"How
dare you speak to me in that manner?" Natalie Jameson clenched her fists.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd been so furious, while at the same
time full of anguish and regret.
"No,
Natalie. How dare you?" Her husband's normally handsome face reddened, the
veins in his forehead growing bigger the angrier he became. "You started
this. It's your fault."
Natalie
stomped past her living room sofa, pausing long enough to pick up a decorative
pillow. She squeezed the small, blue square and slammed it down on the couch
again. "So you've said. Repeatedly. I've got it, Alex. All our problems
are my fault. Read you loud and clear."
"I
never said everything was your fault. Just this one thing. This one very huge
issue." He ran a hand through his closely cropped, brown hair.
"You're
making it huge, that's for sure."
Alex
blinked in apparent disbelief. "You saw our daughter when she stormed out
of here tonight! Gigi was damn near hysterical. She's got an hour's drive ahead
of her. Frankly, I'm concerned that she makes it home safely."
Natalie
glanced over her shoulder as she headed into the kitchen. "Great, pin that
on me, too, while you're at it. Now I'll worry until she has time to get home
and we can phone her."
Alex
stayed on her heels. "I doubt she's going to talk to either one of us
tonight."
"She
might." Natalie dredged some optimism from deep inside. Gigi had been
upset. Even though Natalie had the best intentions, nothing about their
conversation had gone the way she'd hoped or planned. Natalie's stomach churned
with uneasiness.
"Now
you're delusional. We'll be lucky if she talks to either of us again this
month."
Natalie
filled the kettle and placed it on the stove. "In case anyone wonders
where Geege gets her flair for drama…"
"I'm
not being dramatic," Alex insisted. "Realistic is more like it. And I
think I've figured out your motive for stirring this pot."
"My
motive?" Natalie raised her voice again. "I told you my motive. Gigi
is having some medical issues. Her doctor referred her to a specialist, and
before she even sees him, she has to fill out a really long family medical
history. I wanted her to have accurate information."
"You
honestly think it's better for her to put 'unknown' than to possibly list
inaccurate information? Because that's what it is, you know, a great big
stinking 'U' for unknown."
Natalie's
heart sank. "I never thought about it like that."
"Exactly.
You didn't think, Nat."
"Why
should I?" she snapped. "You're thinking about it enough for both of
us. You're overthinking it to death. You always do this, Alex. Give me a
break!"
"Don't
turn this around on me. I told you I figured it out. You're bored with the kids
out of the house for the first time ever. You've lost your purpose. I think you
stirred all this up so you'd feel needed again. So Gigi would need you."
Natalie
coughed, choking back amazement at Alex's assessment. He was so totally off
base, she wondered if her husband really knew her anymore. "How dare
you?" She fumed.
"Here
we go again. Round and round in circles. This conversation is going nowhere. I,
on the other hand, am out of here." He grabbed his coat and yanked his
keys from the hook on the wall.
"Where
are you going?" Her voice sounded shrill to her own ears. Natalie knew she
needed to reel herself in, but couldn't quite handle that just then.
"Don't you walk out on me!"
Alex
steeled his blue-eyed gaze at her and scowled. He tugged the door open with a
jerk, and slammed it on his way out.
"Alex!"
She stared after him but he didn't return. She heard the garage door go up, and
the sound of his car backing out. The overhead door lowered again. Alex was
gone.
Two
hours later, he still hadn't returned.
Natalie
sighed. The eyes seemed to follow her as she moved around the house. The ghost
didn't move, it simply peered out from the dark hallway, but it had an eerie
glow-in-the-dark quality that made her uneasy. Natalie chided herself for being
jittery about a cardboard Halloween decoration. She pulled her sweater tighter
around her waist, and hurried from the hallway.
The
house is too quiet. That's my problem. In the twenty years she'd lived there,
the place had never seemed as quiet as it did now.
Is
Alex right? Am I bored with my 'new' life? The question nagged at her as she
made her way to the kitchen, where the teapot had just begun to whistle for the
third time that night. She poured steaming water into her well-used 'World's
Greatest Mother' mug and added a fresh tea bag. She scooted onto the bench in
the breakfast nook, then leaned back against the cushions and allowed herself
to think about what was really bothering her.
It
wasn't just the quiet. The stillness of the house was preferable to the yelling
and crying that had taken place there just two hours ago. Alex almost never got
angry. A calm and rational man, he usually thought about his words before he
spoke. Natalie liked to tease that he was the stereotypical
accountant—organized, predictable and virtually unshakeable. He'd proven her
wrong tonight. He could indeed be shaken, and it wasn't a pretty sight.
Despite
her teasing, his predictability and calm demeanor had always provided a
steadying influence on her. He was her rock, her strength. An extremely
good-looking man, now a mature version of the incredibly handsome boy she'd met
in college. The first thing she'd noticed about him had been his eyes—piercing,
bright blue irises that could see through her, as if to her very soul. Add to
that his intelligence and common sense way of seeing things, and Natalie had the
man of her dreams. He was, quite simply, the love of her life.
Natalie
remembered seeing those eyes grow dark with anger only one other time in their
lives before tonight. Serious anger, not the
'Who-launched-the-ball-through-the-window?' type of stuff. Alex handled those
things with a grain of salt. He was a good father, with an extraordinary amount
of patience. Not tonight. Tonight he'd been angry, his eyes, normally bright,
had grown dark, full of anguish and resentment. She hated knowing she'd caused
that.
The
ironic thing was, when Alex had gotten so angry before, a long, long time ago,
it was for the same reason that he was angry now. Natalie sighed and sipped her
tea. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Secrets and Lies, a novel by Jamie Hill
Published by Books We Love
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