Page 38 of Boards & Betrayal

She laughed at that, a light, musical sound that cut through the tension in the car. It was contagious; I found myself smiling despite everything.

"What's your favorite place you've ever visited?" she asked next.

"Banff," I replied immediately. "There's nothing like those mountains—majestic and humbling all at once."

Her questions came one after another, each one peeling back another layer of my guarded exterior.

"Do you believe in fate?" she asked suddenly, catching me off guard.

I considered my answer carefully. "I think... we make our own fate. Life throws us curveballs, but it's how we handle them that defines us."

She nodded slowly, absorbing my words. There was a silence that settled between us then—comfortable yet charged with unspoken emotions.

"Why did you come over to me last night?" Her voice was barely above a whisper now.

I glanced at her again, seeing the vulnerability in her eyes. "I… I couldn't help myself," I murmured. "I don't think I had any say in the matter." I glanced back at the windshield. "Maybe it was fate."

Ally's silence stretched out, the only sound in the car the relentless drumming of the rain on the roof. I glanced over at her, searching her face for any hint of what she might be thinking.

"So… you don't care I have a kid?" I asked. "Or that I'm much, much older than you?"

"Were you married?" she asked, not missing a beat.

"Fuck no."

"Tell me how you really feel," she quipped, a hint of amusement flickering in her eyes.

I sighed, my grip tightening on the steering wheel. "Marriage isn't my thing," I admitted. "Never has been. It's just... I don’t see the point in binding myself legally to someone when things can change so quickly. People change. That's a goddamn fact, whether we like it or not."

"So, you'd never get married at all?" Ally pushed, her curiosity unyielding.

"Doubtful," I said flatly. "She'd have to be some kind of special for me to even consider it."

"What about kids?" she asked, her voice softer now. "Would you ever have more kids?"

"No," I said immediately, feeling a pang of something—regret? Resentment?—tighten in my chest. My hands gripped the wheel harder. "I have one."

"That's all you need?" Ally guessed.

"It's not even that," I admitted, feeling a rare wave of vulnerability wash over me. "More like… I picked the wrongperson to have my kid with. And now, I'm paying for it. I've been paying for it. Like… no one really thinks about consequences, you know? I have to deal with her for the rest of my life because of my kid."

"Hmm," Ally murmured thoughtfully.

The weight of our conversation hung between us as we drove through the rain-soaked streets. Her questions had dug up emotions and thoughts I'd long buried, and for once, I didn't mind sharing them.

"How long were you with her?" Ally asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "The mother of your child."

I blew out a breath, frustration bubbling up inside me. "Fuck, Ally, these questions..."

"You don't have to answer if you don't want," she said quickly, dropping her gaze to her lap.

Something tugged at my chest. The crazy thing was, I wanted to answer. I sighed and made a left turn; the streetlights casting fleeting shadows across her face.

"I was with her for three years," I said finally. "I tried to make it work for three years. But… I couldn't."

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "What was the final straw?"

I breathed out heavily; the memory weighing me down. "She got pregnant," I said, my voice cracking slightly. "Again." My chest hurt, the pain of the past seeping into the present. "I've never told anyone this," I admitted, glancing at her briefly before returning my focus to the road. "We both decided we didn't want another kid... To this day, I don't know if she did it on purpose. We were fighting a lot. I almost left her a couple of times. And she might have thought this would trap me like it did with my son."

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