Page 15 of Double Bind (Cosmic Mates #6)

He’s not here. Amity’s sagging spirits plummeted further as she eyed the shop, vacant, except for one alien woman operating a buzz saw.

Hours had passed since their blowup, and Marshall still hadn’t appeared. She’d assumed—hoped—after he calmed down, he’d see reason and come home, but he hadn’t, so she’d gone to find him to make things right.

She’d tried to explain at the library, but he’d refused to listen! He has to listen!

The woodshop was the only place she could think of where he might have gone. But there was nobody here, except the woman. Where was everybody?

She approached the woman on the saw. “Um, excuse me?”

The woman continued working, unable to hear with her protective hearing gear. Amity waited until she finished guiding the lumber through the blade then touched her shoulder. “Excuse me!”

The woman jumped. She shut the saw off and removed her headgear then turned to face Amity.

“Um, I’m looking for Marshall…my husband.” She scanned the shop. Could he be in a break room or an office? She couldn’t barge in and search the place. “Is he here?”

“No. He drove off in a conveyance just as I returned from lunch.”

He drove off? Where would he have gone? Anyplace to get away from me. Insecurity rose up, but she tried to stifle it. Maybe he went to cool off.

But why isn’t he back yet? It’s been hours!

“Do you know where he went?” Maybe it was official business. Except they both had the day off. He wasn’t supposed to be at the shop at all.

“No idea.”

“When he’ll be back?”

“No.”

“Was he alone?”

The alien woman shrugged. “Yeah.”

Maybe John would know? They worked together. “Is John here?”

“Nope. He and Chartreuse went to deliver a load of tables.”

“All right, thank you. If you see Marshall, would you tell him—” I’m sorry? Please, come home? She couldn’t pass that message through a third party. “Tell him I stopped by.”

“Will do.”

“Thank you.” There was nothing more to say, and the woman needed to get back to work. Amity left, feeling more depressed than ever. She trudged across the compound to the pottery studio but then faltered. How many people did she want to drag into her problems today? But she needed the sympathetic ear of her best friend. She needed reassurance that everything would be okay. She entered the studio.

Faith looked up from her pottery wheel. “Oh my gosh, what’s wrong?”

“What makes you think something’s wrong?” she responded and burst into tears, unable to hold them back anymore.

Her friend hurriedly washed her hands in the sink and then ushered Amity to a bench. “What happened? Tell me.”

“M-Marshall and I had a f-fight.” She sobbed.

“Honey, you two have been sniping at each other since you got married.”

“Not like this. And he left!”

“He’ll come back.”

Amity shook her head. “He left Artisan’s Loft. He drove away.”

“Where did he go?”

“I don’t know.” She tried to pull herself together. “I went to the woodshop, and the alien woman told me he’d left.”

“John is delivering furniture today. Maybe he went with him?”

Amity wiped her tears. “No. We’re both off today. Chartreuse went with John.”

“He just wants to cool off.” Faith squeezed her hand.

“That’s what I keep telling myself.” But it felt like more. “He thinks I was cheating on him.”

“What? No, he couldn’t think that. You would never do that. How would it even happen?”

“Not technically cheating, but I got a match from Cosmic Mates. He accused me of window-shopping for another husband.” She filled Faith in on how they’d gone to use the terminals in the library, she’d checked her messages, and he’d seen the screen. “I forgot I had an open profile,” she said.

“It can all be explained. He’ll understand.”

“I tried! He didn’t! He wouldn’t listen.”

“Because it had just happened. Give him time to mull things over.”

“What if I ruined things forever? What if he’s not coming back?” Insecurity wrought from a string of failed relationships and reaching her forties unmarried reared its dismal head.

“All couples fight. This isn’t a disaster—it’s a milestone. You had your very first fight—well, I guess this isn’t technically your first. You’ve been fighting since we left Terra Nova. But it doesn’t matter! Anybody who sees you two can see how much you love each other. You’re like two dopey lovebirds—”

“Dopey?” Despite her worry, she was amused. However, while she did love Marshall—this incident had confirmed that— she highly doubted he loved her. If he had, he would have stayed to fix things. If you loved someone, you didn’t walk away when you hit a bump; you stayed and duked it out, so to speak. True love was worth fighting for. “You said we snipe at each other.”

“You do. Well, you did. But you also make goo-goo eyes. The man is besotted. You two deserve each other. Everything was against you guys; you were almost left behind on Terra Nova, but I’ve never seen two people gel as fast as you have—”

“Left behind? What do you mean?”

Faith averted her gaze. “Nothing.”

“No, it’s obviously something. What did you mean?”

“Nothing.” She jumped up and began wrapping up the clay. “You had a fight. He’s cooling off. He’ll be back.” Faith continued to make busy work, moving stuff around.

“Faith…don’t lie to me. What are you talking about?”

“You’re together now. That’s what matters.”

Amity grabbed her arm. “Tell me what you meant. We’ve always been honest with each other.”

Faith held her silence for a moment then sighed. Her shoulders slumped. “He thought you were dead.”

“He thought I was dead?”

Her friend nodded. “Rogers and Glenn had taken me into custody. Bragg and Marshall rescued me and got me on the spaceship. They were about to launch. They knew Dark Ops would tie up loose ends by eliminating you. You had seen them and knew about Bragg and the cloning project. Marshall said you were dead, and going back would be too risky. I threw a fit and demanded proof you were dead and insisted he get Rusty.”

Oh my god. “ You insisted? He had no intention of rescuing me? He went back for the cat, but not me?” I meant so little to him he wasn’t even going to check if I was still alive? All along, she’d felt like she owed him because he’d rescued her. But that hadn’t been his intention at all.

Faith winced. “He really did believe it was too late to save you. I’m sure he would have gone back for you on his own if he’d thought you were alive.”

“But he didn’t.”

“We don’t know that for sure.” Faith backpedaled. “Who knows what he would have done?”

“I can’t deal with this now. It’s too much.” Numb with shock, she backed away on leaden legs. Her marriage wasn’t provisional—it was a sham!

“Amity, wait. It’s not as bad as you think. The way he looks at you—he loves you now. I’m sure of it.”

She wasn’t sure of any such thing. She stumbled from the pottery studio.