She laughed.
“I missed my husband. Can’t a girl call and check up on him?”
Duke had been thinking about her. He was trying to find a way to make this long-distance easier, since it was causing tension in their marriage.
She wanted him home.
Only, he needed to be there for his mom and sister.
Axelle needed to focus on her career, and the kids seemed to be too much for her.
There had to be a solution where they could meet in the middle.
“She absolutely can. I was just thinking about a way we could give you more time with the girls.”
There was a pause.
“Oh? I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Duke lifted an eyebrow.
Why did that sound…bad?
He tried to explain.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but what if we did two weeks on, and two weeks off. That way, you could still see them every two weeks, and get some good mom time in.”
Honestly, Axelle was good as it was.
She called them every day, and that was more than enough for her. She had a busy career, and it had been so much easier without them there.
Yeah, that sounded terrible, but the truth was the truth.
This had always been her fear.
It had always worried her that she wasn’t meant to be a mother. What she’d learned was that she loved the kids, but she wasn’t maternal whatsoever.
Her suspicions had been right.
They’d tested that, and it had the same outcome that she’d worried about.
“Really, Duke, you should keep them full-time. Actually, I’m good.”
Duke was caught off guard.
Why did that sound like a divorce agreement in the making?
Was he reading into this wrong?
“You don’t want to see Abby and Charlotte?” he asked. “Really? At all?”
That hung there.
When neither of them spoke, she knew she had to explain, and this had been what she’d been worried about, too.
The truth had to come out.
She sighed.
