CHAPTER FORTY

NOLAN POV

I was just about to walk into a charity event at the art gallery when my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw it was April, my daughter. The only thing I could think of was that she might be calling to tell me she had seen Gwen. I really wanted to ignore the call, but at the same time, I needed to know. Was my secret out? Did she know I had fucked her bestfriend?

I thought about it more. I didn't think she knew, because April would usually talk to me face-to-face about something that big, especially if it was about me sleeping with her friend. Maybe I was worrying too much about her call. She probably just needed money for something.

Even though it was almost spring, it was still cold outside. But I decided to go outside to take her call anyway. I didn't want anyone inside the gallery to hear what we were talking about.

"April. Is everything okay?" I asked.

"Oh, my goodness, Dad, everything's great. I saw Gweneth, and you won't believe it."

Her excitement was a big relief. Whatever she was happy about, it wasn't that I had slept with her friend.

"What is it that I won't believe?"

"Gweneth is pregnant!"

My hand quickly went out to the wall of the building. I held myself up because I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Oh, damn it.

"I don't really know why being pregnant made her feel like she had to totally end our friendship. But that's why she moved back home and is taking online classes now. I feel awful, though, because I should have noticed that something was wrong."

I remembered April telling me that Gwen had been sick on New Year's Eve. Surely that was too early to know about a pregnancy. But what else could it be? And holy hell, I had slept with her and then yelled at her that same night.

"Dad? Are you there?" April's voice pulled me back.

"Yes, honey, I'm here," I said. I tried to think of the next normal thing to ask. I really wanted to ask who the father was, but a good person would ask how she was doing first. "How is she doing?"

"She seems alright, though I guess it's still very early because she's not showing yet. She says she's only about six weeks pregnant. But just like Gweneth, she's already planning everything. She's finishing school, doing tutoring, and getting ready for her student teaching. And—"

"She's going to keep the baby?" I cut in, needing to know.

"Yes. I don't really know what the deal is with the baby's dad. Her father seems to think that she isn't sure either, which is really strange. Gweneth is not the type of girl who just hooks up with people. I totally thought she was a virgin."

The time frame of Gwen’s pregnancy finally hit me. I did the math in my head and realized I could not be the father. Relief started to calm me down until I realized something else: that meant Gwen had slept with someone else. A deep, burning jealousy shot through me. It made no sense how angry that made me. This woman had a strange hold over me. I was more upset to find out she had slept with another man after me than I was worried about having gotten her pregnant.

"Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that everything is okay with her. And from now on, I’m going to try to be a better friend to her."

"That's good to hear," I said, but my mind was elsewhere.

"Are you okay, Dad? Where are you right now?" she asked, sounding worried.

"I'm at a charity event," I told her.

"At the gallery? I was thinking of going to that, but Cole and I are going to see a movie instead."

I frowned. April loved art. The fact that she would skip an event like this to see a movie with her boyfriend bothered me. I didn't want her to give up her goals and dreams for a boy.

But she had to live her own life. I guess I needed to be thankful that she wasn't pregnant. Holy hell. I was a man who was almost forty-five, who slept with a twenty-two-year-old girl and thought he might have gotten her pregnant. Was I really that kind of person? Well, no. I wasn't the father.

When I hung up the phone with April, I thought about going home. But then I saw the open bar inside the gallery. I went in and walked straight to it. "Double scotch. Straight, please."

A moment later, I drank the scotch quickly. I felt it burn down to my stomach. Sadly, it did nothing to stop the crazy jealousy that was growing inside me.

"There you are." Watt walked up next to me. He looked at my empty glass, then at me. "Is something wrong, Nolan?"

I shook my head and rolled my shoulders, as if that could get rid of the rush of feelings spinning inside me. "Everything's fine," I said in a sharp voice, looking around the room. My eyes stopped on Eden. Eden someone. I couldn't remember her last name, but about eight or ten months ago, she had been a good quick hookup when I was at another charity event. I waited for the bartender to pour me another drink, picked it up, and walked straight over to her.

When she saw me, she smiled in a way that showed she knew what I was thinking. This was exactly the woman I needed. Long, blonde hair that was probably fake, but if I didn't pull too hard, it would look real. Big, firm breasts that were great for sex, also not real. A butt my hands could grab onto as I moved deep inside her. And when it was over, I could leave, and nothing about her would stay in my mind.

"Hey, Nolan," she purred, walking close to me.

"Eden." I noticed she didn't have a drink. "Can I get you something?"

She gave me a smile that told me she knew exactly what I was looking for and was more than willing to give it to me. She took my drink and, with a slow, sexy smile, brought it to her lips. "I'll just have a little of yours."

She coughed right away. I probably should have warned her that there was no mixer in the drink. But she recovered quickly. "You like them strong, don't you?"

I slid my hand over her butt. "If I remember right, you do too." She turned her body toward mine, pressing close, closer to my crotch than was okay in public. It should have felt exciting and hot. I had a woman who was ready, willing, and able, with a body made for fucking, rubbing against me. But my Cock wasn't interested. The little bastard didn't even twitch.

I took my drink back and finished it, thinking maybe I needed to relax, and then my body would get in the mood. "I need to look at some art first."

She nodded right away. "Of course."

We walked together, looking at the artwork from a mixed media artist. We stopped at a piece that used old toys, pages from what looked like a fairy-tale book, and paint.

"I just don't get why this is art," Eden said, frowning. "I mean, I could do something like this. My niece could do something like this. All they did was glue paper and toys and then put on a little paint."

I closed my eyes for a moment. Her comment annoyed me. I opened my eyes and looked closely at the artwork. If Gwen were here, she would likely see that the pages on the art piece all showed fairy tales where women were poor, forced to be servants. The toys were symbols of things that were traditionally girly—pink, feminine, and suggesting a life of serving others in the home. While the paint was a bit strange, it was clear to me that the artist was showing that women, in many ways, are still held back by these old ideas.

"Women have come farther since then, but not as far as many would think. Women still earn about thirty percent less than men. They still do seventy percent more of the housework," I could almost hear Gwen's voice saying if she were here. "And while some companies fight hard against paying for birth control in their insurance plans, they have no problem paying for Viagra." She had told me that little fact during our Trivial Pursuit game at the cabin. She had shaken her head. "Women today still can't win. Men want to have innocent, pure wives, but they want to have sex all the time with women who aren't their wives. They can't have it both ways." Her comment had made me laugh because I decided she was right.

"And men act like women don't like sex. At least the women they'll bring home to meet the family." When she said that, I had asked her if she liked sex as I pushed the game aside. I had also pushed away the thought that I wouldn't be bringing her home to meet the family, either.

Damn it. Why was I thinking about her?

"What do you think, Nolan?" Eden asked, sounding impatient.

I thought about telling her the whole meaning about the difficult situation of women, but I decided she wouldn’t care. Wasn't that why I chose her? All style and no meaning?

She raised an eyebrow and placed her hand over my cock. "Maybe we've seen enough art now?"

My Cock actually shriveled up into my body. I stepped away, my jaw tight. "I need another drink." I walked away from her, heading straight for the bar. When I got there, I looked over my shoulder, and she was looking at me with the same raised eyebrow. I gave a small nod. When she walked over and started talking to another man, I knew she understood the message. I would not be fucking her tonight. Probably never.