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get to live in the way you re so accustomed to. I may not have been good enough for you ten years
ago, but I m worth far more now than your father ever was.
Not good enough for me ten years ago? You ve got that wrong, because it s now that you re not
good enough for me. I don t care about your money or what you can give me. I m not the one wanting
to get married anymore. I think we could and should find another solution. She let out a sigh of
frustration. The more he lashed out at her, the angrier she got.
I m tired, Jasmine. I m sleeping in the guest room. He rubbed his hand through his hair for the
hundredth time.
Getting up to let him fend for himself, she dragged herself off to her room, feeling defeated and
more drained than she ever had in her life.
Jasmine figured she d climb into bed and lie there awake all night. Instead, her heavy eyes closed
and oblivion quickly overtook her.
Chapter Twenty
Dad! Jacob yelled as he came skidding into her room at the crack of dawn. This was beginning
to be a pattern that she didn t like. Her first thought was Why do I keep getting woken up so horribly
early? And then panic took over at the look of total devastation on her child s face.
I knew he wouldn t be here, Jacob said with tears beginning to stream down his face. He
crawled into the bed next to her to sob on her shoulder.
It s OK, baby. He s here. He s just in the other room. He hasn t left, she said, as one of her own
tears escaped at the poor child s unbearable heartbreak when he thought his father had gone.
Hey, bud. Are you OK? Derek asked, stepping into the room and seeing Jacob sobbing in
Jasmine s arms. The boy looked up, and the tears stopped instantly; a watery grin spread over his
face.
You didn t leave! Jacob exclaimed.
He jumped from the bed and threw his arms around his father. Derek picked him up and sat down
with him on her bed. Jasmine scrambled up into a sitting position and pulled her legs up to her chest,
hugging them tightly. Derek looked over at her with an expression that seemed to say, I told you there
was no other answer. Sadly, she had to admit that he was probably right. For now.
Where were you, then? Jacob asked as he looked from his father to his mother.
I was sleeping in the other room, bud, Derek said as if that would satisfy him.
But moms and dads sleep together. Maryanne says when her mom and dad stopped sleeping in the
same bed, they stopped being married, and then her dad found a new person that Maryanne has to call
Mom, even though she doesn t like her. She says she has to have two houses and doesn t get to be
with her mom and dad together anymore.
It was the longest speech Jasmine had ever heard her son give. And Jacob s tears started to fall
again as he thought about it.
Your mom and I aren t going to live in separate houses, Jacob. We figured things out last night
and decided neither of us could stand to be away from you. We ll stay together and be a real family,
Derek said and tried to get his son to stop crying.
Do you promise? Jacob asked with a hiccup.
I promise you that, Derek replied. As a matter of fact, you can be my best man when we get
married.
Really? Do I get to wear a tux& tux& Oh, I can t remember what they re called, Jacob said and
blew his breath out with frustration.
It s called a tuxedo, and if that s what you want to wear, then that s what we will wear. We ll
have matching tuxes, Derek promised.
And will Mom get to wear her princess dress? he asked.
If she wants, Derek replied.
Honey, I don t need to wear a princess dress. We re just having a small wedding, and I would
look silly wearing a big, poufy dress, she said.
She knew they d be married in front of a justice of the peace, and that was fitting in a ceremony
without love. Still, she couldn t help but feel disappointed. She d always dreamed that she d have a
wedding day from out of a fairy tale. She might still, since she d be divorcing in nine years, but she
seriously doubted it.
Too bad she d learned long ago that fairy tales were just that fairy tales.
But, Mom& Hold on, Jacob interrupted himself, and then he jumped from the bed and ran out of
the room. Jasmine looked at Derek and shrugged her shoulders.
Jacob came running back into the room, and she saw the familiar book about two seconds too late.
She made a grab for it, but Jacob had already crawled back onto Derek s lap and opened the cover.
Jasmine could feel her face flushing as Derek looked at a book that basically told him her dreams.
Jacob, your dad doesn t want to look at that, she said as she tried to grab the book again.
You do, don t you? Jacob said as he looked up at Derek.
Of course I do, he said.
Jasmine frowned. He d agree with anything Jacob said. The kid could probably get a brand-new
motorcycle from him if he just asked for it. She d have to talk about that with him. And this was the
last thing she wanted to have her hopes and dreams laid out before the very man who d broken her
in two. She held the tears in as the two of them pored over her most private wishes with her unable to
stop it.
See, Dad, this is the dress mom wants to wear. She said when she got married, it would be like a
fairy-tale book, and she d be the princess marrying her prince, and I got to be the young prince. She
said she was going to find a frog one day and give him a kiss, and then he d become her prince and
rescue her from the castle. I guess that means you re the frog, Jacob said and then broke out in
giggles.
Derek looked through the pages of the book and knew he was intruding on her thoughts. He
couldn t stop looking, though. She had pictures and notes of everything she wanted for her dream
wedding. He got to the back of the book and raised his eyebrows at her one more time, as there were
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