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So that’s what I did. When it came time to reenlist, I declined and moved back. Bought us a house—it wasn’t much, and her dad let me know that all the time—but I’d bought it and that’s all that mattered. Once I had it furnished, I called her, and she finally let me meet my son for the first time.
“Brody!” Olivia snapped, and I blinked away the best day of my life. She held out her hand momentarily to show she was on the phone before continuing. “Daddy said he’d pay you back for the couches, since obviously with your pay you can’t afford what I need to be happy.”
My eyes narrowed. It was almost 12:30 in the morning, and she was calling her dad to talk to him about the damn couches? I rubbed the sharp pain in my chest and pushed away from the table before standing up. “He can keep his money, I don’t want it. Good night, Olivia.”
“BABY, ARE YOU awake?”
I sat up in my bed less than an hour later and rubbed a hand over my face. “Uh, yeah. What’s up, Liv?”
“I’m so sorry!” She burst into tears and crumpled to the floor.
Aw hell. I hopped out of my bed and went over to her. Sliding down until I was sitting up against the wall, I pulled her onto my lap. “It’s okay, you just have to stop spending our money like that.”
“B-but the c-couch we had w-was three years old! The Cunninghams never have couches three years old.”
“I know, but ours was still a perfectly good couch,” I crooned softly. “Just because your parents and the Cunninghams can refurnish their entire houses every few years doesn’t mean we can, all right?”
She nodded vigorously. “I just—I just needed something to do.”
I took a deep breath in and scrunched my face together as I prepared for what might happen next. I knew this could turn out bad again, but I had to try. “Maybe we should get a dog.”
“A dog? A damn dog? No! You can’t just give me a dog and make it all better, Brody!” She scrambled off my lap and sprinted down the hall, heading for her side of the house.
Yes, I said her side of the house. I normally don’t even see her because she prefers to spend her days at her parents’ house unless she’s in a mood like the one tonight. It usually lasts a week, as this one has, and we go through every emotion possible about fifteen times a day. I try to be patient with her because I know I’m the reason she’s like this, but after four and a half years of this constant happy-depressed-flirty-pissed-horny-sweet-flat-out-bitch roller coaster, I feel like I’m losing my damn mind. And what’s worse? As soon as we’re in public she’s normal Liv—not the Liv I fell in love with in high school, but the one who’s confident in herself and her parents’ money, and the one who will eat you alive if you cross her.
Her door slammed shut, and I stood to stumble over to my bed, thankful again that I was able to buy a big enough house that we could have our own spaces. We’d been married for almost six years, and I could count on one hand the number of times we’d had sex in those years. We hadn’t even slept in the same bed since a few months after I got back from the Army.
As I tried to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep, I rubbed at the ache in my chest and prayed the nightmares stayed away.
2
Kamryn
May 5, 2015
“KINLEE, YOUR HUSBAND thinks I’m a freak now.”
“Did he not before?”
“Funny,” I mumbled drily. “I just burst out laughing as soon as I saw him because I thought of y’all’s crazy sex life.”
Kinlee froze with the boxes of cupcakes still in her hands. “Did you just say y’all’s? I’m adding that to wald and shew. Where’d you say you were from again?”
“East of here.” I smirked. We were almost on the coastline of Oregon. Everything was east of here. To avoid her narrowed eyes, I took the boxes back from her and started arranging the cupcakes in the holders I’d brought with me.
Jace came into the kitchen talking on his phone and grinned at me curiously before kissing Kinlee’s head and snatching a red velvet cupcake. “Sweet, I’m glad you’ll be here. Yeah, man, see you soon.”
“Who’s coming, babe?” Kinlee took a piece of his cupcake and shoved it in her mouth before helping me arrange the rest of them.
“Brody. Guess the bitch is letting him out of the house without her for once.”
“Oh, thank God. I thought you were about to say she was coming too.”
Jace gave his wife a horrified look. “Uh, no. She’s not allowed here, and she knows that.”
Kinlee was shaking her head back and forth as she said in a softer tone, “Well, I’m glad he’s coming. It’ll be good for him to get out. We haven’t seen him in a long time. Poor guy.”
“Um, who is Brody?” I asked sheepishly. Not like it was my business, but Kinlee had sat in my lap to finish arranging the cupcakes, so it wasn’t like I could leave the conversation.
