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I didn’t have three days.
I was in too deep—we were in too deep. She needed to know the truth.
“You didn’t hear what you thought you heard.”
“So, you are dragging someone somewhere?”
“No.”
“Then I heard what I heard and what I’m telling you is it’s okay. I get it.”
I had a good inclination what she thought she got and I also had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it.
“What do you get, princess?”
“That this isn’t permanent.”
I absorbed that arrow to my heart.
“Is that what you want? This to be over when I leave?”
So many emotions flickered over her face and I braced for the worst. Though I was no longer sure what would be worse—her saying yes, or telling me she wanted more.
To help her make her decision I told her the truth.
“I’ve been married.”
Atlee blinked and her hand shot out to catch the chair in front of her.
“For fifteen years,” I continued.
“I don’t understand why you sound like you’re admitting some sort of crime. Lots of people get divorced. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”
Or sometimes a husband is so self-absorbed he fails to see his wife’s in pain.
“She didn’t divorce me, Atlee, she hanged herself in our bedroom.”
I heard Atlee suck in a breath and watched the color drain from her face.
“Wilson—”
“That’s what I drove her to.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Silly, naïve woman.
“You should. I was more concerned with going out with my team playing Captain America than I was supporting my wife.”
“I don’t believe that either,” she whispered.
I need you to stay home this time.
How many times had Barb said that to me? How many times did she beg me to leave the Navy? How many times did I turn my back on her and leave? One too many.
“Then you need to open your fucking eyes and listen to everything I’ve been telling you!” I yelled.
Her shock barely registered as I stood.
