Page 1 of Resilient Rhythms
ONE
MAV
ONE DAY POST MCKENNA
“Fuck,”I mutter, dragging a hand over my face as I blink my eyes open.
It’s been six seconds since I regained consciousness after waking up and I feel her loss like a punch to the gut.
“I’m fucking over it,” Amelia’s shrill voice pierces through the closed guest bedroom door in her and my brother Jameson’s house. “It’s ridiculous!”
I heave out a sigh. What I wouldn’t give to hear Mckenna bitch at me.
That’s where I’m at.
I miss my wife—soon to be ex-wife—with an intensity that physically aches.
Wrapping an arm around my stomach, I turn onto my side and stare at the bedroom wall.
Maybe if I stare long enough, I’ll fall back to sleep and this nightmare will end?
MCKENNA — FIVE DAYS POST MAV
“You have to shower,” Allegra says gently, tugging my arm from where it flops over the side of the bed.
“I have to do a lot of things,” I remark. My voice comes out wobbly, partly from emotion and partly from my cheek being smooshed into the pillow.
“Kenny,” Allegra sighs. And then, “I don’t even know what the hell to say. Just that for Mav to pull this shit…he’s hurting, too.”
“Is he?” I can’t keep the sarcasm from my tone.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I force myself to open my eyes. Allegra’s chocolate irises bore into mine. Sighing, I pull myself into a seated position and turn toward my friend. “I know he is. I’m just angry.”
“You should be.”
“I thought, after everything, that we would get through this. I mean, we got through fucking hell together. He never gave up on me. On us. Not even when I begged him to. And now, when I’m the one putting everything on the line, he cuts me loose?”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” she agrees. “I think he thinks he failed you.”
“He did!”
“Even before he gave you those divorce papers. He asked you to sign them because he doesn’t feel like he deserves to be your husband.”
“But that should be my choice,” I practically wail. I throw a hand in the air. “And that was always our issue. He thinks he knows best. He makes decisions and runs with them without considering my perspective on the matter. I would have stayed, A. I would have worked through it with him. Or, at the very least, tried like hell.” I roll my lips together, biting down to keep my tears at bay. “Fucking divorce papers.”
Allegra sighs, placing a hand on my forearm and squeezing. “I’m so damn sorry, Kenny.”
I shake my head and flop back onto the pillows lining my headboard. The headboard of my bed in Maverick’s brownstone. Except, Mav’s not here and like a sadist, I can’t bring myself to leave.
Allegra wrinkles her nose. “You should still shower.”
“I know.” But I don’t move to get up from my bed. I don’t move to do anything at all.
MAV — SEVEN DAYS POST MCKENNA
I suck in a lungful of humid air as I descend the plane.
