Worth the Drive by Mara Jacobs Read Free Book Online Page B

in silence for a while, until Darío finally spoke. “Tell me, why is it that you are Maki, not Lipton?”
    “I drool in my sleep and my husband couldn’t take it anymore.”
    Darío threw his head back and laughed and Katie noticed the white skin peeking through at the juncture of neck and throat. “Somehow, I think that waking up next to you would not be dampened by something as inconsequential as a little drool.”
    She loved how he spoke. The slight accent was lovely , but his word usage … Not too many people threw around the word s dampened and inconsequential in the same sentence. And this was his second language.
    Oh heck, why not tell him the truth. She’d never see this man again after tomorrow.
    “My husband left me,” she said quietly.
    Darío didn’t say anything, only nodded for her to go on.
    Which she did, and then some.
    It was a purge. And this time it was not quietly spoken.
    “Not only did he leave me, but he left me for a twenty-year-old that he’d gotten pregnant.”
    Darío nodded.
    “He couldn’t handle us not being able to have a child. Or, I guess I should say, me not being able to have a child. Because it’s darn sure obvious now that he can.”
    Darío nodded but kept his eyes on the road .
    “We’d been together since we were freshmen in college. Married for thirteen years, and he comes home and tells me he’s leaving me for some young thing. God, it’s so cliché, so laughable.”
    Darío only nodded again soberly. Apparently he didn’t think it was laughable.
    “I should have known though, it shouldn’t have taken me so much by surprise.”
    Darío finally spoke. “Why should you have known?”
    “Oh, little things. Like he had to go to the office a lot last summer.” At Darío ’s questioning frown she clarified, “He’s a high school teacher and hockey coach. There’s no school in the summer, and hockey’s played in the winter. ” Darío nodded his understanding, and motioned with his hand for her to continue.
    “Last summer he used the money we’d set aside for Invitro Fertilization for a Hummer.”
    “What is a Hummer?”
    “They’re these huge cars that kind of look like a tank, and no one with any sense would spend over $50,000 on one. Thank God they’ve stopped making them. Just not in time for me. ”
    “Oh yes, a Hummer. Several players on the Tour own such vehicles.”
    Feeling she had just insulted his friends, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
    He waved his hand. “It’ s fine. I too believe that these vehicles are a bit…” Just as the word popped into her head, he finished, “Ostentatious”.
    “Anyway, I should have known then. But I thought it was just the stress of trying to conceive. They warn you about that when you first start seeing the doctors. They tell you that infertility can put a strain on a marriage.”
    “The man is a…what’s the word you say here ? Douche, ” Darío said.
    Katie smiled. “No. That’s just it, he isn’t really. He’s a good person, and was a good husband…”
    “Until he impregnated another woman. A girl, really.”
    “Yes,” her voice became quiet once more.
    “The man is a fool,” Darío whispered.
    “No, he’s not a fool. He’s just a man. And when the going got tough…”
    “Maybe he’ s not a fool. But the man has no character.”
    Katie was about to contradict Darío , to tell him that for most of their marriage, Ron had been a good husband. A great husband, even. That the pressure of trying to have a baby was too much for them. He broke in his way – by having an affair.
    But she broke in her way as well. She became distant, she saw that now. She hadn’t seen the signs of Ron’s straying because she was immersed in her own self-pity. Knowing that their inability to have a child was her fault had made her withdraw from Ron. She’d felt she’d failed him. Failed herself. The only time they’d had sex was when it was conducive to conception. And e ven in those times it was cold