Page 3 of The Wife

“Ellie, shut up,” Jake interjected. “We’re fine, Mr. Connelly. We’re going to stay married for the time being. Until we can get Long Valley back to what it was. What happens now?”

The banker smile was back. Now all of Mr. Connelly’s attention was focused on Jake. Even though it was my ranch and my loan.

Mr. Connelly walked us through everything that would be required while I sat and basically seethed. Because little did Mr. Connelly know, I ran the money in our house. I would be pulling together all the documents required, filling out the application.

We left the bank and I allowed my anger to explode as I punched the air.

“That was bull! That was sexism. Ageism. All the isms.”

“Get over it, Ellie. That’s how life works.”

“So unfair.”

“It is. But it’s done. We’ll get the money, we’ll get the operation back up and running. Today was a good day.”

I looked at Jake and wanted to scream. We were trapped. Together. For the undefined future. Well, worst case was until I turned twenty-one. My mom had a life insurance policy that when she died my dad put into a trust for me. It wasn’t a ton of money, but enough to pay off Jake and the loan we just applied for.

“Want to grab some lunch?” Jake asked me.

Internally I sighed. Three years. It wasn’t that long of a time, but it was also forever. Because now we had the elephant living with us and it didn’t look like Jake had any intention of addressing it.

“Sure,” I said.

We made our way to the diner and took our normal booth. Kathy stopped by with smiles and coffee for both of us.

“What do you think people are going to say?” I asked.

“About what?” Jake said from behind his menu.

“About us now that we’re staying married.”

He shrugged.

“We could make a statement,” I suggested.

That got his attention.

“What are you talking about?”

“Famous people do it all the time. You send out a statement saying what went down. That way there’s no speculation, it’s just out there.”

“We’re not famous.”

“We’re famous in Riverbend, Jake.”

He leaned back in the booth. “Okay. I’ll humor you. What will this statement say?”

“That because of the storm, circumstances require we continue our platonic marriage of convenience.”

He laughed. “You want to tell people we’re not having sex.”

“Yes. I know it’s one of the reasons you’ve been so mad…”

“I haven’t been mad at you, Ellie.”

“Well it feels like it, Jake.”

That had him snapping his mouth closed.