Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
I thought about Luca upstairs in his bed, dreaming of solar systems and soccer games. I thought about the parent-teacher conference next week, and all the ways our lives had become intertwined.
And I thought about the way Colby had looked at me when he’d said this felt like home.
Maybe some risks were worth taking after all.
CHAPTER 7
Colby
The coffee shop downtown buzzed with the usual morning crowd, but the corner table where I sat felt isolated from the cheerful chatter around me. I’d arrived fifteen minutes early, needing time to prepare for a conversation I’d been dreading since Lyla’s text yesterday:
We need to talk. Just the two of us. Millbrook Café, 9 AM.
I checked my phone for the third time in five minutes. No messages from Gianna, who was at the flower shop preparing for a wedding delivery. We’d barely spoken since the kiss three nights ago, both of us dancing around what had happened with careful politeness that felt worse than outright conflict.
The bell above the café door chimed, and Lyla walked in wearing a charcoal business suit and the kind of smile that had once made me think she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Now it just made me wary.
She spotted me immediately and approached with the confident stride of someone who owned every room she entered. “Colby. Thank you for meeting me.”
“Lyla.” I stood to pull out her chair, old habits dying hard. “Coffee?”
“Please. Black.”
I signaled the waitress while Lyla settled herself across from me, placing her designer purse on the table like a statement piece. She looked polished as always, every hair in place despite the October wind outside.
“You look tired,” she said, studying my face with the calculating gaze I remembered from our worst fights.
“Long week. What did you want to talk about?”
She accepted her coffee from the waitress with a gracious smile, then turned those blue eyes on me. “Your marriage.”
My jaw tightened. “What about it?”
“Come on, Colby. We were married for four years. I know you better than anyone.” She leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping to the tone she’d always used when she thought she had the upper hand. “This whole thing is a setup. A desperate attempt to look stable for any future custody discussions.”
“That’s not—”
“I’ve done my research. Gianna Stapleton, florist, single with no serious relationships on record, conveniently available right when you might need to prove you can provide Luca with a stable home.” Lyla’s smile sharpened. “The timing is remarkable.”
Heat rose in my chest, but I kept my voice level. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I? She’s been your friend for years, always available to babysit, always ready to step in when you needed help. And suddenly, right when things might get complicated, she becomes the love of your life?” Lyla laughed, the sound cutting through the café’s ambient noise. “Even for you, that’s quite a coincidence.”
“My relationship with Gianna isn’t up for discussion.”
“Your fake relationship with Gianna is absolutely up for discussion. It’s fraud, Colby. Designed specifically to make you look like the perfect family man.”
The accusation struck me like a physical blow, partly because it was technically true and partly because it felt completely wrong. What Gianna and I had might have started as an arrangement, but it had become something else entirely. Something real enough that I’d spent the last three nights lying awake thinking about the taste of her lips and the way she’d looked at me afterward.
“You’re fishing,” I said finally.
“Am I? Then you won’t mind if I have my lawyer look into the timeline. When you applied for the marriage license, how long you’d been ‘dating,’ whether anyone can verify this grand romance actually existed before you started worrying about custody.”
My hands clenched around my coffee cup. “Leave Gianna out of this.”
“I can’t do that. She’s inserted herself into my son’s life, playing house with a man she barely knows, and you expect me to just accept it?”
“We’re not playing, Lyla. She was my friend before you walked out of our lives. You know this. You know her. She loves Luca.”
“I’m sure she does. He’s a lovable kid. But loving someone else’s child doesn’t make you a mother, and it certainly doesn’t make you qualified to influence decisions about his future.”
The contempt in her voice made my temper spike. “You mean the way you’ve been influencing his future? Missing his games, canceling visits, using him as a weapon in whatever game you’re playing?”
Lyla’s composed mask slipped for just a moment, revealing something raw underneath. “I’m trying to protect him.”
“From what? From having a stable home with two parents who actually show up?”
“From watching you use another woman as a placeholder until someone better comes along.” Her voice rose slightly, drawing glances from nearby tables. “That’s what you do, Colby. You find women who’ll take care of you and Luca until you get bored or find an excuse to leave.”