Page 13 of The Wife
I sipped my wine and decided then and there that tonight was it.
Tonight I was going to make a play for my husband.
I was probably going to need another glass of wine.
Four
Ellie
Ipractically skippedinto the kitchen. I had taken my wedges off in Jake’s truck because they were hurting my feet and dropped them by the front door as soon I got into the house.
“Damn it, Ellie, how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your shoes by the door? I’m constantly tripping over them.”
This was true. My preferred state of being was barefoot, so any time I came into the house my first order of business was to remove my shoes. My last order of business was to take them upstairs to my room.
Thus, a tripping Jake.
Which was not good because I was gearing up here to make my big move, and it wasn’t the best idea to start such a romantic gesture with him cursing at me.
I walked over to my scale—my most favorite gift, outside of the picture of my parents and my horse Petunia, all given to me by Jake—and moved all ten disks to the right side.
Jake huffed out a laugh behind me. “Good day, then.”
“One of the best,” I said although it came out more likebesstsbecause I was a little tipsy.
Liquid courage was no joke. I felt like I could conquer the world right now.
This whole time, I had been so afraid I wasn’t looking at what was right in front of me.
Jake knew me. Better than anyone else alive. He liked me. I knew that because as long as I wasn’t watching what he referred to as girly shows, he hung out with me every night.
Beyond that, Jake cared about me. No one who didn’t could be so completely thoughtful.
Most importantly Jake, I knew for a fact because he said so, liked kissing me enough that he wanted to kiss me again.
We were freaking married! The way I saw it there was nothing wrong with us changing our relationship.
I was leaning against the kitchen island while I watched him pour himself a glass of water.
“Want some?” he said, holding up the Brita container.
“Sure. Except… could you put that down for a second? I… I wanted to talk to you about something.”
He did as I asked and turned to me. There he was. Jake Talley. The hottest guy in Riverbend. Maybe the hottest guy in the county. Maybe all of Montana.
My scale present guy.
My guy.
I walked up to him, put my hands on his waist.
“Ellie what are you…”
Then I did it. I kissed him. It was weird too because it was my first time initiating the kiss. All throughout high school I waited for the guys to make their move. Which now that I think about it probably wasn’t fair. Women expected equal treatment, so it made sense that we should probably initiate the kissing at least fifty percent of the time.
I opened my mouth against his, hoping he would take over. That it would be like last time. Explosive and mind-bending. Like there would never be a time in our lives when we weren’t kissing.
Only he was frozen. So I thought I had to push a little harder. I reached up to cup his cheek and tried to push my tongue against his lips. Then it happened. I could feel his mouth opening, his tongue now in my mouth instead of the other way around. He was pulling me against him and I could feel his hand reach for my ass, pressing my body against his. Hard. Maybe so hard there would be bruises, but I didn’t care, because this was everything like I remembered it.
