Page 45 of The Wife
Although it didn’t seem as if there was that much left.
“It’s too cold. You need to come home,” he said.
“Jake, you’re drunk.”
“Shitfaced. Now come home.”
He attempted to wave me forward, but it was like he didn’t have full use of his arm.
“How did you get here?”
He pointed behind him. I could see his truck parked at an awkward angle on the gravel area in front of the cabin.
“You drove! You are shitfaced and you got in a car!”
“Access road to here.”
Which meant the road on the property where there would be no other traffic. Not that it mattered.
“What about cattle? Deer? Did you think of that?”
He opened his mouth and then shut it. Then he shook his head like he was having a hard time forming thoughts. “Get your stuff. You can’t sleep here. It’s too cold. I want you in your room.”
“I was completely fine and you’re an idiot.”
“Yep. Now, Ellie.”
With nothing left to do I turned back into the cabin and found my boots. Then I picked my coat up off the chair and put it on.
“I can’t believe for as many times as you’ve railed at me about the horrors of drinking and driving, you would do this. Where are the keys?”
He patted his pockets. I realized he wasn’t even wearing a coat. He had to be the one who was freezing.
“Truck?”
Like that was one possibility. Great. I pushed him a little to get him moving in the general direction of the truck. It was a good thing he could still manage walking, because there was no way I had the strength to get Jake into the truck without his help. He was able to lift himself into the passenger seat and his head fell back against the headrest.
“Do not fall asleep on me or I swear to God I will let you spend the night in your truck.”
“I won’t. Need to talk to you.”
He was not in any shape to talk, so I had no doubt that whatever was going to come out of his mouth would be nonsense. But as long as it kept him awake until I could get us back to the house, then I was all for it.
“Okay Jake, what do you want to talk about?”
“Carol.”
Was he kidding me? “I don’t want to talk about Carol.”
“Did you know she was Bobby’s cousin?”
I didn’t. But I wasn’t sure why it mattered.
“Doesn’t matter. I didn’t fuck her. I know you think I did. I didn’t. I ended it.”
He didn’t fuck Carol? Was that true? Of course it was true. He wouldn’t lie sober, much less shitfaced. It shouldn’t have made me feel the way it did. As if I was suddenly ten pounds lighter. But it did.
Still. I had to say the words. “I hope you didn’t do that because of me.”
