Page 5 of Our Now and Forever

The resignation and regret in her voice created the thread of hope he needed. Caleb dropped into the empty chair next to her. “This didn’t happen last week. You’ve had a year and a half to make it right. To call or at least tell me where you were.”

“How?” she asked, her brows drawn together. “How would that phone call have gone? ‘Hey, Caleb, it’s your wife. Remember me?’”

“That’s a start.” He tried to take her hand, but she pulled away. Caleb dug deep for patience. “Was there someone else?” he asked.

“What?” Snow jerked back. “You think I left you for another man?”

“I don’t know,” he said, irritated that she hadn’t given a clear answer. “Did you?”

Leaning forward, Snow held his gaze. “The last thing I wanted to deal with was another man. I’d made enough mistakes with the one I had. I certainly didn’t want to repeat them with another.”

There was that word again. Mistakes. “What are you talking about? What mistakes?”

“This,” Snow shouted, leaping from her seat fast enough to send the metal chair crashing to the floor. “We have nothing in common, Caleb. We’re from two different planets, and I don’t mean that Mars and Venus crap.” She waved a hand between them. “You come from money, I come from nothing. You’re college-educated, and I’m not. You think life is one playdate after another, when I know it’s hard work.”

Caleb had never seen Snow this passionate about anything. She’d never even raised her voice in all the time they’d been together. Which was one of the reasons he’d been so confused when she disappeared. They hadn’t even had their first fight yet.

“I have nothing to do with the fact that my family is wealthy. You don’t get to pick which family you’re born into, Snow. And don’t give me that crap about a college education. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

The compliment took her by surprise. “Really?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Really. And so I haven’t pinned down a career. I work. I do things. I know life isn’t easy.”

Shaking her head as if to break a spell, Snow returned to looking agitated. “That doesn’t change the facts.”

“You mean the fact that we’re married?”

“That’s a technicality,” she said, dismissing his words.

Caleb pinched the bridge of his nose. “Pretty big technicality, don’t you think?”

“One that can be easily fixed.”

He opened his eyes to see Snow standing before him, hugging herself as if she might break apart otherwise.

“Are you saying you want a divorce?”

Lifting one shoulder in a half shrug, she said, “Don’t you?”

A divorce had never entered his mind. Okay, that was a lie. After six months with no word, he’d agreed to let his mother have the papers drawn up, mostly to stop the nagging. But he never really planned to use them. Not if he could help it.

“No,” he said. “I want my wife back. Why else would I be here?”

“But . . .” she started.

“There is no but, Snow. I made a vow,” he said, pointing to the ring on his finger. “For better or worse. And so did you.” Caleb’s parents may not have faith that he could make a commitment and stick with it, but in this he would prove them wrong. He and Snow would make their marriage work, but Caleb couldn’t do this alone. Marriage required two participants. “You got spooked. Fair enough. So we start over. Come home and we’ll work this out.”

Snow backed way. “This will never work. That’s proof of it.”

“What’s proof?” he asked. “What are you talking about?”

Pulling her coat on the rest of the way, Snow said, “Look around, Caleb. This is a business. My business. I’m not walking away from it.”

Registering his surroundings for the first time since he’d chased her into the room, Caleb took in the shelves of dusty knickknacks. The cracked vases, water-marked tables, and stacks of faded fabrics. Nothing looked as if it was worth much.

“You can sell this one and we’ll open another back home,” he said, presenting what he thought was a perfectly reasonable plan.

“Baton Rouge isn’t my home,” Snow argued. “Ardent Springs might not be my forever home either, but I’ve made a place here. I’ve worked my butt off to build this shop, and I’m not about to hand that over to someone else.”

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