Jess smiles the whole time.
But I know better than anyone that smiles don’t always mean everything’s fine.
It’s nearly nine by the time we get home and get the kids and the dogs into bed.
When I come downstairs, Jess is lounging on the sofa with a glass of wine. I stop by the thermostat, turning it up a notch before joining her.
“It’s getting cold,” I say.
She nods. “I’m looking forward to the snow.”
“At least we’re stocked.”
I lift her legs gently and settle them across my lap. She doesn’t protest, just wiggles her toes.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asks.
I start rubbing her feet, buying myself a second. “I’ve been thinking about… us. And I feel like there’s this distance that wasn’t there before.”
She studies me carefully. Not defensive. Just wary.
I wet my lips. “I’m not blaming you. I just… I don’t think we ever really got through what happened. We just kind of… moved around it.”
Her jaw tightens slightly, but she doesn’t pull her feet away.
“I know therapy didn’t help last time,” I continue. “But then everything was still raw.”
Silence stretches between us.
“I know you say you’re fine,” I add. “But I don’t think you are. And I don’t blame you for that.”
She pulls her feet from my lap. I can’t tell if she’s pissed or actually thinking about it.
Jess looks down at her hands, her hair falling forward and covering her face. Her voice is so small I almost don’t hear it when she says, “You should blame me.”
My stomach drops.
Her eyes look shattered when she finally turns to me. “You’re right. Therapy didn’t work last time because I wasn’t honest about how I felt.”
Jess looks away as she continues. “The kiss… I forgave that because it wasn’t your fault. I mean, she came onto you and you turned her down. I never doubted that. Not even for a second.”
She wipes at her eyes.
“Then I read those texts.”
I open my mouth, then shut it again. This is her moment. All I can do is sit here and listen, no matter how much it hurts.
“The fact that…” Her voice breaks. “You were texting her while I was sitting right next to you. I remember those nights. You’d be on your phone, and I believed you when you said it was work talk. But it wasn’t.”
She lets out a shaky breath. “Telling her how scared you were about the business going under. Losing our house. That wasn’t work talk, Logan. You were vulnerable with her in a way you were never with me. And it made me question… everything.”
Her eyes meet mine briefly before she bites her lip.
“I looked into it.”
I frown. “Looked into what?”
She swallows. “I knew which hotel you stayed at. It wasn’t that hard to find out. And it was even easier to get the security footage from your floor. The hotel had cameras everywhere except inside the rooms.” She lets out a bitter laugh. “I’m guessing that’s why you chose that place.”
