“What’s wrong?” she asked, pushing through the screen door. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Oakley said, but her voice broke on the word.
“Are the girls okay?”
“They’re fine. They’re at school.”
Anne stepped forward and tried to put an arm around her sister, but Oakley moved away.
“Can we walk? I can’t– I don’t– I just need to move.”
“Sure.” Anne quickly slipped on her sandals and grabbed a hat. “Let’s walk.”
They went through the backyard and out along the cliffs. They had nearly reached the woods before Oakley finally said something.
“I think my marriage is over.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Nothinghappened,” Oakley said, and fresh tears spilled from her eyes. “I just… I can feel him slipping away. He wants nothing to do with me. He’s barely even there for the girls.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“I don’t know. Years, maybe. But when the girls were little, they took all my attention. And he worked such long hours. If something was off between us, I hardly noticed. I thought it wastemporary. The past couple of years, it’s been more obvious. This year I’ve really been trying to draw him out, but nothing works.”
“Did something happen today?” Anne asked. Despite the repeated answers of ‘nothing’, she knew that Oakley hadn’t come crying to Pualena for no reason at all.
“We had a fight,” Oakley admitted. “But it’s the same fight we’ve been having.”
“And what fight is that?”
“I try to get him to spend more time with us, and no matter how I ask or what it is, it only seems to push him further away.”
“What was it today?”
“He’s headed to the mainland. Again. He told me the same day as his flight.”
“That’s strange.”
“I swear he’s just making up work trips at this point to get away from me.”
“Did you say that?”
“Not in so many words. But I questioned whether he really needed to go, and he went off on me. Called me jealous and controlling and left for the airport. Didn’t even wait until the girls were home from school. Didn’t say goodbye.”
“That doesn’t sound like Trent.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought so either. But he’s not himself lately. Not for a long time. I feel like I hardly know him anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
They were in the shade of the trees now, and Oakley paused to scrub the tears from her cheeks with the heels of her hands.
“Have you considered counseling?” Anne asked.
“I’ve brought it up more than once. He just shoots me down. He always shoots me down, on everything.”
“What do you mean?”
