Chapter 11
She’d arrived. Finally.
As Diane’s car turned the corner on Anna Williams’s street, Martin tightened his grip on the Audi steering wheel. Glanced at the bouquet of hydrangeas on the seat beside him.
Hopefully bringing her favorite flowers would help pave the way for the conversation he wanted to have on this Friday evening.
Because it had been a bear of a week. Crazy busy at work, followed by an empty and too-quiet house at night.
If Diane had wanted to make a point by walking out on him, she’d succeeded.
Maybe the two of them had drifted apart, but they’d been together for a quarter of a century. So if she was looking for a promise from him to try to do better, he was ready to make it. And given their long history, she ought to be willing to listen to what he had to say.
As he watched in the rearview mirror, her car slowed. Stopped.
She must have caught sight of him and was trying to decide how to proceed.
What was he supposed to do if she turned around and drove away?
His pulse picked up, and his knuckles whitened on the wheel.
Should he have told her he was planning to stop by tonight?
Hard to tell.
She hadn’t seemed receptive to any contact from him when she’d walked out last Saturday. And she hadn’t responded to the one text he’d sent asking how her new job was going.
So despite the peace offering on the seat next to him, he might not be able to convince her to talk to him tonight.
Especially since she didn’t appear to be any too eager to approach the house.
He swallowed.
Should he get out, flowers in hand—or would that trigger a faster retreat?
Who knew?
Dealing with problems at the mill was hard, but as long as you followed certain prescribed steps, the outcome was fairly predictable.
Not so with people.
As he debated his next move, Diane’s car rolled forward again.
He exhaled.
She wasn’t going to run.
That was something, anyway.
As she pulled into the far side of the driveway beside Anna’s white-frame Cape Cod house, he slid from behind the wheel, running over the speech he’d prepared that attempted to address all the issues she’d raised over the years.
Or at least the ones that had registered.
Trouble was, he’d been tuning them out for a long while. Meaning he may have missed some. Nevertheless, his speech covered a lot. It might not convince her to come home tonight, but if it laid the groundwork for her to return in the near future, that would be sufficient.
She shut off the engine and exited the car but remained by the door. Though her expression was difficult to read, her stiff posture sent a strong message.
This was going to be a challenge.
Bracing, he walked toward her. Stopped a few feet away. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?” There was no welcome or warmth in her inflection.
“I’ve missed you.”
Her eyebrows rose. “That’s hard to believe. You practically live at the mill. I sometimes wondered whether you’d even notice if I left without telling you.”
“Aren’t you being a little overdramatic?” He kept his tone mild, tamping down the snark he resorted to far too often these days during their exchanges.
“I have drama on my mind at the moment.” She crossed her arms, watching him. “I auditioned for the Helping Hands musical last night.”
If she’d intended to throw him for a loop, she’d succeeded.
But if he overreacted, he could shoot himself in the foot.
“I heard a few people talking about the show at the mill.” He did his best to sound conversational rather than shocked. “What made you decide to get involved?”
“I like to sing, and I did a couple of musicals in high school. It would be nice to get to know more of the people in town. Make a few friends.”
“You already have friends.”
“More like acquaintances, and they’re all in Coos Bay. Hope Harbor is our home. You may not want to socialize with the locals, but I do. I always have.”
“It’s not smart to mix business and pleasure, Diane. Quite a few of the people in town work for me. If I get too friendly and have to let someone go, it would be awkward.”
“I don’t hire and fire, so that’s not an issue for me. And since I know next to nothing about the day-to-day operation of the mill, there’s no danger I’ll let any inside information slip.”
This conversation wasn’t going anything like he’d planned.
Time for a new tack.
“How’s the new job? I texted you about it earlier in the week, but you didn’t respond.”
“I said everything I had to say last Saturday.”
She wasn’t making this easy.
Maybe the flowers would help.
He held them out. “These are for you. I know they’re your favorite.”
After a slight hesitation, she took them. “Thank you.”
Silence.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. May as well cut to the chase. “I’d like you to come home.”
“Why?” She cradled the blooms against her chest.
“You’re my wife. We took a vow to stay together until death do us part. If there are issues, we should work through them.”
Her features tightened. “If?”
Blast.
Bad choice of words.
“Fine. We should work through our issues.”
“I tried to do that for years. You weren’t receptive.”
“I am now. Besides, running away isn’t the answer.”
Her grip on the flowers tightened, and one of the hydrangea heads flopped over to lay limp against her chest. “I didn’t run away. I left to get my life back. Find the me I used to be. The woman you fell in love with long ago, before the mill took my place.”
“The mill never took your place. But I don’t have a nine-to-five job, Diane. Running a company is demanding.” A defensive note crept into his voice.
“I know. But it became your only job. Husband and father got lost in the shuffle.”
“I didn’t mean for that to happen, but I was dealing with a ton of stress when I took over.”
“That was fourteen years ago. How long does it take to settle into the top spot? You worked there all your life.”
“Longer than you expect if you inherit problems.” The disclosure escaped before he could snatch it back.
Her eyes narrowed. “You never mentioned anything about that.”
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
A beat ticked by as she considered him. “If what you’re saying is true, you made a bad decision. I might have worried less and been more forgiving if I’d known there was a reason for your bad temper and disappearing act.”
The front door of the house opened, and Anna emerged. “Everything all right, Diane?”
“Fine.” The smile she offered the woman seemed strained. “We’re just chatting.”
Anna gave him a quick, disapproving sweep. “I’ll be in the living room.”
Within shouting distance if you need me.
She didn’t have to say that for the message to come through loud and clear.
Martin glared after her as she disappeared back through the door, then refocused on Diane. “What did you tell her? She looked at me like I was a lowlife.”
“All I said was that I needed a place to stay for a while.”
“And she came to the obvious conclusion. You’d walked out on me.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “She’s probably spreading that juicy piece of news all over town.”
“I doubt it. Anna’s discreet. However, a huge crowd turned out for the auditions last night. I imagine everyone in Hope Harbor is wondering what prompted my appearance there, after all the years I spent laying low. Rumors are probably flying.”
He fisted his hands on his hips. “Hasn’t there been enough scandal in our family already, with all the dumb stunts Lucas pulled as a teen?”
A muscle in her cheek ticced. “It’s still all about image for you, isn’t it?”
“No.” That had been the wrong thing to say.
He needed to stick to his script. “Look, why don’t you come home and we’ll talk this through?
I’ll spend less time at the mill, and I’ll reach out to Lucas.
Try to reconnect with him. I’ll also share more about the business with you.
We can start getting involved in the community beyond donating to civic causes too, if you want to. ”
The quivering petals of the blooms clutched to her chest were the sole indication of the emotional toll this discussion was taking on her. “You only want me to come home so you can save face.”
“That’s not true. The house feels empty without you.”
She waited, as if she expected him to say more. But for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what it was.
After a few moments, she took a step back, the blue of the hydrangeas an exact match for her eyes. “I have to go.”
“But what about us?” His stomach tightened as a wave of panic nipped at his composure. “I promise I’ll make some changes. Try harder.”
“Words are easy, Martin. Follow-through isn’t. Thank you for the flowers.” She pivoted and walked away, disappearing down a path that led to the rear of the house without looking back.
For a full minute he remained standing in the driveway as the sweet scent of the roses by Anna’s front porch wafted his direction.
But their perfume didn’t sweeten the truth.
This visit had been a bust.
What would he do if Diane decided she preferred her new solo life to the marriage that had given her nothing but grief for more than a dozen years?
A chill rippled through him, far more arctic than the one that had gripped him when he’d gotten his first in-depth look at the books after his dad handed over the reins of the mill.
Drawing a shaky breath, he trudged back to his car, took his place behind the wheel, and faced the truth.
He hadn’t been the pleasantest person to live with. The fact that he’d been deserted by both his wife and son was compelling evidence that the problem wasn’t them. It was him. In hindsight, he was lucky Diane had stuck it out as long as she had.
It seemed his next fix-it challenge was going to have to be much more personal than repairing a collar on a circle blade or erasing red ink from a balance sheet.
Except he had no idea where to begin.
Devyn was going to be mad.
Pausing at the corner of Harbor Street and Dockside Drive, Lauren checked both directions for traffic, then slowly made her way across the intersection, following her nose to Charley’s stand.