Page 18 of The Wife

“We’re… okay.”

“I’ll take that.” I stood up, then chucked her a little on the shoulder. See, I thought, a couple of buddies. “It’s just a few more years. We’ve got this.”

I left the barn and made my way back to Wyatt and tried not to think about how long three years actually was.

“I’ve got this,” I told myself.

Too bad I didn’t believe me even a little bit.

Five

Ellie

July

Iwas rollingmy cart down the supermarket aisle when Bobby MacPherson turned the corner coming toward me. Normally I would have kept moving forward, head straight, not saying a word, but I figured we were cool now so I had to at least be friendly.

“Hey Bobby.”

He smiled and came over to me, a small cart hanging from his arm. “Hey Ellie, what’s up?”

“Nothing much.”

Nothing at all really. Since graduation it had been all work and no fun. Jake and I were managing, but it was there. Between us now. This weird thing. A mutual attraction we were not going to act on for good reasons.

We were both trying to pretend it wasn’t there. That wasn’t working either.

“What about you?” I asked him.

“Helping my mom out. I don’t know if you heard. They are officially getting divorced.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. That sucks.”

“For her it does. That’s why I’m trying to help out. Make things easier for her.” He lifted the basket of food.

“That’s nice of you.” Bobby MacPherson and nice. Two words I would not normally put together. “Are you still heading to school next month?”

I knew Bobby was planning to go to University of Montana. It was where most of the kids in my class who were going to college were going.

For the first time, I found myself a little jealous. The idea of getting away from home. Being some place new and different. Right now it was very appealing.

“I’m not sure. Might have to put things off a semester. We’ll see.”

“Oh, that sucks.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. “Well, good luck. With everything.”

He gave a chin nod and I started to roll forward.

“Hey can I ask you something?”

I stopped. “Sure.”

“What is the deal with you and Jake?”

It was weird, but I got this horrible feeling in my stomach even thinking about what we were. “No deal. Same as always. We couldn’t get divorced because of the storm…”

“No, sure. It’s a money thing. But at Pete’s on graduation night… I don’t know, I thought maybe things were different between you two.”

They were. They were totally different. Not in a good way either.