Page 15 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Too handsome. The jerk!
I set the last plate on the table and searched for the candles next. It was our anniversary. We needed this so bad!
Three years married. We were barely past the newlywed stage, and already work was getting in the way of spending time together. My career at the museum kept me there for long hours as I worked on The Lady and other seafaring exhibits. And Jessie had docked his boat out on the Boston wharf, taking his wages from random commercial gigs, though lately he kept leaving for Salem; his father had a big catch for him; the deep-sea fishing put lots of money in his pockets, the more dangerous the job, the more of a cut he got.
The excuses kept growing more elaborate. He’d kiss me and tell me it was going straight to my school loans, no matter how much I tried to fight him. I wanted him around more than the money.
But it wasn’t just our work; I could admit that now. He was drifting away from me—I couldn’t put my finger on when it began, but I sure noticed it these past few months. We used to be able to talk about anything, and now? It was like using a crowbar to pry out of him what he even thought about the weather. I’d gone invisible to him first before he started disappearing for longer and longer stretches of time.
I rummaged through the drawers, wearing only a black strappy slip as I found the lighter. That was a start for the candles. Then I could put on my cutest dress… the silky one he’d bought me with the slit at the knee. I’d already done my makeup, my hair. This would keep him in town for… at least a night.
I sighed. Maybe that would be enough to get him to talk about what was bothering him.
Jessie’s phone went off in the other room. He’d left it in the pocket of his jeans, and it had been going off all day. Whoever it was wasn’t giving up. After one ring too many, I abandoned my search for the candles to stomp into the bedroom.
The dog trotted after me. Finn used to be Jessie’s shadow, but since I’d asked for more time off work lately, he’d turned to me. My hand found his soft fuzzy head while I dragged the sleek sliver of metal out of Jessie’s pocket and saw fifteen messages from Divine.
Who was this woman?
I didn’t have the passcode to his phone, but I saw the last message from her: “I have to see you. Don’t stand me up. Tonight, like we planned.”
The next message flipped into sight: “She’s not home, is she? I can come over there.”
Something dropped like an anchor to the pit of my stomach.
Was this what had driven a wedge between us? Another woman?
I wasn’t sure where I was, what I was doing, only that I’d fallen against the bed, staring at the screen in shock. “Jessie?” I whispered. But he only loved me. He’d told me the first night we met that we’d have eternity together. We… we were one.
That wasn’t what it had felt like for months. It sure didn’t feel like it now.
I listened to the door to the front room fly open and his keys to the truck crashing against the side table—I’d lived for that noise. “Hey, honey, you home?” Jessie kept talking when I didn’t answer. “I need to go to Salem again tonight. My old man’s got another job for me.”
Convenient.
“Honey?” He poked his head through the door, even as he worked off his work shirt. His eyes went to my face, my hair, my slip. “You dressed up…” The side of his lips curled up. “Sorta.”
I folded my legs beneath me and inched back from him. “Salem?” I asked. “You sure about that?”
He laughed, those eyes that I thought I could read so well traveling all over me. “I could put it off for a little bit.” He tossed his shirt into the hamper and landed onto the bed next to me. His hands found my waist.
I pushed him back. “That’s not whatshe’stelling you to do.” I quit trying to escape him and shoved his phone at him. “Who’s Divine?”
Immediately his face sobered. “It’s nothing… not like that.”
“I have to see you,” I repeated the message. “Tonight… like you planned? She knows where you live. Has she been here before?”
“Yeah, but she’s not…” His eyes snapped to mine. “You don’t think I’m having an affair?”
“Are you?”
“No!”
The breath I didn’t know I was holding came out in a whoosh. I wanted to believe him, but the anger and suspicion wouldn’t leave me. He’d been so distant. What else explained that? “Then what is it?”
“Stay here.” He pressed my arm and rolled off the bed. “It’s just work. I need to put down some ground rules with the coworkers.” He found another shirt.
“Stay here while you go to her?” I jumped off the bed to follow him through the door into the living room. “I don’t think so!”
