Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(94)

“Yep. I went with my study group to a bar a couple of weeks ago. This guy walked right up and asked me to dance. His name’s John—he’s in advertising. We’ve gone out a couple of times already and he’s been calling me a lot. I’ve got a feeling about him.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s great,” she said, forcing another weak smile.

I looked directly at her. “All right, that’s two ‘that’s greats’ and two fake smiles. What’s up with that? I just told you about a new guy and this is all you’re giving me? Come on!” I gave her my wide-eyed grin, but that was when I noticed tears welling in her tawny eyes. “Umm…I’m just teasing you.”

“Sember, I think something’s wrong,” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“I think he’s cheating on me,” she said.

“Who? Anders?” I said, wide-eyed.

Sarah and Anders had met on the night of Sarah’s twenty first birthday. He wasn’t handsome in the traditional sense, but what he lacked in looks he made up for with charisma. It had been a whirlwind romance and after dating for three years, he’d proposed. They’d been together for thirteen years. The thought of him cheating was completely absurd.

“No way. Why would you think that?” I squinted.

“I don’t know...something’s going on, and I don’t know what else it could be. He’s being so mean to me and he’s never home anymore.”

“Well.” I paused. “He has been laying the foundation for his business.” Anders had invested many years in college trying to nail down his specialty. He’d spent his career working for other people, but after graduating law school he’d finally started his own business law practice. “He’s worked his whole life to get where he is. I’m sure it’s stressful and he just doesn’t want to fail.”

“Maybe. He has gotten all kinds of new clients and the money is rolling in.” She shrugged.

We sat silently for a couple of minutes, watching the boys playing in the mulch around the swings.

“And,” she said, “he has been really busy—he even tried to get me to quit teaching and to come work for him.”

“He did?” I tilted my head to the side. “But you love your job.”

“I really do which is why I’m not doing it,” she said. “And besides, I’m not interested in working in a law office, or for my husband for that matter. I love teaching and molding all those little first grade minds. I’d miss it too much.”

“I’m sure he could understand that.”

“No.” She laughed. “We actually got into a huge fight and he said I wasn’t supporting him and then he insulted my job. He said I only worked part effing time anyway. He couldn’t understand why it would be such a big deal.”

“Part time?” My mouth fell open.

“I get my summers off so he sees that as part time. I got upset and started to cry so he stormed off and locked himself in his office. But when he came out later, he acted like the fight never happened. It was bizarre. I just don’t know what’s going on with him.”

“He probably realized he was being an ass and let the subject drop. You know how guys can be. They recover from things a lot quicker than we do. And, it sounds like a classic case of stress to me. It can make people do crazy things.” I tried to breathe away the heavy feeling weighing down my chest. “I cry a lot when I get overwhelmed. Maybe this is his way of coping.”

“Maybe.” She huffed. “But then I made him his favorite dinner later that night to try to smooth things over and he said he wasn’t hungry. He went off about looking for a bigger house.” She stared out blankly, confused. “He pounded on the kitchen cabinets and yelled at me. He said I’d be happy living in our ‘crappy little house’ on our ‘crappy little street’ for the rest of my life. I had no idea where any of it was coming from.”

I gasped. “That doesn’t sound like him at all. I thought you both loved that house.”

“I do. And we’ve put so much work into it. Dad spent two years building all those cabinets in the kitchen. It was our first place together and where the kids were born. It would break my heart to leave. But he said we need to ‘live near people of our status’...whatever that means.”

“That does sound a little weird, but I still can’t see him cheating on you. Sounds like his business is really taking off so it has to be stress…or a mid-life crisis maybe? His dad just died and they were really close. He just turned forty. It’s a lot of stuff to process.”

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “At least he’s only gone travelling three days this week. He’s supposed to be home tonight, but he’s usually gone five to six days in a row now. He’s being really secretive about where he’s staying, too. Sometimes he doesn’t even call home to talk to the kids, let alone me.”

“That’s gotta be hard on you not having any help with the kids.”

“With all the activities he keeps signing the kids up for and with me teaching, I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off. When he’s not here it’s really tough.”

“I bet.”

“He started taking French lessons, too.” She scrunched her brows together. “He said it’s so he can communicate with one of his new clients.” She looked down and swallowed hard, blinking back tears as her oldest son, Will, came running across the yard.