Chapter Eleven

What a very odd night it had turned out to be. Cody confirmed my suspicions, and maybe one of my worst fears. There was a girl or two or three that liked him, and he reciprocated. Those girls stole my baby away during dinner, leaving me to converse with Reed. After the initial weirdness, it turned out to be pleasant. Not one trace came out of the annoying kid I used to know. My mouth behaved and didn’t emasculate him again. And I may have taken Avery’s advice and checked out his butt when he took the trash from the table to dispose of it. I could report that Avery, and apparently James, were right about it. It still felt somewhat wrong looking at him like that. The fact he was Cody’s coach only added to the uneasiness of it. I had never checked out Cody’s teachers before. But I had never been a single mom before either.

On that depressing note, I pulled out my laptop while propped up with pillows on my four-poster bed. I had been anxious to read more comments and that sneak peek. When I logged into my laptop, I was inundated with emails informing me I had new subscribers to my blog. There were so many, I couldn’t count them. I was tempted to head to my blog first, but Hunter Black was calling to me. It was sad how in love I was with a fictional character.

I did make a note of how many more comments there were on the post about me on Autumn Moone’s page before I dug into the sneak peek. It was mind boggling. So surreal. But not enough to deter me from getting my Hunter fix. I read and savored each morsel of heart-pounding goodness from the two-page excerpt. I couldn’t believe it; Hunter and his best friend, Laine, were stranded at his family’s mountain cabin, and it looked like things were going to finally come to a head with them. He was holding her near the fireplace to keep her warm. It was their only source of heat, well, that and each other. His lips hovered above hers, teasing them, but they never touched. She relaxed in his arms as if begging him to finally do what they both wanted. His mouth was ready to consume hers, I could feel it, and then that’s where it ended.

“No!” I groaned. I’d been waiting for that kiss for two years.

Weird side note I would never admit to, but Reed reminded me of Hunter. They both had dark hair, stunning blue eyes, and a nice backside. I needed to get that out of my head. How was I going to picture myself now as Laine—or any of Hunter’s other women—if I was picturing Reed as Hunter? That could get awkward. It’d be a whole other type of book, like Naughty Babysitters or The Cougar and the Teacher.

Reed had asked me tonight what I would think of him if this was the first time we had met. It wasn’t an easy question, but I tried to be objective—and then I kept my answer to myself. Honestly, if it was our first meeting, I would have thought the school made a mistake hiring him. Not because he wasn’t a good coach or teacher, which I really didn’t know one way or the other for sure, but because he was quite pretty. With how the girls who stole my son away had snuck a peek at Reed, I had a feeling he would be the fantasy of many teenage girls, and probably a lot of the teachers at the high school.

When Reed pressed for an answer, all I offered was that he seemed capable and Cody liked him, so that was a plus in my book. I’m not sure that answer satisfied him, but at least he didn’t look demoralized like he had yesterday and earlier in the evening.

The burning question on my mind tonight wasn’t what I would have thought of Reed if we had just met, but did I know someone who knew the elusive Autumn Moone? Who gave her my blog? Was it a friend of a friend of a friend sort of thing? Did Autumn Moone live in the Chicagoland area? If she did, she should be best friends with Avery and me. We obviously had a lot in common. Or at least we all loved Hunter Black. Who knows, I could have walked by her in the market today when I took Gelaire shopping. Or maybe at the fancy boutique Gelaire took me to. Surely Autumn Moone could afford those kind of price tags. She sold millions of books. How I ever got on her radar was amazing to me.

But not as amazing as all the new followers on my blog and the comments.

After twenty-five years of marriage and three kids, my husband left us to pursue his dreams. I thought we were his dream. Now, while he’s off exploring the world with his girlfriend, I’m working two jobs to make ends meet. He even missed our son’s college graduation. We were high school sweethearts. I saw him through cancer treatments and job losses, only to be tossed to the side. Thanks for writing so eloquently how I’m feeling and for giving me courage to make it one more day.

I placed my hand over my heart. Wow. That was heartbreaking. And there were more.

I knew when his hours started getting longer at the office and his business trips became more frequent, something was wrong. But I kept thinking we’d had children together and I’d followed him around the country for his work, setting my career to the side to raise our children. Then he forgot his phone one day and she called. We had a nice little chat. She had no idea he was married. That didn’t stop her from seeing my now ex-husband. They didn’t last. Now he admits what a mistake it was. But I refuse to take him back. I’d rather be a sidelined wife than someone’s afterthought or consolation prize. Hang in there, from one sidelined wife to another.

The Sidelined Wife? I scrolled through more comments to find that’s what several people were referring to me as, just like Autumn Moone had. Not a title I ever thought I would have, but it was exactly how I felt. I wanted to respond individually to everyone that had commented, but it would have taken hours. I couldn’t believe the response. I hated that we were all part of this club of cheated on and tossed aside wives.

I decided to write another post to thank everyone. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say, so I went with a humorous approach.

Welcome to the Sidelined Wives Club. I’m not sure whether to congratulate you or give my condolences. Let’s go with congratulations. We’ve all made it through hell and we’re still alive; that’s something to celebrate. And now we know we aren’t alone. We have each other in this sucktastic adventure. We should probably lay some ground rules for the club.

1. Absolutely no husbands. But bashing of said husbands is allowed, even welcomed.
2. If husband has moved on, bashing of new wife or girlfriend is allowed. For example: she has bad bangs, her taste in clothing is hideous, her eyebrows are too close together, her IQ is lower than her age. You get the idea.
3. Whining is allowed. Weeping and wailing is also permissible.
4. Sharing is caring. Be sure to share stories of triumph and survival tricks.
5. This is a safe space, although talk of doing anything illegal (i.e. anything that would put you in jail or make us testify against you) is frowned upon.
6. And never forget, you’re not alone. You got this.

All joking aside, your words and stories have touched and inspired me, so thank you. I’m off now to see if there is any chocolate mousse pie left.

Yours Truly,

Sidelined Wife in Chief

I probably sounded ridiculous, but I clicked publish anyway. Like I said, it was the oddest night. I read the sneak peek one more time trying not to picture Reed. I did my best to picture the guy I usually pictured when I read about Hunter Black, the underwear model—I mean, the guy with the adorable puppy I started following on Instagram last year. That didn’t help. It only made me see the resemblance between the puppy guy and Reed. If I started picturing Reed in his underwear, I was getting a lobotomy. He would be coaching my son, for crying out loud. Come to think of it, I had seen more of him than I’d ever wanted. Reed and Peter had streaked through the woods once and jumped into the lake during one of our vacations. Granted, they didn’t know I was a witness. I had snuck off with Joel, the groundskeeper’s son. I was seventeen and he was twenty. That seemed so risqué to me back then. Joel had taught me how to French kiss, and we were fine tuning our skills when Peter and Reed gave us a show. Joel laughed, while I wanted to throw up in my mouth. Thankfully, I only caught their backsides.

Now look at me, staring at Reed’s butt. What had happened to my life?