Chapter 28 – Wylie
September
After another grueling day on the ranch under the scorching September sun, I was parched, my water bottle bone dry from dealing with multiple issues that had arisen with Mitchell and zero breaks, I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into the burgers and hot dogs I'd prepared the night before, and my cock into Stevie.
Things had been good since I ran Charles out of town. The co-op had opened with a successful party, and over a hundred families had signed up to receive the weekly deliveries. Stevie was managing things at the shop while also keeping me satisfied in the bedroom. The lingering secret between us for months had finally been lifted, and I felt us growing dangerously closer each day.
I trudged through the front door of the ranch home as the evening started to set in but instead of the anticipated meal on the kitchen table, I was greeted by Stevie, nervously standing by the table with two packed suitcases at her feet.
The Gatorade that I'd been chugging from, hoping to replenish lost minerals, froze at my lips before slowly lowering back down.
“Bandit… what’s going on?”
“I never wanted it to feel like an obligation to fall in love. For us to love each other,” she spoke.
I stepped towards her, my eyes never leaving hers. “Stevie, it’s never been an obligation to love you. I love you when I wake up in the morning and find your sleeping body next to me, when you fall asleep on the couch and I carry you to bed after peeling your tablet from your fingers, when you make me dinner after a long day in the fields, when you laugh at one of your own jokes though I don’t think they are that funny and when you smile and the sun itself comes out to shine down and reflect on your glowing hair. Loving you is easy. It's never been a chore.”
She shook her head as if she didn’t want to believe what I was saying. “Our marriage started off all wrong. I think we’re caught up in playing house and need to be realistic now that Nourish is open and the staff that I hired is managing it with little intervention from me.”
She reached into her bag, procuring a stack of papers and placed it on the kitchen table where I'd been expecting the food to be sitting.
“I’ll hold up my end of the bargain for the next five months since you've already done more than enough to drive Charles away. He won’t expect me to be back in Houston without you and he’ll never come looking for me there again.”
"Stevie... this better not be what I think it is," I demanded, feeling the anger rise within me as I stared at the paper lying face down in front of me, dreading what it might contain and mean for our future.
She nodded her head again, “It’s for the best, Wylie," she whispered. "I love you, but when the full twelve months are finished, sign and file them. I don’t want our relationship to be built on a contract. Let’s see how we feel once we've been separated and if we want to try this again outside of the legal confines of a marriage started for convenience.”
“No, fuck this, no,” I shoved the papers off the table, white sheets floated through the air and landed across the floor. Paper that had words on it that I didn’t want to read and an ink signature that I couldn’t believe she'd written. Of course, that final page where Stevie’s handwriting had been placed just the day before landed face up at my feet. I stooped down to grab it and held it up angrily.
“Are you serious, Stevie? This is what you want?”
She nodded firmly; her eyes locked onto mine. "We need some space, Wylie. Remember, we agreed to divorce in the end. Let's not let these last few months confuse us. We need to be sure this is what we really want."
Normally, I’d fight for her. I’d done it plenty of times before. But right now, the resolution in her eyes matched the words she was saying. Stevie wanted this. And I hated that I understood what she was saying, even though I sure as hell didn’t want it. I might enjoy arguing with her and be quick to anger at times, but I never wanted to force Stevie into anything. I had practically done that by getting her to agree to this marriage in the first place. The last thing I wanted was to force her to stay married to me, even if I loved her.
"I love you," I said, my voice heavy with desperation. I never imagined those words would sound so painful coming from my lips.
“I know, and I love you too Wylie," she whispered.
I nodded again and brought the signed sheet of paper to my chest, clutching it as if it were the knife ending my life.
She stooped down to grab the last of her bags, then stepped closer to give me a kiss. "Thank you. For everything. I don't expect you to wait for me, Wylie, but I think this is the right thing to do. To see if this is more than a marriage of convenience for us."
It already is to me.
Instead, I nodded, watching as she kissed my cheek one last time before walking out the front door to her car and driving back to Houston.