Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Her eyes blazed. “That’s not going to work. I want to go to the Caribbean. Then I want to go to Italy. I can’t make both of those work for a week. It’ll take a whole day just to fly to Italy.”
I scrubbed at my face, only belatedly realizing that I still had my gloves on.
I yanked them off, because who knew what the fuck was on them, and started at my wife.
“Julie…”
“If you tell me no, this is it, Sinclair.”
Pulling out the big name.
But it didn’t matter.
I wasn’t going to be able to swing this one.
“Boone has a full-time job.” I paused. “Two full-time jobs. Sawyer hasn’t helped with the ranch in years. With Wilks quitting this summer to move south, I have no one else that can do this job right now. I can give you a weekend, at max, right now. A week in the summer if I can convince Boone to take the week off—this is assuming that you want to take the girls.”
Juliana rolled her eyes. “Why wouldn’t we want them there?”
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t want them there,” I pointed out. “I’m saying that between the three of them they can keep this going for a week without me having to ask Boone to take a week off. Which, might I add, is entirely way too hard for him to do since he has his own practice now. Emergencies don’t wait.”
“Georgina will start working there soon,” she pointed out. “She could cover for him.”
I leaned my head back and studied the ceiling. “A week’s all I have in me, Julie.”
Her eyes narrowed, then she said the words I’d fully expected to hear once this conversation started.
“Then maybe we should get a divorce.”
And before I could think better of the words that came out of my mouth, I just blurted out, “Maybe we should.”
I loved Juliana once.
But these last few years, as her friends had started to party more and go out and have fun while she was forced to stay on a ranch and work, she’d started to resent me and the ranch. Even our children.
She hated taking the kids to their after-school activities. Hated taking them to school. Hated going to the grocery store. Hated cooking. Hated cleaning.
Some of those things I was able to fix on my own.
I’d gotten Sawyer to help me pick up the girls from their lessons once a week. I’d asked my mother to help me prepare dinner once a week. I’d hired a cleaner. I’d hired my sister to cook later on when my mom got too tired too easily.
I’d literally done everything that I could to make this better for Juliana.
But I couldn’t give her a different life.
This was the one I had to offer.
“That’s it?” Juliana asked. “That’s all you have to say?”
“What else is there to say?” I pushed. “You’re hoping for an outcome that I can’t offer you.”
She stomped her foot. “Fine.”
I walked out, mad as a hornet, and stared out over the land that’d been in my family for generations. Sawyer lived on the other side of the rise, with my mom’s guest house attached by a breezeway. An old cabin sat to the left where Boone had once stayed before he’d built his house a couple of acres behind mine. And the old farmhouse that I lived in sat smack dab in the middle of everyone.
My mom and dad built a new place a mile away, but still on our acreage, just down the dirt road from where I was standing.
Right next to the road where the only other neighbor for miles lived.
I had a feeling that Dad built it there so he could keep an eye on his old friend, Cantrell.
Honestly, we’d all thought Cantrell would go first seeing as he had cancer.
But he kept beating it over and over again. All of our theories were that Cantrell couldn’t leave because of his girl, Georgina.
Georgie was a great girl. Smart and funny. Always willing to lend a hand.
But she was worn out and struggling.
She was in college now, ready to graduate in the fall.
I was super proud of her, getting through everything so quickly on her own with almost zero help.
“Dad?”
I looked over at the oldest of my girls. The one that was most like me.
“Hey, Joe.”
She climbed up onto the wooden fence that I was currently leaning on, then sat her butt on the rail before saying, “I think you shouldn’t let her back out of it this time.”
I blinked, surprised to hear that from her.
She loved her mom.
“What?” I asked.
“Mom asking for a divorce,” she said softly. “We all know that she’s really unhappy. And with me starting to drive next week, I can start taking everyone to school in the morning. I can also run over and pick Cat up from the park where she’s practicing. Mom can pick up DeeDee since she’ll be in town. And then when I’m done getting Cat, I can grab DeeDee and we can come home.”