“CAN WE TALK for a minute?”
Tori turned, startled to find Draegyn standing in the archway to their dressing room. It had been a couple of days since Cam had returned and Lacey went home. Since then, she and her husband continued to cohabitate in the same house but with precious little interaction. Unless it involved Daniel, they didn’t seem to have much to say.
Swiveling on her vanity stool, she faced him and consented with a brief nod. The solemn look on his face was the new normal, and she hated it.
He stepped hesitantly toward her. Indicating the stack of brushes and makeup cluttering the vanity, he asked with a curious chuckle, “What’s with all that? You have a date or something?”
He was just being cute, but the words hurt her heart because she also hated the distance between them.
Playing with her hair as a way of acting like she was in control when nothing was further from the truth, she fiddled with an errant curl and half shrugged. “Just making sure I present well.”
“Sweetness,” he drawled. “You shine when everyone else just twinkles.”
God, this sucks, she thought. Wanting nothing more than for a chance to rewind back to the night she brought up the mysterious Carol, Tori wished do-overs were really possible. The words she spoke in anger and the way she reacted to her husband’s shocking admission that he’d taken more children off the table with an unbelievably selfish move haunted her day and night.
Now that she was feeling better and wasn’t running around at Mach 2 hair-on-fire all the time, she was seeing things through less manic eyes.
Not communicating was their marital Achilles’ heel. But how did she hit the reset button when so much churning water was still rushing beneath the bridge?
“Thank you,” she said with a sudden blush. Lowering her head so he wouldn’t see how unnerved she was, Tori brushed invisible lint off her dress and tried not to let the anxiety overtake her.
Draegyn moved closer and pulled up an ottoman that sat in the middle of the space. “Here,” he said as he sat down. “I have something for you.”
A small red box dropped into her lap. “What is it?” she asked.
He softly chuckled. “Well, you have to open it to find out.”
Looking from him to the box and then back and forth, again and again, she took the surprise present and lifted the lid. Inside was a wooden nickel with the Justice logo burned onto one side. Slipping the odd round disk out of the box, she turned it over. On the back, the coin read: Good for one belated tropical honeymoon.
Gasping, she clutched the wood coin and stared at her husband.
“Draegyn, I don’t know what to say.”
“You can start by saying you’ll keep the wooden nickel.”
“Well, of course,” she mumbled. Emotion clogged her throat. Relying on a technique Meghan taught her, Tori breathed deeply several times and waited for the mad rush of overwhelming emotions to lessen. “But with the way things are,” she muttered miserably as she shrugged away the rest of her reply.
“Let’s not dwell on that, okay? Things aren’t always how they appear.”
She searched his face, confused by the words coming from his mouth.
“In the interest of full disclosure, baby,” he added. “I ditched the Lamborghini and put the money from the sale into Daniel’s savings account.” He snickered and made a face. “He can use it to buy his first car, although anything with the word ‘sport’ in the description will earn a thumbs-down from dear old dad.”
What was he saying? “Draegyn,” she whispered slowly in shocked wonder. “The Lambo? I thought you loved that thing.”
He made a wry face. “You’re right about it being a thing. That’s all. Just”—he looked around and shrugged—“a thing.”
There was a message in what he said, but she wasn’t sure what it was.
She sat with the wooden nickel numbly clasped in her hands and stared at him.
He touched her fingers with his then eased off. In a way, the simple touch felt like the first contact. Instead of pulling away, she wanted more.
“I only need one thing, Victoria, and that’s you. And our family.”
Continuing to search his face, she paused when he put such emphasis on the word ‘family.’
Words shot from her mouth, shocking them both. “I want things back the way they were. Before all of this,” she stammered with a dismissive wave. “Before life got in the way.”
“I want that too,” he answered gravely.
“How do we get there?” she asked in a frightened whisper.
She knew he was reacting to the fear in her question when he reached for her hand and this time held on. There was something about the way he looked at her.
“I know you feel as though you can’t trust me, Victoria, but you can. There are things I need to say. Things you need to know.”
She blinked, swallowed past the lump in her throat, and looked at the wooden nickel.
“Okay.” That was all she had at the moment.
“May I ask you a question?”
Hmm. Put on the spot. She nodded jerkily and chewed on her lip.
“Did you mean what you said about not wanting another baby?”
She stifled a choked sob. “No, but it’s too late for that now.”
He surprised the shit out of her yet again when he kissed her hand, let it go, and stood up.
What? That was it? What the hell?
At the archway into the bedroom, he turned around and smiled. “I won’t let you down, Victoria. Ever.”
He turned around and left.
What exactly did he mean by that?