Page 39 of Chasing Bandit

I stepped towards her, my eyes never leaving hers. “Stevie, it’s never been an obligation to love you. I love you when I wake up in the morning and find your sleeping body next to me, when you fall asleep on the couch and I carry you to bed after peeling your tablet from your fingers, when you make me dinner after a long day in the fields, when you laugh at one of your own jokes though I don’t think they are that funny and when you smile and the sun itself comes out to shine down and reflect on your glowing hair. Loving you is easy. It's never been a chore.”

She shook her head as if she didn’t want to believe what I was saying. “Our marriage started off all wrong. I think we’re caught up in playing house and need to be realistic now that Nourish is open and the staff that I hired is managing it with little intervention from me.”

She reached into her bag, procuring a stack of papers and placed it on the kitchen table where I'd been expecting the food to be sitting.

“I’ll hold up my end of the bargain for the next five months since you've already done more than enough to drive Charles away. He won’t expect me to be back in Houston without you and he’ll never come looking for me there again.”

"Stevie... this better not be what I think it is," I demanded, feeling the anger rise within me as I stared at the paper lying face down in front of me, dreading what it might contain and mean for our future.

She nodded her head again, “It’s for the best, Wylie," she whispered. "I love you, but when the full twelve months are finished, sign and file them. I don’t want our relationship to be built on a contract. Let’s see how we feel once we've been separated and if we want to try this again outside of the legal confines of a marriage started for convenience.”

“No, fuck this, no,” I shoved the papers off the table, white sheets floated through the air and landed across the floor. Paper that had words on it that I didn’t want to read and an ink signature that I couldn’t believe she'd written. Of course, that final page where Stevie’s handwriting had been placed just the day before landed face up at my feet. I stooped down to grab it and held it up angrily.

“Are you serious, Stevie? This is what you want?”

She nodded firmly; her eyes locked onto mine. "We need some space, Wylie. Remember, we agreed to divorce in the end. Let's not let these last few months confuse us. We need to be sure this is what we really want."

Normally, I’d fight for her. I’d done it plenty of times before. But right now, the resolution in her eyes matched the words she was saying. Stevie wanted this. And I hated that I understood what she was saying, even though I sure as hell didn’t want it. I might enjoy arguing with her and be quick to anger at times, but I never wanted to force Stevie into anything. I had practically done that by getting her to agree to this marriage in the first place. The last thing I wanted was to force her to stay married to me, even if I loved her.

"I love you," I said, my voice heavy with desperation. I never imagined those words would sound so painful coming from my lips.

“I know, and I love you too Wylie," she whispered.

I nodded again and brought the signed sheet of paper to my chest, clutching it as if it were the knife ending my life.

She stooped down to grab the last of her bags, then stepped closer to give me a kiss. "Thank you. For everything. I don't expect you to wait for me, Wylie, but I think this is the right thing to do. To see if this is more than a marriage of convenience for us."

It already is to me.

Instead, I nodded, watching as she kissed my cheek one last time before walking out the front door to her car and driving back to Houston.

Chapter 29 – Stevie

Five months later…

Was I still married?

I didn’t know how these things worked.

Did a lawyer send you a notification once both parties signed the paperwork, and the divorce was executed and finalized?

I certainly couldn’t ask Wylie if we were still married.

Hey, husband, are you my ex-husband now or are we still lawfully wedded?

Couldn't ask Jovie, either.

Jovie had been upset when I jetted off to Houston without warning, but what could I have told her? Leaving had been the right thing to do. It had been a long, miserable winter in Houston as I tried to put some distance between Wylie and myself and clear my mind. We had done each other a favor: he made Charles believe I was married to him and protected by Wylie, and I helped him secure Cameron ranch, his birthright, and the place he had called home for over 34 years.

It’d been mutually beneficial to us both and I had no regrets, including allowing my heart to be open to love him while getting to know the incredible man he was behind the layers of thick, rippled muscles, dirty mouth and tough exterior that he projected to the outside world.

I sighed and turned back to the computer I was working on at my new job I loathed. Upon returning to Houston, I'd been hired as an event planner for a major hotel chain, and we were currently preparing for a fundraiser but every vendor that I called reminded me of the co-op I'd help found back in Lonestar Junction.

My phone rang just as I finished creating another marketing flyer in Canva. I looked down, noticing Jovie’s name on the caller ID.

“Hey sis.”

“Stevie! You need to get down to Lonestar Junction, right now.” Her voice was filled with panic.

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