Page 49 of Wreckage and Rain

I sleep like a man who thinks he just fixed his marriage.

Chapter 10: The Book Tour

Summer

I leave for Savannah in the morning and Colt is supposed to come with me.

He was supposed to. Past tense. Last night at nine PM, he got a call from Sonny about "a Tidewater compliance issue that needs immediate attention," and he sat on the bed with his phone pressed to his ear and his face pulled tight and when he hung up, he said, "Babe, I'm so sorry. I have to stay. Dad needs me at the office first thing."

I packed my bag while he stood in the doorway looking guilty.

"I'll make it up to you."

"You keep saying that."

He doesn't answer. He just stands there.

"Do you hear how often you say it?" I fold the dress on top of the suitcase. I don't look at him. "After every cancelled dinner. Every late night. Every empty chair. I'll make it up to you. And then you go right back to whatever you were doing."

"Summer..."

"Flowers and a reservation aren't a marriage, Colt. They're what you do when you've forgotten how to do the actual relationship. You think you're proving something to me by coming home for dinner two nights in a row. You're not. That's barely the bare minimum. That is what I should be getting on a Tuesday from the man I sleep next to. That isn't winning me back, and then expecting credit for it. You'd do more than that for a business associate. Oh wait, you are actually exceeding expectations there."

His mouth opens. Closes.

"And the worst part. Cheyenne isn't even the first thing that took your attention from me. Your father took it. The deal took it. TheBennet name took it. Cheyenne is the most recent one, and she happens to be a woman, so she gets to feel like the worst one. But she isn't the source. She is the symptom. The source is that you have decided, every day, that everything in that office matters more than your wife. And then you come home with sunflowers like that's a wash."

I close the suitcase.

"I am sleeping in the guest room and you are buying me sunflowers. That is where we are."

He doesn't have an answer.

I zip the suitcase. I check the side pocket for my charger. I do all of this slowly, on purpose, because what I'm about to say next, I need to say to his face.

I turn around.

"Look. When I get back, we are going to talk. Not like we've been talking. Really talk. Because I am not doing this anymore. I am not happy. You aren't happy. I am losing myself trying to fight a zero sum game I never agreed to play, and I am done."

His face changes. The wariness sharpens into something else.

"You could work remote from the hotel where I'm staying. The Wi-Fi works. Your laptop works. The Tidewater compliance issue wouldn't know the difference between your office and a Sheraton. But you aren't coming, because the deal is more important. Which is fine. I am not going to argue about it. I am just going to tell it like it is. It is funny how, when it is convenient for you, you can work from home, while I'm sidelined. When it is time you should be spending with me, supporting me, present for me, something always comes up. Something always comes up, Colt. For so long now. Always."

"Summer..."

"Take the next few days to think. Hard. Because I'm tired of making threats. I'm tired of having to call you out to get any action out of you, then watching you do the bare minimum, andthen watching you act surprised that the bare minimum isn't enough."

He stands very still in the doorway. He looks like a man who just found out the floor is made of glass.

"Wait." He pushes off the frame. "Wait. Let me come with you. I'll call Dad. The compliance can wait two days. I'll meet you at the bookstore. I'll..."

"No."

"Babe, please..."

"You don't fix this with one trip, Colt. You don't fix this by coming with me to my book signing because I held a knife to your throat about it that morning. That isn't what this is. This is me telling you what I have been telling you for months. This is me telling you for the last time. Take the days. Sit in this house. Look around. Decide if the man who lives here is still somebody I should be married to. Because right now I am not sure."

I pick up the suitcase.