“I won’t. I’m older and wiser now.” Trevor sat up and looked at his lobster-colored chest. “Okay, maybe not so much wiser.”
“See, this place is no good for you. Let’s go home. Tear up that arbitration agreement and take her to court. At least sue her so you don’t pay her that ridiculous alimony anymore. Heck, no judge will award her that.” Dustin shook his head. “Man, just stop running and fix this so you don’t go bankrupt and you can go home.”
“I tell you what. I’ll speak to an attorney and see what they say. If I have a case, I’ll take her to court. But no matter the outcome, nothing will get me to return to Seattle. I’m happy here.”
Dustin didn’t look happy, but he picked up his phone, opened the screen, and tossed it to Trevor. He looked down to see Marsha on another news site. This time the title read, Marsha Thompson Left at Alter When Groom-to-be Discovered Her Truth—Pregnant With Her Ex’s Baby.
“No, not possible. It’s not mine.” Trevor scrolled through the article. “You’re right, I’m taking her to court. I’m not paying child support for a child who’s not mine. We divorced over three months ago. There’s no way. We haven’t been together since…” He froze, the last three months flashing through his memory in an instant and settling on one night. His pulse raced. His skin went cold. He wanted to scream. “The night before the papers were served to him. Marsha came over. She said we’d made a mistake.”
Dustin nodded. “I remember. The next morning she got a call from an agent and was gone. That’s when you decided to come here. If you read further down, you’ll see she’s about three and a half months along.”
Trevor didn’t know if the sting over his skin was from his sunburn or from the life-altering news. Either way, it hurt. “But I was told I couldn’t have children.”
“You were told that once, years ago. Did you ever think the woman you were with then might have been the one who couldn’t have children and it wasn’t you who had the problem? Did you ever have any tests run?”
Trevor thought back over the last decades of his life. “No.”
“And how many women have you had unprotected sex with?”
“None. Well, Marsha, but she had an IUD before we ever met and kept it until…”
“Until when?”
“A month before we divorced. Something about having an infection and she had to have it removed.”
Dustin took his phone back and looked down at Trevor. “Now you know why you can’t continue with Julie. She deserves better. Because now you have no choice but to return to Seattle.” He cleared his throat. “Ready to go home? Dad?”
Chapter Sixteen
The front door to the cottage swung open, hitting the wall. Houdini skittered from the room, probably to his hideout behind Julie’s bed.
Kat waltzed into the center of the living room, dropped her bag on the ground, and looked down her nose at the décor. “Well, I’ve seen nothing has changed.”
Everyone held their breath—well, Julie did—and waited for the next comment to come out of the rich and famous Chicago attorney’s mouth.
“Just like you. How do you do it, girl? I mean, seriously? I pay a ton of money to keep my skin looking this good, and you live in Florida. The place where people turn into raisins by the age of forty-five from sun damage.” Kat dropped her coat and opened her arms.
Trace shot past Kat and wrapped her arms around Julie. “Thanks. We all wanted to know how you really felt about our quaint little lives.”
It was a quick Trace kind of hug. Little emotion, but being raised only by a father and having no women in her life had turned Trace Latimer into a tomboy who didn’t believe in showing emotions.
Julie looked around at all of them, her three high school best friends. They all passed glances around the room until Wind threw out her arms. “Watch out, Summer Island. The girls are back together.”
They all fell into easy conversation as if a minute hadn’t passed since their high school graduation. Julie had savored their friendship then, and she welcomed it now. Each crazy, pushy, outrageous one of them. Funny, she’d dreaded their return, not wanting them to push her into something she wasn’t ready for, but now she was so excited to see them, she forgot about all her apprehension and listened to all their latest and greatest news.
The ease couldn’t last, though. Trace cleared her throat and studied her hiking sandals. “I’m sorry I didn’t stay longer after Joe’s passing.”
Julie eyed her little blonde friend with the courage and aggression of a bull shark. “No. Don’t apologize. You came home for me all the way from Antarctica. I didn’t expect you to stay. You had important work saving the penguins.”
“Right, the Gentoo or Pygoscelis papua.” A shadow passed over her, like something had happened during those days.
“Stop with all the ocean geek talk before Julie doesn’t invite us back,” Wind said.
“It’s fine. And of course I’ll invite you all back.” Julie looked to each of her long-lost friends. “I hope we can all stay in touch for a while after this.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t come back to visit more.” For the first time since her arrival, Wind looked honest, without a flair of theatrics.
“It’s okay, really,” Julie said. “I should’ve tried harder, too.”
“Maybe, but after we didn’t come home the first few years that you invited us to holidays and spoke about our book club, it was up to us to make things right. I think we were all so caught up in our own lives, we forgot how important our friendship was. I, for one, was excited when I received Bri’s invitation.” Kat lifted her chin.
“Really?” Trace asked what Julie assumed everyone else was thinking.
“Yes. I missed my friends. My real friends. Not the corporate, tough-skinned types who can’t pick a book to read if
