Page 79 of Affinity

“I’m trying. Abbi’s helping.”

Alex’s eyes lit up as she squealed. “I know, and I’m so happy for you.” Placing her hands on my chest, Alex playfully pushed me away. “Go be with your new wife and make up.”

I took a step back. “Are we okay?”

“Don’t worry about us. We’re good, but don’t be surprised when I’m at your house every week.”

I shook my head as I started to walk backward. “You know you’re always welcome.”

Walking out of the kitchen, I saw Luke standing outside on the deck and went out there for a few minutes. “Hey, man.”

His gaze went to the window. “Did everything go okay?”

Clapping him on the back, I cleared the emotion from my throat. “Thank you for talking to her and getting her open to listening to me.”

“Of course, of course.”

“You should probably get in there. She was emotional and let me hug her, so she probably needs you,” I tried to explain.

This time it was Luke who clapped me on the back. “Have a good night.”

“You too,” I answered back, already on my way to Abbi, the person who had changed me so much in such a short amount of time.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Abbi

Looking down at my phone for a nonexistent text I hadn’t received, I closed my eyes and prayed Jenner would get here before the doctor started to cut my cast off. The last eight weeks with my brother around had been the longest of my life. Surely, he didn’t need to be here when I barely left the house. Instead of going to the grocery store, we had a delivery service and anything else we needed we got off Amazon. It was too hard getting around with my broken leg, crutches, and a swarm of paparazzi, so I’d made the executive decision to stay home. The only time I’d been out was to go to the doctor for my checkups. After today, I would be free to resume all activities, which was something I knew Jenner was quite excited about. I was too. I’d tried to convince my overly cautious husband I was fine, but he wasn’t going to risk hurting me. It was sweet, but after he’d started my libido, these last several weeks had been torture. I’d barely convinced him to jerk off in front of me and to let me do the same. It was torture. Absolute torture. And tonight, I was going to have him make up for all the time we’d lost.

“Where is your good for nothing husband,” Paul hissed out as we watched a nurse walk by the room they had me in.

“I told you he’s at an important audition.” I rolled my eyes at him. I’d told him at least five times already. Did he think I was lying, and I’d eventually slip?

“Why don’t you call or text him and find out when he’s going to get here?”

“Because he’s been dying for this role for months, and I’m not going to put his chance in jeopardy by bothering him. He doesn’t need to be here for me to get my cast off. It’s not like I’m expecting some life-changing news today.” Narrowing my eyes at him, I said through gritted teeth, “Jenner is not a good for nothing husband. In fact, he’s great. Just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean he’s a bad person.”

“Right, and all those articles online are full of BS about him,” he stated in a disbelieving tone.

I shifted in my seat so I could face him full on. I wasn’t going to take Paul’s shit anymore. There was no telling how on God’s green earth Jenner had put up with him as long as he had. They were constantly arguing. The only good thing was they stopped every time I came into the room, so I tried to stay with Jenner as much as possible. There were days where I was still tired and needed more sleep than others. Those were the days I’d wake up to them hissing at each other in hushed whispers.

“Yes, what do you think he has Catherine for?”

“To lie and get him out of trouble. I’ll never understand why you wanted to be a publicist so bad.” He shook his head.

“Is that really what you think we do? We get our clients out of trouble and lie for them?” I seriously wanted to strangle him. It didn’t matter that there would be witnesses, and I might go to jail. Not that I would strangle him or that he’d let me, but it was a nice thought to keep me from yelling at him in the doctor’s office.

“Tell me it’s not true.”

“Maybe for some, but no, that’s not what CJJ is about. We don’t take clients who are trouble and have to bail them out continuously.” I lowered my voice just in case there were listening ears. “While Jenner has had some trouble in the past, it’s just that . . . in the past. He’s a good guy, and you’d see that if you gave him a chance. Has he done a single thing to make you think he’s a bad person the entire time you’ve been staying with us?”

Was that why my brother had stuck around? To witness Jenner doing something shady.

“He hasn’t, and I can see how much he loves you. Otherwise, he would have kicked my ass out weeks ago.”

“Then stop giving him a hard time. Try getting to know him because he’s going to be in our lives for a very long time, and if you keep acting like this toward him, I won’t hesitate to cut you out of my life.”

Paul’s eyes widened. “You’d really do that?”

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