Sylvia’s voice reached him as he stepped out of the room next to the master bedroom. “Do you want to pack any of these dresses or pant suits?”
“No,” came Jessie’s clipped response. “Patrick bought those. He rarely let me dress casually even if I didn’t leave the house.”
“Well, all you have packed are a few blouses and these silk pajamas.”
“Let’s pack my yoga pants, track suits, and jeans.”
“Those are the fanciest track suits and jeans I’ve ever seen.”
“Everything had to have a designer label,” came Jessie’s quiet voice.
Robert sensed a hint of self-recrimination in Jessie’s tone.
The poor woman couldn’t even buy her own clothes.
Robert’s hands balled into fists as he walked away. He paced the family room until Sylvia and Jessie brought out two suitcases. His fingers brushed Jessie’s when he took the case from her, and an electric jolt shot through him.
Jessie jerked back, wide-eyed, as if he’d burned her. She stepped toward the hall. “Give me a minute, please.”
Robert’s eyes followed her. She pulled her wedding ring off before entering the master bedroom. When she returned a few minutes later, tears clung to her lashes, and her ring was absent from the hands that sported fake red nails.
Apparently, she’d broken the habit of biting her nails.
Robert looked away. He was an easy-going person and never took things too seriously, but right now an anger festered inside him like nothing he’d ever known.
He needed to get out of the house before he said something that might hurt Jessie even more. He grabbed the second suitcase and headed for the door.
Sylvia and Jessie followed.
“Wait, I need to get something.” Jessie hurried to the kitchen, returning moments later with a black book that looked like a large journal.
“I’m ready,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
Eager to get Jessie away from there, Robert put her luggage in the back of his truck and climbed in. Again, Jessie sat in the back, and again, he wished she’d sat beside him. It would have been easier to keep his eyes off her.
She stared out the window, wiping away the occasional tear. Was she upset because she was scared or because her marriage was ending?
Surely, she couldn’t still love the jerk after all he’d done to her. After the changes he’d no doubt forced upon her. Blond hair, blue eyes, fake fingernails, and designer clothes. None of these things were Jessie.
What kind of man marries a woman then changes every wonderful thing about her?
Robert had seen too much of this in his career, and every time it ticked him off, but the fact that it happened to Jessie make him wan to hunt down her despicable husband.
Keeping a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, Robert focused on the road. Sylvia must have sensed his tension because she didn’t attempt to make conversation.
He refused to look at Jessie again. The anger surging through him was too distracting. Instead, he clenched his jaw so tightly he was certain to have a headache by the time they reached Providence.
This tension was likely to become an unwelcome companion in the coming weeks.
* * *
Jessie’s stomachtwisted two miles before the exit to Providence when she spotted the billboard for Charity’s diner. How many times had she and Robert climbed that billboard? They’d spent hours there talking, counting cars on the freeway, and gazing at the stars. They’d even made out a time or two up there to give the passersby something to talk about.
She pressed a hand to her abdomen as a flood of memories from her years in this small town assaulted her. She’d like to chalk her nausea up to motion sickness, but the thought of facing people she knew and admitting she was a battered wife made her want to vomit.
They exited the freeway, and within minutes, the pink and white striped awnings of Charity’s Diner came into view. Her tensions eased. She had so many happy memories of the diner where she’d worked after school and during her summer breaks.
She loved this beautiful little town, but she’d felt so trapped when she returned here after traveling Europe, only to realize there wasn’t a future for her here. Nothing except Robert.
