Beth and the Bachelor by Susan Mallery

Author:Susan Mallery [Mallery, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781460380291
Google: TdPiBAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2015-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Beth sat in the tufted chair by her bedroom window and watched the sun rising over the rooftops. The sky was clear now, but the weather was expected to turn rainy later, with a springtime afternoon storm forecast. Dark skies and a little lightning would suit her mood perfectly, she thought.

She leaned back in her chair and told herself everything was going to be fine. The problem was she didn’t believe it. Not anymore…not after last night.

As it had since the moment Todd has left, guilt swarmed through her. She ducked her head until her chin rested on her chest and she felt the familiar ache inside her heart. How could she have let things go so far? How could she have allowed herself to get carried away? What about Darren? Didn’t their love mean anything to her?

She wanted to cry, to find some solace in the release of emotion, but there weren’t any tears left. She looked down at the framed photograph on her lap. It had been taken about five years before, one of those family portraits sold door-to-door. Darren, like most men, hated the thought of getting all dressed up on a Saturday just to pose for a picture, but Beth had insisted. She looked at the faces of her children, then at the familiar features of the man who had been the most important part of her life for nearly twenty years.

She’d never dated anyone but him, she’d never kissed anyone but him, she’d never needed anyone but him. Oh, when he’d been alive, she’d joked about wanting to see another man naked. She’d complained, as all wives do, about his inability to understand what she was thinking, his reluctance to participate in heart-to-heart conversations. But none of that really mattered. They had a meaningful and shared past.

They’d grown up together. She’d learned to think before she spoke, to try to figure out what was bothering her instead of simply giving him a two-hour emotional dump that rambled and circled around itself. He’d learned how important it was to help around the house, and that spontaneous gifts of flowers, small trinkets, anything that said ‘‘I was thinking about you today’’ brought him untold rewards.

They had discovered, that for them at least, the old adage of never going to bed angry didn’t work. When they were tired they said things they regretted later. As they’d had children and worked together to be good parents they’d learned that sometimes marriages need a time-out, too.

She traced his familiar face, the slightly too-big nose, the glasses, the happy smile. She thought about the fights, when they’d come so close to saying they wanted to break up, only to realize that their love lived on, despite being battered by day-to-day living. She recalled the ebb and flow of their passion, how after twelve or thirteen years of mar riage, they’d rediscovered a love that was as intense and fresh as it had been when they’d first married. In the last

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