Page 37 of The Next Of Us
“I feel terrible.”
She leaned toward me.“Why?”
“I feel like I’m not holding up my end of the bargain.”
Her eyes narrowed as her brow furrowed.“What bargain?”
I glanced up at the ceiling then looked away.“The house, the bills, the cars, the kids’ educations…”
“You are not solely responsible for all those things, Aaron.I can work.I want to work!I just don’t want to throw myself into something just for the sake of it when what I really want is,” she stabbed her list with her index finger, “to travel with you, to have weekly date nights, to get involved with the community, take a road trip—”
“Renovate the house…” I added.
Her gaze flicked down to her list.She blinked.“I wrote that, I did, and I think, if I had a full-time job we could swing it, but I can easily scratch that off the list and happily move into something smaller.”
It was a start, but I wanted more for her.I leaned forward and grabbed her hands.“We’re solid.I promise.Let’s say we move to a smaller house, and I take on a new challenge.I’m working full-time, but it’s regular full-time, not sixty hours a week full-time.We travel.We go out.Restaurants, movies, weekends away.We do everything on your list.What are you going to do with your time when I’m at work?”
She listened to my whole spiel; eyes wide.
Finally, she nodded.“I see what you mean.”
I relaxed back in my chair.“Okay.”
She pressed her lips together, her gaze flitted around the room, then she shrugged her shoulders and grinned.“It’s kind of exciting.”
I laughed in relief.“See!”
Her brow furrowed.“Can we do it?Can we make those changes and still help our kids?”
I nodded.“We can.”
Line by line, I gave her a detailed breakdown of where we stood financially.
“Things are much better than I expected,” she murmured.
My gut clenched.“How do you really feel about selling the house?”
She shrugged and began slowly.“I’ll miss it, but it’s too big for us now.As long as our new place is big enough to give the kids a place to crash when they need to, I’m good with it.”
The storm clouds that had shadowed me for months lifted.“Really?”
She nodded firmly.“Really.”
“Well, all right then,” I murmured, dazed.
She grinned.“Not nearly as complicated as you thought it would be?”
I rubbed the back of my neck and tried not to smile.“I may or may not have been my own biggest obstacle.”
Laughing, she stood and bumped her forehead lightly against mine.“I’ll try not to gloat.”
14
Weak Spot
Nadine
I put away my list and left Aaron paying the bills at the kitchen table while I snuck off to our bedroom.With him home for the past two weeks, I hadn’t found time to continue my project.I couldn’t wait any longer.
