Page 3 of Brandishing Betrayals

I smiled easily. “Sure did! It was awesome!” I high-fived him. “I’m gonna take off, alright? Your dad will drive you home later.”

Luke nodded, smile still stretching across his face. At this point in his relationship with his father, he had no problem going home with Marcos. “Alright! I love you! See you later!” he shouted. He bounced up and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek, before he turned and jumped back into the pool again.

Sadness welled up inside me at his quick dismissal. There had been a time when he was a young child, that he couldn’t leave my side without a huge production of waterworks and hysterics. Now, I barely got a kiss if I was lucky, and he was on his way again.

Nine and going on Nineteen.

As I turned away from the pool, my eyes caught on Nico and Marcos talking along the fence surrounding the pool. Marcos’s face turned toward me, and though he had on mirrored sunglasses, I knew his eyes were on me.

I ignored him and headed for the front of the house. There was no reason for me to hang around here anymore. Not with my son occupied and his father wanting nothing to do with me.

Instead of walking past all the men congregated on the driveway, I chose the opposite side of the house. Walking through the grass, I rounded the side of the house and stopped in my tracks as I came across a scene that stopped my heart cold:Jason was pressing a leggy blond against the side of the house. Her long legs were wrapped around his waist and her head was thrown back in ecstasy as his thrusting hips bounced her fake tits in her skin tight crop top.

His face was buried in her neck, so he didn’t see me frozen there.

I debated on turning around, when a heavy arm dropped around my shoulders and Nico’s deep voice said, “Ready to go, Dreamer?”

I jumped and Jason lifted his head from the woman’s neck as her eyes popped open. With both sets of eyes on me, I felt a blush heat my cheeks.

Nico nudged me forward, keeping his arm around my shoulders.

I squared my shoulders and owned it.

Stone’s steely gaze locked on mine as I walked by. His gaze raked over me, before a smirked tugged at his lips. My stomach clenched; it was the most emotion I’d witnessed on his face in the last six months. “Always did love to watch,” Jason goaded, his voice low.

I tripped over my own feet. I hated that he could get under my skin so quickly. “Wasn’t much of a show.” I shrugged as I passed them. “I’ve seen better.”

Nico chuckled softly as we headed for his motorcycle. “Little Dreamer, you’re playing with fire.”

I didn’t have a response…’cause he was right.

Three months later

Maya

SeeingJasonwiththatwoman had haunted me for days, even months later, the hurt and anger warred within me. I knew I didn’t have a claim to him; knew he’d probably been with hundreds of women in the last ten years. I had no right to feel this pain, not after I walked away from him—from all three of them. Still, it tore through me and kept me up at night.

I had done what I had to ten years ago. Now I would have to live with those consequences. I couldn’t let them near me to find out the real reason I left.

“Mom,” Lucas pulled me out of my thoughts. “I’m thinking of joining the football team.”

“What football team?” I asked, looking up from the book I was reading.

“There’s one through the park district, I think? Or it’s a travel team? I don’t know, but a lot of the guys at camp were talking about it,” Luke explained.

“What’s the name of it?” I picked up my phone, prepared to google.

“Panthers.”

I typed in Panther football Mourningside, IL into google and quickly found the website. I spent the next ten minutes looking into the registration details and scheduling. “Practice is three nights a week in the evening with games every Saturday. Practice is from four to six—oh.”

“Oh,” Luke frowned, realizing the same thing.

I worked till four-thirty every day. I wouldn’t be able to get him there.

“Would Grandma be able to drive me?” Luke asked, his voice dejected, because he already knew the answer.

I shook my head sadly. “I’m sorry baby. You know she can’t drive right now.”

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