“G-good on paper?”
“For the campaign, she’s good for the campaign. We haven’t announced anything, dad’s campaign manager says the mystery is good for generating interest.”
“You d-dumped me for Campaign Barbie to pat your arm and hold a clipboard?”
“It’s easier than—” he stopped, eyes cutting across the room to the window. Clouds clung to the wintery mountain peaks in the distance. I wondered if one of them was my mountain.
Storm clouds shrouded every angle.
“Easier than what, Tav? Easier than breaking up with me, treating me with dignity and respect and just telling me the truth?”
An angry flash crossed his eyes. “You’re not ready for the truth.”
“Try me.”
He arched a painfully cocky eyebrow, unused to me speaking up so boldly and making so many demands of him.
“Buying you a house in the mountains was easier than gettingridof you.”
My blood boiled. “Getridof me?”
Tav gnashed down on his teeth, that familiar look of quiet contempt crossing his features a moment. This was the stage where I usually shrunk under that gaze, conceded to whatever statement he was making just to clear the clouds from his face.
But not today. “Iamyour Sunday wife, aren’t I? You put me on the back burner for her, I can see it all over your face, Tav. How long has this been going on?”
He shook his head, crossing to me in angry strides before cupping my chin in his fingers and forcing my eyes on him. “You’re hallucinating again. I signed that house over to you, your name is on the deed. Paid for in cash.” He stopped himself before cutting his gaze away from mine. “While you’ve been living every day in the past, life has marched on without you. I couldn’t stand by and watch you do it anymore. I asked you to move to the city with me, begged you to marry me at the courthouse even after the miscarriage, offered to spend more time at the house in Lancaster working remotely, you don’t remember any of that?”
I shook my head, blinking back tears. Was he right? Had I completely checked out of our future together?
“No, I…” I pushed a palm over my forehead, suddenly wishing for one of my little magic pills to carry my thoughts away and leave only sweet numbness in its wake.
“I still love you, Frey. I love you so much it scares me.” He dropped his chin to force my eyes on his. They shimmered with the calm, serene intimacy I loved so much about him. “From the moment we met it feels like I’ve known you for a lifetime.” I blinked back the emotion in his words, flashes of Sunday school pictures playing like a reel in my mind. “I don’t know what I would do without you in my life.” The pad of his thumb was tracing my bottom lip then. I could feel myself succumbing to him, my muscles loosening as he acted like a drug on my system.
“I…” I swallowed, my throat suddenly constricted. “Tav, I…”
“I only wanted what was best for you. Even if you didn’t always see it, I did.”
More flashes of sepia-toned polaroids clouded my vision. Someone always lurking in the shadows.
“I’ll always watch out for you, Frey. From day one I’ve been watching out for you.”
I sobbed then, the stranger clinging to the shadows of the coffee shop the day I met Bradley again came back to me. The dance floor at the bar. Sunday school. “Youhavebeen watching me, haven’t you? Since before I even knew your name, you’ve been watching. My entire lifetime, you’ve been there, haven’t you, Tav?”
His eyes darkened.
“The photos in the basement of the chalet, the title of the car listed in Alexandria...my mom.”
His frown twitched. “Hm. You have been paying attention, haven’t you?”
Tav laced his fingers with mine, connecting us in a familiar gesture, but one that suddenly made my blood run cold. He’d always been able to twist his emotions and mine, I’d found it comforting before, like his ability to read me was his superpower. But could it be a flaw not a feature?
“With the solar power and top-of-the-line security I could help insure your safety. I could check in on you and provide for you. You were safe on that mountain. I can’t protect you now.”
“Why?” I tore out of his reach. “How long has it been,really?Was this some sick game? Were you always planning to make me into your sweet little Sunday wife, locked in a closet while you lived some other life with another family?”
Annoyance slipped over his features. “Oh Frey, you don’t know the half of it. You aren’t the Sunday wife, you never were. Yourmotherwas.”
Thirty-Six
