she explained. “I imagine she does the same to Cody. Now that she’s been diagnosed with lung cancer, he may be trying to make his mom happy.” There was no missing the way her voice caught when she talked about Cody’s mom having cancer. “I don’t know what to think. If he were out here for that reason, I’m sure my mom would have told me.”

“You haven’t heard from him?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Enough talk about exes. Shouldn’t you finish your dinner so you can take me home and play kinky sex games with me?”

I grinned. “You make an excellent point. I’ll eat fast.”