Page 92 of Heartbroken Husband
Wisconsin was beautiful in the summer, gorgeous green hills rolling into the distance beyond the long driveway while trees swayed in the warm breeze. I could hear Amber and Jennifer shrieking in the backyard, both of them in the pool and laughing over one of the inflatables, but with Zach gone, the mood in the house was off.
Even with their shrieks of laughter, it was too quiet. Amber was doing her best to cheer Jennifer up, but Lu wasn’t even interested in the pool. Amber had eventually given up trying to coax her into swimming and had wandered off with Jennifer.
Lu, however, remained firmly planted on the porch. Between her and Bear, it was like they were staging a sit-in.
Bear hadn’t left the front lawn since Zach had driven away a few hours ago. Every few minutes, when a car passed somewhere down the road, he lifted his head hopefully, only to drop it backonto his paws with a dramatic sigh when it didn’t turn out to be Zach.
There wasn’t much I could do for him, but I sat down beside Lu and stroked my fingers through her hair, genuinely wondering what was going through her head. “Hey, bug.”
“I’m not talking,” she muttered. “I don’t want to.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing I haven’t asked you to.”
She glared straight ahead, her little mouth trembling despite her obvious commitment to being furious forever. Jennifer had been upset when Zach had left, but Lu seemed to be taking it really hard. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she lied. “I’m happy he’s gone.”
“Oh, so that’s why you haven’t budged from the porch,” I said gently. “Because you’re absolutely not waiting for him.”
“I’m not,” she snapped tearfully, stifling a sob before finally sparing me a glance. “He didn’t even take me running this morning.”
My chest cracked straight down the middle. Suddenly, I wasn’t sitting on the porch in Wisconsin anymore. I was back in the Hamptons, trying to explain to two little girls why their father was never around.
So many times, I’d scrambled for an explanation as to why Daddy had missed another recital, another breakfast, or another bedtime. Why Daddy couldn’t come to the beach or why he was alwaysbusy.
The truth had been thatDaddyhad stopped trying long before he’d actually left. Lu had always understood that better than Jennifer, and that broke my heart.
I reached over and smoothed her messy curls back from her damp forehead. “Honey, Zach just had to go to work for a little bit.”
“That’s what you always said about Daddy.”
It would’ve hurt less if she’d smacked me in the face. I swallowed hard, forcing myself not to cry in front of her. “I know, baby. This isn’t the same thing, though.”
She finally looked at me again, but her blue eyes were glassy and suspicious. “He left. It’s the same thing.”
“He just had to go back to Chicago for an unexpected meeting,” I said softly. “He’ll be back soon, bug. Probably tomorrow.”
“How do you know?”
He’d texted me over half a dozen times just on the drive there.Thatwas how I knew. I also knew because I’d heard the tension in his voice when he promised he’d come back as soon as he could. I knew because the only reason he’d gone was for us, to protect us from another legal attack by a man who’d only ever wanted money—and a boy—but I couldn’t explain any of that to a five-year-old.
I also couldn’t explain that I was starting to realize Zach and I still loved each other as fiercely as always. If almost a decade apart hadn’t severed that bond, a few hours would do nothing of the sort. So he would be back. He would always be back.
In the absence of being able to explain how terribly complicated this all was to her, I nudged her shoulder gently with my own. “We have to take care of Bear for him. That’s cool, right? We’re babysitting Bear.”
Lu looked down at the German Shepherd and snorted when he rolled over for a tummy scratch. She wiped angrily at her eyes. “He likes Zach best.”
“I think he’ll like you better if you keep sneaking him bites of your steak.”
Lu considered it for a moment, intense in that way only children could be. Right now, everything between Zach and I was far from settled, especially with Louis looming over it all like a thunderstorm, but this, seeing Lu wait for Zach to come home,clearly triggered by his departure, made me realize that I would have to sit her down sometime and talk to her properly.
She needed to know that both Zach and I would sometimes have to go to work but that we’d always come back. That was the part she struggled to accept. I knew that. I understood it. Hell, I’d lived that uncertainty myself.
“No,” she finally spat, suddenly jumping up from the step. “He left Bear. Just like he left us. I hate him.”
She bolted before I could say anything, scrambling down the stairs and taking off. Running across the lawn, she ignored me when I called her name. Then she disappeared around the side of the house.
Bear lunged to his feet but hesitated, looking between me and Lu like he wasn’t sure which upset female required his assistance more. I nodded toward her. “Go with Lu.”
