Author Anonymous_ A True Story - E.K. Blair Page 0,79
with you.”
I save face, quickly responding out of fear, “It’s you that I want most, but you asked for honesty. And you’re right, it would never work for us.”
“But you still think about calling that guy?”
“I haven’t thought about him in a long time, but today . . . yeah, he crept into my head.”
Lies. Lies. Lies. What the fuck is wrong with me?
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” I say in self-admonishment.
Landon moves back to the coffee table and sits down. “I’m glad you told me. It’s not easy to hear that my wife is sitting at home in tears because she wants to talk to another man, but you didn’t have to tell me. The fact you admitted that to me, in a weird way, makes me trust you even more. You chose to tell me something that most would keep secret instead of acting on your impulse to call him.”
“So you’re not mad?”
“I’m not happy, but I’m not mad. I need you to be honest with me, always. I need to know how you feel so I can have the chance to help you so we can work through it.”
Why am I doing this to him? Why am I giving him hopeless hope?
“Honey, you almost forgot these.” I shove the tickets he bought for the girls down into the side pocket of his overnight duffle bag. “I hung their princess dresses in the back of your Jeep.”
“Thanks.”
The last time Landon packed this bag was the night he walked out on me almost six months ago, but now he packs it to take the girls on a daddy-daughter weekend. They’ve been begging to go to Disney on Ice, but when I went online to purchase the tickets, the Boston show was all sold out. Luckily, I was able to snag seats to the Philadelphia show, so they’re road-tripping it and making a weekend out of the occasion.
“Did you get the snacks for the road?” Landon questions.
“Already in the car, babe.”
I walk out of the bedroom and holler up the stairs, “Girls, Daddy’s almost ready to hit the road.”
They squeal as they clamor down the stairs.
“Did you go to the bathroom?”
“Yes, Mommy,” they say in unison.
I grab their bags that I packed earlier and get them into the car. After hugs and kisses and Mommy-will-miss-yous, I walk to the back of the Jeep where Landon is loading the bags.
“They are so excited,” I tell him.
“Please tell me you charged their iPads.”
I laugh. “Both are at one hundred percent and they have their headphones.”
He closes the hatchback and then pulls me into his arms, an affectionate display I’m unworthy of.
“So what’re you going to do this weekend?”
“A whole weekend without kids . . . I’m going to sleep in and catch up on some reality TV.”
He smiles down at me, adoration in his eyes that mine don’t mirror, but I do my best to fake it. Each day that passes, my heart detaches from his a little bit more, and it’s becoming harder to return his affections toward me. Landon leans down to kiss me, and I keep it a closed-mouth peck.
“You better get going so you get there with enough time for the girls to rest before the show tonight.”
“I’ll call you when we get checked in at the hotel.”
He hops into the driver’s seat, and I wave them goodbye.
Once out of sight, I close the garage, open my car door, and pop the trunk. Unzipping the road side emergency bag, I retrieve my cell and turn it on. When the screen lights up, there’s a missed text from Alec.
Alec: Miss you.
My blood thickens with joy, and I’m immediately dialing him.
“Have they left?” is the first thing he asks when he answers.
“Yes.”
“And you sent the book to your editor?”
“I did,” I tell him. “It’s off my shoulders.” I used Alec’s trip to Dallas to my advantage, taking that time apart to work long days and pull late nights. By the time he returned, I was farther in the book than I originally thought I would be, and was able to finish it the next week without it interfering with our time together.
It’s not my best book by any means, the writing is shit, but the words are there and I met my deadline. I was able to keep my contract with Simon & Schuster, but I did have to pay back twenty-five thousand dollars from the advance they gave me.
When I explained that financial hit to Landon, I told