Page 49 of Full Throttled

“Drake,” she whines.

I hold up my hand. “I have plenty of other things I need to be doing right now, so unless you’re going to get to the point you might as well leave.”

“Oh yeah, you have plenty to do. Is your precious Zoey on that list?” she asks, her voice laced with anger. I’m not playing this ridiculous bullshit game with her, so I turn away and start to head for the staircase. “Where are you going?”

“Leaving,” I say, over my shoulder. “You should recognize the gesture; you are the one who taught it to me after all.”

“I’m sorry,” she blurts out. She sniffles and I know it’s all an act but I stop anyways. I really do need to know what she wants.

“What do you want?”

Jules huffs. “I want a second chance.”

I laugh out loud, like literally my head falls back in full belly laughter which causes Jules to stomp her foot like a temperamental child. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Jules. A second chance at what?”

“At us!” her voice bellows, and my laughter dies away immediately because I think she might actually be serious.

After a few moments of silence, I shake my head. “You’re crazy. You think you can just walk right back into my life after almost four years of absence and I’m going to give you a second chance?”

“I’m your wife,” she reminds me, and it churns my stomach. She’s not wrong. Legally, she is my wife, but I’ve been on my own so long now that I actually forgot we ever got married. I had to let go of my ideal fantasy and live in reality.

“You haven’t been my wife in a long time and now that you’re finally back in town, we can get a divorce.”

“I don’t want that, Drake. I want you,” she tells me. She gives me the look that used to be my undoing. The look that had me bending over backwards to please her. That look does nothing now, but cause annoyance.

“And what about Aubree?” I ask, because this is the most important answer.

Jules shrugs. She actually has the freaking audacity to shrug when I question her about her daughter. Her own flesh and blood.

“I mean, yes, I want that too.”

I hold up my hands in a surrender gesture. “Oh please, don’t let me force you into anything. I mean, can you sound anymore insincere? How can you just cast her aside like that Jules? She’s half of you.”

Jules shakes her head. “I’m not cut out to be a parent. It’s just too hard.”

“You’re damn right it’s hard. Try doing it by yourself the majority of the time. If it wasn’t for my family and friends, I have no clue how I would have managed these last four years. When you left you didn’t just leave Aubree behind, which by the way is absolutely unforgivable in my eyes but it’s your loss because you will never know the joy that little girl can bring into your life, but you left me behind too. You didn’t care then, so why the hell should I care now? And I swear if you use the wife word again, I’ll call the cops right now.”

“You shouldn’t care, but I made a mistake.”

“Did you? Because your mistake was leaving Aubree, and so far, you still don’t seem to care about her at all.” My anger is at an all-time high.

“Drake…” Jules whines again.

“No, get the hell off this property. Even if I wanted you back, which I don’t by the way, Aubree and I are a packaged deal. If you don’t want her, then you can’t have me. Now, get the hell of my property.” I turn away from her and head for the stairs. I stop and look back. “And make sure you check in with your parents. I’ll send the divorce papers to their address.”

“Drake, you don’t mean that,” she says quietly, like she can’t believe I would want to divorce her.

I shake my head. “With every fiber of my being.” As I reach the top of the stairs, I look back to the parking lot and see Jules leaving in a much newer car than I expected. I take a seat because there’s no way I can face Zoey right now. My anger will get the best of me. I know she’s going to have questions and she deserves the answers, but I just don’t know if I can give them to her right now.

I’m sitting on the step trying to figure out how my life went from so perfect to the bottom of the ocean so fast. I had everything not even an hour ago and now I feel like it’s all slipping through my fingers.

Forty-One

Zoey

I can tell that Drake doesn’t want to talk and I don’t blame him. If Gregg had showed up here unannounced, I wouldn’t want to talk either but I can’t just let this slide right now. I clear my throat and Drake’s back stiffens even more. “We need to talk.”

Drake sighs heavily and it pulls at every string my heart has. The biggest part of me just wants to go to him, to comfort him, but I can’t let that part win right now. “Do you think maybe it could wait until after my ex showing up settles?”

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