“Yeah, come on, I’ll take you,” Wes told me as we both stood.

My father threw Wes a set of keys. “It’s the old truck I use when I go fishing. Take the back path out and you should be able to bypass all the press. They’ll never be looking for you in that, or back there.”

My father held onto an old 1982 Chevy 1-Ton truck just for going back and forth to the lake with all his fishing gear. It was perfect. The back path was literally that. It was a dirt path that went from the back garage, where the truck stayed parked along with an obscure little bass boat, to a tiny, grass and dirt covered road about five miles out. It was all still our property, but my dad kept it looking so old and unused that no one ever bothered him back there or came down that road. There was a simple hook gate at the end of the dirt path that had to be opened manually.

Once we were through the gate, it only took a few minutes to get back out to the main highway, and we managed to do it without attracting any attention to ourselves. “I’ll call ahead and see if there’s an incognito way to get you into the hospital, so we don’t have to worry about the press being in your face. I think since you haven’t been there yet, they’re starting to get the wrong impression. Plus, it probably doesn’t help that your old fuck buddy made a statement to them,” Wes informed me.

“Carlos? What did he tell the press?”

Wes laughed. “He had some big story about how he sent you into Tucker’s arms because he cheated on you, and how he was so sorry that he broke your heart, and that if you weren’t there for your husband, it was probably because he was cheating on you too with Venla. He said you were too good a person to not be there for someone if you loved them and they were hurting – unless they screwed you over first.”

“Great,” I sighed. “I bet he got paid well for that interview.”

“No doubt,” Wes agreed.

“Good for him then. Maybe he’ll be able to afford to graduate soon now.”

“You’re not angry with him?”

I shook my head. “For telling people his version of my truth? No. If it got him the money he needed, then I wish the best for him. Carlos was an okay guy. He just wasn’t meant for me, and we both knew that all along.”

“You are a far better person than I would ever be.”

Chapter 20

My hands shook as I opened the door to the hospital room where my husband was trying to mend. Wes never did give me the details of what happened, how Reggie died, or how Tucker was injured. It only just occurred to me, as I stood there at the threshold, that I hadn’t really demanded the information. Maybe, I hadn’t wanted to know, because I was afraid it meant that my husband had chosen being with his ex-girlfriend over me. Then again, I think I was a little bit in shock over the news and didn’t think to ask. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what went on in my head or why I’d simply let it go until now.