Page 35 of An Ex Affair

“Thanks.” I leaned down to give her a hug. “The petting zoo was a big hit.”

I wished Mama had come out to see it, but not much would get her to leave her house these days. Not even to see what her only daughter was up to. She’d been bad about being social when I was younger, but she’d progressively gotten worse. Senior year she didn’t even come to see me and Colson crowned prom king and queen. Said the crowds made her anxious.

Gigi looked like a proud mama of her flock. “It was, wasn’t it? I knew Bessie would be a crowd favorite, no matter how much Warrick says she’s a menace.”

I laughed, thinking about the way that cow gave side-eye with the best of them anytime Warrick came near. “I think it was the geese that stole the show. They chased the toddlers around until the parents took mercy on them. The geese single-handedly wore out every toddler in Blueball.”

Gigi giggled and I had a moment of acute regret that she wasn’t my mother-in-law any longer. We’d gotten along so well when I was with Colson. Divorce really sucked. You not only lost your marriage, you lost the whole family that went with your spouse.

I heard Colson’s heavy bootsteps coming up the porch. “I’m beat. I’m going to head to bed.”

I was down the hallway and safely in my bedroom before Colson made it inside. Making sure the door was locked, I changed into cotton pajama shorts and my favorite old T-shirt that had been washed so many times it was softer than silk. I threw my hair into a bun on top of my head and slid between the sheets. The shower turned on and I grimaced up at my ceiling. I wouldnotlie here and envision a soaped-up, naked Colson under the showerhead.

Trying to preoccupy my brain, I thought back on the fundraiser and all the events that brought the citizens of Blueball out in droves. There were some familiar faces, but quite a few I didn’t know. I’d met Gannon Hart and his wife, along with the rest of his bandmates and their wives. Curiously missing was Gabi. Joey had said she’d be there. Maybe she was avoiding me. I couldn’t really blame her after I let our friendship drop so easily. Em and Warrick had been there, of course. Savannah and Pip had bought me a beer, which I quickly realized was a brand I’d never had before. It was thicker than mud and tasted about thesame. I drank as much as I could, not wanting to offend Pip, who clearly loved the stuff.

And then my brain slid right into the memory of that kiss.

I groaned and threw a pillow over my face to mute it. I hadn’t had a kiss that good since… Well, since things had still been good between me and Colson. The shower shut off and I pulled the pillow from my face. Good. Hopefully he went right to bed and I could sleep.

Except I lay there, wide awake and turned on.

I really could have used that orgasm before Joey walked in on us. Literally just a few more seconds rubbing up on Colson and I could have been there. The squeak of bed springs came through the wall. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to think about Colson in bed just feet from me. But of course, trying not to think about it was making me think about it. Does he sleep naked like he used to?

Before I knew it, I was out of bed and slowly unlocking my door. It swung open on silent hinges and there was his door, in shadows now that all the lights were out for the night. His mom’s room was on the other side of the house, leaving the two of us over here to be on our best behavior.

Don’t do it, Tully.

Except telling medon’twas like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

I tiptoed out of my room and right to his door, my ear pressed against the wood like an obsessed woman.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Colson

Cana kiss unlock a new level of anger like some kind of twisted adult version video game with sucky graphics and depths of emotional despair a human would never want to feel? Because that’s where I was at, lying in my bed, trying to pretend like kissing Tully hadn’t rocked my world in the worst way.

I spent literalyearstrying to get over that woman. And I succeeded. I mean, it took a move to another town to start a whole new life and almost two decades, but she was finally out of my head. Then Dad had forced my move back to Blueball and fate decided to fuck me over again by sending Tully home too.

And now I’d invited her into my mother’s home and she was standing in the hallway outside my door. Doing what? I didn’t fucking know. The woman was insane. She’d managed to wedge herself back into my head, even while I was so pissed at her I couldn’t see straight. There seriously had to be something wrong with me. Who covets their ex-wife, then kisses them up against their locker, and invites more drama back into their life?

I rolled my eyes and huffed out a frustrated breath. My dick was tenting the sheets, paying zero mind to the fact I wanted to take this pillow and shove it into Tully’s face for a long minute or two.

“You just gonna fuckin’ breathe on my door all night?” I called out into the silence.

The breathing noises cut off immediately, but then the hinges on the door creaked and a sliver of light spilled into the room.

“You awake?” Tully whispered.

I rolled my eyes again, this time to the heavens to beg for some goddamn patience to deal with this woman. “No. I just talk in my sleep, Tully.”

She crept in, a short shadow until she stood right next to my bed. I could just make out her face, hair piled messily on top of her head. “I can’t sleep.”

My hand lifted to swipe down my mustache but hit bare skin. “Count sheep or put on some white noise playlist. Do what normal people do when they can’t sleep.”

Tully snorted. “What? Normal people don’t creep into their ex-husband’s bedroom?”

I pushed upright and slid so that my back was resting against the headboard. My hands did their best to stack on my lap and hide the erection that hadn’t gone away since kissing Tully. “What do you want?”

---