Page 51 of The Husband Hour
She hurried up the sidewalk to his house. Rory was standing out front watering the lawn with Emerson, who was visiting for two weeks.
“Oh—hey,” he said when he spotted her. “Didn’t you get my text?”
She looked at her phone. “Yeah. Like, two seconds ago. Hi, Emerson.” Emerson gave her a distracted wave.
“What’s going on?” she said.
Rory seemed stressed. She touched his arm. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he said, annoyed.
“What is it, then?”
He glanced back at the house. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Her stomach knotted, but she followed him to the park. They found a shady spot on the bleachers near the basketball court. Even under the trees, the metal was hot, and she slid forward so her bare legs weren’t touching it. Rory stared into the distance, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees.
“Rory, you’re scaring me,” she said.
He looked at her as if he’d forgotten she was there. “Sorry. I don’t mean to upset you. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I’m leaving in a week, and you know I won’t be back until Thanksgiving.”
Lauren clutched the edge of the bench. “I know. But I’ll come see you. We’ve talked through all of this.”
Rory shook his head. “I feel like we’re not being realistic about this whole thing.”
What? “Is this coming from you? Or from Emerson?”
He finally turned to her. “Come on, Lauren. I mean, yes, Emerson went to West Point. He knows what it’s like to be in an environment where you’re challenged every day, where you have to keep your self-motivation sharp. I can’t have distractions right now. Between hockey and academics, I won’t have time for a long-distance relationship.”
She felt like she’d been slapped. “Wow. How convenient. I bet you’ll find time for a short-distance relationship, though, won’t you.”
“That’s not what this is about.”
He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away. “Don’t touch me.” She stood up, the sunlight blindingly bright against the metal as she climbed down the bleachers. She broke into a run as she headed back to her car, and it wasn’t lost on her that their relationship had begun with her running through that very park.
At the time, Lauren had thought that it was the worst pain she would ever feel. Her young self could never have imagined that one day she would be standing alone at the beach, alone in the world, looking back on that argument with nostalgia.
Her mother assumed that the key to her happiness would be finding love again.
Lauren never wanted to feel that way again. Alone, she was safe. Alone, she was in control.
She wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Matt plugged in his headphones. Outside, the sun began to set on another perfect June beach day. For all Matt cared, it might as well have been snowing.
Downstairs, Henny hosted her friends for dinner and a book club. She’d warned him earlier in the day. “Hope we don’t disturb you! Come down and say hi. I’m sure the ladies would love to meet you.”
He unpaused the section of the video he’d been watching.
“We really started talking about CTE vis-à-vis sports in 2002,” said Dr. William Massey. He’d let Matt film him in his office at Mount Sinai Hospital.
“And can you tell me again what exactly CTE is?”
“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In 2002, we saw it in the brain of football player Mike Webster. Since then, dozens and dozens of cases have been identified.”
“All in older players?”
