Her stomach sank in her belly. She’d hoped for half a moment that it was Aidan, not Beau, waiting to see her. “Tell him I’m busy. He’ll have to call and get time on my schedule.”
“I did, but he is quite insistent that he see you right now.”
Violet sighed. Beau was like a stubborn ox. He wasn’t going to leave the office until he got what he wanted. “Fine. But interrupt us in ten minutes with an urgent call.”
Betsy nodded and a moment later, Beau strolled through the door. He looked just as cocky as ever in his pinstripe suit, slicked-back dark hair and knowing smile. He strolled arrogantly across the room to her desk with his hands buried in his pants pockets.
With every step closer he took, she found it harder to believe that she’d almost married Beau. Yes, her father was right when he said that things would be easier with Beau. At least on the surface. But at the moment, the idea of dating Beau again made her feel very unsettled.
“Violet, I’m disappointed,” Beau said.
She arched her brow as she looked up at him from her office chair. “Dare I ask why?”
“No kiss? Not even a handshake?”
Violet put out her hand to shake it and he brought it up to his lips. She squirmed out of his grip and buried her hand beneath her desk. “What can I do for you, Beau? I’m very busy today.”
Beau unbuttoned his coat and sat down in her guest chair. He sprawled out, making himself more comfortable there than he should. “Well, I missed out on seeing you at the gala the other night. I got hung up in traffic and by the time I arrived, your parents told me you’d already left.”
“I wasn’t in the partying mood.” And that was true. After Aidan walked out, she couldn’t bear to go back into the room and face her parents. She knew she would do or say something she would regret. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Molly’s House’s chances by tainting the event with scandal, so she’d turned it over to Betsy and called it a night.
“So your parents said. They said you’d had a fuss with Knox’s father and encouraged me to come see you.”
“Why? So you could swoop in and save me?”
Beau just shrugged. “Maybe. I thought perhaps you’d had a taste of what was out there and you’d come to your senses about our engagement.”
“‘Come to my senses’?”
“Well, yeah. We’re good together, Vi. Everyone seems to know it but you.”
“I’m not so sure I agree with that sentiment.” Beau was hardly a perfect boyfriend, something her parents never seemed to understand. Perhaps their own relationship was so flawed they didn’t notice the difference.
Violet hadn’t noticed the difference either until she’d spent the last few weeks with Aidan. It wasn’t just that he was a good man and a great lover, but he was a great father. The kind of father Beau would never be. There were so many things that she and Knox would miss out on without Aidan in their life. Beau couldn’t compete as a father. He wouldn’t play sports with Knox or take him to Yankees games. He couldn’t even pick up the baby without him howling.
“I don’t think you’re in a position to be so choosy, Violet.”
“Choosy?”
“Yes. I’m being the bigger man here. Overlooking your infidelity and raising Knox as my own son is a big offering on my part. Not many men would be willing to do that. I’m willing to marry you, Violet. I’m willing to forgive your little dalliance and move our relationship forward.”
Violet narrowed her gaze at Beau and suddenly, something about his words felt familiar. Little dalliance. Dalliance. That wasn’t a common phrase and yet it seemed like she’d heard it recently.
Then, just as when Aidan had walked into her office that first day, a wave of missing memories rushed over her. All this time, she’d wondered why she’d ended up in Murphy’s Pub that night. Going out alone looking for tequila and oblivion was not her modus operandi. And yet she had. When her memories had returned about her time with Aidan, this was the one piece that had remained out of her reach.
She’d convinced herself that maybe they’d had one of their usual fights. They argued more than she was comfortable with, usually because Beau was staying out late or doing things that led her to believe he wasn’t ready to settle down. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, she never would’ve agreed to marry him.
And if she had remembered what she knew now, she would’ve punched him in the face instead.
“You bastard,” she said in her coldest tone.
Beau’s eyes widened in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“How could you let me go all those months believing you, planning our wedding, when you knew the truth?”
“The truth about what? That you were having someone else’s baby? I didn’t know that. I thought it was mine. How was I to know you’d banged some bartender? I thought you were faithful.”
She had to admit Beau