Page 179 of Always Us

“When it comes to work, I need you to. I need you to tell me to slow down. Otherwise, I can’t stop myself. I’ll keep pushing myself to make this company grow.”

“But that’s what you should be doing. Growing the company. Making it a success.”

“It’s already a success. It doesn’t need to be the world’s largest sporting goods company. It doesn’t even need to be nationwide. We don’t have to keep expanding.”

“But isn’t that what you want?”

“Not if it means not seeing you. Talking on the phone isn’t good enough. I married you so I could see you every day. So you could fall asleep in my arms. So I could wake up every morning and see your beautiful face.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it. “And make you breakfast. By the way, what exactly do you eat when I’m not around?”

“I kind of skip breakfast when you’re not here.”

“See? That can’t happen.” He lays my hand back over his chest and rubs my arm. “What should we do, Jade?”

“I just miss you. I miss you when you’re gone, but I also want you to do whatever you need to do for the company.”

“I don’t care about the company. I mean, I do, but I don’t care enough to let it come between us. I can hire people to do what I’m doing. The traveling. The sales calls. I don’t need to be the one doing it. In fact, I shouldn’t be doing it. That should be someone else’s job. I should be doing the higher level stuff.”

“If you did, would you be home more?”

“I can be home as much as you want. We own the company. And it’s private so we don’t have to report to shareholders. We make the rules.”

I lie back on my pillow, pulling the sheet over me. “You need to make this decision, Garret. It’s your company.”

He shifts onto his side, gazing down at me. “It’s our company. Yours and mine.”

“I know, and I love the store. And I love being involved in it and seeing it grow. But I also love you. And I miss you, Garret. I miss you a lot.”

“I miss you, too.” His hand cups the side of my face and he leans down to kiss me. “Jade. I’m sorry that I even let it get to this point. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. We worked so hard to be together and now I’m never here with you. We built our dream house and you’re living here all alone.”

I’m glad he realized this because I didn’t want to be the one to say it. I don’t want to hold him back from achieving his goals, just like I wouldn’t want him holding me back from mine. But this constant traveling he’s been doing is getting to be too much. I never see him.

“So here’s the deal,” he says. “Tomorrow I’ll call HR and have them work on getting some people hired. And I’m done traveling without you. If I need to go somewhere, you’re coming with me. But there’s not going to be much traveling anymore because I’m cutting way back. I want to be here. With you. Not flying to different cities. Staying in hotels.”

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“I’m positive. I don’t like being apart from you. In fact, I hate it. Like I said, I just got caught up in the drive to succeed. To expand to other states and keep growing the company. But once you start down that path, it never ends. It’s never enough. I promised myself that I would never let work take over my life and I’m keeping that promise. We have plenty of money. I don’t need to work so hard. I don’t need to travel. What I need,” he kisses me, “is you.”

I kiss him back. “Are you saying I might see you every day now?”

“Every day. And I’m going to try to start working from home. You’ll see me so much you’ll be sick of me.”

“What about your trip tomorrow?”

“I’ll send one of my sales guys. I don’t need to be there. In fact, I’m taking tomorrow off. Shit, I own the place. I’m taking the whole damn week off.”

I smile. “What are you going to do with all this time off?”

He presses his lips to mine as he slips his hand under the sheet and brings me closer. “I have some catching up to do with my gorgeous, hot, beautiful wife. Unless you’re busy.”

“I could use some time off.” I run my hand over his smooth hard chest. “You sure you don’t want your birthday dessert? I got you an ice cream cake.”

“Later. I like the dessert I’ve got right here. You feel so damn good I may not leave this bed until tomorrow.”

We have ‘dessert’ again. And again a few hours later.

Tonight was a wake-up call for us. Actually, it was a realization for Garret. He realized how much he’d been working and how his life was becoming what he always said he didn’t want. He never wanted to end up like his dad, working all the time and missing out on life. But I think for a moment, he saw himself turning into that, and that’s all it took for him to decide to end the long hours and the travel and to start down the path we’d talked about. The one where we’re together, in the home that we built.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

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