“How do you know she was shaken up?”
“Sasha told me. She was in such a panic to get home to you she hired a driver to bring her to Vegas after the show even though they were all driving home together in the morning.”
I hadn’t realized that. I’d just assumed they all drove home from L.A. together. It’s only three or four hours, depending on where you are in the city, and in the middle of the night traffic’s pretty light.
“Oh. She didn’t tell me that. I was asleep and woke up to find her in bed with me.”
“Because she couldn’t wait to get home to you, to explain. Apologize.”
She had apologized.
The moment she got home.
And I fell asleep.
Fuck.
I’m making a mess of everything and now I don’t know how to fix it.
The problem is that I can’t make things right with my wife until I make things right with myself. I need to come to terms with everything that’s happening. Becoming a father. Her desire to keep working. Her fierce independence.
All things I thought I loved.
Now I’m second-guessing everything.
“You look like you’re going to puke,” Anton says as I just stand there.
“I’m a little freaked out,” I admit. “And I don’t know what to do to make things better with Lexi.”
“Go home and talk to her. Open up about your fears, all the things bothering you—without telling her not to go on tour. Talk about everything driving that feeling, that need to protect her, how scared you are. She’s feeling this stuff too. I guarantee it.”
He’s right.
I’m being a dumbass.
Lexi and I are two halves of a whole.
Whatever it takes, we’ll make this work.
“Is jewelry a thing when they’re pregnant?”
“Jewelry is a thing once they give birth. It’s called a push present.”
“A push…” My voice fades. That sounds weird. But okay. I can do that.
“What’s a we’re-going-to-figure-this-out-together present?”
He hesitates. “Does she like jewelry?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Then maybe do it anyway. Tiffany’s has good stuff, and they love seeing the blue bag. Well, Sasha does.”
“Yeah. I guess I’m headed to Tiffany’s.”
“Golf first. Then Tiffany’s. You need to decompress.”
“Deal.”
