Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
With all of our new additions, our territory was currently bursting at the seams. We’d already put out feelers to purchase land to build more housing.
“He has, yes,” Austin said, sipping a bourbon. “I want to see how he handles chaos, though. Outside of training, your crew always descends into chaos.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t come up with a rebuttal. He wasn’t wrong.
My phone buzzed with an alert, and I distractedly clicked through to social media.
“What did you have—“ Austin paused as I sucked in a startled breath. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” I said, scanning the image that had popped up.
He leaned over my shoulder to see what had my attention. For some reason I couldn’t really understand, I jerked the phone away from his prying eyes.
A woman smiled up at the camera, joy written plainly across her pretty face and lighting up her brown eyes. She held up her hand, showing off her new diamond solitaire. The caption said, “She said yes!” and Matt, my ex, was smiling for the camera next to her. Although she and I weren’t connected online, he was tagged in the post.
This was the woman he’d left me for. A decade younger, it looked like, with flawless tanned skin and shiny straight black hair. Her smile was so big, teeth pristine and white. Her eyes were so happy.
Something heavy lodged in my gut, and my heart started beating a little too quickly.
“Are you okay?” Austin asked me, concern and confusion muddling the bonds.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Unable to help it, I clicked into her profile and started scrolling through photos of the new life they shared, with a big house and brand new cars. I hadn’t kept up with him since our breakup, much too busy and not really caring, but now it hit me like a Mack truck. He clearly took her out to fancy dinners and theater shows. He’d lost a little weight and dyed his thinning hair black to look a little younger than his mid-forties. To keep up with her, probably. Or maybe because of a midlife crisis, who knew.
It had barely been a year, and he was moving on. For good.
I’d already moved on, of course, but I guess I hadn’t fully processed the end of an era. The feeling of the book slamming shut on part of my life story. I felt…strangely panicked, like I needed to lurch forward and rip the book back open. I had no idea why.
Then I wondered if he’d told our son, or if Jimmy would find out the same way.
In a moment I’d tapped Jimmy’s name on the screen of my phone. I could feel Austin watching me, but he didn’t try to interfere.
“Hello?” Jimmy answered.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hi Mom. What’s up?”
“Did you hear about your dad? I just saw what I gather is an engagement photo.”
“Yeah.” Jimmy couldn’t have sounded more bored if he’d tried. “He said he’d be asking her to marry him when I visited last spring.”
“Did he ask you for permission or just tell you?”
“Why would he ask me for permission?” Jimmy asked, confused.
“I don’t know…in case you didn’t like her, maybe?”
“Nah, she’s fine. Just a little too nice or something, I don’t know. She tries way too hard. It’s weird.”
“She’s young,” I said, trying to be nonchalant about that. For some reason I couldn’t explain, it galled that he’d essentially traded me in for a younger model.
”I mean…she’s not that young. Why? You don’t care, do you? Aren’t you still with your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, yes, I am. It just…feels so sudden, I don’t know. It’s kind of a shock.”
“Well, Mom, I mean…he was always going to find someone else, you know that, right?”
I paused. “What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t cook or clean or do anything for himself. All he does is work. That’s all he ever did. So obviously he was going to find someone to do that for him when you two separated. He probably knew he had to seal the deal with her quickly or risk her leaving. And anyway, you’ve moved on, too. You have Austin, right? I like him a lot. You’re a lot happier now. I doubt it’ll be long before he pops the question to you, so it’s not like you’ve been left high and dry or anything, right?”
“He won’t pop the question, no. That’s not really…how shifters work. But…yeah, you’re right.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I was just blindsided, is all. I just ran across a picture on social media.”
“Trust me, Mom, you’ve got a way better setup than he does. You have that huge house, the butler, a boyfriend who does all the nice little things you like, and magic—I mean, now you have magic, Mom. Don’t worry about Dad’s deal. You’re much better off as you are, and he’s going to be exactly the same as he ever was. Win-win for both, right?”