Surviving Love - K.F. Breene Page 0,86

ever tell you? I’m sterile. Got in an accident when I was a kid. Thank God—I don’t want one of those little brats. Anyway, when are you coming back into this area? I was thinking—we made a good team. We were good together, you and I. I had my midlife crisis, got it out of my system, and I think we should figure it out. You know? Maybe go through with tying the knot.”

Sara glanced up as Christie came into the room. Her hands were shaking with a profound sense of relief. It felt like a weight had been peeled from her shoulders. The crippling insecurity she’d felt since he walked away for another woman started to erode. He’d take her back. He had realized it was a mistake. He still wanted her!

Excitement bubbling through her, breath coming out in shallow spurts, she smiled up at Christie, not even really sure what to say.

“Can I call you right back?” Sara said with a quivering voice.

“Yeah, sure. Talk to you in a second.”

“Bye.” She could barely stab the large red “End,” her hands were shaking so badly.

“What happened?” Christie asked with a carefully blank face.

Sara let out a huge sigh. “It wasn’t me.”

“What wasn’t you?”

“I mean…” She got off the bed with a burst of energy, validation pumping her adrenaline. “He left, but it’s just because he was confused. He wants me back! He’s realized he still loves me. Or wants me, at any rate.”

Christie stared at her with a blank face.

Sara splayed her hands, willing Christie to realize how good the news was. “He wants me, Christie. He realizes that leaving for a hotter, younger woman wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Don’t you get it? I’m not damaged goods.”

Unthinking, flying high from the surge of renewed confidence, she texted Mikey.

Text from Sara: he wants me back! he misses me.

“Are you going to go back to him?” Christie asked, still without expression.

“I mean, I shouldn’t. He’s still gambling. And kind of a jerk, if I’m honest, but… I mean, I know him so well. He said he might marry me.”

“Mhm.” Christie nodded slowly. “And would that make you happy?”

Relief still bubbled up. She suddenly didn’t feel like such trash. She might be older, sure. And she wasn’t as good-looking, okay. But underneath her exterior, she was someone worth having. Mikey had been right—it wasn’t her, it had been Phil.

She twirled around, the smile coming up from her toes.

“Actually, I’m even more rounded now,” Sara said in contemplation. “I just survived in the wild for four days. It didn’t break me. I helped. I caught two fish with my hands! Not everyone can do that. And Dan and May are really impressed with how I handle the ranch. I’ve impressed Jake, even, and Mikey said that’s not easy to do…”

“Mhm.” Christie nodded slowly. “And then there’s Mike. Mikey. He’s put his faith in you from the beginning. He’s never wavered…”

Sara took a deep breath and let the smile warm her insides. She looked at Christie, noticing the still-blank face. Christie’s words sank in. The bubbles of relief from a second ago started to pop one by one as the euphoria eroded away.

Reality seeped back in.

Mikey.

“What am I thinking?” Sara asked in a wispy voice, remembering the emotions she’d discovered over the last four days.

“I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it’ll wear off soon.” Christie looked away from her. She picked at her nail in irritation.

Sara looked down at her phone. “I just sent him that text. He told me he loved me. What’s wrong with me?”

Christie nodded once, very slowly, and clasped her hands in her lap. “Sometimes love makes no sense. The question is, who do you love?”

Sara looked at Christie.

Text from Mikey: You are a great catch. Of course he does.

“Mike will support you, whatever you decide,” Christie said in that same flat voice. “As will I. But as a girl who has made some bad mistakes in her life, I think you should listen to me when I say—take a long moment and think about this.”

Sara did take a moment. She stripped away the soul-wrenching relief and validation that Phil still wanted her, and thought about him as a person. About the long nights when he didn’t come home. And the constant money problems, and lying, and callous behavior. Toward the end he stopped even kissing her. Their lovemaking was less than good and lasted for thirty seconds.

“I never orgasmed during sex with him. I had