“Whoa, calm down and hold up a minute. Let’s not shit ourselves here. First of all, I was just there last week. I left everything in order—even prepared things for the next time. Archer was extremely pleased and even told me to have a good time on my trip. I’m not coming home and I’m certainly not flying back out there for Thursday. It can wait. It has to fucking wait.”
“But he was—”
When the fuck did I become the one with the bigger business balls? Robert was usually composed, even when every other accountant was ripping their hair out during tax season. “He was nothing. He was being Archer. You know how he gets when he wants something. He wants it then and there. Like he’s not just one client out of the hundreds we work for. I’ll call him first thing in the morning and talk him off the ledge. In the meantime, I haven’t made a decision yet and I haven’t spoken to Mia about it either,” I say, whispering in case she’s walking down the steps. “I don’t want to feel like this is an ultimatum. I really need to think it through and make the right decision for my family. I thought you were okay with that?”
“Declan. I know I told you exactly that and I said that because I respect you and Mia and I know that this will be a huge sacrifice. But I’m also gonna tell you this. If you don’t take this offer—especially now that Archer has us by the balls—it won’t be a smart move for your career.” Oh, now he isn’t shitting himself. Suddenly his voice is stern—his balls must’ve dropped from his man-pussy again.
But now I’m angry. I don’t want to say anything I’ll regret so instead I just straighten up and clear my throat. “I understand. I’ll let you know as soon as I speak with Mia.”
“Good. Don’t forget to call Archer tomorrow.”
“Got it.”
“Good night.”
I don’t even say good night in return. I just end the call and toss the phone across the counter, thankful that it’s tethered to the charging wire or it probably would have crashed to the floor and cracked.
“Hey, what did the poor Blackberry do to you?” The unexpected sound of Mia’s voice startles me.
When I look over to her—her hair falling down around her shoulders, her sweats hanging loosely at her hips, her nipples hardened beneath the thin cotton tank top—all the anger melts away. “It wasn’t the Blackberry. It was… just work stuff. That office might crumble to the ground without me.”
She walks over to me and places her hands at my shoulders, kneading the tenseness away. “I can just go to bed if you have stuff to take care of.”
Selfless, understanding Mia. I kiss her on the tip of her nose and lean back to admire her beauty. “Nope. It’s taken care of for now. We have a midnight date with a porch swing, remember?”
As cliché as it may sound, we sit on that swing, holding hands and star gazing. I can swear we even see a shooting star fly by. I close my eyes tight and make a wish. Please let us be okay. I just want our old life back.
Declan unlocks our hands to place his palm on my thigh.
I rest my head on his shoulder, contemplating. “How’d we get here, Dec?”
“I called a travel agent, we got in the car, and the rest is history.”
I lift my head from his warmth and tilt it, gawking. “I’m serious. Did you ever think a supposed ‘power couple’ like us would have to… I don’t know… rekindle?” Power couple was a phrase Grace donned us with. She used to tell me everyone was envious of Declan and me because of how much he visibly loved and adored me. And me? I was the wife all the guys would bother their wives to be more like. I couldn’t imagine that now. All of our friends knew what we’d been through—Declan and his infidelity, me and my relationship with Noah. Not so much the picture perfect role model of a couple anymore.
“No one’s perfect, Mia. And if anyone tells you their marriage is… they’re fucking lying.”
He’s right, but our past mistakes seem a little more complicated than leaving the toilet seat up or being a bad cook. “I’m just saying that I can’t believe we let this happen to us.”
Declan shifts, turning his body to face mine. He hangs his arm over the back of the swing, looking directly into my eyes. I know he’s frustrated with my inability to just let this go already. But he better get used to it, because I’m far from healed.
“We took each other for granted. We were stupid. There’s no other way to put it.”
Simple enough—but unfortunately, it doesn’t soothe me. “What if we’re stupid again?”