Read Online Not Second Best by Christa Maurice - Free Book Online Page A

made love last night before going to bed, Brett reached into his pocket for his car keys. When had he become such a pussy? Moping around like she’d broken up with him. She was late for work. They’d had too much fun last night and she’d overslept. The fact she wouldn’t call off work or cancel her plans for him didn’t mean anything.
    He left by the front door and checked to make sure it was locked. Recording didn’t start for a week yet. He’d see her before then. While he was recording, he’d have time to get tight with her brother and sister-in-law, provided he could keep a leash on his bandmates. That would give him another edge with her. Everything was going according to plan.
    If that was the case, why was he standing outside her house, holding on to her locked doorknob, wishing he could get back in?
    * * * *
    Tessa put her head down on her desk. She’d had insomnia since Brett left for WVA three weeks ago. Make that four. She hadn’t slept for a week before he left either. A solid month of lying awake, remembering what it felt like to snuggle up to him. Every evening she’d walked into the house and remembered what it was like to come home and find he’d tidied up before he’d left. She’d dodged two of every three times he called. Death by distance wasn’t happening. He seemed happy with the idea she was just a really busy person.
    Really busy going to the gym to swim in the pool every night because it gave her a good reason to not have her phone on her. All her friends thought she’d just started a New Year’s resolution at a really odd time. Except Candy, who thought she was trying to tone up while her much younger playmate was out of town. Now she had a whole weekend to fill in front of her. Made her wish the guys were gearing up for a tour because she would have a lot more work to do then.
    “Hi, you okay?”
    Tessa pulled herself together as she stood up to greet her visitor. “Brian, you’re home! How was the honeymoon?” She rounded her desk and hugged him, wondering why she didn’t feel any loss at the fact that he was married, tanned, and happy.
    “Great. The kids had a blast.”
    “I can’t believe Suzi let you take the kids on your honeymoon.” Tessa stepped back and surveyed him. He didn’t look anxious anymore. For about the past decade, worry had lurked at the corners of his eyes. He had covered it pretty well, but now that it was gone, she realized how bad it had been.
    “She wouldn’t go without them.”
    “That’s good.” She took his hand. “Come sit down.”
    “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
    “Oh?” She settled on the end of the couch in front of the windows so he could sit at the other end. “What about?”
    “I’m thinking about getting the custody arrangement changed.”
    Tessa leaned her head on her hand. “That’s not my area of expertise. I really can’t advise you.”
    “I know, but you know all the players. I just want to go into this with my eyes open for once.”
    “What is it you want?”
    Brian leaned forward and tapped the couch cushion as if he needed to argue his point with her. “I want to have the kids with me more. Suzi and I have talked about it, and she’s all for it. The only reason I’ve let them stay with Bonnie is because I had to travel so much, and I couldn’t leave them alone or jerk them around based on my schedule. But now with Suzi, they wouldn’t have to. They could stay with us, and she’d be there all the time.”
    “And she really understands what she’d be getting into? Instant family at twenty-five.”
    “Yeah, she does. And I’m not going anywhere for months anyway. We don’t start work on the next album for five more months so we won’t be on tour for over a year.”
    “It could take that long to hammer out the new agreement. Remember what Bonnie was like during the divorce?”
    “But that was years ago.”
    “And has she changed at all?”
    Brian made a face.
    “Plus now she’s jealous