Free Just a Couple Ex's Blindsided by S. Anders Page B

made, then he did the only thing he could think of, he tugged her into his embrace. Her face landed against his shoulder, quickly wetting his tee shirt as he held her, then turning them both, until he sat with her in his lap.
    “Axel,” she sobbed, and he ground his eyes closed, holding her tight.

Chapter Eight
    L ater that afternoon, Liv was embarrassed about Axel seeing her breakdown. He’d handled it well, getting her tissues and staying with her until she’d calmed down. After a while, she broke away from sitting in his lap, to pace in front of him.
    “I see you bought some groceries,” he said quietly. He was completely avoiding her sniveling, and she cast him a sideways glance.
    “Yes.” She hiccupped right in the middle of her answer.
    His gaze looked worried, but he smiled. “How about I fix something for dinner and you sit out here and relax.” He said this while standing. “I can bring you some wine.”
    She nodded while her head was down, not looking at him, as she muttered, “I didn’t know if your aunt had a grill. I got some small steaks.” She felt his hand clasping hers, then giving an intimate squeeze.
    “She does. I will drag it out. You can see the hills from here.”
    Then he was gone back inside, and she sighed. “At least he didn’t make me talk about it,” she muttered, dabbing her eyes.
    Seeing the first parts of that video had rammed home the death of her marriage. “Annihilation, obliteration,” she paused. “ The end,” she finished.
    Maybe the fury had made her cry so much, but at the moment she wished she was able to punch Andrew in the nose. Give him a good down home beating. How dare he!
    Liv sat, with a plop, on the lawn chair. She grabbed her wedding ring finger. The ring was just a simple gold band. No buying his wife diamonds with any of that money he had. Oh no, not for Andrew Darwin the Third. Liv gripped the wedding band on her finger and tugged it off, then she raised her hand. She took a big swing backwards, then forwards and she let the ring fly out into the grass.
    “Was that your wedding ring?” Axel’s voice sounded behind her.
    She peeked over her shoulder at him. It looked as if he’d taken a quick shower. She nodded, not saying a word. He walked to her carrying a glass of wine. “Way to go, Liv.”
    She nearly smiled. She took the wine glass and thanked him for that. He looked good in jeans and a white tank top that showed off his muscular upper arms. The white against his dark bronze skin was riveting as she watched him go and get a grill out of the back door of the garage.
    For some reason she was thinking that just jumping Axel, and having hot sex with him, would make her feel better. A new man, new feelings ... could they wipeout the old bitter feelings? Liv turned her gaze away from Axel and toward the hills. That would be using him and she didn’t want to think of Axel that way.
    She drank half her glass of wine, while sitting looking at the hills. Every time her mind drifted toward that video, she forced it back. She heard the screen door open and close behind her.
    “Nice steaks, Liv. I made a salad too. Do you want to eat out here?”
    It was time for her to stop being a slug, Liv thought, setting her glass of wine down. She stood, turning to look at Axel. “Out here would be nice, let me get the plates and stuff.”
    He looked her over as though judging her condition, then nodded and turned to start tossing the steaks on the gas grill. “I’ll take whatever dressing you are using,” he said.
    She wanted to hug him for making it all so normal. When she scooted inside, she stopped in her room to fix her makeup a bit. Then when she went to the kitchen she noticed the camcorder was gone out of the living room. She immediately turned her mind away from that.
    Over dinner, she and Axel had another silent agreement not to talk about their soon to be ex’s.
    “Seems we should have known each other in high school, Liv,” Axel said, sitting