Page 170 of Wicked Fantasies

Do Over

Wicked Fantasies

Sometimes once is not enough…

After twenty-five years of marriage, Faith Wainwright wonders what she’ll do next. Her kids have moved out and sometimes she feels so distant from her husband, Troy.

Right before their anniversary, Troy gives Faith an unexpected gift: a journey through their hometown to reenact all their “firsts”. Their first date. Their first kiss. And especially the first time they made love—onlybetter.

Each stop on their tour becomes an opportunity for Faith and Troy to rediscover how explosive their passion could be. Now Faith knows exactly what she’s going to do—Troy, over and over again….

Chapter One

Faith Wainwright felt her mind wandering as she sat in her childhood home, listening to Mother talk about nothing in particular. Her gaze traveled around the living room of the home she’d grown up in. She hadn’t lived in this house in over twenty-five years and yet, the memories made here were vividly etched in her mind. She smiled when she spotted the tick marks on the doorjamb between the living room and the kitchen. A lifetime of initials and dates marking the growth spurts of her and her two sisters were still there.

Since her husband Troy’s work transfer nearly twelve years ago, she didn’t get to visit her mother as often as she liked. Even though it was only a three-hour drive, real life seemed to limit her opportunities to come back home and lately she’d been feeling homesick. Something she’d never suffered from since she and Troy had packed up the kids and thirteen years’ worth of shit and headed south.

Of course, she hadn’t had the time to miss her sleepy little hometown during those years. Every moment of them had been filled with work and Little League, proms and high-school graduations. Now both of her kids—and a fair amount of her money—were in college and the home away from home she and Troy had built was empty, quiet. Suddenly she hadtoomuch time for homesickness.

She’d been in a funk ever since they’d packed their youngest up and dropped her off at college. The hierarchy of her world was out of whack—her kids had always come first—and now she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself. When Troy suggested this weekend excursion back home, she’d jumped at the chance, hoping the trip would clear her mind, give her some idea of where to go now. And if not, at the very least, she hoped it would distract her from her doldrums for a while.

“Well, that’s enough about me,” her mother said, interrupting her thoughts, and Faith felt guilty for not listening. “I can see your mind is elsewhere. What’s going on with you?”

“I miss the kids. I’m so lonely.” Faith blurted the words out before she could even think to shield them and the emotion surrounding them.

“Oh, Faith. I wondered when the empty-nest syndrome would hit you. You took Jackson’s departure for college in stride, never missing a beat.”

Faith shrugged. “Jenna was still home and God knows she didn’t give me time to miss Jackson, as every spare moment was spent driving her to track meets and volleyball games.”

“You raised your kids, Faith, and you did a damn good job of it. There’s nothing wrong with missing them, but it’s time you figured out how to take a little time for yourself. And it’s not as if you’re totally alone. You’ve got that big, strapping husband at home there.”

Faith laughed at her mother’s description of Troy. She’d certainly been lucky in the husband pool. While most forty-three-year-old men were balding and sporting spare tires around the middle, her husband still had a full head of salt-and-pepper hair and a body most men a decade younger would envy. His job as a construction worker made it easy for him to keep his muscular physique, but Troy helped it along by exercising and eating right. A three-season athlete in high school, he’d passed the competitive spirit along to their children. Playing sports with the kids had kept Troy young and vibrant all these years, and Faith thought he was more handsome now then he’d been when they first started dating.

“Troy doesn’t seem to be struggling with this like I am,” Faith confessed. “He’s always busy—in and out of work. He’s in the midst of a big project at one of the construction sites and he plays golf on Sundays, fishes in the pond behind our house a couple nights a week to relieve some of the stress of his job. He’s just fine. You know Troy—nothing fazes him.” Her husband was a rock—solid, reliable and so damn steady, she felt like shaking the hell out of him sometimes just to see if anything inside rattled.

Deborah nodded and said nothing—a sure sign her mother didn’t agree with her assessment.

“Okay,” Faith said, “let’s have it. What’s wrong with what I just said?”

“Sometimes it’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own hurt that we miss little signs along the way that show someone else is suffering too.”

“Troy?” Her loud single-word question was laced with disbelief. When Faith accompanied it with a single snort, her mother simply shook her head.

“Yes, Troy. That husband of yours sees and feels a hell of a lot more than you give him credit for, Faith.”

“I’m not saying he’s an insensitive clod, Mom. I’m just saying he’s not as bothered by Jackson and Jenna leaving as I am.”

“And what would you have him do? Cry inconsolably on the floor for weeks on end? Has Troy ever done that?”

Faith almost laughed at the thought of Troy in tears. She could only recall two times when she’d seen him choke up a bit and that was when their children were born. “Troy doesn’t cry. He’s a man’s man. Caveman to the core.”

“So strong men don’t have feelings?”

Faith shook her head. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. Troy just handles things differently than me and sometimes,” she paused, trying to put her words together in a way that would make sense, “sometimes I feel alone even when we’re in the same room. Whenever I try to talk to him, I feel like my words are getting mixed up with the hockey announcer’s voice and he doesn’t understand anything I’m saying as a result.”

“I think he hears and understands more than you—” Deborah’s voice was cut off by the doorbell ringing.

“Are you expecting company?” Faith asked.

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