“Talking to who?”
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you? I’ve been getting some counselling. I needed to deal with my responsibility in the destruction of our marriage.”
What? What? She didn’t know if she should be angry or happy. She’d begged him to see a counselor and deal with his anger management issues. After talking to Willow a few weeks back, she’d done some research on narcissism. Brice was textbook. And not at the lower end of the spectrum. But people with narcissism rarely reached out for help. Was he doing that? Finally reaching out for help?
“I just, Angel, I want to say I’m sorry.”
Her breath caught. He’d never in their married lives apologized to her. Never.
“Listen, I’m not trying to lay all this on your shoulders. Honestly, I wanted to say that in person. As far as coming to the party, I understand if—if you aren’t comfortable coming. But I know it would make Dad happy to see you. Mild or not, the heart attack took a lot out of him. And the boys, well, they miss their mom.”
Angela squeezed her eyes shut. Brice always knew what strings to pull, this was no exception. The boys, Cog ... he knew her soft spots. And he’d apologized to her. And actually taken some responsibility for the break-up.
Still, she needed to remember all the grief he’d given her about the boys, forbidding her to have contact with them. Now dangling them like a carrot in front of a horse’s nose. Angela gritted her teeth. “Where are you having the party?”
“Our house.” Brice said. “Nothing big, just family. Just a nice family weekend.”
Our house ... just family ... Angela heard the caress in his voice. She could almost feel his arms circling her. She sucked in a sharp breath. Her instant reaction surprised her.
“What do you say, Angel?”
Just when she was doing well, he pushes back into her life. She’d almost rather have him railing at her. He was being all the things she’d loved about him. And God help her, that was hard to resist.
Remember. Remember. Memory was her safety net. He never stayed Nice Brice. He turned. He turned quickly and violently into something far different.
“So, can I tell the boys you’ll be here?”
“I can’t talk right now.” She hung up. Angela stared at the phone in her hand. She was shaking. She dropped the phone onto the table and covered her face. “Oh God.”
Angela stepped onto the airplane. It was a brief flight from Florida to Connecticut, but that fact didn’t ease her queasy stomach. Settling into her window seat she experienced a myriad of emotions. First and foremost was dealing with her fear of flying. Road trip? Too many hours, she had decided. Besides, she could do this. On her own. By herself. She could fly. Sure. People flew all the time. Her biggest fear was going over the water. This flight to Connecticut wouldn’t be over the water, so all was good. If all was good, why were her hands sweaty?
The way Angela dealt with her fear of flying was to keep her thoughts on something else. So they turned to her next biggest problem. Brice. When Brice called her back the following day, she had expected his usual tirade for practically hanging up on him. Instead, he was still nice Brice. And she wasn’t equipped to not respond to that. Which was apparent since here she was on a plane, going … where, exactly? To what? A future? Maybe at least congenial co-parenting, or just back to the familiar belittling humiliation.
The biggest question of all, could Brice be changing? Could he once again become the man she knew years ago, the man she fell in love with? Did he have to lose her to understand and appreciate what he’d had? Angela’s resolve to find out once and for all was becoming necessary. What if life was getting ready to take another sharp turn?
After a white-knuckled landing, her boys met her at the airport. They held up a homemade sign. MOM, in big red letters. It melted her heart.
“I missed you two!” she said, hugging both of them for longer than she should. They looked older. Braxton sported a scruffy beard and his little brother Bryan was in much need of a haircut. They hugged again, and she knew they’d missed her as much as she missed them. That made her cry… and hang on a little tighter. Finally, Braxton broke the hug and self-consciously took