Dancing to the Truth (The Brent Trilogy 3)

Chapter 18

A month after I had my friendly dinner with Lance, mine and Whitney's divorce was finally finalized and we were at last officially no longer married. The feeling was strange, and felt like a weird emptiness, but also was kind of liberating.

I was already completely moved into my new condo, and the kids were now spending half of their week with me. I had promised them that a month from now, I was going to take them on vacation down to Florida and we were going to spend whole two weeks at Disney and Universal. They were beyond ecstatic and they couldn't wait until school was over.

I continued working, and soon I was promoted to a management position that paid a lot better. Isabelle's thirst for books had inspired me to start reading myself, and now I looked forward to my days when I didn't have the kids to just turn myself off from the rest of the world, and disappear in a novel or a good non-fiction. There were so many genres out there, that I never considered, because I didn't think of myself as a reader, but now that was what I spent most of my money on. Not having to pay mortgage on my new condo was nice and it took a lot of the financial stress from me.

I wasn't looking for a relationship anymore. I wanted someone, but for the first time in my life, I was content with myself and I was happy that I didn't have to hide. I hadn't explained to the kids about who I was because they were still too young, but I think that they guessed at it and luckily didn't ask me any awkward questions that I wouldn't know how to answer.

Whitney started officially dating Eddie after our divorce, and she promised that she would introduce me to him eventually, but for now, I kept my distance, and after the weird and irrational jealousy of seeing my ex-wife with a new man wore off, I realized when I was picking up the kids or dropping them off from my brief conversation with Eddie that he was a decent and solid guy, and I couldn't be happier for Whitney. She deserved all the best after the hell I had put her through.

Two weeks before school was out, I went to pick up the kids from Whitney right after I was done with work. I rang the doorbell, and after Isabelle and Justin came out to greet me, they asked me to come in because they weren't ready yet.

I walked in, going straight for the now all-too-familiar new living room of Whitney's and my heart stopped in my chest when I saw Eddie, Whitney and William all sitting around the coffee table.

"Hello," I said, my mouth dry. What the hell was William doing here? I hadn't seen him since that morning I left him making out with Marcus at the hotel in Austin, right after we had the hottest threesome I've ever had in my life.

"Hey, Isabelle, Justin, what do you say we go get some candy for everybody?"

"Let's go!" said Isabelle right away, always down for another adventure, especially one that involved candy.

"Justin, what do you say?" asked Eddie. Ever since Justin saw me and Eddie interacting with each other in a friendly manner, he had thawed towards the guy, but he still kept his distance.

"Can we get the cola flavored gummies too?" he asked, but he looked at his mother as he posed the question.

"Absolutely," said Eddie with a broad smile.

"Maybe I should take the kids candy shopping, since we're all leaving, no?" I said, even though I knew that it was a weak attempt to save myself from whatever this situation was.

"No, I think you should stay here," said Whitney, looking directly at me. "We need to talk."

Eddie, Justin and Isabelle left the house with a lot of noise, and then finally the front door closed behind them with a strange finality.