Page 45 of The Marriage Pact
“All right. But make sure you have a rest, too.”
She nodded, promising to call if there were any problems. As he left the office, Alex found his thoughts turning to Kaitlyn. He hadn’t heard from her since she’d gotten back to Cedarhurst, apart from a single message to say she’d arrived safely. He’d been too busy to think of messaging her again. The thought pulled him up short. What an awful thing that was to think. It was the exact reason she’d left. Because Alex was too busy for her, too engrossed in his work. But with the deal a failure, Alex now found himself thinking about what he should’ve done instead. Did a chain of hotels in Jamaica really matter? Sighing, he shook his head, feeling a fool for what he’d done. For what he’d let go.
Stephen drove him the short distance to the apartment. “Will there be anything more this evening, Mr. Lancaster?” he asked as Alex got out of the car.
“No, thanks. I’m not going anywhere,” Alex replied.
He wanted to be alone to think about the failure of the deal. But it wasn’t the Jamaica deal he was thinking about. The failure was his toward Kaitlyn. All that heartache for nothing. He’d lost her, and it was because of his own selfishness. He’d pushed her away, expecting too much of her. He’d expected her to fall in line with his way of doing things, with his expectations.
Just like I did before.
Was it any wonder she’d left? Up in the apartment, Alex flicked aimlessly through the mail, alighting on a package addressed to Kaitlyn. It had a sticker on the back: “Vintage Photo Reclaims – Your Memories Restored.” Curious to know what was in it, Alex opened the parcel. To his surprise, though the label should’ve told him as much, it contained photos. They were photos from years ago, old photos, brought back to life with tinting and enhancement. Sitting down on the couch, Alex began to leaf through them. There were dozens of them, all photos of him and Kaitlyn in high school. There they were, looking terribly serious in their mathlete sweaters, and sitting on the porch outside her mom’s house, eating peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. There was a picture of prom night, their smiling faces gazing out of the photo, their arms around one another. Alex was captivated. He hadn’t known anything about them. They must have been meant as a surprise for the wedding.
To look through the photos was to step back in time. Looking at himself, Alex felt a sense of longing, of nostalgia. He’d been a different person back then. Back then, he’d always had time for Kaitlyn, and he’d never taken her for granted. One photo showed them holding hands in the park by one of the cedar trees that gave Cedarhurst its name. It must have been about the last photo of them together before Alex had left for Harvard and Kaitlynhad gone to California to study art. The two of them looked so happy together. It brought a lump to Alex’s throat. On that day, he’d hardly had a dollar to his name, but it hadn’t mattered. He remembered a picnic on the grass and listening to the radio, lounging in the sunshine and drinking beers until late evening.
Why did I let her go like that? Why did I change?
It was a question he found hard to answer. Or, rather, a question he found hard to give anhonestanswer to. Working and making money had become all-consuming, until Alex could only measure his success, his very person, by those things he achieved in business. But the photos were a reminder of another way, as was the failure of the Jamaica deal. Why did any of it matter when he’d lost the precious gift the photos showed he’d once had and had been given again? Taking a deep breath, Alex brushed a tear from his eye.
Why did I let her go?
He knew the answer well enough, but whether he could make matters right or not remained to be seen. Of one thing Alex was certain. He loved Kaitlyn, and that love was worth fighting for, even if it had taken the bitter taste of failure to realize it.
Kaitlyn didn’t knowwhat to do. Or, rather, she knew what shewasn’tgoing to do, and that left her with other choices to consider. There was no question of her not having the baby, but what would Alex say when he found out? The question had been on her mind for the past few days, ever since she’d done the test. A second had only confirmed it, and the repeated bouts of morning sickness had only one explanation.
“You’rewhat?” Rachel had said, staring at Kaitlyn in disbelief.
“Well… It’s not entirely unexpected. People do have babies.You’rehaving one,” Kaitlyn had pointed out.
“With the man I’ve been with since high school and who I’m now married to,” Rachel had replied.
Kaitlyn had immediately regretted telling her, and yet she was glad to have told someone, even as Rachel lectured her on the need for stability and proper planning when it came to bringing a baby into the world.
“Yours wasn’t exactly planned,” Kaitlyn had pointed out. But that, of course, was different.
Having endured this verbal barrage for some time, Kaitlyn made her excuses and left, walking slowly home through the town and thinking about what Rachel had said. Her life was far from stable, and as for proper planning…
“Kaitlyn? What are you doing here?”
Kaitlyn froze.
She knew the voice without turning. It was Alex’s mom, Michaela. Kaitlyn had hoped not to bump into her. But Cedarhurst was a small town, small enough for everyone’s business to get about, and it wouldn’t have been long before Michaela found out Kaitlyn was home.
“Hi,” she said, turning and forcing a smile onto her face.
Michaela was dressed in an outlandishly pink outfit, which matched the open-top car she was getting out of. On the back seat were several dozen bags from the designer mall on the outskirts of the town. She looked at Kaitlyn curiously.
“I didn’t know you were back. Alex never tells me anything. Was he even planning to come and see me?” she asked.
“Actually… he’s not here,” Kaitlyn admitted.
Michaela looked at her in surprise. “Not here? Then why areyouhere? You only went to New York a few weeks back. Is something wrong?”
Kaitlyn didn’t want to cry in front of Michaela, but she couldn’t very well lie to her, either. The truth would get out, one way or another.
“I… we just needed some space, that’s all.”
It was the classic line of “It’s not you, it’s me.” Space wasn’t something two people madly in love needed.
