AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Looking thoughtful, Mandy chewed on her lip. "You think?"
He nodded vigorously. "I really believe you need to sit him down and have a serious conversation. What you did today was crazy. You’ve been married to this man for … how long now?"
"Twelve years."
"Twelve years!" Drew supplied, sounding incredulous. "Don’t you think you owe him the benefit of the doubt?"
Amanda blew out a long, depressed sigh. "But something’s wrong, Drew. I just know it. I can feel it every time he’s around. Something is wrong."
"Then go to him and find out what it is," he urged, taking her hand and hoping this was the best advice, because if Jeffrey really was sleeping around, Drew was going to have a few words of his own with the dirt bag.
For twelve years, Jeff had kept Mandy happy enough. That was all that mattered to Drew. But Mandy didn’t look happy now. She looked heartbroken.
Since she was blood, he picked sides without even thinking. In the blink of an eye, his view of Jeff changed. No one hurt his sister and got away with it.
Reaching out, he smoothed out a piece of hair sticking to her forehead. "Why don’t you go inside and take a nap."
She shook her head wearily. "I can’t. The kids—"
"Don’t worry about them. I’ll pick everyone up from school and day care," he offered. "We’ll go out for ice cream or something. Just come get them at my house whenever you’re better. You need some time to put yourself back together."
"What? Am I a mess?" Instinctively, she glanced in the rearview mirror. When she saw the black blotches under her eyes, she groaned.
As he watched her wipe with a vengeance, he said, "I’ll keep them until Jeff gets home and you’ve talked to him."
•
Mia hurried back toward the front door as soon as she hung up with the telemarketer. Anxious to return to the man calling himself Drew Harper, she pushed though the screen and immediately slowed to a disappointed halt.
He was gone. It was like he’d never even been there.
Hopeful, she stepped even farther outside and scanned either side of the sidewalk.
When she remembered she still held his business card, she looked down and blew out a relieved breath.
Okay, so he hadn’t been a figment of her imagination. At least that was something. She wasn’t turning into a schizo. Always a plus.
But where had he gone? And why had he fled so quickly?
Assuming she’d probably freaked him out by her weird comment about every tragedy happening for a reason, she groaned. How lame could she get? Finally, there’d been a guy looking at her like she was a normal, average woman, like a woman he could become interested in, like there was nothing wrong with her. And for a brief moment, she’d actually felt like that woman.
She wasn’t though. Not by a long shot.
After attending an appointment with her grief counselor, Mia was glad she’d already decided to take the rest of afternoon off work.
Dr. Higgins hadn’t been so patient and understanding today, though his voice had been kind enough and his face full of compassion when he’d said, "Mia, you’ve been coming to me for a year now. I think it’s time for us to progress to the next step."
His words induced her heart to thump rapidly against her ribcage. Her hands clenched instinctively in her lap. Panic rose in her throat and her breathing escalated. With no idea how she managed a calm façade, she licked her dry lips and asked, "Wha-what’s the next step," though, honestly, she already knew.
She knew every step, had learned and memorized them to the point she could write the entire grief booklet herself. She could even tell which step she was caught on.
Acceptance. The last and final stage. It snagged her every time.
Like clockwork, she’d wound her way through the other four and passed each milestone, silently but steadily plodding forward.
But moving on with life, admitting she was a real person, becoming whole again, accepting. That was her ball-dropper every time. She couldn’t stop the anxiety clogging her veins whenever she tried to tackle that particular goal. And how could she? It was her fault her baby was dead, her responsibility to make sure Lexie—
Refusing to go there, Mia brought up a picture of Drew Harper in her mind and sucked in a calming breath.
