out for frozen yogurt, got them back to the house to wash up and do homework, then started dinner, she hadn’t even looked at her phone . . . until now.
“Can you get out of the dinner and come home and help me?”
“No.” He didn’t say anything more.
“But I have Sierra’s boys here. They’re sleeping over. It’s crazy. I burned dinner, the smoke alarm went off, and Oliver freaked out.”
“I’m sure you’ve got it covered. I need to get back to my client.”
“That’s all you have to say.”
“We’ve been over this too many times to count at this point. According to your master plan, the kids were supposed to be at the park carnival thing tonight. I figured you weren’t expecting me, since you didn’t tell me about it, or even ask if I wanted to go with you.”
“Of course we wanted you to go, but there was no way I was taking four kids on my own.”
“And you prove my point for me. You thought you’d be doing that alone and changed your plans without telling me a thing.”
The anger and frustration in his voice only made her angrier. “So I’m expected to plan your schedule, too.”
“I thought we were a family. One that does things together. But lately, you’re so busy keeping busy you forget I exist. It took you over an hour to realize I wasn’t home at the usual time. Instead of listening to my messages, you interrupt my business meeting and insinuate I’m out with a woman behind your back.”
True. Still . . . “It’s not like you’re hot for me when you get home.”
“Most of the time you don’t notice I’m even there unless you need me to do something with the kids. It’s all I can do to get you to stop whatever you’re doing to kiss me hello. It used to be that I couldn’t leave or come home without kissing you. Now, it feels like it’s just one more chore for you to do. Most of the time, it doesn’t make even one of your lists.”
True. Damnit. This wasn’t all her fault. “That’s not fair.”
“I’m the first one who’ll say no, it’s not. I used to have a wife. Now I’ve got the mother of my kids. You’re so wrapped up in that, you don’t have time for anything else, including me, and while I get it, I’m tired of it.”
That scared her all the way to her soul. “What are you saying?”
“Something needs to change. We’ve talked about it to death, but you refuse to cut back and spend more time at home. Your priorities don’t include me. My needs and wants rank dead last to the kids and their activities and you wanting to make it seem like we’ve got the perfect life. The photos are great, Amy, but have you ever noticed I’m not in most of them? Where are the ones of us doing things as a family?”
She didn’t know what to say.
“We planned tonight as our first date night in God knows how long. Do you remember that?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond. “But instead of putting that on your precious calendar, you scheduled yet another thing for the kids to do.”
“The park carnival only happens once a year. I thought the kids would love it, but then Sierra asked if I could watch her boys, too.”
“That just sounds like excuses to me about how unimportant our date was to you. I was looking forward to it. I had a reservation and a plan to seduce my wife. But she wasn’t interested. She made other plans. So I made other plans, and I need to get back to them. At least my boss will appreciate my extra effort.”
Desperation seized her heart. “Rex, please. Come home, we’ll talk about this.”
“I’ve said everything I have to say. You know how I feel. I know you’re not going to change. Maybe it’s time I did something about it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re always complaining you have no time to yourself. You obviously don’t want to spend it with me, so maybe we fix that and I take my fair share of time with the kids.”
She turned her back on the kids who were tearing pages out of the magazines and making them into paper airplanes and tossing them all over the living room. “Are you saying you want a divorce?” She kept her voice low, so the kids didn’t hear her say that last word she’d