Page 75 of Stay With Me

She raised her eyebrows. “You’re not talking to me now?”

“I’ve just,” he finally said. “Had a day.”

She cocked her head to the side, completely unsympathetic. “Oh you’ve had a day. Well, I’m incredibly sorry to hear that. I’ve had a day as well. A night, too. Would you like to hear about it?”

He pushed away from the counter and slowly left the room. “Not really.”

She jumped from her chair, furiously and loudly stacking dishes, slamming them into the sink. “Well, I’m going to tell you anyway. I got to spend the evening trying to convince your daughter that you actually give ashitabout her.”

Nick lifted his eyebrows, somewhat alarmed at hearing his wife swear for the first time in the twenty years he’d known her. He was also a bit incensed that she would suggest such a thing.

He whipped around and gestured at her with the bottle. “Ari knows I give a shit about her. She’s fifteen. She knows that money doesn’t grow on trees and thatmostpeople have to work for a living.”

Sammie made a face clearly indicating his not-so-subtle insinuation wasn’t lost on her, but ignored it. “That’s not what she said to me. She thinks you don’t like her, that you never have, which is why you’re always at work and never make it to her recitals.”

“That’s absurd and you know it!”

“Well, it’s what she said, and she believes it!”

Nick fumed as he stood still for a moment, then harshly set the bottle on a table and started up the stairs.

“She’s not here!” Sammie shouted after him. “She went to Sara’s for the night.”

Nick stomped back down the stairs. “You let her leave in this storm?”

Sammie threw her hands in the air. “The Anderson’s house is just as safe as ours! And you weren’t here anyway!”

“I wasn’t here because half the restaurant was swept away in a flash flood!” He exhaled loudly. Sammie took on a startled appearance, but didn’t say anything.

He shrugged. “I’m probably going to lose it now. It would be nice if you could act like you cared remotely.”

Her startled appearance quickly morphed back into an infuriated one. She pointed a thoroughly pissed off finger at his face. “You are probably going to lose yourdaughterso it would be nice if you could act like you cared about that.”

He scoffed as he picked up the bottle, polished it off, and went into the kitchen to pitch it into the trash. “You’re being dramatic.”

“Am I, Nick? Am I being dramatic? Did you know she’s seeing a boy?”

Nick halted.

“He’s seventeen,” she hissed. “And according to Michelle Anderson, he doesn’t exactly have the best reputation.”

Nick dropped his head backward and groaned.

“Exactly,” Sammie went on. “Girls need positive attention from their fathers, and if they don’t get it, they go looking for it in other places. You need to do something about this, or she is going to end up with a guy who isjust like you.”

She may as well have tossed a knife into his back because that’s exactly what it felt like.

He clenched his jaw and swallowed hard as he slowly turned to face her.

Right then, it was clear.

This wasn’t the woman he’d fallen hopelessly in love with. There was no fixing this. No going back. And no reason to delay the inevitable.

He lifted his palms slightly. “You ended up with a guy like me.”

She waved a hand and shook her head dismissively. “You know what I meant. The way you were before.”

“No, Sammie. That’s not what you meant. You haven’t been happy since the beginning. You aren’t happy now. So allow me to absolve you of this poor decision.”