Page 42 of Bad Boy Husband

SADIE

I woke up to the earthy, bitter scent of coffee wafting through the air, and for a moment, I didn’t know where I was. All I knew for an absolute fact was that the bed was too firm. Sunlight poured in through pale linen curtains I didn’t recognize.

It took a few seconds for the fog in my head to clear and I groaned when I slowly started remembering everything that had happened yesterday.

Carson and I had touched down in Dallas at some ridiculous hour this morning and I’d asked him to drop me off at Trent’s, but he’d insisted on bringing me back to his house in University Park.

Slowly pushing myself up until I was sitting, I rubbed my eyes, my head pounding with regret while a deep, familiar ache consumed my chest. Carson showing up at the shelter came rushing back into my mind, how calm and coaxing his voice had been as he kept telling me to take some time, come home, think about things.

I remembered stumbling around the airport feeling a bit like a zombie. Sleeping the whole flight to Texas. When we’d finally gotten here, to his house, he’d brought me to his guest room and I’d crawled into bed, crying silently until I’d finally passed out again.

In the warm, harsh light of day, I found myself wondering just what the heck I’d been thinking, getting in that car with him.

I’d been so tired and so upset that I hadn’t been thinking, though.

That was the darn problem and now I was in Texas and Jameson had probably already told his family that the wedding was off.

Pain shot through me, as real and sharp as if I’d stepped in a thorn, but with my heart instead of a foot. I lifted my hands to my face, feeling fresh tears leak out of my eyes, but I took a deep breath and tried to shake off the regret, the unease, and the helplessness.

I was back in Dallas. At home. Or at least, the closest thing I had to one of those. All I had to do was call my brother and he would come get me. I could go back to his place and we could talk through all of this together.

But where the hell is my phone? I checked the nightstand, the covers of the bed, and finally rolled off the mattress to check my bag, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Crap, maybe I left it in his car.

The intense desire to find it as well as the smell of food drew me out of the room. I padded down the hallway barefoot, stopping once I got downstairs and saw Carson in the kitchen. He stood by the stove, shirtless and flipping something in a pan.

Coffee brewed behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled like we were living in some weird, instant, just-add-water version of domestic bliss. “Morning. I hope you like omelets. I thought you might be hungry.”

I blinked hard. “Morning. Uh, have you seen my phone? I don’t remember grabbing it last night.”

“Nope. I don’t think I have.” He didn’t turn around to face me again, just shrugging his shoulders and turning his gaze back to the pan. “Maybe you left it at the shelter.”

I frowned, searching through my hazy memories and realizing that I couldn’t have left it at the shelter because Trent had called me after I’d left. Carson had seen me checking my phone. Come to think of it, the last time I saw it was before he carried my bags after we landed.

“Do you think I might’ve left it in your car?”

“Doubt it.” Another shrug. “You can check after breakfast.”

I was about to ask him for his keys so I could go check now when he suddenly stepped closer to the window, his brow furrowing. “What the hell?”

He cursed under his breath and I followed his gaze. A brand new navy blue truck had just pulled into the driveway and my heart gave a soaring leap, relief pulsing through me at the sight of it. Trent .

I didn’t even have time to process that he’d come without me calling him for help before the doorbell rang. Carson stiffened, tossed the spatula into the sink, and went to answer the front door. I followed him, my heart pounding at the intensity of the relief flowing through me.

The moment Carson pulled the door open, Trent walked right in with zero hesitation, his gaze immediately finding mine over Carson’s shoulder. “Get your stuff. You’re coming with me.”

Carson stepped in front of him, blocking his way any further into the house. “She’s not going anywhere. She needed a break and that’s what I’m giving her. I won’t let you send her right back to Jameson fucking Westwood.”

I nearly fell over with the shock that radiated through me when Trent looked at him like he was something he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

“Does she know you’re broke? Did you tell her the healthy, thriving business your dad handed you is circling the drain and you’ve been working with Collins to try and steal Sadie’s inheritance?

I’m going to go ahead and assume she doesn’t know any of that. ”

I froze. “What?”

Carson’s jaw clenched, but Trent ignored him and turned to me. “You heard me. Collins and Carson have been playing you. Both of you.”

I was so stunned that I didn’t know what to say, but at the same time, I believed him.

Not only because he was my brother but also because suddenly it all made sense.

After I’d spoken to Jameson, I couldn’t figure out why Collins would be doing the things he had accused her of.

I also hadn’t known why Carson, of all people, would be involved.

“They were setting you up to lose everything,” Trent explained, his voice quiet as he shoved Carson aside and walked over to me.

His eyes were tired and reddish, watery, his hair sticking up in all directions and his button-down shirt wrinkled.

It was immediately clear that he hadn’t slept much, if at all.

“They were trying to make Jameson look like the bad guy, but he’s not with Collins, Sadie. Never has been.”

I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I just stared at Carson, looking for something—anything—in his eyes that would tell me this wasn’t true. That Trent was just being cruel. Carson refused to look at me, instead glowering at my brother like he wished he could put him in the ground right about now.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, the nausea hitting hard and fast. “I let you bring me here. I believed you.”

Realizing that I had to get out of there right now, I turned and ran back to the guest room, threw what little I had back in my overnight bag, and swept everything from the bathroom counter in after it. Let him keep the stupid phone if he has it. God, would he really have hidden it from me?

Trent strode into the room like a bodyguard on a mission, gently taking my arm and marching me to his truck. He opened the door for me and I got in without a word, just staring out the window. My brother pulled out of Carson’s driveway.

On our way to Trent’s place, shame and humiliation washed over me, the reality of what I’d done—who’d I’d thrown away—shattering me in ways I’d never known possible. “Oh my God, I should’ve listened to him. I should’ve trusted him. He was telling the truth.”

My brother’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond. I dropped my face into my hands, sobs rising up from a broken place within. “And now, it’s too late. Jameson’s done with me. Carson said?—”

“Fuck Carson.” Trent sighed, one hand on the wheel, the other reaching for one of mine. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. “This is a pretty common theme in our world, Sades. You wouldn’t know since you left it, but people like Collins and Carson? They’re not rare.”

“They’re monsters.”

“In designer clothes,” he agreed. “Either way, it doesn’t matter what Carson said. He doesn’t know Jameson the way I do.”

I didn’t reply. There was nothing to say. Trent did know Jameson better, but it still didn’t mean Carson hadn’t been right about him being done. God, I would’ve been done with myself, too.

“I don’t blame you, you know, for how you’ve lived your life,” he added quietly a moment later. “I know this might come as a surprise, but I really don’t blame you for wanting something else. Something real.”

“What?” I glanced at him. “What are you talking about?”

He shrugged. “I live in that big house alone and I’m building another, bigger one, for a family I don’t have.

I’ll probably end up marrying someone like Collins one day, I guess.

Someone who wants the money, not the time, or effort, or the love.

Just the cash and the perceived bottomlessness of my bank account. ”

I frowned. “Don’t say that. Where the hell is this coming from?”

“It’s the truth. I’m not afraid to admit it.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You got lucky, Sadie. You found a guy who doesn’t give a damn about the money. Jameson wants you . Your time. Your love. It was never about anything else for him.”

I blinked back a fresh wave of tears, trying to hold it together before I became a wailing mess in his car. “You’re really onboard with this now?”

Trent laughed, his smile a real one this time. “Jameson’s the only guy I’ve ever trusted around you. Still is. Even if I’ve been wanting to murder him for what he’s probably been thinking of doing every time he’s been around you.”

Something that hadn’t yet been entirely broken deep inside my soul cracked. “Great. So you’re onboard, but only now that it’s over.”

“Jeez, give me break. So it took me a minute to accept that my best friend has been brutally in love with my little sister for years. I’m not going to apologize for that, but it’s true, you know? He really has been. He’s just been too dumb and too damn noble to do anything about it until now.”

I swallowed hard, my throat burning. “I messed everything up.”

“You might’ve, but I don’t think he’s letting you go.” Trent glanced at me as we pulled up to his house. “I can have the jet ready in an hour if you’d like to head back to California, but I’d hang around for a while if I was you.”

As he parked and killed the engine, I shook my head. “I can’t go back. Not yet. I don’t know how to fix this, and until I do, I think it’s better if I’m here. At least I can’t do any more damage if I can’t even talk to him.”

“Alright, then. Stay here as long as you need.” He reached into the center console and handed me a set of keys. “The pool house is yours.”

“Thanks, Trent,” I said softly, my heart in shreds, but it was good to know that after everything, my brother still had my back. “Really.”

He smiled and gave my hand one last squeeze. “Anytime.”

Right now, that was the only thing keeping me from falling apart completely, but that didn’t mean that I hadn’t taken a wrecking ball to my life. My relationship. A future I hadn’t realized how desperately I wanted until it had been too late.

Jameson had taken a lot from me over the years. The silent treatment and the snide comments. The high horse I’d been looking down at him from all this time.

And then, he’d told me the truth. Told me he was being set up. Told me he freaking loved me, and I had still walked away.

I didn’t know if there was any coming back from that, but I did know that it was my turn to do something.

My turn to apologize. My turn to fight. As soon as I figured out how to do that, I would prove to him once and for all that he was the only man I’d ever loved, and that I would do anything it took to keep him.