Page 80 of The Man I Love

Samantha’s chest tightened. She could tell there was something her mother wasn’t saying. Why hadn’t she ever toldher this story before now? Was there something going on with Tristan that Sam didn’t know about?

She turned away, confused, but her eyes landed on her father across the yard. He was carefully gathering small paper hearts off the ground. Samantha had no memory of him ever being anything less than a doting husband. Even now, she knew the hearts he picked up and shoved into his pockets were for her mother. He had always been attentive and involved, yet for a time, he had left—and Sam wasn’t sure how to process that.

“How did you know it would work out?” Sam asked, turning back to her mother.

Her mother’s eyes rested on her father, her expression soft, leaving Sam with a vision of a younger woman who sat crying on the kitchen floor twenty-six years earlier. “I didn’t,” she whispered. “But I thank God every day that I gave him another chance.”

30

CHAPTER THIRTY

August

Present Day

Samantha satin her car in the empty parking lot staring at the sun-bleached outline where the Montgomery Pool Service sign once sat. Her heart pinched, and a dull ache formed in the pit of her stomach. She must have been at the wrong building—but she wasn’t. She got out of the car and spun around in the parking lot as though the action would somehow change her mind. But she’d been there at least a thousand times, and she knew it like the back of her hand. On weekends to help wash trucks, or onweekdays to surprise Tristan with lunch. This was the correct building—yet all the trucks were gone from the lot, and nothing that was vaguely familiar remained.

She turned on her heels, got back into her car, and drove out of the parking lot. Tristan lived less than five miles away, but the drive to his home passed in a blur of sporadic thoughts. She’d stopped by his office intending to show him the new sonogram photo after her doctor's appointment, but now she could hardly think clearly enough to drive.

A white Honda was parked in the driveway when she got to his home, and her heart picked up pace as she stopped at the curb. She threw the car into park, grabbed her bag from the front seat, and walked up the driveway—but a woman’s voice stopped her in her tracks, prompting her to turn toward the garage. Breathless, she stepped closer, only stopping when she saw Penny, Tristan’s secretary, sitting behind a desk. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but this wasn’t it. Pool supplies now took up the space where his old Mustang once sat, and a row of desks sat in the center of the room.

Samantha couldn’t breathe.What the hell was going on?Penny rose from her desk and walked closer—the smile fading from her face with each step. “He never told you, did he?” she asked.

Samantha's mouth opened to speak, but she closed it again and glanced around the garage. It wasn’t cold at all, but she shivered. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and hugged herself, hoping the action would calm her nerves, but it was useless. “What happened?” she asked.

“Maybe we should wait for Tris?—”

“Tell me.” She shook her head.

Maybe it was the desperation in her voice, or the fact that he’d kept her in the dark for too long, but Penny nodded. She moved back to her desk, opened a drawer, then slid a brochure across the top. “Sit,” she ordered.

Samantha did what she was told, taking the brochure off the desk and flipped it over. It was an ad from another pool service company. “What is this?” she asked, her brow drawing tight with confusion.

“He lost everything, Sam.”

Hearing those words took her breath away. “What do you mean? How?” She felt weak, dizzy, like she was going to throw up.

“Jerry started his own business. He took Tristan’s suppliers. Half his crew.”

“When?” She glanced at the brochure, needing to understand. How had this happened without her knowing? Why had he hidden this from her?

“It’s been going on for months,” Penny confirmed. “But it came to a head after your gallery opening.”

Sam clasped her hand over her mouth.

“I told him to tell you.”

But all Sam could hear were the words her mother had said at the baby shower:There are always two sides, Samantha.

She closed her eyes as the air seemed to dissipate from the room. Memories from the past few months flooded her mind, coming at her from every direction. They were all clues—things that should have made her stop and question. His stress level, the way he tensed every time his phone rang. She had assumed it was about his father. But now, it was painfully clear—it could have been about this.

“He kept things afloat for a while,” Penny continued. “He took on all the extra shifts that came with losing his crew, price matched to the best of his ability, but eventually he couldn’t keep up. Jerry’s dad backed his entire operation, and his prices were unsustainable. The day Tristan returned from your trip to New York was when collectors came to the office. He and I went back to our roots. He sold his Mustang to help afford another truck, and we came back here. Where it all started. Him cleaning pools, me answering phone calls in the garage.”

“Where is he now?” Sam asked. But the hum of his work truck silenced her. She stood, feeling as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. But before she could even turn around, she heard his boots hit the floor behind her. She shifted slowly, finding him standing in the doorway, his large frame taking up the entire space.

“Can you leave us, please?” he asked Penny.

He wore blue jeans, a black work shirt, and a five o’clock shadow, which made his jawline even more prominent. But his eyes never left hers, even as Penny gathered her belongings and called to her kids inside from where they played in the backyard. “Kenny, Josh, it’s time to go!”

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