After Rain: A Marriage In Trouble Romance (Into the Storm Book 2) by A.L. Woods

Author:A.L. Woods [Woods, A.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Excuse me?” Allegra demanded. At my lingering silence, she shot to her feet, her balance wobbling on her, her arms shooting outright to steady herself on nothing.

She staggered backward. Those hazel eyes I’d lost myself in countless times sodden with horror, knocking the very breath from my lungs.

“Nate?” she sputtered, her trembling voice pleading for an explanation.

But I offered her nothing.

Judgment stretched over her entire willowy frame like creeping ivy. Her hands splayed against her stomach, her chest heaving with each haunted breath she took, like she couldn’t get enough air.

I’d known she’d react this way, that she wouldn’t immediately understand, but even with that knowledge, it didn’t slow the thick spread of shame weighing me down.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I attempted to steady myself. “Sit down, baby.” I couldn’t think while she was standing over me and I was on the floor.

“Don’t you ‘baby’ me.” She planted her hands on her waist, her mouth agape. “How dare you even ask me that.”

“You asked me what I needed,” I recapped, grit lining my tract. I directed my attention to the tops of the trees, shoving a hand through my hair and tugging at the roots. “That’s what I need.”

“You need me to have sex with my ex-husband?” she bit out, throwing her hands up in the air. The question had her subtle New England accent registering in my ears. I’d always teased her when it came out in the past, which earned me an earful, but I loved it.

I loved the way she talked, all her imperfections and insecurities she didn’t like about herself. That she slept with her mouth open sometimes and tried to smuggle more books into our house while I pretended not to notice the bookcases were struggling to contain them.

I loved her. I didn’t want to lose her.

She had to see that I was doing this for us.

Her anger billowed off her in suffocating waves, a harsh laugh leaving her unexpectedly. She shook her head, her jaw grinding as though chewing on something. “Was this his fucking bright idea?” Allegra’s attention turned to the guest room window, her willowy figure shaking. Her hands fell to her sides, her palms opening and closing, fingers flexing like she was trying to strangle thin air. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“Sit down,” I repeated, jabbing a finger at the spot next to me. “Now.”

She punched the air, her foot stomping to the ground. “I can't believe you asked me that,” she volleyed back with accusation, ignoring my request.

When I remained silent, Allegra clutched her stomach again, pacing in an almost manic-state, back and forth along the creaky porch, burning a hole into the thin boards.

The dull rumble of thunder vibrated above the house, the storm creeping upon us.

I hated pathetic fallacy.

Each shallow intake she took consumed me, and some small part of me wanted to take the words back and shove them down my throat.

“Of all the things, Nathaniel… I can't believe…” her speech broke off,

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