Page 39 of Mister Rival

“Have you lost your marbles?” Bradley grunts.

Noah just claps his hands together and gives me a little eyebrow shuffle as if to sayyou’re welcome.

Maybe I have lost it. I run a hand through my hair and knock back my espresso, like that’s going to help. “You were the ones who all told me I don’t know how to have a good time,”I point out. “And I had a good time on Friday, can we just leave it at that?”

Joshua reaches over and pats me on the shoulder. “Don’t get so uptight,” he says. “None of us have seen you like this in a long time.”

“Like what?” I balk. I don’t understand what they’re seeing that I’m not. I make them dinner like this at least once a month. Maybe my whistling while I worked gave it away.

“Um, happy,” Noah offers. “Happy with something other than work, I mean.”

“I’ll second that.” Bradley nods, surprising me. He’s the hardest of the trio to even attempt to crack, always has been, but I love him dearly and he’s fiercely protective.

My eyes flick up at them, from Noah to Joshua, finally landing on Bradley. And something seems to settle between us, the air suddenly growing somber.

Bradley sighs. “It’s been years, Dad, it’s time.”

Alison

I think of nothing else for the entire weekend other than Tristan and what we did.

To top things off, I couldn’t find my panties when I left. I’m sureMr. Forbeshad something to do with that, but I haven’t had the gall to ask him anything.

I take Clementine out to Ruby’s for brunch Sunday morning and she chats about school and what she got up to with her grandparents on Friday night and most of Saturday while I was out gallivanting and getting drunk.

Thankfully, I don’t hear a word from Gareth. We don’t often need to converse because our custody arrangement rarely changes. She spends every second weekend with her father and the rest of the time with me. Our pick ups and drop offs are a simple affair and require very little conversing. I was half expecting a message from him about seeing me with Tristan, but I’m glad he hasn’t texted me.

“I saw Daddy at the reunion,” I say to Clementine gently. “Did he talk to you about anything recently?” I’m trying to gauge if he’s even explained his new engagement to our daughter yet.

“About him getting engaged to a twenty-four-year-old?” Clementine shudders.

My eyes widen. “So he told you then?”

“He called me on Saturday before you picked me up.”

Typical. He breaks news like that to his own daughter over the phone.

“How do you feel about that?” I ask. Not that she spends much time over there, but it’s going to obviously be a factor going forwards.

She shrugs and takes a sip of her orange juice, setting the glass back down and looking up at me. “Amber is okay to me, I guess. I haven’t been around her much in the past. But I know what Daddy did to you, and I don’t like either of them for it.”

I let out a breath and try to smile. “It’s okay, honey. I mean, it’s not okay when people hurt you, but sometimes things aren’t meant to last forever between two people. And it just wasn’t meant to be with me and your dad.”

“Will you ever get married again?”

I freeze, surprised by the question. I haven’t actually thought about it for a long time. I mean, I’d love to have someone to share my life with. Isn’t that what everyone is striving for? “Maybe,” I say. “But I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about that for a long while.”

Clementine lets out a little chuckle.

“What is it?” I laugh without knowing what she found funny. Just to see the sweet look on her darling face and having a heart to heart with my princess brings light to my soul.

“You’ll get married again for sure, Mom. You’re a hottie.”

I curl my bottom lip under for a moment and laugh. “A hottie?”

“Everyone thinks so.”

“What about when I go gray and get old?” I chuckle. But the moment I think about gray hair, I think about the hot man I spent the entire reunion flirting shamelessly with and humping all night. Nope. Gray definitely does not define being old. It’s a stupid stigma, now I think about it.

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