Page 59 of Country Winds
Tucker had called long enough to ask Ellie if she was home and that he’d be there in thirty minutes, the time it would take to get from his ranch to her home. He’d sounded different, and fear tightened her chest. Something was wrong.
Had something happened to Maddee? Did he know something that had happened to any one of her brothers? Were they with her parents, and had they all suffered from some accident or injury, and somehow, he knew about it?
She started chewing the nail on her pinky, something she hadn’t done since her teenage years.
A knock came at the door, and she stopped in her tracks. She sucked in a deep breath, blew it out and walked toward the door, feeling as if she was walking through thick mud up to her knees.
She reached the door and wrapped her hand around the knob, turned it, and opened the door.
Tucker stood on her doorstep, a conflicted expression on his handsome face. He held her gaze for a long moment. “We need to talk.”
Her stomach bottomed out. She stepped back so that he could enter, then she closed the door. Tucker sat on the edge of the seat of the armchair, not on the couch, as if to distance himself.
Ellie slowly lowered herself to the couch. Hailee seemed to sense that something was distressing Ellie and jumped into her lap, and she absently stroked the cat. She felt tense from head to toe. “What’s wrong?”
“First of all, I want to make it clear that I love you. I think you are an amazing woman inside and out.” He looked at her for a long moment. “But we need to talk about us.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Are you breaking it off?”
He paused for a few heartbeats. “It’s about what each of us values and how that impacts the future.”
Her scalp prickled. “Go on.”
“I want kids.” His throat worked. “I’m in my mid-thirties and I don’t want to wait. You mentioned waiting a couple of years—I don’t know that I can do that. Even if we waited two years, you might decide to wait longer.”
She said nothing, knowing there was more to it than having kids.
He went on. “I’ve always planned for our kids to be raised by their parents and not a sitter.”
“What you’re saying is you want a wife who will stay home with the kids.” She said it as a statement.
He blew out his breath. “When we first met, you were busy, but you were home more. Now you travel frequently. I would want you with me and the kids, not traveling all the time.”
Heat started to burn in her belly. “You would want me to give up my career.”
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this. It’s been all I can think of.” Tucker sighed. “I don’t know what else to say.”
The heat in her belly expanded to her chest. “You want me to give up everything to be a stay-at-home mom. You want me to be a good little wife who doesn’t travel and will be at your beck and call.”
Tucker shook his head. “It’s not that.”
Ellie gritted her teeth. “Then what else is it?”
“I’m proud of you and I love you, but I miss you when you’re gone.” He sighed. “You’re not here more and more frequently.”
His saying he loved her didn’t take the sting out of what he was saying. “I’ve told you that it’s temporary. I need to take advantage of my success while I can. One day, it’s likely that offers will come less frequently.” She straightened her spine. “I’m not giving up everything I’ve worked for so that you can mold me into your version of the perfect wife.”
He started to say something, but she cut him off. “You have known all along that I have a career, but you let our relationship continue, knowing this. Was this your plan all along? For me to leave everything behind?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But the more you’ve been gone, the more I’ve realized that your values are different than mine. Not that yours are bad, just that they clash with what I want out of the future.”
Ellie spoke quietly but firmly. “Either accept me for who I am, the whole package, or we have nothing else to talk about.”
Tucker stared at the floor as she waited for him to speak. He raised his head and gave a slow nod, as if to himself. “I’m sorry.”
She stood and set Hailee on the couch as Tucker got to his feet. Tears prickled at her eyes, but she held them back.
He walked to her and faced her. “I love you, Ellie.”
