When she returned, she was wearing a high-neck night gown covered by a wool wrapper, her hair loose in a braid down her back. She looked younger, softer, and he had to turn away from the site. They lay down with careful precision, each claiming their edge of the mattress with a good foot of space between them. The silence was deafening, broken only by the sounds from the street below and their carefully regulated breathing. Ethan Clara's voice was barely a whisper in the darkness.
Yes. What if this doesn't work? The legal challenge. I mean, what if Morrison still takes the ranch? He stared at the ceiling, considering.
Then we start over. Find somewhere else. Build something new. We We're married, aren't we? For better or worse.
She was quiet for so long he thought she'd fallen asleep. Then so softly he almost missed it. I never expected you to honor that part. I may not be a good husband, Clara, but I keep my vows. All of them.
He felt the mattress shift as she turned to look at him, though he kept his eyes fixed upward. You're not as bad a husband as you think. I've barely been a husband at all. You've been grieving. That's understandable.
For how long? How long before it becomes an excuse rather than a reason? There's no timeline for grief, Ethan. It takes what it takes. Margaret would have wanted me to move on, to be happy.
But you're not ready. No, he admitted. But I'm trying. You deserve that much. At least me trying.
Now she was definitely looking at him. He could feel the weight of her gaze. That's more than I expected. When I stood at that altar, unable to resist, he turned his head to meet her eyes. In the moonlight filtering through the window, her face was all plains and shadows, beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with conventional prettiness, and everything to do with strength and intelligence and unexpected kindness.
"What did you expect?" he asked. "Tolerance, resentment, maybe eventual indifference if I was lucky. And instead, instead I got a man who's honorable even in his pain. Who loves his daughter more than his own happiness. Who's trying to be fair even when life has been anything but fair to him.
The words hung between them. Too honest. Too revealing. Ethan felt something crack inside his chest. Some wall he'd built around his heart beginning to crumble.