CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Talen
I hadn’t spoken to Dani since she kicked me out of the hospital. I thought about calling, if only to check on her mom, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone. She had been scared when I left her that day. I could see it in her eyes. She was terrified that her mother might die, and I didn’t help her through it. She told me to leave, and I listened. She said she didn’t care about me, and I believed her.
Still, I wasn’t angry. I put enough money in her account to make sure she’d always be taken care of, and I moved forward with the annulment. I had the papers ready, but I hadn’t sign them yet. I couldn’t. Not yet. Not then. Instead, I held onto them and hoped that I might hear from Dani again. I hoped she would reach out and tell me what happened with her mom. She never did, and I couldn’t blame her. I screwed up that day with my father. I had the chance to defend Dani, and I let it pass me by. I spoke up too late, after she was already gone.
For days, I felt weak and hopeless. I lost Dani, and I lost my place in the company, all in the same day. My life had never felt more pointless than it did that week. I spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday sitting in my apartment alone. It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that I finally dragged myself out of bed and drank a tall glass of water. My throat was painfully dry, and my stomach empty as a pit. The water hit me like a rock, but I drank it all.
When I was done, I forced myself to eat. It didn’t taste good, but I needed food. As much as I missed Dani, I couldn’t just let my depression swallow me whole. If I did, there would be no point to anything ever again. I still had a life. Friends. My mom. There were still people who counted on me to be Talen Gaston. As I remembered this, my mind turned immediately to Brandon. I hadn’t seen him since our boat ride when he called Dani a hooker. I was still mad at him for it, but I didn’t care anymore. I would have to let go of my anger, because I needed a friend. I needed him.
I picked up my phone and dialed his number. He answered on the third ring. His voice sounded hoarse and exhausted. I knew he’d been drinking. I could always tell from the way he answered the phone if he had a hangover or if he was still drunk. Both were good signs to me that morning. The only thing I wanted to do was run away from my life. I wanted to party and forget all about Dani and my epic failures.
“Want to go grab a steak?” I asked by way of hello. “Tonight.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Great,” I said and hung up.
I wasn’t in the mood for small talk. All I wanted was to make a plan and stick to it. I still had hours before Brandon would be here. I thought about going back to sleep, but I’d been sleeping for days, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. I showered and got dressed, determined to keep myself upright until the night began.
When Brandon finally arrived in a limo, I was more than ready to escape my apartment. Brandon brought two bottles of whiskey, and I brought my own bottle of tequila. I’d sworn off tequila so many times before, especially after my drunken marriage to Dani. That night though, I didn’t care. It felt amazing as it burned a path down my throat to my stomach. It was like it was burning away all my sadness and every bit of my depression. I used it to drown out thoughts of Dani and to numb my heart and my brain.
It didn’t work.
After the steak dinner, I was ready to head home, but Brandon had something else in mind. When the limo pulled up to the same strip club where I’d met Dani, I immediately said, “Hell, no.”
Brandon just opened the door. “Come on. I have a surprise for you.” When I didn’t budge, he gave me a serious look. “Please.”
He seemed different too. We’d both been drinking, but neither of us was drunk, which was unusual for us both. He also seemed more focused, intent even.
“Five minutes,” I finally said, and Brandon gave me a solemn nod of agreement.
When we stepped inside the strip club, it felt like a punch in the gut. My eyes moved immediately to the bar where Dani and I talked that night. I could almost see her, sitting there waiting for me.
But it was all just in my head. Dani wasn’t there, and she never would be again. I’d seen the last of her at the hospital. The thought brought tears to my eyes, but I shoved them away. I ordered myself a drink and downed it fast.
“I’m ready to go,” I said, still standing, but Brandon just shook his head.
“What you’re ready for is…” he looked around then smiled when a gorgeous stripper came up and stood beside him, “this.”
Why did she look familiar?
“Come with me,” she said, her face serious, not the normally flirty stripper expression I was used to.
The only place I was going was home. “There’s been some mistake,” I began, then her hand came down on my arm.
“Please… I need to talk to you.”
Something in her eyes told me I wanted to listen to what she had to say. “Five minutes.” It was becoming a mantra of sorts.
She nodded and led me through the strip club toward a back hallway. Inside the dark hall, she pushed me into an abandoned room. There was a lone couch, but I stayed on my feet, my arms crossed over my chest.
“Dani is my best friend.”
I was immediately alert, totally focused on the barely clad woman in front of me. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. My name is Madison. Dani Brooks is my best friend. I’m the reason she was at this club on the night you two met. We’ve been best friends since we were kids.”
“Then you know how badly I’ve screwed this up.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded. “Yes.”
It was like a punch to the gut. “And you know how much she hates me.”
She stopped nodding. “No. That isn’t true. She doesn’t hate you,” Madison said softly. “I promise, she does not hate you.”
I remembered the cold look in Dani’s eyes. “She said as much.”
“But she didn’t mean it,” Madison insisted. “Listen, she was terrified that her mom was going to die, okay? I’ve talked to her. She told me everything. Trust me, she doesn’t hate you. She was just scared, and she lashed out.”
I looked into Madison’s compassion-filled eyes. “So…?”
“Talk to her,” she said. “She’s miserable and thinks you hate her too.”
My heart squeezed. “I don’t.”
She smiled. “I know. Brandon told me everything.”
My eyes narrowed. “Yeah, about that. How did you and Brandon get to know each other?”
She lifted a shoulder and a soft grin appeared on her face. “He looked me up, trying to figure out a way to make things right for you two.”
I was stunned. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Seriously. So we’ve been talking and…” She lifted her shoulder again, the smile still playing on her lips.
Madison really was beautiful, and it seemed like Brandon and I had some additional talking to do. But not right now. Right now, I needed to know more about my wife.
“What should I do?” I asked her and sank down onto the couch, then popped right back up, remembering where I was.
Madison sighed. “Talk to her. Talen, I don’t know you, but I do know Dani. She really, really cares about you. And she misses you. She was just scared that you didn’t feel the same way about her. She thought that you were only using her for your company. She had no idea that you had truly grown to care for her too.”
“But I do. I really, really do.”
“I know,” Madison said. She put her hand on my shoulder and patted it comfortingly. It was then that I realized just how strange this all was. I was in a back room with a barely dressed stripper who was my fake wife’s best friend.
“I need to get her back.”
Madison nodded and a grin appeared. “I have a plan.”