Page 14 of Memories By the Shore
“Yeah. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse?” Bailey gnaws on her lip nervously.
My head hurts. I have a plan and know I must do it as soon as possible. Thank goodness I have saved quite a bit of vacation time.
“Thank you.” I smile, grabbing Lina and Piper’s hands while Bailey wraps her arms around me. “Now, let’s make some breakfast.”
“Yes, queen!” Piper chants, pulling away to clap excitedly.
“And then we need to figure out how we can get you a divorce,” Lina calls out, grabbing my laptop and taking a seat at the bar. “It shouldn’t be that hard, right?”
Piper scrunches her nose, straining to get into the chair next to Lina. “Don’t forget, she needs a place to stay too.”
I remove a pan from the cupboard while Bailey grabs eggs andcheese from the refrigerator. “You know, we could run the world, right?”
Lina glances up from the top of my computer. “Obviously.”
Bailey and I cook breakfast at almost midnight while Lina and Piper take care of my travel arrangements.
Thank god for these women.
Chapter Five
Now
Jasper
Ilean back in my chair, pinching a quarter between my thumb and index finger. Giving it a quick spin, I watch as the silver disc rotates on my desk. Lost in thought, the warm summer air brings the repeated heaviness of what I once had and lost.
“Jasper?” I hear Gail, my assistant, say my name over the top of my computer.
I dart my eyes to hers just as the quarter hits the floor. “Yes?”
She clutches a stack of manilla folders against her chest with a frown. “The start of summer is always hard for you,” she says softly.
I rub my lips together, giving her a subtle nod in agreement.
The corners of her eyes wrinkle more than they usually are. “How long has it been now?”
“Eight years.”
Gail’s eyebrow knit. “And you haven’t thought about trying to find her?”
I’ve thought about it every single day for those first few years. But with every painstaking year that passed, it got easier to acceptthat things would never happen again between us. A fleeting love that you read about in books or see in sappy romance movies. The reality was much different.
“Of course, I have.”
It took a long time to accept, but with grief, the mind finds a way to push through. I had to realize that the woman I was unequivocally in love with, the woman I married at nineteen years old, who would have been the mother to my future children, no longer wanted me.
“And?” She lowers her thick glasses.
“She left me, Gail,” I say, stiffening my posture. I’m unsure if it’s harder hearing those words uttered in the comfort of my own skull or reverberating through my ears. Either way, they both feel shitty. Avery was clear about what she wanted anddidn’twant in her life, and it sure wasn’t me. Letting her go was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I knew it was what she truly wanted.
Gail lets out a deep sigh and glances around the room before turning her eyes back on me, wondering if she should continue pressing or let it go. “Well, okay then. How’s Melanie?”
“Fine,” I say, shuffling a few planning and zoning documents around my desk. I need to work on these approvals as soon as I can. The last few days have weighed on me.
“Just fine?” She curls a lip in shock or disbelief. I’m not sure.
Melanie and I have had this casual thing for the last few months. She moved to town last December to help with her sister’s clothing store and never left.
