The Boy I Married [hold]

24 | I'll Be Damned

Justin

I'm not exactly sure how I got roped into working with Jacob, but I don't object when my wife asks me if I'd be willing to help him unload a truck that was delivering a load to Samaria's later tonight as she exits his car. Her voice is stale and her face dull—almost gray—a heaviness I hadn't seen on her face in a long while. The only thing I was certain of was that it hadn't been there when I left the brewery with Joey earlier today.

As much as I hated to admit it considering I had already told Brooke that I had forgiven her for her mistake with Jacob, I can't deny the thought and the gut-wrenching ache that something happened between them again. Brooke doesn't give me a moment to console her, nor a chance to question the sudden shift in her demeanor as I follow her back up the driveway and into the house.

Once we've made it in, she turns to me with a half smile and leans in for a kiss that I don't refuse, but that's it. She turns on her heels and proceeds up the staircase. From the minute we found out the baby was mine, Brooke has acted as if I had no say when it came to her health around the pregnancy. I try not to take it personally because part of her resistance stems from me, but that didn't mean I was okay with not being able to be there for her and my child.

Every time something seemed to upset her, instead of coming to me to help her work through it, she held it in, allowing it to destroy her sense of self. All I wanted was to be the shoulder she went to cry on. Our lack of communication was a reason issues started creeping into our marriage in the first place and I didn't understand how she was so okay with letting the cycle continue. Before she's disappeared around the corner at the top of the staircase, I hear a subtle I love you leave her lips.

Jacob and I make it back to Samaria's at the same time the truck pulls into the parking lot. He and I don't speak as he parks the car. Not that words were necessary for the job either way. The both of us shoot directly into action, carrying load by load into the brewery. I'm content with the silence. Anything was better than there being drama, and truthfully, there was no point in trying to pretend there was a reason to talk to him when there wasn't one.

If it hadn't been for the excitement my wife had for this place, or the fact that any slither of a brawl with anyone would flood the news, I'd have already broken his nose, busted his lip, and blackened both of his eyes. This business wasn't about personal information being discussed or letting vendettas get the better of each other, it was about doing a job and doing it well. Living life in the public eye was enough reason for me to understand why the two couldn't abide in the same place and it wouldn't be me jeopardizing that for my wife. Not after all the damage I've already managed to cause her.

"I say this with no ulterior motives, did Brooke seem off to you?" He asks as we both head out the door of the brewery to collect another set of boxes.

For a moment, I'm taken aback. Why was he asking me about my wife and how she seemed? Even though they worked together, it was none of his business. I want to blurt out every lick of my wicked tongue, but I compose myself long enough to avoid taking my frustration out on him. That didn't mean confrontation was off the table.

"Why do you want to know, Jacob?" I know my tone has startled him because his eyebrow raises as he bends to pick up a box.

He's hesitant to continue speaking and I know that by the way he shakes his head and then makes his way back into the brewery. What gave him the right to think after sleeping with the person I loved the most in this world he could just ask about her and I'd oblige? It rubbed me the wrong way—he rubbed me the wrong way. From the heartbroken divorcee act to the aspiring entrepreneur bullshit he spewed to Brooke.

I'd never discredit my wife's intelligence or her talent for sprucing up areas and making them better, I watched her do it with our home in California. But a part of me wondered if it hadn't been for their shared emotional connection if she'd see him the same way I did. He was clearly into her. Never in a million years have I witnessed someone willing to allow a stranger to buy out their business after a single day of conversing. It didn't happen, especially not meeting the person for the very first time...or meeting again I suppose.