The Rules of Dating a Younger Man
: Chapter 20

I really didn’t feel like being here tonight, not even when a superhot blonde sidled up to me at the bar.

“Hi. I’m sorry to bother you,” she said. “I need to ask a big favor.”

“Okay…”

“You see that table of ladies behind me?” She motioned with her eyes for me to look over her left shoulder. “The ones who are probably staring at us right now and smiling like loons?”

I glanced over. Sure enough, three sets of eyes were glued to us. “Yep. I see ’em.”

“Okay, so…a year ago today my fiancé ended our engagement. Those are my three best friends, and they are never going to leave me alone until I talk to someone tonight.” She sighed. “They mean well. I know that. But I’m not ready to jump back into the dating pool. Do you think we could just talk for ten minutes? They’ll sleep better tonight not worrying that I’m going to die an old maid.”

I smiled and lifted my chin toward the stage. “You see that drummer up there? The one watching us with a dumb-ass smile right about now?”

The woman looked over and back. “Yes?”

“That’s the male version of your three ladies. I didn’t make it to engagement, though I’m pretty sure the woman who dumped me recently was the one. And it’s only been three months, not a year. But I agreed to come out tonight just so my buddy would stop making up reasons to pop in and check on me.”

“Perfect.” She smiled and extended her hand. “I’m Lacey.”

“Brayden.” We shook. “Nice to meet you. Can I buy you a drink?”

“How about a shot of tequila?” she said. “And I’m buying.”

“Even better.”

I glanced over at her friends again. They looked equal parts excited and nervous. “I’m going to look left and hold my hand up to call the bartender over. Why don’t you give your friends the thumbs up on the sly while I do that? Might help them relax a little.”

“Oooh… Good idea.”

A few minutes later, Lacey and I clinked tequila-filled shot glasses. I held mine up in a toast. “To moping around and getting teary-eyed when we see other couples looking happy.”

Lacey chuckled. “To being miserable for as long as we want.”

We both knocked back the shot, following up with a lick of salt and a suck of lime. Lacey set down her glass. “So what went wrong in your relationship?”

I frowned.

“Oh gosh.” She saw my face and put up her hands. “I’m sorry. It’s too soon for you to talk about. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sure I wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it after only three months.”

“It’s fine.” I shrugged. “Though nothing really went wrong. It’s kind of a crazy story, actually.”

“Well, that’s a very intriguing statement. Now you have to tell me…”

I chuckled. “I think I might need another shot if we’re going to swap war stories. How about next round on me?”

Lacey smiled. “Good idea. I replace alcohol makes it easier for me to talk about the hard stuff.”

I raised my hand to call the bartender, and we knocked back another round. The second one slid down smoother than the first. I wasn’t much of a drinker, so between the tequila and the two beers I’d had before she walked over, I was feeling a fuck of a lot more relaxed. The alcohol apparently also helped improve my vision, because I noticed a few things about Lacey for the first time—like how big her blue eyes were, and how full her pouty mouth was. When she sucked on the lime, my gaze took a dip lower—appreciating her feminine curves.

With our liquid-courage tanks topped off, Lacey turned and straightened in her seat, giving me her full attention. “Feel more talkative now?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m good.”

However, telling my story turned out to be more difficult than I’d thought. I couldn’t seem to replace the right place to begin. After a few minutes, I decided to stop overthinking things and just spit it out. “I slept with my girlfriend’s daughter.”

Lacey’s jaw dropped, and her eyes went wide as saucers.

“Shit. That didn’t come out right.” I shook my head. “I didn’t sleep with her after I started seeing Alex. I slept with her before.”

But Lacey only looked more confused. “You slept with your girlfriend’s daughter and then your girlfriend?”

“Yes, but it sounds worse than it is. Let me back up, start from the beginning.” I explained how Caitlin—Kate—and I had briefly dated in college, and that Alex and I had no clue about that when we’d met by chance. When I was done telling the story, Lacey looked almost as shocked as when I’d blurted out that I’d slept with my girlfriend’s daughter.

She shook her head. “That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. What are the chances you would date someone in college in one state, and then randomly meet her stepmother a decade later in a different one and fall in love?”

“I told you it was a screwed-up story.”

“Is it weird that I almost feel like it was fate working in some odd way?”

“Working against me, maybe.”

“So the daughter couldn’t get past it?”

“That’s the hardest part for me to swallow. Caitlin, the stepdaughter, was pretty upset at first. In the end, though, she said she was okay with it. She wants Alex to be happy. But Alex is too afraid to risk her relationship with Caitlin. She doesn’t really believe Caitlin would be okay with it.”

“Do you think maybe Alex is hiding behind her daughter, using her as an excuse?”

“Because she’s afraid of a serious relationship with someone younger?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess it could be that, too.”

I tilted my head. “What did you mean?”

“I meant maybe she used it as an excuse so she wouldn’t hurt you.”

My face fell. “Oh.”

Lacey put her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry. I just keep sticking my foot in my mouth, don’t I? I shouldn’t have suggested that. I don’t know what the heck I’m saying.”

But the seed had been planted, and my brain was already nurturing it, watching it grow. How the hell had I never considered that maybe Alex didn’t feel the same way about me that I did about her? I’d spent hours thinking about what I could’ve done differently, how I could’ve convinced her to take a chance with me. Never once did it occur to me that she just…didn’t love me. But she hadn’t said the words back when I’d told her how I felt.

I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Alright, your turn.”

Lacey chewed on her lip. “I need another shot.”

“Coming right up.”

If the second shot relaxed me, allowed me to appreciate the view, the third loosened me a little too much—emotions bubbled up as I listened to Lacey’s story.

“So, yeah…” She sighed. “We’d been dating for three years when I got pregnant. Henry proposed the night we went for our first sonogram appointment and heard the heartbeat. A few days later, I miscarried. After that, I threw myself into planning the wedding—trying to focus on the happy things in life. But Henry changed. At first I thought he was sad about losing the baby, so I gave him some space. As time went on, though, it became apparent that Henry wasn’t into the wedding. One day I asked him, ‘Are you sure you even want to go through with this?’ I mean, we only got engaged when we did because I was pregnant. Still, I never expected him to say he didn’t want to marry me. He said he loved me, but not the way a man should love a woman.”

“I’m sorry.”

Lacey shrugged. “Deep down, I know it’s a good thing. I would rather have a year of heartache than a lifetime of not being my spouse’s person. My parents didn’t have a happy marriage. I want more than that. But it still stings that he couldn’t love me the way I loved him. It makes me feel like I’m not enough, you know?”

“I’m really sorry.”

She forced a smile. “Nothing to be sorry about.”

Holden walked over. He slung an arm around my shoulder and offered his signature cocky grin. “Hi. I’m better looking and musically gifted, but my friend Brayden here is rich as hell. Did he mention that yet?”

Lacey arched a brow. “He actually didn’t.”

“He’s also philanthropic as fuck. Runs a giant foundation and puts smiles on the faces of sick kids.”

Lacey turned to me. “Is that true?”

I shrugged. “The foundation isn’t that big. We do what we can.”

Holden slapped my chest. “I knew it. He’s been sitting here telling you his tale of woe for the last twenty minutes instead of talking himself up, like he should be.”

Lacey smiled. “I think we’ve been going woe for woe.”

“Well, let me finish the hard sell, and then I’ll be out of your way.” Holden mussed my hair. “My buddy Brayden here has some pretty great qualities. He’s loyal—been friends with this idiot since kindergarten. Smart—I can’t even spell the shit he’s gotten patents on. And he owns a piece of real estate in Manhattan.” Holden leaned in and flashed a grin. “I also own a piece of the apartment building, so that’s two selling points in one—you get me as the sidekick for this handsome hunk of man.”

I gave my idiot friend a shove. “I think you can put a sock in it now, jackass. Peddle that junk somewhere else.”

“Speaking of junk—did I mention he’s hung like a horse? Now, I haven’t seen it since seventh grade, but once I pulled his swim trunks down at our buddy Ryan’s pool party, and his thing put mine to shame. I’m sure it’s only grown since then.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “It was actually me who pulled down his swim trunks, and I started wearing my underwear in the boys’ locker room right after that. But thanks for the effort, buddy.”

Holden winked. “My wife is a pretty lucky lady.”

With that, my friend disappeared to play another set, leaving Lacey and me both laughing. I couldn’t help but notice her lips again. “You have a great smile,” I told her.

Lacey pushed hair behind her ear. “Thank you. And you have beautiful eyes.”

“Look at us,” I said. “Are we flirting?”

“I think we are!”

“This sounds like cause for celebration. Another shot of tequila?”

“Definitely.”

A few hours later, it was just the two of us left at the bar. Holden was home with his family, and Lacey’s friends had happily left her behind. We were both pretty drunk, so I hailed a cab, figuring I’d make it a two-stop ride home. To my surprise, Lacey lived only a block away from me. So when we stopped at her place, I got out to make sure she got in safely and would walk home from there.

At her apartment door, Lacey dropped her keys. We both reached for them at the same time and bumped heads. Lacey wobbled, so I grabbed her to keep her from falling, and she somehow wound up wrapped in my arms. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes, her hands pressed against my chest.

“Oooh…you feel good,” she whispered. “I haven’t had sex in a year.”

It had been three months for me, but I definitely missed the feeling of a woman in my arms. “That’s a long-ass time.”

She bit her bottom lip and fluttered her lashes. “Too long. Do you want to come in? Maybe we can help each other forget?”

I was tempted. Sort of.

Lacey wrapped her arms around my neck. “I know neither of us is emotionally available. But it doesn’t have to be more than it is. I like you. You’re hot. I miss the physical part of a relationship.”

I wanted to want to, so damn badly. But I couldn’t. It would feel like I was cheating on Alex. Which was absolutely ridiculous, because in order to cheat, you have to be in a relationship, and I hadn’t even spoken to Alex in three months. For all I knew, she’d met someone and moved on. Yet I couldn’t do it. Besides, even if there were no Alex, Lacey and I had had a lot of tequila. The last thing this nice lady needed was regrets on top of the other shit she was already carrying. But I didn’t want to make her feel bad, make her feel rejection again. So I needed to handle the situation delicately.

I lifted Lacey’s hand and brought it to my lips. “You are gorgeous. And funny and smart. And your ex is a goddamned dumbass. But you’ve also had too much to drink. So as tempting as the invitation is, I’m going to head home.”

She pouted. “But I don’t want a gentleman right now. I want someone to do bad things to me.”

I groaned and kissed the top of her head. “You’re killing me.”

Lacey dug her phone out of her pocket. “Give me your number at least. Maybe we can try this again when we’re sober?”

I smiled. “You got it.”

***

Holden knocked the next morning. When I opened the door, he looked over my shoulder and grinned. “Bad time?”

I opened the door wide and stepped aside for him to enter. “I’m alone, jackass. I also knew you’d be down here today. I’m surprised it took this long. You can’t help yourself when it comes to gossip.”

“Well, you owe me a shitload of it. All you’ve done the last few months is mope around this place.” He plopped down on my couch. “So…Lacey was nice. Cute, too.”

I sighed. “You want some coffee?”

“Coffee? Dude, it’s eleven o’clock. I’ve already had three cups, fixed Mrs. Denton’s sink, changed two diapers, and sang a lullaby to my princess.”

I refilled my mug. “Hope likes it when you sing to her?”

Holden smirked. “I meant I sang for my wife. Me singing Lala a lullaby is her version of Viagra. She gets turned on when I croon.”

I shook my head. My buddy’s wife was also our best friend’s little sister. Even though they were married and had a kid, I still felt protective of her. “That’s Lala you’re talking about, dickhead. I don’t want to know.”

He stretched his arms across the back of the couch. “So what happened with Lacey?”

“She invited me inside at her place.”

“Nice.”

“Not really.” I frowned. “I couldn’t do it.”

“Why not?”

I sighed. “I couldn’t do it to Alex.”

Holden’s eyebrows pulled tight. “You guys are talking again?”

“No. But that doesn’t make me feel any less for her.”

He smiled. “I know the feeling, man. Remember when Lala showed up in town? She was engaged to that dude, yet I couldn’t be with another woman. It was the longest dry spell of my life.”

“Yeah, but you and Lala always had something going on. In your hearts, you knew it was meant to happen. I’m holding out for a lost cause.”

“Is it?”

“Is it what?”

“A lost cause. Because I don’t see you doing shit to try to win her back.”

“What are you talking about? She made a decision, and I’m trying to respect that.”

“And Lala made a decision to marry Dr. Douchebag. All’s fair in love and war, my friend.”

“It’s not the same.”

Holden shrugged. “If you say so. But if you want my two cents, I don’t think you fought the good fight long enough.”

“You don’t understand. It’s not going to happen.”

“If you really believed that, you’d have taken Lacey up on her offer last night. Your head might have given up hope, but your heart hasn’t, my friend.”

“I wish my dick was aligned with my head.”

“Maybe you should give yourself a deadline. If things don’t work out with Alex by a certain date, you move on. Set a fire under your own ass.”

My phone vibrated from the counter. Wanting a distraction from this conversation, I walked over and picked it up. I was surprised to replace Lacey’s name on the screen.

Lacey: Hey. Just wanted to say thank you for last night. For the drinks and…for being a gentleman when you walked me home.

I typed back.

Brayden: No thanks necessary. I had a really good time.

Lacey: Me too. You made me realize there are other fish in the sea. A year has been way too long.

Brayden: Good for you.

Lacey: I’m leaving for a work trip tomorrow, but I’ll be back next Saturday. Maybe we could hang out?

I wasn’t sure what hang out meant, and I didn’t want to lead her on, so I stalled. My fingers were still hovering over the keypad when a second text came in.

Lacey: I know you’re not over your ex. So no hard feelings if you’re not up for it. But if you are, I’ll be at my apartment at 8. Naked and sober.

My jaw dropped open. I’d completely forgotten Holden was still here until he spoke.

“Everything okay?”

I raked a hand through my hair. “Yeah. Except apparently, my deadline is next Saturday.”