Stay- Book One The Full Circle

Brownies and Heartache

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Chapter 22
Brownies and HeartAche

Emerly

It's strange how quickly things change. One moment you're footloose and enjoying private, intimate time with a handsome single guy who has no interest in strings of attachment, the next you're helping said guy, the one you thought you'd be the one to change, to adopt a child and comfort another woman. And he's no longer yours to change, to keep, to fall for. Wow, what a reality check for me.

When I met Trent he was clear, extremely so, that he didn't want a commitment, a relationship or anything beyond what we had in between the sheets. He went to great lengths to make sure I understood this. He wouldn't be in any kind of relationship with me or anyone else. I stupidly agreed, because hey, what girl doesn't like a challenge from a great, sexy guy that says, try and change me. I thought we had a good thing going. I thought, hey, he's not sleeping with anyone else, right? I thought I was different.

I thought wrong

What a slap of reality today when I saw Maggie on that floor struggling for composure and Trent doing everything he could to soothe her, comfort her, be exactly who she needed. He told me about her before we got there, he said she was his. Possessively informed me of this fact. I'm not sure what I thought he meant but it wasn't this. I don't think I really wanted to understand what he meant. But seeing the way he was with her, it was undeniable. The tenderness in his eyes, the way he touched her, kissed her, said more than his words.

He fell in love with her. Correction. He is in love with her.

I don't think I really believed that until I saw the way he looked at Maggie. There was a light in his eyes that wasn't there a few months ago. And the protective way he cared for her, the way he banked back his anger so she didn't think it was aimed at her, the loving way he settled her. Things Trent never would have done before. It all said this man is off the market.

It's exactly what most women dream a man to be

It sucks really, for me, not them. I am happy for him, for her. Inside, I'm a little bitchy, a little broken up but I'll take tonight to feel sorry for myself then tomorrow I'll move on. My feelings, my expectations, aren't his fault. I take responsibility for my own feelings, my own presumptions. I can't be mad, Trent was honest with me from the beginning. It was just sex for him. It's not his fault I thought I could change his mind. Maggie obviously did what I couldn't.

She won his heart.

For tonight, I'm going to eat my brownies for dinner, drink my wine and wait for my best friend to get home to get me through this. I can sulk this once. While I wait for Sage, I get to work organizing Zoe's case file. She's been left behind with her grandparents for long stretches of time with no contact from her mother. She doesn't know her father at all and I have a raving review of Trent's ability to handle the child from her grandparent as well as a scathing report from the same on her mother. As far as I can see this is pretty simple but sometimes judges don't see it that way.

Reading through my initial report from today, checking my notes and reading it again, I focus hard on the facts. The mother is unfit. No father is in the picture. Grandparents that want what's best and a single man that lives above a bar he owns who wants to take the child in. A man who has a previous relationship with the mother, a decent relationship with the grandparents and a current relationship with a woman who has some issues of her own. There's a questionable lifestyle of the average single man and a relationship with a woman who has a tenuous relationship with her own mother and has literally fallen apart in front of the child while watching her alone. This isn't a slam dunk.