I nod my thanks to her, give Brooke, and Cahal both a kiss on the forehead before heading out. I take the stairs down instead of the elevator to give myself a little more time. I spot Jared standing in line at a coffee cart. Crossing over to him, I decide that a strong cup of black coffee is just what I need.

“Hey, man. How’s Brooke?” Jared asks as I approach him.

“She’s perfect now that she’s holding her son. Thanks for helping get her here.”

Jared nods. “It was nothing, just a two-hour drive with my… ‘ex’…which ended up being two and a half hours because your son can’t stand sitting in a soiled diaper,” Jared says using air quotes when he says ex.

“Yeah, what’s the deal there?”

Before he can answer, it is our turn to order. We both order tall black coffees then head to a table by the windows.

“Sonia?” I prompt Jared when we have sat down.

Jared glares at me.

“Come on, man. I could use the distraction,” I say.

Jared lets out a long sigh and scrubs a hand over his jaw. “I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. We had a thing, and it just kind of fizzled out.”

A laugh stumbles out of me. “Fizzled out. Sonia glares at you every time you are in her vicinity. That doesn’t sound like something that ended amiably.” I raise my eyebrow pointedly.

“We wanted different things,” he supplies.

“Like?” I question.

“She wants something…serious,” he says the last word with disgust.

“And that’s a bad thing because…?”

Jared looks around the room, squirming at the question. I stay silent, waiting him out.

“When you got married to Brooke, you hated it. Resented it. Excuse me if I decide not to take a chapter out of that book.”

I scoff. “That is a totally different situation. We were strangers forced together. Now… Now I cannot imagine my life without her. Hell, I can imagine it because for the last two weeks I had to face what it would be like without her. And I don’t ever want to do that again.”

Jared nods. “Yeah. But what happens when Brooke finds out why you married her?”

I glare at him. “She does know. Her father blackmailed me into signing a contract that required a marriage between the two of us.”

“That’s kind of vague, Landon. Why don’t you tell her what you were blackmailed with?” he taunts.

“Why do I have to? It’s in the past.”