I wince.
“Hell, you haven’t even asked me what my new job is.”
I cringe a little. “Look, I’m sorry man.”
He smirks at me, shrugging. “It’s actually fine, I just need to call you out on your B.S. or no one will.”
“Well, I will.” Stella grins at me. “Zero issues on calling Austin out.”
“Aww, thanks, Stella.”
I make a face at her as she laughs.
“So, what’s the job.”
Stella hoots. “Oh, you’re gonna love this.”
Kyle scrunches his face up. “The FBI.”
I toss my head back and laugh. “They know you were on a hacker watch-list, right?”
“Uh, yeah, Austin, I think the FBI probably knows that.” He grins at me. “Actually, I think that’s exactly why they hired me. They’ve got me working on these financial transaction history algorithms targeting organized crime.”
“Man, that’s like switching teams.”
He groans. “I know. It’s such a sell-out move.”
Stella rolls her eyes. “No, that’s called growing up and thinking about your future at little more.” She gives me the world’s most obvious look.
“Yeah, hint taken, Stella.”
I ease back in my set and stake out at the Pacific, shaking my head. “Well, sh-” I stop myself and glance back at Carter.
“Well shoot, I guess we grew up, huh? The hacker works for the FBI, and-”
“And the huge man w-h-o-r-e got married, to a nice girl,” Kyle finishes with a grin.
“Just you wait, Austin, pretty soon you’re going to have a few of these running around,” Stella says with a raise of her brow, nodding at Carter.
Yikes.
I take a big sip of my beer to cover the look on my face as I try and picture a guy like me as a father.
Kyle cringes and makes a face. “Sore subject, Stell.”
She laughs. “I meant with your wife, Austin, not that s-k-a-n-k from the tabloids.”
I know what she means though.
I just don’t know what the hell to make of the feeling it brings out inside.
31
Natalie
I’m stewing later, curled in the sun room barely concentrating on the book in my hands, when the doorbell rings.
I look up, frowning.
Bernadette?
I wrinkle my brow as I walk through the spacious house to the front door. We’ve made tentative plans for another day of “wedding” shopping, but Austin’s mom strikes me as someone to call ahead, or hell, just come in if she was going to surprise-
Oh, God.
“Hey there, babe.”
It’s Vince.
My breath freezes in my lungs as I immediately go to slam the door, but he put his hands up.
“Okay, okay, hang on. I’ll only be a minute, Natalie.”
I look at him coldly, my hand holding the door with an iron grip and forcing myself to square my shoulders and keep my head high.
Vince grins at me, smoothing the lapels of his three-piece Armani suit, with his damn driver behind him, standing beside the Bentley town-car parked in the driveway. His eyes raise to the sprawling house around us and he makes an unsettling clicking sound with his teeth as he shakes his head.
“So, nice place.”
“Get to the point, Vince.”
He turns back to me, a little smirk on his face as his lips curl into a sneering grin. “Guess we’re both cheaters now, huh? A little bit of equal footing with all of this nonsense between us?”
I narrow my eyes at him, feeling my temper rise. “I don’t see how you could possibly think that.”
Vince sighs dramatically as he pulls out his phone before turning the screen towards me. It’s a picture of Austin and I walking into the stadium for that first day of practice, his arm around my shoulders as he leans down to kiss me.
I ignore the wave of conflicting emotions tumbling through my stomach at the memory of that and everything that’s happened since. But I push that away and scowl at Vince as he takes the phone back.
“He’s my husband, Vince.”
Vince grins. “Of course he is, babe,” he says with a roll of his eyes.
“How exactly am I a cheating piece of shit like you?”
He laughs. “Well, I don’t seem to remember us breaking up, Natalie.”
I stare at him incredulously, feeling the heat rise in my face. “Well, I remember you banging your secretary, Vince.”
He waves his hand. “A hiccup. All relationships have rough patches, Natalie, and I didn’t bail like you and go and get married - like you did, when you already belonged to another man.”
I shake my head at him, my mouth open and not quite sure if he’s just saying this to try and be an asshole or if he truly believes I’ve wronged him somehow.