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“Yes. It’s been fifteen years now.”
“Amicable?”
“No. They broke each other.”
I closed my eyes. “They’re the reason you don’t believe in marriage?”
“The dissolution of their marriage was the first seed in my disbelief, yeah. The following fifteen years of bitter heartbreak planted it firmly in my heart.”
“What happened?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.” Opening my eyes again, I gave her my attention.
“My parents were college sweethearts. Their plan was to live in California after they got married and eventually move to Wyoming to take over the family ranch. My mom kept postponing the move, and as the years went by, I think it became obvious to my dad she wasn’t going to keep up her end of the bargain. So, he lived with us part time and part time in Wyoming until he finally left her for good.”
Saoirse smoothed her blanket with her palms. “When I was young, my parents were crazy about each other. They were so different, but they worked in a huge way. And then, one day, it just…fell apart. Our family crashed and burned.”
“That was it? It was all over?”
She blew out a heavy breath. “I wish. My mother has been hating on my dad ever since, while my dad never moved on from loving her.”
“He still loves her fifteen years later?”
“Mmm…yeah. They aren’t in the same place often, but when they are, he can’t take his eyes off her.”
“Then why are they divorced?”
“Do you want to hear the nail in my cynical coffin?”
I grabbed the end of her ponytail, toying with her silky hair. “Give it to me.”
“I only found this out as an adult. After years of blaming my mother for splitting up our family, it came to light that my father had cheated on her.”
“I thought he was madly in love with her.”
“That’s the kicker. He is and always has been. But love and marriage are just words. They can be broken on a sad, lonely night in Wyoming.”
Her hair slipped between my fingers. I kept mindlessly playing with it until her head fell back and lolled to the side like mine.
“You ever think he knew his marriage was over, but he couldn’t be the one to end it, so he chose the nuclear option?” I asked.
“I think a lot of things, Luca. I don’t think my dad even knows why he did what he did.”
Since we met, Saoirse had been a firecracker. Even when she was mellow, she popped and fizzed. Seeing her go dark, the inherent light inside her dim, sparked a low, simmering panic in me. This wasn’t her natural state. It didn’t feel right.
“I’m sorry shit went south in your life, pretty girl.” I slipped my hand from her hair to cup the side of her neck. “I don’t think I like this cynical side of you.”
She tipped sideways, pressing against my hand. “I’m multifaceted. I can’t be sunshine and rainbows all the time. That would be boring.”
“There’s certainly nothing boring about you.”
The corner of her mouth hitched. “Now that I’ve spilled my emotional trauma—”
“I think we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
“And that was deep enough for this evening, thank you.” She reached for my hand, peeling it off her neck to hold on her knee. The pad of her thumb slid back and forth over my fingertips as she yawned.
