THE WOMEN ARE STILL ENJOYING their spa treatments when we drag ourselves off the slopes and gather around the crackling fire for warmth.
Lee hands me a hot cup of coffee. “Who won?” “Not Dean,” I mumble.
He laughs. “Then that’s all that matters.”
I chuckle. “Why didn’t you join us on the slopes?”
“Back injury.” He points to the body part in question. “I bought a grand piano for my little girl. Got hurt trying to drag it to the ‘perfect’ spot.” He shakes his head. “You know how the wife gets when she decorates.”
“It’s always a little more to the left. Then the right. Then the left.” Stone rolls his eyes. “If they gave navigation instructions, we’d have a lot more car accidents.”
“Well, Chloe didn’t stop until she injured me.” Lee rubs his back. Tipping my coffee to him in solidarity, I nod. “Tough break.”
Lee drops into the couch. “Honestly, I’d do it again to make her happy.” “Now that’s love,” Stone says, settling into the chair with his own mug. “Any man who’s willing to break his back a second time just to make his
wife smile is committed.”
Dean ambles over, his nose red from the cold. “Doc would say ‘he’s finally matured’.”
My eyebrows pop up my forehead. Dean just dropped Doc’s name in casual conversation.
It feels so foreign to me. I’ve been seeing the mechanic on the down- low. The more he started to influence me, the more I realized that I could
never go around spouting his techniques. Hell, I tried with Patrick and my best friend nearly snapped my neck in two.
It’s strange to hear other men talking about Doc as if it’s normal. As if his founding principles are nothing out of the ordinary when, outside of the bubble of his garage, they’re the complete opposite of the trending advice.
Calvin’s lips tug up in amusement. “Doc would say ‘you only broke your back? Not your skull too’?” He scrubs his chin the way the old mechanic likes to scratch at his goatee. “‘Then you’re not sixty percent ready for marriage’.”
I laugh so hard my stomach spasms. “He really would say that. I can actually hear him right now.”
“Crazy as it sounds, it works.” Graham kicks his boots on top of the coffee table. Lips pursed over his cup, he blows the steam off the top. “If not for Doc, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“As in, you’d be dead?” Calvin smirks. “I’d have lost my wife.”
In an instant, the mood shifts from playful to somber. Every man here has experience with hitting rock bottom in their marriage.
Stone runs tattooed fingers through his hair. “A part of me thought he was crazy, you know?”
I nod because I can relate to that. The mechanic rubbed me the wrong way for a long time.
Stone inhales deeply. “Why should I be the foundation of the marriage? Why is it my fault? Women these days want equality so bad, they should have it.” He chuckles almost self-deprecatingly. “But I came around and started applying what Doc taught me. Our marriage is getting sweeter and sweeter because of his advice.”
“Live in the loop of dating,” Lee recites. The other guys glance at him.
The tall man shrugs it works.
Graham smiles wickedly. “Honestly, I’m getting way more action now than I did before learning that principle.”
Calvin raises his hand. “Dude, me too.”
“I couldn’t pry my wife off me when I started dating her again.” Stone laughs.
“And you know what’s weird about it?” Graham shakes his head. “They don’t ask for much. It’s the little things, you know? Flowers. A compliment.
A foot massage after a long day. It’s asking how her day is and listening when she responds.”
“The same things we were doing before we married them,” Lee says with a wise nod.
“The things we stopped doing after,” Stone grumbles.
Dean shakes his head. “Guys who are afraid to spoil their wives are the ones who are weird to me now. It’s like ‘how do you expect her to be in the mood for you when you keep stressing her out by ignoring her needs, treating her like crap and putting all the blame on her?'”
My thoughts travel to Harriet the night I tossed my phone in the bonfire. And tonight when all I did was make sure she was settled rather than running off with the guys. She’s already threatened me with all the things she wants to do to me tonight. I saw it in her eyes. The approval. The desire.
It’s a reward.
An ache starts in my chest that grows the more the guys discuss their marriages and how much they love their wives.
I almost broke us.
Pain clamps the base of my neck. Climbs until it covers the entirety of my skull.
Dean takes a swig of his coffee. “Jaz is the only woman I want. Ever. I’ve decided that. And I thought the media would chew me out for declaring that commitment.”
“Oh, they tried.” Lee chuckles. “They crucified you when you first started singing your wife’s praises in every interview.”
Dean leans back, his eyes on the snow falling outside the window. “But it all died down. I feel so stupid for hurting Jaz. For ignoring her and crushing her for so long. I thought I was doing it for the fans.” Dean shakes his head and scowls. “In fact, I was only doing it for myself.”
Me too. I’ve been living so selfishly.
My fingers tighten around the cup. The pressure behind my eyes feels suspiciously like tears. But that can’t be right. I haven’t cried in my entire life.
“I deserved to have my marriage crumble,” Graham shares, his eyes flickering to the left. “I broke my wife’s trust and I hit rock bottom.”
I swallow hard.
Graham’s situation is the most like mine. Everyone heard about him and that flight attendant he was messing with.
The pilot gazes at his shoes. “I’m not proud of how I hurt her and I can’t change what I did. So I fight harder to prove where my heart is. Everyday, I make it up to her and everyday, she gives me more than I could ever give her.”
Lee murmurs his agreement. Dean lifts a hand. “Preach.”
Calvin shakes his head. “It makes me sad when I see my friends struggling with their marriages. I want to shake them and yell, ‘hey, what are you giving her that she’s giving back?’.”
Stone chuckles and pretends to shake someone too. “‘Hey, man! Learn womanese. Don’t listen to what she says from her mouth. Dig deeper to find what’s going on in her heart.'”
You hurt me, Jerrison. My eyes are burning. Damn.
Why am I tearing up right now? I’m not going to cry.
I am not freaking crying right now.
Dean stretches out a hand and, in a deep voice, he barks, “It’s not always your fault…”
The other guys jump in. “But it’s your responsibility!” The lump in my throat burns until I can’t even swallow.
Thankfully, a door opens to our left and I’m spared the nightmare of shedding a tear in front of the guys.
“They must be done with the spa,” Lee says, placing his empty mug on the coffee table.
Dean rubs his hands together. “Yes. I’m starving.”
Harriet glides into the room, glowing like she’s made up of the sun in all its glory. Her brown skin glistens from the oils they put on her. Plump lips part into a generous smile when our eyes collide.
My heart thumps guiltily. I could have ruined us so badly that I never saw that face again.
Harriet’s expression changes when I don’t smile back. Her intelligent eyes lose their sparkle until they’re filled with concern.
I could have lost my wife.
The truth pinches me. Twists me into knots.
Because of my stupidity and greed, I almost lost her.
Harriet hurries over to me and takes my hand. “Jerrison, what’s wrong?
Did you get hurt?” “No,” I croak.
Stone moves over to us. “Everything okay?”
Harriet wraps her arm around me. “I’ll take him to the room. You guys have lunch without us.”
As soon as we’re in our suite, Harriet locks the door and turns on me. “Did you get hurt trying to outdo Dean?” She slides her hands over my body. “Baby, I told you not to overdo it.”
“I didn’t.”
Her bun tickles the top of my chin as she inspects my arm. “What is it about men and their stupid egos?”
I grip her hand.
She stops and glances up.
Those gorgeous brown eyes look at me with love. It’s there.
Shining through.
Before Doc, there was misery. Anger. Snaps of desire leaping through the pain because lust was all that burned between us.
Now, it’s more.
It’s everything.
My heart leaps to my throat. “I love you.”
She studies me. “Jerrison, what’s going on?”
I wrap her in my arms. “You are the greatest thing that ever happened to me.” My lips collide with hers. It’s desperate. A rabid attempt to push away the guilt chewing me up. “You’re magnificent and beautiful.” My lips trail down her neck. “I swear, Harriet,” I draw back so I can look her in the eyes, “that I will never let you forget how much you mean to me.”
Heat passes through my body when she wraps her arms around my neck. “I can’t wait any longer, Jerrison.”
Her voice is breathless. Needy. Hot hands slip at my belt buckle.
I kiss her and walk her back toward the bed. “Good,” I growl when I throw her on top of it, “because I can’t wait either.”