“I’ve tried to tell you.”
He rubbed his face.
“I thought we were teasing each other.”
“Did I laugh?”
“No.”
“Did I ever tell you I liked it?”
He shook his head.
“Then why did you keep doing it?”
He had no answer.
Finally, Wade looked at our sons.
“I didn’t know you saw me that way.”
Graham’s voice was gentle.
“We don’t want to.”
Wade nodded slowly.
Then he faced me.
“I embarrassed you in front of our boys. Then I made you feel foolish for being hurt.”
His voice caught.
“I was wrong, Maren. I’m sorry.”
It was his first apology without an excuse attached.
I wanted to reach for him. Twenty years of loving someone doesn’t disappear because you finally say something difficult.
But those words couldn’t erase everything.
“Thank you for saying that,” I told him.
He looked hopeful.
