“He’s fourteen. Shouldn’t we have access to his account? That boy loves expensive electronics, and we need to make sure he’s not overspending.”
“His father will have access, and we can discuss with him and Jamie on how they want to proceed with financials. We just need to make sure that Jamie will be cool with everything that’s about to happen.”
“I can be here when you talk to him.” He tossed his now-empty water bottle in the trash. “I’m going to catch the last part of the game.”
Kody had been gone since Wednesday, and now he was about to watch a basketball game? The irritation I already felt at his nonchalance in coming home after being gone for days, knowing I had any interaction with Freedom, turned into an outright annoyance.
I clicked off the stove and turned around. “You’re really okay with Freedom being in our lives again? Most men would be jealous that their wives might still have feelings for the father of their child, or jealous that the son that they’ve raised for years will love his bio father more than them. You’re one of the most arrogant and prideful men I know, and you seem completely unfazed about Freedom. Is it because you’re blinded by his millions, you don’t see the man in him? If he were a regular Joe Blow coming back into our lives, flirting with your wife, would it matter then?”
The frown lines continued to cross his forehead. “For a long time, we didn’t have peace in this house, and it was my fault. Iwas pissed when I saw you and Freedom dancing; we got into it, and you almost crashed the car. I’m trying to be an adult about all of this since I did invite him back into our lives to save our company.” Kody tilted his head. “You would rather I argue and fight with you to prove that I love you. Is that what this anger is about?”
I shouted, “Yes, because that’s what men in love with their wives do. We just landed big deals between Freedom Cade and the Alloid Group. Technically, we’ve just become millionaires at thirty-three years old. You’ve been gone for days, and we have this whole house to ourselves, and we don’t celebrate by fucking?”
His jaw tightened. “I hate when you curse. It doesn’t sound natural coming from you.”
“I’m sure you love it when your other women curse. Your wife has to be respectable and nice.” I crossed my arms and glared at my man of thirteen years. A man who had been a provider and a helper to me when I needed him the most, I ignored his red flags. “Who were you with in Atlanta? You don’t want to fuck me, which must mean you’ve been fucking someone else.”
“No one. I’m tired after a busy week.” He sighed and jammed his hands in his pockets. “At one point, will you trust me again?”
“When you start being honest.” I stood on tiptoes and sniffed his neck. “At least she lives in Atlanta. I don’t smell a trace of her.”
He stalked away from me and walked around the island, placing distance between us. “I don’t smell like another woman because there isn’t another woman.”
Gripping the side of the island, I faced him. “I’m sorry that I’m not enough for you.”
Kody frowned. “You are enough.”
“I know I am,” I responded indignantly. “I meant for you. You want the woman that you might have thought I would bewhen we first got together. Maybe you wouldn’t look for other women if you liked the woman in your bed every night. You like saying you’re a husband and a father, but do you actually like being a husband and a father?”
“Why are you talking like this? I married the woman I wanted,” he said a little too earnestly.
I held my hand out. “Then, if I’m enough, give me your phone.”
“No,” Kody yelled.
“On this, you show some emotion. Great.” I moved away from the island and used a mitt to open the oven and remove the pan of lamb.
“That’s it? No argument because I won’t give you my phone?” He moved closer to me.
“Tired of fighting for someone who doesn’t have passion for me.” I shook my head. “A relationship is like a flower. You have to add the right amount of light and water for the flower to thrive.” I half-tossed the pan of lamb on the cooling rack atop the island. “And you and I are weeds.”
“Weeds, Jamaica? Is that how you see us?”
“Yep, together we are plants who are undesirable in a particular situation.” I tapped the counter. “Yet around the right situation we bloom.”
His thick brows furrowed deeply, and he crossed his arms, the cords in his arms bulging from his polo shirt. “Freedom sweeps back in, and suddenly you’re doubting us? Now, we’re not the right people for each other?”
“You’re glowing, Kody, and before you lie again and tell me it’s because of the business, I know a glow from the attention of a woman, a woman you want to see again. Maybe have already been seeing. You’ve been to Atlanta four times in the last three months and are now talking about relocating there.”
He shrugged. “Okay. Say there is another woman, you ready to leave me? Think you can run to Freedom to rescue you? We’re building a foundation. Everything we talked about when we were those college kids raisinghisson is starting to come together, and you want to destroy it with bullshit fantasies. I’m not fucking stupid. You’re all bold and shit because you believe you have other options, and you really don’t.”
I gritted my teeth. “That’s always been your problem. Taking me for granted. Thinking you did me a favor by being with me because you were a big man on campus. All the women loved Kody Griffin, a handsome, ambitious basketball player and a future architect. I know you fucked around back then, and I looked the other way because you helped me raisehisson without complaint. But forever more, know that I’ve always had options. I chose you… have chosen you over and over, because I believed in honoring my commitments, and I wanted a long-lasting marriage like my parents.”
He picked up my left hand and rubbed the gold band. “I still want that too. I hated that my father lived in Chicago and my mother had to figure it out for herself. I love that you take care of me and our sons. That you make this house a home. That everything you do is about loving us and making sure we have what we need to thrive. Of course, I married the right woman for me. There’s nothing you can say or do that’s ever going to make me leave you.”
“So, if I had sex with another man, you would forgive me?”
His temple twitched, and he tightened his hold on my hand. “I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t forgive you.”
