Free Leaving Amy (Amy #2) by Julieann Dove Page B

weekend bachelor trips with his buddies and excluded me. Ironically, he was the only one going who wasn’t a bachelor.
    “So you’re going with me?”
    “Of course. It’s too far for you to walk.”
    Ah, there was the guy I married. Right there in his silly boy cap, telling me it was either in a passenger seat or by foot that I’d get to Jim’s tonight.
    “Let’s go.” I waved at Margaret and Claire and looked around for the guys. I heard a commotion in the billiard room and figured everyone was being entertained.
    “After you.” Wesley held the door and I could’ve sworn I saw something different in those eyes of his. The way they pinned me with more force than usual. It was difficult to look away.
     

     
    There was hardly anywhere to park. Wesley chose half a mile down the road. Any farther and we could’ve walked to the party from our cabin. “Why are you parking so far away?”
    “Amy, half of these guys driving are trashed. I don’t want any dings in my new Jeep.”
    “Well, I certainly hope they won’t be driving if they’re trashed.”
    He came around to my side and helped me out. I stepped over the ditch and fell into him as he caught me and slammed the door shut in one muscular fell swoop. “God, I’ve missed your smell.”
    I steadied myself quickly and kept my distance, walking through the damp leaves to the road’s edge. Was it weird that what he was saying was giving me butterflies in the pit of my stomach? Where he once lived, in the bile and disgust, when I thought of how much he hurt me.
    I thought about ignoring it—his comment…my feelings about it—but instead I turned around abruptly. He almost knocked me over, he was so close to my heels. “Why are you acting like this, Wesley? Why are you coming into the bathroom when I’m getting out of the shower, why are you kissing my cheek, looking at me like…well, you know…and then holding doors and smelling me? What do you want from me? I’m here, aren’t I? You’re getting your money after this little charade is over.”
    “I want you back, Amy.”
    And that’s when everything stopped. Breathing, blinking, recognition of anything around me. It was as though I were in a dream. The type where you see yourself as if it’s a movie, hovering in space. But this time I was pretty sure I was awake. I felt the wind from a car that’d just driven by and suffered the burn of its lights in my eyes.
    “Are you okay?” He stooped down and looked into my eyes. “Amy?”
    I swallowed. Yep, that ’ s all I ’ ve got . Just saliva needing to take a plunge down the esophagus. Nothing else. How did I get here? On the side of the road with my soon-to-be ex-husband who’s now saying things like he wants me back. My legs shook. Not in the good way.
    “Are you going to say something?” His eyes hadn’t left mine.
    “I don’t know what to say.”
    “Say that we still have a chance. Say that although we went through a rough patch, that it’s not too late.” His hands were in praying position.
    “A rough patch, Wesley?” Now, this I could work with. “You left me a note on the refrigerator. And then went on to live with a girl you’d been seeing while you were married to me.” I grabbed my mouth. “Were you sleeping with both of us at the same time?”
    “Of course not, Amy. You and I hadn’t slept together for months.”
    “Why couldn’t you have told me? Why leave me a note?” Said the guilty party who ’ d just done the same to Mark.
    Another car passed but slowed up and turned in to Jim’s driveway. What a place to be hashing out the problems of your marriage.
    “I couldn’t talk to you. I couldn’t look into those blue eyes and have said it. I would’ve never gone.”
    “Maybe that’s happening now. When we get back and we’re living apart, you won’t feel this way. Or maybe you’re just lonely and I’m someone you’re used to.”
    “I don’t want to live apart from you, don’t you see, Amy? And it’s