Instead of a beer, I fixed a tall glass of ice water and sat down at the small round wooden table we ate our meals on. There were three red-and-white-checkered placemats, and I fiddled with the edge of one while I waited for her to speak.
“I got a job,” she began.
I glanced up in surprise. I’d been nudging her to get a job for months. “Really? That’s great, Jolie. Where? Doing what?”
“Your dad hired me to take Liddy’s place at the insurance office.”
I blinked at her. “Where’s Liddy going? She’s answered the phones there since I was a little boy.”
She shrugged. “I think your dad realized it was more important that I have the job than an older married woman. At least she has a husband who can help pay her bills.”
The words came with such toxic barbs, I almost recoiled. Surely my father hadn’t let Liddy Freeman go after all her years at the company just so Jolie could get a paycheck.
“Well, ah… that’s great, I guess. When do you start?”
“Tomorrow. Since Tish will go to school with Cody, I’ll have extra time to get ready and get there early.”
I nodded. “Good.” I had no idea what else to say.
Jolie pulled the elastic band out of her hair and ran her fingers through the thick blonde strands. She tossed her head back and forth and fussed with her hair a bit before giving me what I’d come to think of as her “are you sure you’re gay” look. I hated when she got this way.
“Seth, I’d like you to stay here a little longer while Tisha gets used to me working full-time,” she said in a soft voice. “She’s going through a lot right now and becoming a latchkey kid is going to crush her.”
I wanted to laugh. “Jolie, we talked about this. Mom and Beth have both offered to keep her after school until you get home from any job. There is no reason whatsoever she needs to come home to an empty house.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want someone else raising our child, Seth.”
I felt my teeth grind together. “Having Tisha stay with her aunt or grandmother for two to three hours a day is hardly having someone else raise her. If you don’t want her with them, then you can put her in after school care or find a job with different hours. I’ve already told you I’m happy to adjust my hours to try and cover some of that time, but I can’t promise anything. You know how unpredictable my job is.”
“And that’s another thing,” she said, her voice rising in frustration. “Where the hell have you been? You lit out of here in the middle of the night, and all I got was a text that said you were headed to Amarillo? What was in Amarillo that was so important?”
I wanted to tell her it was none of her goddamned business, but I didn’t. “I got word Otto Wilde was hurt in a wildfire near there, so I volunteered to take his grandfathers to the scene.”
“Is he okay?” Her brow was wrinkled in concern, and I let out a breath at the reminder she really was a kind person most of the time. It was only about Tish and me that she got a little strange.
“Badly bruised mostly. I’m going to go check on him tomorrow night.” I felt my cheeks heat and wondered if it was weird talking to my wife about the man I hoped like hell would soon be my boyfriend. If Otto and I were going to make a go at a relationship, Jolie deserved to know about it.
Before she had a chance to say anything else, I spoke again. “About Otto… um… there’s something I need to tell you.”
I forced myself to meet her eyes as she looked up at me.
“What?”
“As soon as the divorce is final, I’m hoping to start seeing him,” I confessed. “Well, that is… if he can bring himself to forgive me for leaving him.”
There was a beat of silence while the words floated in the air between us.
“Say what?” she asked. “You’re hoping to start seeing him? As in dating?”
“Yes. Dating.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I felt my jaw open as I stared at her. “No. Why would I joke about this?”
“You’re just going to jump out of a decade-long marriage with me and into bed with the first guy you meet?”
Her voice was rising again.
“No, Jolie. In case you don’t remember, Otto Wilde is the guy I left for you. The guy I’ve always been planning on spending my life with. I told you all about him in those early days, so I have no idea why you’re acting all surprised by this now.”
“I thought that was over. I thought it was just high school bullshit. People don’t marry their childhood sweethearts, Seth. Especially gay guys who’re just fucking the local cowboy, for god’s sake,” she snapped.