The Truth About Love (26 page)

“Keep your word.”  I said simply.  “Prove it.  Every day.”

He gave me a reassuring smile as he pulled into the parking garage.
  “
I can do that.”

“I hope so.  I don’t want to be without you ever again.”  Then I leaned over, kissed him on the cheek, and stepped out of the car.

Our room was perfect.  It had been recently remodeled and the slate floor in the kitchen and bathroom were gorgeous.  We left our luggage in the first bedroom to keep the clutter at a minimum, then moved to the main room with the living area and king sized bed to relax. 

“I’m so glad we’re here, together.”  Shane commented as he sat on the floor with Kylie.  Soon she crawled over to the bed, pulled herself to a standing position and took a few awkward steps toward him.  Slowly, with practice she improved.  I watched as her father’s jaw dropped in awe.

“She’s been doing this for a few weeks.”  I explained as I walked over to the balcony.  “I’m glad you didn’t miss it entirely.”  I could feel myself slowly relaxing.  Then my phone vibrated.  It was a text message.

Jules: Have you forgiven me yet?

Me: Did I miss the apology?  Or did you just want me to forget it ever happened?

After a moment of silence she finally responded.  I glanced at Shane as he wondered who I was communicating with.  “It’s Julia.  I haven’t spoken to her since the falling out yesterday.  We have some business together.”  I stood and walked toward the other room.  “Mind playing with Kylie while I work this out?”

“Nah.  Take your time.  I’ll teach her to run while you’re gone.”  He winked at me.

Chuckling, I shut the door behind me.  Her last message had simply read, “Sorry.”  Knowing how hard apologies were to come by, I called her.  “Listen,” I began coldly, “I’m still angry, but I know we have some business to take care of.”

“I really am sorry.”  She murmured into the phone.  “But if you just want to stick to business for now, I can work with that.”  She exhaled before continuing.  “So did you read the contract?”

“There’s a contract?”  I placed the call on speaker and started to search my emails. 

“Yes.  You can e-sign it and then we’ll be good to go, unless you have any objections.”

“Nope.  I’m good.  I’m out of town for a few days.  Went to the beach to clear my head.”  I stood and paced.  “Reception is spotty here.  Please don’t call the police if you don’t hear from me.”  I grumbled.

“I won’t.  I’ll let you relax.”  She sounded calmer than when we first spoke.  “Just keep me in the loop.  ‘Kay?”

“You got it.”  Then with the call ended, I walked back out to the living area while reading the contract. 

“Whatcha doing?” Shane asked, his brow furrowed.

“Oh, I’m just e-signing a contract with my literary agent.”   Then I waited for his response to determined my level of excitement. 

Shane jumped to his feet, picked me up and whirled me around.  “This is awesome, Nina!”  He shouted as he hugged me tightly. 

Standing ever so tentatively, Kylie clapped her hands.

The next few days passed by so happily and naturally, it was almost as if those terrible months had never happened.  We did some of our favorite things, like Kylie to her first movie in a theater.  One evening, we walked around the mall in an effort to tire our daughter our before bedtime.

“Let’s peek in here.”  Shane pointed to an art gallery inside the mall.

I looked first at our rambunctious toddler, then at him with an eyebrow raised.  “You sure about that?” 

Nodding, he reached for her.  “I know you love art.  I’ll watch her so you can enjoy.”

Heaving a sigh of relief, I smiled.  “Thank you.  I’d like that.”

One of the first displays inside was of pottery.  “Oh that’s cool.”  Shane gestured toward some horsehair pottery. 

“They make it by sticking hairs from a horse’s mane on the pottery before it’s fired.”  I explained, reading the information off the card.  Then another piece of pottery caught my eye.  “Wow.”  I stared at a bowl with cracks, which had been filled with gold. 

“What’s that?”  Shane seemed as fascinated with it as I was.

Again I read off the card.  “This is a Japanese pottery technique.  It’s called kintsukuroi, the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer.  The belief is the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.”

We stood there in silence for a moment.  Obviously the moment was too much for Kylie who let out a wail.  Shane tried to rub her back and soothe her, but she merely cried, “No!  Mama!”

“I’ll take her.”  I held out my arms and he passed her to me.  After a moment, it was clear she needed to be removed from the otherwise quiet gallery.  I looked back over my shoulder as I walked. 

“I’ll be right out.”  Shane assured me.  “I just wanted to ask a question.”

“Cool.  Meet you in the food court?”  I watched him mouth ‘yes’ as I rushed from the space.  Soon enough, Kylie calmed down, and by the time Shane caught up, she was calm and rubbing her eyes.

“Aw.  She’s just tired.  It worked!”  He leaned in to give her a kiss on the forehead.  “Time for bed, little one.”  Then he gave me smoldering look and murmured in my ear.  “Time for your bed too, sexy mama.”

Naturally, I giggled. 

We returned to the hotel then.  Lately, we’d been having a ridiculous amount of sex, which was an amazing change from where we’d been before. 

“I can’t get enough of you.”  Shane moaned in my ear on the last night. 

“Believe me, the feeling is mutual.”   I admitted as we spooned naked in bed. 

“What happens when we get back?”   He tensed against me as he waited on the answer.

“We go to court and you move home.”  I sighed contentedly.

His arm snaked around my middle and drew me even closer.  “Are you feeling better about things between us?”

I nodded.  “Yes.  We’ve been working on our marriage every day.  I can’t believe how far we’ve gone on the therapy course.”  It sat open on the table with two thirds of the lessons already complete.  “We just have to maintain.”

“I agree.  I never want to backslide.  This is too important.”  He laced his fingers through my left hand.  I bit my lip in worry as he ran a thumb over my naked ring finger.  “So, you’ll put your wedding rings back on?”

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and mumbled.  “I can’t.”

“Why not?”  He opened his mouth, no doubt prepared to list off any number of reasons I should be confident enough in our relationship to wear them again.

“I had to pawn them.”  I admitted quietly.  “I needed the money to pay some bills.”  I shrugged.  “I was desperate.”  Then I frowned as I added, “I’d think you would understand that.”

He took the hint and held me quietly for a moment.  “You’re right.”

I didn’t think a thing of it until we were driving back to Charlotte the next morning to make our afternoon court date.  All of a sudden, he made a quick turn.  “What’s going on?”  My eyes were wide in surprise and I gripped the edge of the console to steady myself.

“Detour.  Something we need to do.”  He pulled into Dick’s Pawn Store and parked. 

“What are we doing?”  I glanced about wildly.

Shane laughed as he stepped out of the vehicle.  “Come on.  Grab Kylie.”

Seconds later, after I pulled Kylie from her seat, I found him behind me.  He wrapped an arm around my waist.  “Now what?” 

We walked in and he ushered me through the sliding door to the jewelry section.  “Now you pick.”

My brow furrowed.  “As I recall, you pick.”  I laughed.

“Nope.  I picked the girl.  You pick the ring.”  I leaned on the counter with one eyebrow raised and Kylie dancing on my hip.  We’d done this before.  Shaking his head he crossed his arms over his chest.  “This time you
really
pick.  Find something you’ll never grow tired of looking at.”

I stared at him evenly for a moment, but he held his ground.  Clearly, this time he meant it.  Taking a deep breath, I started to look over the inventory.  There were some pretty sets, some gaudy sets, but one finally drew my attention.  It was clearly a custom ring.  I’d never seen anything like it.  A diamond in the center held in a bezel setting.  It was surrounded by diamonds and yet it didn’t look anything but classy. 

“Can I see this one, please?”  I asked the woman behind the counter.

“You have a great eye.”  She commented. 

Naturally, I winced because a great eye always equated to wildly expensive.  Ah, but because we were in a pawn shop, we were only paying for the gold and not the diamonds.  Shane took the ring from her hand and slowly slid it onto my ring finger.  “Perfect fit.”  He beamed.  Then he gazed at me a moment, checking my reaction. 

“I love it.”  I spoke quietly, almost afraid to break the spell.  It really was my dream ring. 

“Can we put it on layaway?” Shane asked after he saw the price tag. 

“Of course.”  The sales woman nodded and held her hand out for me to pass the ring back. 

After snapping a few pictures, I gave it back to her and Shane smiled down at me.  “Listen, I know last time I just whipped out my credit card and we walked out with the ring, but this time we don’t have as much money…”

He prepared to continue his explanation, but I placed a finger over his lips.  “This isn’t like last time.  I wouldn’t want it to be.  This time is better.  We’re smarter.  We’ve grown and changed.  Now we understand we don’t need immediate gratification.  Some things are worth the wait.”  Then I removed my finger, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him gently on the lips.

Soon enough, we were back on the road, and we didn’t stop until we reached the apartments where we’d left the truck.  “See you in court?”  Shane asked sheepishly.

“You bet.  I need to drop off Kylie at Brynn’s place.  I’ll get there quick as I can.” 

The time apart meant time to reflect.  We could’ve spent it talking on our phones, but I think we both needed a moment.  So much had changed in such a short period of time, my head was reeling, but my heart was steadfast.  For the first time in a very long time, I felt happy and complete in a way I hadn’t been without Shane.  I hadn’t realized he was what life was missing.  Now I did.  We could work through anything. 

I pulled up at Brynn’s place and drew in a deep breath.  I’d have to tell her what was going on as much as I could.  Glancing down at my phone, I smirked.  And I’d do it my own special way.  After pulling Kylie from her seat, I walked up to the door and knocked.  By the time Brynn answered, I had the picture of my new ring on the screen and was waving it around.

“Notice anything different about me?” I asked and batted my eyelashes at her as we walked through the door.

“Yep.  You’re officially crazy.”  She laughed at my antics as she reached for my phone.  “So what’s this?”  She studied the picture a moment.  “Okay, looks like a ring on your finger.”  She peeked at my hand.  “But not on your finger?  I don’t get it.”

“Shane’s moving back in.”  I explained quietly and waited for her to make some snarky comment.

With a slight smile, she passed me the phone and grabbed Kylie.  “Good thing that judge made you speak, huh?”  She gave me a knowing look.  “And I’m guessing I no longer need to come over on Saturday for visitation.”  She sighed.  Then her eyes widened.  “Oh my god!  My wedding.”

“Calm down.”  I held my hands out and urged her to relax.

“I can’t calm down.  Four weeks!  Where am I supposed to hold my reception on such short notice?”  She turned away and walked over to her counter where she kept her wedding planning notes.

“It’ll be at the house.  Same as before.  The only difference, as far as I can tell, is I’ll have a plus one.”  I smiled happily.  “Shane knows.  He’s glad you’re holding the reception at the house.”

“Oh. My. God.”  She shook her head in disbelief.  “Stepford Shane?” 

I laughed. “No.  We’ve just come to an understanding.  He has changed.  Our life is going to be different now.”  I shrugged.  “Listen, we’ll talk more.  I gotta get to court.”  Leaning over, I kissed Kylie.  “Be back soon, sweets.”  Then I walked back to the SUV and drove to the courthouse.

When Shane backed into the driveway later in the afternoon like he had thousands of times before, I could feel my heart beat erratically.  I wanted to believe this was the right thing to do.  We’d spent roughly a week together, completely inseparable, and everything had gone well.  In all honesty, he was better than he’d ever been.  There was no drinking, no pills, and a vape had replaced the cigarettes.  Properly medicated, Shane remained calm, level.  For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t feel like I was walking through a minefield around him.  It felt amazing.

I’d opened the garage for him.  As he entered through the door, his arms full of big black garbage bags of his belongings, I smiled shyly.  “Welcome home.”

He glanced about the living room.  “It’s good to be back.”  Slowly, he set the bags down and pulled me into his arms.  “It’s good to be together again.”  He squeezed me tightly then glanced over his shoulder.

“What’s up?”  I looked around confused.