Page 92 of Best Kept Vows

She set her wine glass down and took a deep breath. “I want to stayhere.”

“In downtown?”

“Here, inthisapartment.”

I looked around and then back at her. “Baby, we have a five-bedroom house, and this is two bedrooms…we have all this stuff.”

“Let’s get rid of it.”

I speared a shrimp and popped it into my mouth, giving myself time to think as I chewed.

“Maybe put things in storage that the kids would want, and sell the rest, give it away,” she suggested nervously. “It’sjust the two of us, and we don’t need that much. We can stay here…see how it goes.”

She looked earnest, as if she were pleading, and I was doing fucking leaps of joy in my heart.

“So…you’re saying that I can liveherewith you?”

She looked at me shyly, a blush rising. “Ah…I mean…do you want to?”

I shot her a look of mock exasperation. “Seriously, baby? You’ve got to ask that?”

She giggled, and it was the best fucking sound in the world. “I…would you live here? It’s small and?—”

“I’ll live in a fucking cave without electricity or toilets if it means I live with you.”

“Well, let’s not do that,” she joked, her eyes bright with excitement. “You know how much I appreciate indoor plumbing.”

I grasped her hand in mine and squeezed. “Are you saying we can live together again?”

She licked her lips and swallowed. “I think so. I…don’t know. Am I?”

She looked nervous, and my heart went out to her.

Fuck!I’d made her like this, uncertain about us. She’d come a long way with getting her MBA and now working at Savannah Lace, but she was still insecure aboutme. I had to fix this, make her see that I was all in, that I had learned, grown, and was a better man and husband.

“You know, how about we bring this up during counseling and see what Dr. Ryan says?”

The relief on her face was palpable.

She wanted us to get back together, but she was afraid we’d go back to where we used to be. I was as well, which was why I’d started to think that we needed to sell the house. If she wanted to live here, I was good with that. I liked the apartment. It had two bedrooms, so if Ada or Tristan wanted to stay the night, they could—and if they were both here, Tristan could sleep on the couch.

We’d be close to her office, restaurants, bars, and museums. I wouldn’t mind leaving the suburbs—it would be like when we lived in New York.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind livinghere?” she asked, again.

She was worried that I wanted a big, showy house where we could entertain. Not that our place was that, but it was societally suitable. An apartment definitely wouldn’t be.

“I think it’ll be fun. Like we’re back in New York, you know? We can live the city life.”

She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “Your mother is going to have a cow.”

“More reason to do it.”

She giggledagain. Carefree. Happy.

I raised my wine glass and toasted. “To a lighter and brighter future.”

We moved to the balcony with our dessert—pecan pie—which I had bought. I wasn’t going to fuck around with baking.