Page 4 of The Lighthouse Sisters
“Of course, dear,” she answered with her first real smile of the night. She went out of her way to be nice to any girl Dylan brought home, and he and Claire had been an item for a few months now. They had only met a few times. Claire seemed nice enough. She was a bit rough around the edges, and liked to be the center of attention, but if Dylan liked her, that was all that mattered. Personally, Raelynn wasn’t too fond of her. She thought she was a little cold.
“How are you doing, Claire?” She hugged her.
“Good,” Claire said, looking uncomfortable as she pulled away from Raelynn. Raelynn felt bad immediately. She forgot that Claire wasn’t much of a fan of physical affection.
Smiling tightly, she said, “Well, thanks for coming to my party. And you look lovely as ever.” And she did, but her clothes did age her. Her clothing choice was a little old for her age, in Raelynn’s opinion, but she wasn’t one to judge–out loud, anyway.
“Mom, we’re about to head out, but have a great birthday.” Dylan gave her a final hug and Claire wished her a happy birthday again. They left and several other guests followed.
Too quickly for Raelynn’s taste, the party began to end. She escorted the last guest to the door and closed it. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face him.
THREE
“Well, that was fun, right?”
Raelynn looked at John, not understanding how he could be so nonchalant. She had ignored him all evening and avoided being anywhere near him the whole night. Had he not noticed? Maybe he hadn’t cared enough to notice. Who was she kidding? He probably had stopped caring about anything concerning her years ago.
“It was nice to see everyone,” Raelynn found herself saying. She didn’t know how to broach the subject. He was the one who wanted a divorce. Wasn’t he the one who should bring it up?
He stuck his hands in his pants pockets and rocked back on his heels, avoiding her eyes. He only did that when he was uncomfortable. What was going on with him? Was he going to break the news to her now? She prepared herself, emotionally distancing from him as best as she could.
“I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink. You want one?”
She sat down with a heavy sigh, and said, “I guess.”
Without another word, he crossed over to the mini-bar and poured himself a Scotch. He then fixed her a drink and handed it to her.
Never much of a drinker, she took just a sip, and an uncomfortable silence stretched between them. As far as Raelynn was concerned, these were not normal circumstances.
Apparently, the silence was too much for John to handle because he started to discuss the lighthouse while pouring himself another drink.
“It’s a brilliant piece of property. Did Katrina mention it to you? She was talking about it at the party. It has a little bit of history. Buyers love that. I told her that she should sell it and do it quickly. Hell, she and Dave could probably make enough from it to purchase an even better property to flip.”
“Yeah,” Raelynn replied absently, marveling over the fact that he could be so calm and collected and pretend that nothing was going on when just a few feet away sat papers that would end their life together. She was starting to think that maybe the life they had built didn’t matter to him, at all.
“I bet it’s worth a pretty penny. I told her Chester could help,” he finally turned to look at her. “You remember Chester, right? We were in the fencing club together throughout middle school, high school, and college. He owns a few real estate firms outside of Atlanta. Great guy.”
“I’m sure he is,” she lied. She didn’t remember Chester at all. And she didn’t care about Chester. Their marriage was over, and yet, he wanted to discuss an old schoolmate.
She was done making conversation. As soon as he turned around to pour himself another drink, she said, “When were you going to tell me that you wanted a divorce?”
He froze, but didn’t turn around. And then, as if he didn’t hear her, he slowly put the bottle down and stared down at it.
Unable to take the silence, she continued, “I found the papers in your office. They fell off your desk when I was looking for a real estate connection for Katrina.”
She stood up and went towards him. “When were you going to tell me, John?”
He shook his head and sighed. “I’ve had those papers for a while.”
She felt like she had been shot in her chest. That was how hard her heart began to pound. “A while?” Her voice sounded far away to even her own ears. It was as if she was viewing this moment from outside her own body. This couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be her life.
“I’m sorry, Raelynn.”
“Twenty-three years, and all you have to say is that you’re sorry?” The anger that she had tucked away was now bubbling at the surface. In a few moments, she knew there would be full outrage. She found herself yelling, “What about an explanation? Don’t you think I deserve that?”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing that I can say that will make you understand.”
“Well, try,” she practically growled. “Because I’m trying to understand why my husband of twenty-three years, who just threw me a surprise party, mind you, is suddenly divorcing me?”
