Page 91 of Best Kept Vows

She raised a brow. “Color me surprised.”

I pulled out a chair for her. “Sit. Talk to me while I finish cooking.”

We talked easily, starting with her colleagues. She told me a little about each one of them.

“What’s Nina like?” I asked as I plated our food.

“I don’t see her that much…well, during the weekly meeting, but not one-on-one. I start with Nova next week, and then when I finish working with her, I’ll have three months with Stella, and finally three months as Nina’s EA.”

I set her plate in front of her, and refilled her wine.

I sat across from her, feeling like a fool for not doing thiseverynight with her.

I’d wasted so many years working all the time. Sure, the work I did as a consultant allowed us to have a safety net now, but I’d been a workaholic and had missed out on so much.

If I had to do it again, I’d find a better balance, reduce our expenses, and work less—rather than live the Savannah society life, not that Lia was anything like my mother. She didn’t waste money, as she put it, on jewelry and clothes. She was always careful,so bourgeois, as my mother and Coco would say.

Thanks to my wife being practical and sensible, we were not going to be scrambling to pay the bills, pay for the kids’ school, or change the way we lived.

“This is so good,” she exclaimed after a few bites.

“Well, I’ll be happy to cook every night when we don’t go out. How about that?”

“A role reversal?”

I shrugged. “Why the hell not?”

She studied me and then smiled. “You’re not sad at all, are you?”

“Not even an iota, baby.”

She let out a relieved breath. “So…what are you going to do? Not that youhaveto do anything.”

I nodded. “I think I’m going to take some time off.”

Her eyes widened. I knew she’d expected to jump back into consulting or find a job or dosomething.

“I want to rest a little. Have time to work out, eat healthy, go to a museum, cook for my wife….”

She eased back in her chair. Picked up her wine glass. “Your wife will appreciate that.”

“I have a question for you.”

She tensed. “Okay.”

“What if we sold the house?”

She looked shocked, and I wish I hadn’t just blurted it out. But it was a big damn house, and I was alone there, and I fucking hated it. Every night, I went to bed feeling the ache deep in my heart that I wasaloneandlonely.

“We don’t have to, look, it was just?—”

“Yes, let’s do it,” she cut me off. “I…just never thought you’d want to.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “And here I thought you wouldn’t want to sell it…we raised the kids there and?—”

“The memories are in our hearts and not a place.”

“That’ll give us more financial freedom as well. We can buy a smaller place,” I suggested.