13. Chapter Twelve
She stared at him. Janie wasnt prepared for him to ask that question. She didnt want to talk about her husband.
It doesnt matter, she gently said. Its in the past.
Mac placed his hand on her back and slowly started to move it up and down.
I would love to hear how you two met, but if you arent comfortable then we dont have to talk about it, he said. No pressure.
He wasnt being malicious, he sounded like he was genuine. Maybe it wouldnt hurt to tell him. He had already seen them screaming at each other in the front yard. Her telling her ex-husband to leave and she was filing for a divorce.
I met him in college when I was twenty-two. He swept me off my feet when I first met him, she started to speak.
Janie held onto her glass, rubbing the side where it was collecting water. She needed to keep her hands occupied when she talked.
Or so I thought. We were going strong my senior year of college and even after we graduated, she said. We dated for two years before we got married. By the time I was twenty-five, I got pregnant with Eleanor and had her when I was twenty-six.
What do you mean ‘or so you thought’? Mac asked.
Well, I thought I was in love with him. In reality I wasnt. I just was in love with the idea of having a husband who would give me kids and care for me, Janie said. He never liked that I went to the club once a week. He knew I wasnt cheating and didnt mind, but he didnt like it.
Mac started to rub her back even more, almost like he was trying to keep her calm. And he was. It felt nice to feel the heat from his palm on her back. Janie hadnt told many people the story of how she met her ex-husband. It wasnt something that came up.
When I was pregnant with Eleanor, Donald didnt really want to be around me. He was normally out of the house, working, and doing other things, Janie said. I didnt think anything of it. At first, I thought it was because he was trying to save up money for when we had Eleanor. But I was wrong.
She picked up her glass and took a sip of it.
Donald didnt want kids. We had talked about it before, but it was always at bad times. When he was rushing off to work or when something was going on. He deflected the questions and I should have known something was going on, Janie said. It was odd but I didnt really think anything of it. He was giving me my dream. But then four months after I had Eleanor, I started to really think and see things. Donald never picked her up, always made me do everything. I was getting in a funk and talked to my sister about it.
Janie took a deep breath in. If it hadnt been for her sister, she probably still wouldve been with Donald. My sister said that wasnt right. Her husband helped out with the kids, held them, and helped her. So my sister took a couple days off, or well her husband did to watch over the kids. Joann followed my ex-husband around and found out he was cheating on me. Got evidence for me.
She couldnt look at Mac. How could she have been so stupid? He was giving her the dream she had always wanted, but she had never really loved him.
Im so sorry, Mac gently said. That was wrong of him.
You saw some of it out on our lawn. I thought about what I was going to do for two days. And then when he got home one day, I got out before he could get into the house and told him I was filing for divorce, Janie said. He wanted to know why and I showed him the pictures.
Was he shocked?
Janie snorted. More like relieved. He said he would sign the divorce papers and also sign a document saying he wanted nothing to do with Eleanor.
That had broken her heart. She didnt realize how much he hated children until he said that.
He didnt even pack his things or go into the house. Donald did come by a couple days later and got the majority of his stuff, Janie said. There wasnt much anyways. He apparently had kept a lot of his stuff at an apartment I didnt know about. Yeah, that was a shocker. The days he said he had to travel for work, most of them were spent in that apartment.
She finally turned her head and looked at Mac. His facial expression was one of an angry person.
I let my attorney handle all of the divorce papers. I signed it and didnt think anything of it and Donald didnt say anything, she said. He was relieved to be out of the marriage and I was too. Now its been Eleanor and I ever since.
Mac didnt say anything, just continued to stare at her. What was he thinking? Had she overshared?
Sorry, I probably shouldnt have gone into that much detail. You didnt ask for everything, just how we met, Janie said.
Once she got started talking about her ex-husband, she just kept going. It was like a weight was slowly being lifted off of her as she continued to talk. It was nice. The only person she had talked to about this in depth was her sister. The other Littles at the club knew she wasnt in love with Donald and was divorced, but they didnt know the details.
Its perfectly fine. Whatever you are comfortable sharing, Ill listen, Mac said. Im a good listener.
She cracked a smile. He was a good listener. Asked questions when he thought was appropriate and didnt push her to say anything she didnt want to.
You never caught him cheating, right? Mac asked.
He never brought anyone over to the house. I was normally there since I had Eleanor but before that, I was home because of work. I dont like working in coffee shops because there are too many people. Now I cant because I have Eleanor and I dont want to hire a nanny when I could be home with her, Janie said.
She took a deep breath in. Most of it happened at the apartment he was renting or at hotels. That was from what my sister told me. I never asked because I didnt really want to know.
He didnt deserve you, Mac said. You were too good for him.
Well, yes. Youre right. But if I hadn’t met and married him, then I wouldnt have had Eleanor. I love her and shes the one good thing that came out of my marriage.
I never liked him, Mac said.
Why? Did you even talk to him?
A couple of times when I was getting mail and he was leaving. He didnt like that I worked at the club. Thought it was unethical and that I should leave and work for him. I politely told him no and that I was never going to leave. I am one of the owners and love the club.
He probably didnt like it because I went. It was weird, Donald didnt like me, but me going to the club really bothered him. I dont flaunt that I go to the club and not many people know.
Mac started to rub her back again.
It was probably because he was worried it would come around in the office, Mac said. That would be my guess. But Springfield knows about our club and we asked before if it was okay. The mayor said it was fine and he had even come a couple of times. Some people dont like it, and your husband just happened to be one of them.
Janie sighed, that was the truth.
Did you ever suspect anything about him cheating? You said you only talked to him a couple of times, but sometimes people can know with how people act, Janie said.
It was a long shot, but she wanted to know. She wanted to know if she was the only one that didnt see how he was acting towards her.
No, I didnt suspect a thing. Granted, at that time, I wasnt home a lot, he replied. The couple of times I did interact, I was exhausted from working.
What changed? she asked. Before Mac could answer, Maria came holding two plates.
Heres your food guys! Maria smiled brightly at them. I hope you enjoy it. If you need anything, let me know.
Thank you, both of them said.
Maria walked away and Janie turned towards Mac. She wanted to know what changed because he had been around a lot more recently. She hadn’t thought much about it until now. What had changed?
“Mac?” she gently said.
She didn’t know if he didn’t want to answer or if it was because the waitress came back. Should she press a little more for it or should she let it go?
Mac popped a fry into his mouth. “Yes?” he asked.
“What changed? You’ve been at your house a lot more than normal,” she said.
He gave her a small smile.
“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to. I just was wondering,” she said. “I didn’t give it much thought, but you have been home a lot more in the past year.”
“I was looking out for you two,” he replied before he popped another fry into his mouth.
Janie’s mouth fell open. He was looking out for them?
“What do you mean?” she whispered, not believing he had just said that.
“I did some work from home so I could make sure that you and Eleanor were safe,” he replied. “My job can be done from home, but I chose to go to the club so I don’t have to answer so many phone calls. People can just come into my office and ask the questions or see if something is okay.”
Janie didn’t know what to say. She was still shocked that he said he was looking out for her and Eleanor. She didn’t even think he cared that much about them before. But she wanted to know the reasoning behind it. Why did he want to make sure that they were safe? Who was going to hurt them?
She picked up her burger and took a bite. She didn’t know if she should ask him the reason behind it. Did he want to keep it a secret or was he okay telling it?
“Did your ex-husband ever bother you or has he recently?” Mac asked.
She shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen him since the lawn incident that you saw. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him ever again and he said that was fine.”
“Good.”
“He signed over his rights to Eleanor. Didn’t want anything to do with her. I’m okay with that because it just means I don’t have to worry about him. I’m a good mother and he never wanted kids, apparently.”
Janie felt so stupid about that. When they first had met, she had talked about wanting to have kids and he hadn’t said anything. So, she assumed he wanted kids, but that was wrong.
Why hadn’t he said anything? Why did he decide after she had Eleanor to tell her that? Donald hadn’t even talked to her about protection. He knew that she could get pregnant since she wasn’t taking birth control. It was weird.
“What a bastard,” Mac said.
“I agree,” Janie replied. “Eleanor and I are both happy without him.”
Though, Janie didn’t know how Eleanor was going to feel when she got older. She hadn’t said anything because she was two years old and she didn’t think Eleanor would understand much.
Janie turned her body so she was staring at Mac. She really wanted to know the reason why he wanted to make sure both of them were safe.
“I can feel you dying to ask me a question,” Mac said. “What’s your question?”
“You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to,” she softly said. “I understand if it’s too personal.”
He placed his finger across her lips to silence her.
“It’s okay. Just ask the question.” She nodded her head and he pulled his finger away.
“Why did you stay home sometimes to keep us safe? Keep us safe from what?” Janie asked.
He cupped her cheeks with his hands, every once in a while moving his thumb across her cheek. “I wanted to make sure your ex-husband didn’t come back and do anything to you guys,” he gently said. “Some divorces can get nasty, and I didn’t want that to happen to you. So I told the guys I needed to work from home one or two times a week so I could keep an eye on you two.”
Her heart started to beat faster. He wanted to make sure that Donald didn’t do anything to them. That was sweet.
“I know it wasn’t a lot, since there are seven days in a week,” Mac said. “But I figured two days was better than none.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. She was appreciative of that. Even though Donald didn’t do anything, he was looking out for them. Not many people did that any more.
“Now, let’s start eating or our food is going to get cold,” Mac said.