Page 4 of The Write Choice

“That’s not the flex you think it is.” Her voice is hard again.

“You won’t have to see them that often. They can take the kids and we can be—”

“Be what, Brandon?” She raises her arms and lets them fall again, clearly frustrated. “Be the kind of couple who lies to each other?”

I wince, and her self-satisfied expression tells me she saw it. “I didn’t lie.”

“You accepted this job without telling me. You took me out to Chicago for two weeks before Daniel’s wedding to scope out the area, but you didn’t tell me until we got there. I’d say that’s a bunch of lies right in a row.” Her hands are back on her hips, and I’m sensing my tenuous control of both this conversation and my libido slipping even further from my grasp.

“I hadn’t accepted it. I wouldn’t have if you weren’t on board.”

“What part of this”—she gestures wildly, encompassing the entirety of our existence the past few months—“suggests I’m on board?”

She said it. That’s what made me think she was on board enough to agree to the move. But she was drunk at the time, and she’s still mortified about it, so I don’t dare bring it up.

“We’re all miserable, but you can’t see what’s staring at you in the face.” I want to be understanding. I really do. But her willful ignorance about the boon this could be for us is starting to slip beyond frustrating. And yet, as soon as I’ve said it, I know I’ve lost her.

“Oh, and you can? That’s rich coming from someone who’s hell-bent on ignoring their own family. You must be some kind of clairvoyant.”

I push off the edge of the desk and stand. “I’m not ignoring my family. I’m working tirelessly to provide us with a good life.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Brandon, you have a trust fund and an inheritance your parents allow you to borrow from. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. The only reason for you to be at the office all the time is avoidance.”

There it is. There’s the real reason she’s so upset. I mean, yeah, what she perceives as lying about the job and the move is upsetting her, but I think, deep down, she knows Chicago will be a better place for us. She’s mad I’ve had my nose to the grindstone these past few years, with no end in sight. What I need her to understand now, though, is that this really is the end. It’s finally in sight.

I take a step toward her but stop when she takes a step back. I try to ignore how much her retreat hurts as I say, “I’m not avoiding you.” I hold my hands up to stop her before she can argue. “I know. I shouldn’t have had to work this hard. My parents own the firm for crying out loud; I should have been a shoo-in for the position here. But I want to fix it. I want to give you all a fresh start in Chicago. Let me do this for us, Katie. I can be around more for you and the kids. And I can get this promotion I’ve been working for since I graduated. Please, give me a chance.”

“No.” It’s firm, and she doesn’t offer anything else.

“No? That’s it? Just no?”

“That’s it. I was ready to be a single mom to Mason, remember? I insisted on it for almost a year. I was ready then, and I’m ready now. You can go to Chicago, but I’m staying here, and so are the kids.”

I gape at her. Never in a million years did I think she’d threaten me with the kids. It’s not even an ultimatum for me to stay at this point. She upped the ante by suggesting I leave them, and it throws me for a second.

I press my mouth into a firm line. I will not lose them.

“You’re forgetting something too, Cat.” I’m pulling out all the stops here with my old nickname for her, one I came up with after a week of us hardly leaving her bed when she’d purr softly every time I touched her. I can see her cheeks turn pink. I smirk and step forward again. This time, she stays rooted to the spot. “You married me after Mason was born because you liked having me around. Me. You told me so yourself. I’m still the man you fell in love with, and I’m telling you I want to be around more again. This is the way to do it, and I think you know it.”

She regards me for a moment, and then I catch it. Her expression relaxes the tiniest bit, and I do a mental fist pump.

“How long?” she asks.

“My parents want me to take over the project in Leade Park and phase themselves out in two months—until March.”

“Leade Park?” she explodes. “Since when is the project in Leade Park?”

This was a detail I hadn’t released yet. I found out shortly after I accepted the job, but when she continued to sink deeper into her anger about the whole move, I could never find the right time to tell her.

“Leade Park High School accepted the firm’s bid to work on an addition. It seemed like the perfect project for me to take on to show that I can manage something large-scale with a lot of moving parts, so I volunteered for it.”

Katie’s expression turns to ice. “Are we living in Chicago, or are we living in Leade Park?” She pauses for a beat, then jumps right back in before I can respond. “Tell me the truth, Brandon. I’m sick of being in the dark on this. If you want me to give this a chance, you need to tell me what, exactly, I’m taking a chance on.”

It’s a fair request, and I’m kicking myself for thinking this bit of information would make her happy when she is irreversibly pissed off. I’ve been married to her for six years, and I pursued her for almost an entire year before she even agreed to marry me. I should have known better than to think I could snap my fingers with a surprise and turn this ship around.

“I put an offer in on a house in Leade Park.” I spit out the words before I can overthink it.

She throws her hands in the air and turns away from me, leaving the office. I follow her out into the kitchen, where she starts opening and closing cabinets, seemingly at random. My heart just about stops as I wonder if she could be looking for a bottle she stashed somewhere out of sight.