The oven beeped, distracting me from asking about his passcode. “Could you grab some plates and forks? Let’s just sit at the island counter tonight.”
We laughed and talked through dinner, and I was pleased to see that he didn’t check his phone once, even though it buzzed several times.
In bed later that night, he made slow, passionate love to me, drawing it out and making me insane before I finally came with a scream. I was so exhausted afterwards, I fell right to sleep. I woke up a few hours later as another round of thunderstorms came through.
Bleary-eyed, I went to get a drink of water. When I came back to bed and laid down, I found myself just staring at the ceiling unable to drift off with nature’s fireworks going on outside. I glanced at Thatcher. His face was slack and peaceful with sleep.
I smiled at him, a feeling of love rushing through me. Yes, things had been different between us for a few months, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle. I needed to remember that he was the best husband a girl could ever ask for. I was so glad to call him mine.
I sighed with happiness, yawned, and rolled over. I was almost asleep when I remembered that I’d never asked him why he had a new passcode on his phone.
***
The late nights continued.
What I had thought would be a rare thing turned into a twice weekly occurrence. Sometimes even more than that. It would have been annoying but fine if he’d just respected me enough to text me when he was going to be late.
But he often didn’t. I was starting to worry he just didn’t care enough about me to let me know what was going on.
“It takes you thirty minutes to get home from the office. Can’t you do it then?”
He smiled absentmindedly. “No. My car during my commute is my sanctuary. It’s the only time I’m by myself all day, and I can just do whatever I want to. I can listen to a podcast, play music or audiobooks, or just be silent. I turn my phone off during those times.”
I knew that. He’d told me many times before. “Fine. But please do better about letting me know when you’re going to be late, okay?”
“I will. There’s no excuse for it. I should let you know as soon as I realize work isn’t going to end on time.” He stopped to think about it. “I think that’s part of the problem. By the time I figure out I’m going to be late, I’m usually already late. But I’ll do better. I promise.” He grinned at me, then he bent to kiss me. The kiss was leisurely but intense, and it quickly turned hungry. He picked me up and plunked me on top of the island. My legs wrapped around his waist, and I completely forgot how irritated I was with him.
CHAPTER FOUR
Carrie
Things did not get better. If anything, they got worse.
Part of the problem was how busy we both were. Thatcher, as CEO of his company, would be busy forever. For me, there was the Orchid Ball. I knew logically that being the chair of the ball was a good thing, an honor. But it sure did keep me busy. There was always something to do. This was the biggest social event of the year in Indigo Falls, as well as the biggest fundraiser all year for the garden club. We donated the vast majority of the proceeds to a worthy cause around town. This year, funds were earmarked to renovate the teen center in the Indigo Falls library. If it didn’t go as planned, it would be talked about for years. It wasn’t something I could just put aside and focus on later so that Thatch and I could handle our problems.
And on top of that, Melinda and Drake were getting married. It was wonderful and something to celebrate, but getting Thatcher to attend the pre-wedding parties and events was becoming more and more difficult. When I got him there, he usually spent half the time on his stupid phone. I knew all my friends noticed, and it was embarrassing.
The other things that had gotten worse? Well, Thatcher had returned to texting and emailing constantly once he was finally home from work. On top of that, he’d started acting as if the things we’d enjoyed with each other for years no longerinterested him. He’d also become less friendly, making it seem like spending time with our friends had become a bother to him.
LikeIwas a bother to him.
“You’re acting like you don’t want to be here,” I said quietly. I watched Thatcher’s face as we drifted lazily in the part of the river that led away from the falls. All our friends were there: Sadie, Melinda and Drake, and Blair and Scott. Sadie’s brother Tim was there, too, as was some girl he was apparently dating who we couldn’t decide if we’d met before. We were all acting like we’d met her because we didn’t want to offend her, but the more I looked at her the less I thought I’d seen her before. Not that it matters. She’s just another thin, giggly blonde with big breasts. Tim definitely had a type.
Tim’s best friend, Natalie, had also come out tubing with us. She tried to talk to Tim’s girlfriend of the moment, but she seemed to get bored with her. After a while, she floated over to Sadie instead. With black hair and blue eyes, Natalie was stunning, but she had never been the type Tim dated. Maybe that’s why they had remained just friends since childhood. I couldn’t help noticing that Tim spent more time laughing and talking to Natalie and Sadie than his date.
And then there was Thatcher. He looked like he’d rather be getting a root canal than talk to anyone as we floated down the river. When we’d first gotten together, he’d been so stiff, so used to doing activities his stuffy family would approve of that I’d wondered if I wanted to keep dating him. But then he had decided he loved the different things my friends and I would do, and tubing down the Indigo River had been at the top of his list.
We’d kind of met in the middle. He became a little less restrained, less rigid, and less willing to be governed by the rules of his perfect society family. Even though I was a debutante in Indigo Falls, that didn’t exactly translate to the high society scene in Atlanta. I’d worked to become more polished, moremature, and had a crash course in the kind of etiquette required of the wife of the CEO of Caldwell Financial. I’d been required to attend galas, balls, benefits, and more. It was all part of being a Caldwell. Still, no matter what I did, people made it obvious they found me lacking as Thatcher’s choice of wife. I think some of the reason was that my own in-laws thought I wasn’t good enough, and everyone seemed to know that. I had never been looked down on before in my life. It wasnota great feeling.
Worse than that, I was starting to think Thatcher didn’t think I was good enough for him, either. It had been a slowly developing feeling, but as the months since he’d been named CEO wore on, it had become more and more obvious. Our marriage had been so good before he’d taken over after his father passed away, but it had deteriorated since then.
And now I was convinced something was very wrong. Thatch seemed to be changing more each day, and I wasreallybeginning to worry. We’d been crazy busy lately. Somewhere in all of that, we’d disconnected.
And I was having a hard time getting him to reconnect. I was starting to believe it was because he simply didn’t want to.
“Come on, Thatch,” I said, holding his hand as the current of the river moved us along. “We’re all so busy being adults now that we don’t get to do this anymore. Can’t you just enjoy it?”
He sighed. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the mirrored sunglasses he was wearing, but the rest of his face looked… irritated. He wasn’t smiling. His mouth was set in a firm, thin line, and he was looking at the water with distaste. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure I enjoy this anymore.”
