Page 56 of Mine to Keep

“Thank you,” he said. “However, I get the feeling there’s abutto that statement.”

“You’ve mentioned there were other problems, and I don’t pretend to comprehend what they were, but from the two interactions I’ve seen so far, from what you’ve told me, and from what I know about you, sometimes you can be controlling, stubborn, and things have to be done your way. I can tell it’s a struggle for you to let someone else be in the driver’s seat.”

He nodded.

It was a good sign that he at least had self-awareness about his shortcomings. However, that didn’t mean she would cave to her desires by kissing him. That could never happen again.

Ever.

“She’s younger than you, correct?”

“Eight years. She was only twenty-two and I was thirty when we got married. I always worried about that. I actually fought my feelings for her when we first met, which was when she was twenty. Well, it was before that, but that’s when things changed. We started dating when she turned twenty-one. I took her out on her birthday. There were moments she acted like a kid, and other times, she was so worldly I was amazed.”

“But I suspect you had somewhat of a parent-child relationship.” Bryn’s training as a therapist bubbled to the surface. She’d only practiced for a short period of time before her husband had flexed his muscles and made the statement that no wife of his was going to work, especially as some counselor that weak people blabbered their stupid problems to.

“You sound like the psychologist I go see off and on.”

She tried to contain her smile. It felt good to know that he had sought help for his problems and that she was on the right path in her thinking. “While I’m not suggesting that you are at fault for her actions by any means, deep down, you know there are things that you’ve done that led to the demise of your marriage. That perhaps it was over even before the affair happened.”

He planted his hands on his hips and stared at the sky. “I could have done a lot of things differently when it came to Cheryl. About six months before I found out that Steve was my father; she and I had a huge fight. I thought for sure that was the end. We said some nasty things to each other. But when we made up, we decided that we both needed to make some changes. I needed to treat her like a capable adult, and she needed to let me be who I was. I really thought we were on the right track. We’d even started working on the house again.”

“Were you in marriage therapy?”

“No. And that was probably a mistake because I thought we were getting back to where we were when we first got married. But when Steve made his big announcement, she got the dollar signs in her eyes again, and I was having an identity crisis and things went south real fast.”

“That’s a hard thing to go through.”

“Don’t I know it,” he said. “The thing that hurt the most with Cheryl wasn’t her cheating or the fact that it was with Troy, but that I had started to fall in love with her all over again. I get that she loves me, as much as she can love anyone because she has her own set of issues, but she cheated on me when I had the potential of giving her the one thing she wanted more than me. Money. And that’s something I don’t understand.”

“Maybe it’s not for you to understand.”

He laughed. “Isn’t it ironic, though?” He waved his hand toward the house. “My mom has loved Steve since she met him, which was about two years before I was born. She risked losing her family to have an affair with him because she loved my dad, too, at one point. Doesn’t matter that they had a tough marriage. That’s bound to happen when a cop is married to a defense attorney.”

“That does have conflict written all over it.”

“It sure does,” he said. “But they stayed together because they wanted us boys to be a family.” He tapped his heart. “Looking back, I think that might have been a mistake. But if they hadn’t stayed together, where would that have left me?” He dropped his hands to his sides and stared into her eyes. “I hate feeling this way. I sound like a pathetic child having a pity party.”

“No. You don’t.” She stretched out her arm and palmed his cheek. “You’ve been through so much in the last two years. But if you’re ever going to get past these emotions, you need to let go of some things.”

“I’m working on it.” He took her hand and kissed it. “Steve and I had a good conversation, but then my mom sent Cheryl out here when she likely knew you were with me. You think I have control issues? My mom is the worst. Us boys always called her the puppet master. She was not happy that I became a firefighter, but man, you should have seen the look on her face when Miles decided to become a mechanic.”

“Are you sure they sent Cheryl out here?”

“Well no. but my mom has been wanting me to give Cheryl a second chance.”

“I don’t have an answer for that, but one of the reasons I don’t get along with my mother-in-law is that when my husband and I first got married, I always planned on working if and when we had kids. She told me that no way would the mother of her grandbabies be in the workforce. She actually said, ‘Over my dead body will that ever happen.’”

He looped his arm around her waist. “If I were to ever get married again, which is highly unlikely, or have kids, my wife would probably have to work because it’s really hard for more than one person to survive on my salary.”

“I bet you make at least triple what I do.”

He kissed her temple. “After today, I wouldn’t be surprised if you sell out of all your current inventory. I overheard five people talking about your pieces and looking at your website on their cell phones.”

Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him and patted his chest. “Don’t joke with me about stuff like that.”

“I wouldn’t dare.” He smiled. “Let’s get back to the party so you can hear all the compliments firsthand.”

Her stomach flipped and flopped as they strolled, arm and arm, toward the massive house on the beach. She should pull from his protective embrace, but she couldn’t. Or maybe wouldn’t. She couldn’t tell the difference anymore.

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