Breach of Honor by Naomi Porter

43 Miranda

LILY OPENED THE door, and I was pulled into her embrace. The door closed behind me, and I clung to her as I wept over Will’s betrayal.

Another woman.

Had I been foolish to think he’d always be faithful? Did I cause him to stray?

“Come and sit,” Lily whispered. “Did he admit there was another woman?” All week I’d been talking about my suspicions, so she knew tonight I’d planned to push him for answers.

“Not directly, but I smelled the perfume and saw the lipstick. He didn’t deny it.”

“I don’t believe it.” She huffed. “So much for the St. James honor code.” Her words reeked of bitterness, and it had everything to do with Henry. It’d been two months, and she still hadn’t gotten over him. “What else?”

“He was at Club R tonight with Jason… and her.”

“Asshole! Maybe we should go there and hook up with someone!” I cocked my head at her, and Lily softened. “I know, bad idea. What are you going to do?” She took my hand. “Your old bedroom is vacant.”

“I love him, Lily. I want to work through this.”

“But he cheated on you. I thought infidelity was the mother of all offenses?”

“I thought so too. Now I don’t know. He hasn’t been himself for months.”

“Well yeah! He’s been cheating! You probably never really knew him.”

“No, I know Will and he loves me. He wouldn’t hurt me like this.”

“But he has. Don’t be stupid.”

My phone buzzed. Of course, it was Will. Lily shook her head, but I answered it anyway. “Hello?”

“Are you okay?” He sounded so broken; it tore me up.

“What do you think? I just discovered my boyfriend is cheating on me. Yeah, I’ve never been better.”

“M, come home so we can talk. Please.”

“Oh, sure, now you want to talk. What changed?”

His heavy breathing filled my ears. Why did it make me think he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders?

“Please, baby. Just come home.”

An ache in my chest nudged me forward. “Not tonight. I need time to think and so do you.”

“Okay, I’ll give you time. Whatever you want. When will you be home?”

“Tomorrow around noon. Will you be there?”

He sighed. “Yes. I’ll be here.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Miranda!” he shouted, fear and panic wrapped around each syllable of my name.

“Yeah?”

“I love you. And I’m sorry.”

“I love you too. But, Will… I won’t be made a fool of. So you think about what you want and if that includes me.”

“It does include you! Jesus, M, I’ve only ever wanted you.”

“Well, your actions say otherwise. I’m done talking about this. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I ended the call.

Lily grabbed my hand again. “Hey, you did good.”

“Then why do I feel like shit?”

“Because you love him. Believe me, I get it.”

She rubbed the top of my hand. I knew she understood. I still didn’t know the depths of her feelings for Henry. What was it about him that had captured her heart in only three days?

I never believed in insta-love before, but I’d experienced a shift in the universe the first time I saw Will at Club R. I guessed it was something similar for Lily with Henry. From what she told me, he’d broken through the iron gates protecting her heart.

Why did men have to be such jerks?

“It’s nearly two in the morning. Let’s go to bed,” I suggested, feeling a little better after talking to Will. Maybe I was a stupid girl, but I had prayed in the car for him to call me. It would be like a sign that he truly loved me.

I needed those signs.

Waking up in my old bed without Will made me feel empty. I didn’t want this to become my new normal. I needed Will’s strong arms around me, his warm breath on my neck, and I wanted to hear the soft sounds of his snoring.

We needed to work through this crap about another woman, but one question wouldn’t leave me: CanI trust him?

I rolled out of bed when I heard soft mumbles coming from the living room. I stole a glance at my phone to check the time: 10:12 a.m. I hadn’t slept this late in a very long time.

As I exited the room, Tate appeared from the kitchen. The look in his eyes told me he knew about Will and the other woman. Shit.

“Morning, sweets.” He gave me a massive bear hug. “Don’t be angry with her,” he whispered. Of course he’d protect Lily.

“What are you doing here?”

“I brought donuts and strawberries for you.” He pinched my chin, his black eyebrows furrowed.

“No Viv?”

“No, it’s just us three, like old times.”

Great, I’d woken up to an intervention, just what I wanted before going home to Will.

“Come on. I’ll pour you a cuppa joe.” He winked, pulling me by the hand to the table where Lily sat with a guilty expression. “You can’t be all that surprised I’m here. I mean, you’ve been bawling your eyes out from what Lily told me.”

“But—”

“But nothing. You know how much it upsets her to see you crying. Naturally, she called me to vent, and naturally, I ran over here, ready to pound any man into the ground who hurt you.” Tate put a mug in front of me, messed the top of my hair like he would a kid sister, and sat in the chair next to me.

“I know. I didn’t mean to upset her. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Will cheated on you. You have every right to be upset.” Lily finally piped up. “I just hate seeing you so sad.”

“I know. Thank you for letting me crash here.”

“Are you freaking kidding me? If you had gone anywhere else, I’d have been raising hell.”

I laughed softly. Lily was a force to be reckoned with. “Okay, let’s get this talk over with so I can go home.” I watched as Lily and Tate glanced at each other. “What?”

“Are you planning to take him back after he screwed around on you?” Tate asked.

“We’re going to talk. That’s all I know.”

“But last night you said you loved him as if you were going to stay with him,” Lily reminded me. Yes, my intentions were to say with Will.

“First off, it’s my life. Let’s not forget that. Second, if it never happens again, why wouldn’t I give him another chance? I love him.”

Lily and Tate groaned in unison, and anger sparked inside me.

“Stop it! I believe I’ve contributed to this whole thing by working so much. You guys warned me I was taking on too many events. Well, it came up and bit me in the ass. I’ve learned. I’ll hire more people.”

“Except you’re the only event planner. Nobody can plan events like you. The clients want YOU.” Lily wasn’t wrong. Hiring another event planner would be expensive and pointless; the clients wanted to deal with me specifically.

“What if I trained you to help me?” I asked with a hopeful grin.

“Oh sure, as if I don’t already have a fuckton of work.” She squashed my idea in one sarcastic sentence.

“Then I’ll figure out what a manageable number of events is for each month and stick to it.”

They darted glances back and forth to each other again.

“What?” I huffed.

“Eat your donut. I don’t think your brain is functioning correctly. When have you ever not taken on more than you can handle?” Tate snorted.

“Look, you two. I’m not going to lose Will over my job. I know I work a lot, and I know he’s been lonely. If I want to be with him, some things need to change, and at the top of the list is the number of hours I work.”

“Wow, you must really love him.”

“Lily! Have you not been listening to me?” I ripped off a piece of the chocolate pastry with peanuts and shoved it into my mouth. I slowly chewed my favorite kind of donut. “I’m not going to choose work over the man I love. I can balance both.”

“If anyone can, it’s you.” She smiled.

“What if it’s not enough?” Tate asked.

I balked at him. “Debbie Downer much? God, Tate. I need to try to make this work. I know Will loves me. I know he does.”

“Okay. And if he doesn’t, we’ll be here to dust you off.”

I shook my head as they flashed stupid grins. I knew they meant well, but I also knew what I was capable of. I could juggle work and Will.

If he stumbled because of me, then I needed to fix it.

If it was because of Jason, then I had to be available for Will to have a second option. Me. If I were home, he’d stay with me. I was sure of it.

Any way I looked at it, I was somehow to blame, which meant I needed to make it right.

I loved Will, and I believed he loved me too.

We’d get through this… We had to.