A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,14

Can you elaborate on that?”

She took control because that’s what she did. When they were together, Reid typically was pretty easygoing and laid-back, but always moving and the first to jump into something.

They’d always joked about it. She was organized and efficient. Good with money, patient, and didn’t make a move until she’d thought things through. He was the exact opposite in every way. They balanced each other out.

She definitely had a tendency to be way too straitlaced, cautious, and boring without him.

Why did she have to start thinking about that? She missed him. She liked the person she was when she was around him. She liked the way they worked together and the fun they had. They might be opposite personalities, but they shared the same values, so underneath the conflict that invariably arose, they were always able to work it out.

“Well, the boys had three days together, and they came up with a plan, because they like being together, and they want to spend more time together.”

It seemed like he was emphasizing the together part of that. She didn’t say anything. Waiting.

“They seem to be pretty set on not just being able to spend time together but also wanting you to come here.”

“So let me get this straight. Dallas was on the airplane, but he walked off, and the boys want me to go there, and you are okay with all of this?” Her voice rose way more than she’d intended with that last phrase. Not quite to shrew level, but a lot closer than she ever wanted to be.

There was a heavy silence. She was being too harsh. Was she?

Maybe she felt like Reid was the dad and should be calling the shots.

Except, that wasn’t really it.

She didn’t want to go to Missouri because her boys wanted her there. If she were going to go to Missouri, she wanted to go because Reid wanted her. But it sounded like he didn’t really care whether she was there, it was just the kids that wanted her.

A person might have thought that after being separated for eight years, she wouldn’t give a flip as to where the man wanted her.

Unfortunately, her heart couldn’t be persuaded to be reasonable.

Her pulse thumped in her head, and she pushed down anger at the stubborn man she’d married.

Or maybe she was angry at herself, because she was drawn to the idea of going back home, back to Missouri, the state that she loved, back to her rural roots, and the mountains that weren’t snowcapped, but were rolling and green and friendly, and not these harsh but very beautiful, very rugged mountains she was surrounded by here.

Back to her small town. Back to her old friends. Back to her high school boyfriend and the husband she still loved.

But she didn’t want to go back, not if she wasn’t wanted.

“Think the boys are feeling like they’d like to spend some time together. I was kind of thinking about talking to you about it anyway and seeing if there wasn’t some kind of way we can amend the way we’ve been doing things so the boys get to be together. But that’s not really what the call is about. I think that it might be best, considering that the boys are so desperate that they would walk off an airplane, that maybe we need to get together and talk about it.” He paused, like he wasn’t sure what she was thinking. “If it’s not too much trouble for you.”

Emerson leaned back against the headboard, her head against the wall, looking up at the dark ceiling.

She had everything, all the material possessions she’d ever wanted. More than she ever thought she’d have.

But she wasn’t happy. Not with the way her life turned out. Not with the way things were between her and her husband.

She didn’t want someone else. Half the time, she wasn’t even sure she wanted him—that stubborn, prideful man, although she still loved him, but she couldn’t admit that.

Because admitting it would be weakness.

Going to Missouri would show weakness.

“Are you saying you don’t think the boys are happy?” she asked, and all the haughtiness was out of her tone. Because more than her own happiness, she had always wanted to do right by her children.

“No. I think the arrangement that looks so good to you and me hasn’t been fair to them. And I don’t think I saw that until today when I was confronting the boys in the bathroom at the airport and they