“I know you’re good at your job, Savvy.” I hadn’t meant to insult her. Several members of my family worked with the company. It just hadn’t occurred to me that Dad would headhunt my wife.
She glanced down at her hands, twisting her fingers together. “He was confident that I’d be good for the position.”
Dad had been ready to work with a consulting company earlier. Hadn’t he done that yet? “Did he make one up for you?”
Her brows popped. Wrong thing to say—but totally what Dad would do.
She rose and stuffed her hands into the front pocket of her pink hoodie. “All our time together has been about me proving what I could do. Everyone thought I wasn’t strong enough, I wasn’t worldly enough, I was too sheltered, too spoiled, too inexperienced to live my own life and decide for myself. I even had to prove myself to you. I can’t go through a marriage where we’re not on the same page.”
“I’m not going to leave you.”
“But you already have.”
The words rocked me back on my heels like she’d smacked me. “I know when I left DC—”
“It’s not just DC. Why Kosovo?”
“I told you—”
“About Hector. You didn’t go there for your career. He was convenient. You left when it was easy. Leaving Montana would be the same. You haven’t committed to a place. You haven’t committed to a career. How do I know you’re committed to me?”
“Because we’re together.”
“We weren’t today. You left because you can’t commit to your family. A conflict arises and you leave.”
My mind spun. I should’ve known there’d be issues when I came back. I should’ve known that leaving the way I had would bother my wife. I couldn’t change what I’d done, but I wasn’t prepared for this conversation. I’d ignorantly thought I’d ride back and Savvy would talk about our next adventure.
“Remember why I married you? How afraid I was I would be left alone in this world with no support? You were so knowledgeable and I thought I’d be safe with you.” She shook her head, tears glittering in her eyes. “Now I’m the one with knowledge. I know I’ll be okay no matter what. I have a family who cares about me and they may not understand me, but they’ll support me. They’ll be there for me.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying . . .” She tilted her head back and stared at the porch ceiling. “I’m stronger than I thought I was. I have a month to think about the job, and I need some space.”
“Savvy.” She couldn’t be serious. She was just pissed that I’d taken off for the day.
“Xander.” She pushed her long locks back from her face. “I’ve been through a lot of changes. I can keep going, doing what we’re doing, thinking I need to be better, or I can go back home, visit my family, and use my last name like I did with Saving Sunsets. Bernard was right. It opens doors and I can take advantage of that in a good way.
“But I thought we were . . .” In love. In this together.
“Fifty million is a lot of money, but I met Bristol. I’ve seen that shack on her farm. I was terrified of living that woman’s life.” She let out a scornful laugh. “I don’t care if she gets the money. I don’t know that she won’t do more with it than I could, but I know that I have to take charge of my life.”
We’d started out wanting to be together. How could she think that had changed? “Savvy, we can talk about this without you leaving.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t want her getting the trust.”
The money itself didn’t matter. Who it went to if I lost the trust didn’t matter. Failing my family again did. Facing my dad with a failed marriage after I’d spent my college money and lost the money Mama had put aside just for me would eat away at me for the rest of my life.
I didn’t get the words out in time. Savvy huffed. “This time I’ll be the one going. I’m going to be the one with so much confidence in leaving, fuck how anyone else feels.”
My pulse raced. I didn’t like the idea of her going. Would she come back? Would I see her again? Would she ask for a divorce? She had no way of getting to town unless Dawson or I gave her a ride.
Headlights pulled into the drive. Was Dawson expecting someone?
She went around me and opened the door to the house. She grabbed her backpack and suitcase from inside the door.
How the hell had she found a ride? “Where are you going?”
“I’m taking an Uber to Billings.”
How the hell . . . “King’s Creek doesn’t have Uber.”
Her smile was sad. “You’ve just never needed one.”
“Chief miraculously found an Uber driver that could take you to Billings after dark?”
She stiffened and faced me. “No, Xander. I found a ride. I’m paying for it and my flight home.” She started down the stairs.
I jogged after her. My hands twitched to take the bags from her. To take them and throw them back on the porch. “Savvy, tell me what I can do to make this right.”
The driver, a woman, which made me feel better and further drove home the point that Savvy wasn’t stupid or impulsive, opened the back door and returned to the driver’s seat within seconds. I was grateful for the semblance of privacy.
“I don’t know, Xander. Only you can decide what you’re going to do.”
Chapter 21
Savvy
I didn’t know what I was doing. I dropped my head into my hands. The papers were in front of me, drawn up by a lawyer that Mother had recommended.
Just because she’d recommended one didn’t mean she agreed with my decision. Biting back my pride, I’d outlined the reasons why and she’d given me a curt nod and her lawyer’s number.
Overall it would be a simple divorce. Simple, but necessary for me to move on.
I had insisted Xander get his shit together, and I hadn’t heard from him.
Fine. It was fine. Just because I stayed out of the sitting room and slept in Pearl’s room while I was home didn’t mean it bothered me.
I’d flown back to DC. I’d unpacked everything from my suitcase except the ring that had been left in it since Kosovo. I should’ve seen the signs. Neither of us had worn our rings in Montana. We hadn’t thought of them. I’d like to think it made sense—we’d each only worn a wedding ring less than two months of our lives. It was better not to look into it too hard.
Instead of crying into my pillow that still smelled like Xander no matter how fresh the sheets were, I made plans. I hadn’t hit the ground running, but I’d been crawling.
The flight home had given me time to think. The job with King Oil would be a good one. Gentry had sent the information. The pay had made my eyes bug out. But . . .
I’d changed since meeting him all those months ago. I could do what I wanted to from an office, or I could do it from the front lines.
I’d called some contacts I’d networked with through Saving Sunsets and asked them about the basics of running a nonprofit—and how to do it successfully. Then for the entire two months I’d been home, I’d outlined how I’d run one. Gentry’s job deadline had come and gone. I had declined the offer.
Good thing Chief hadn’t known about it, and that Gentry hadn’t told him.
My return had shocked my parents. Chief had been a tense ball of dread until he’d realized his contract with King Oil wasn’t going to be affected by the state of my relationship with Xander. Chief had offered me another assistant job too, and as tempting as it had been to hop into something I could earn money with immediately, I’d refused that one too. It’d swallow me up again if I went back. I’d discussed rent and a timeline for when I’d be ready to move out with both parents. I wasn’t making the same mistake I had before, and I wasn’t skipping out on critical conversations with my parents anymore.
I’d found seasonal work at a shopping mall—at a stand that wrapped gifts with an environmental twist. While it was fun to find ways to make old newspapers look elegant and festive while they encased a new TV, o
r a doll, or a processed meat and cheese set, I spent the entire time planning—including when I was commuting. No more personal driver, and no more getting lost . . . after the first few times.
Saving Sunsets had aligned with my goals. That was why I’d stayed on a sinking ship and been stranded in Las Vegas. The benefit to sticking around so long was that I’d gleaned a lot about the right ways to run a nonprofit—and some of the major wrong turns to avoid.
I puffed out a breath. Thankfully, Pearl had a desk in her bedroom, leaving few reasons for me to leave other than work and food. I made sure to get outside each day. The cold nipped my nose and we’d had a dusting of snow already, but I wouldn’t let memories of snowmen and snowball fights tarnish my daily dose of sunshine.
I stared at the desktop, my eyes drifting away from my laptop, where I had a business plan nearly complete. My heart tugged at the loss of the job offer with King Oil. I could’ve made a difference from the top down. That was a position where people would’ve listened to me.
I straightened, picturing lead being poured down my spine. I could do this. From the ground up. With no money but plenty of connections to fundraise.
My gaze slid over the envelope. The lawyer’s office had offered to send the papers for me, but as my heart had clogged my throat, I’d shaken my head and held my hand out. The address was already on it. Well, Dawson’s. Was Xander still there? Was he even in the States?
I doubt he thought I’d divorce him, but I had to. All that money. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I could do so much with it.
But it wasn’t mine. I had to have faith in my ability to generate my own. I had to have faith in this endeavor. I had to have faith that if my marriage had been destined to be, it would’ve worked out.
There was a knock on the door. I ripped my gaze away. My stupid chest grew tight with each knock, only to be smothered by foolishness a moment later. Xander would’ve shown by now if he’d wanted to work on us.
“Yeah?”
Mother poked her head inside. “I’m going out. Would you like to come along?”
Mother offered each time she ran errands. She worried that I was wasting away in this room with no one to talk to. All I could do was lob messages back and forth with Brady and Rina. I had no idea when I could fly out and see them.
“No. I have . . .” My gaze landed on the papers. I could drop them in our mail. I could go with Mother and mail them. I could continue to be a coward and leave them on my desk.
But it was nearly Christmas. How shitty to get served divorce papers on Christmas. Yet if I was going to go through with it, I should do it well before Valentine’s Day. I was running out of time, and waiting any longer meant I didn’t really want this divorce. That I hoped we could still work it out. Somehow.
I flattened my hand on the large manila envelope. With today’s technology, I was sure there were more expedient ways to do this, but I hadn’t asked for them.
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Can you mail this?”
Mother’s mouth tightened. I’d told her about the trust and how my relationship had ended. Both pride and disappointment had shone in her eyes. Like she’d told me earlier, she was there for me when I fell, but I could walk through my life on my own.
She gave me a clipped nod and took the envelope. “Are you sure?”
No. “Yes.”
Her reassuring smile didn’t do anything to make me feel better. She left and I was halfway out of my chair to catch her and rip the envelope away. I gripped the sides of the chair and breathed through my panic.
When I finally relaxed, if that’s what I could call the feeling, I tried to go back to the business plan I had on my computer. I sat poised, ready to write, but didn’t move for I don’t know how long. I stared at the screen. My gaze flicked to the bare spot on the desk where the envelope had been.
I stroked the wood and tears sprang into my eyes.
I was home alone and my faith in myself was crumbling. I tried to return to the laptop but the screen had gone dark. No happy bubbles careening around. No pictures of my privileged life ping-ponging from corner to corner. Nothing. I could change the screen saver from the default, but I didn’t. It fit my mood.
I sniffled.
I might as well give into the tears. I wasn’t going to accomplish anything else tonight. I just hoped it wasn’t the first sign of many failures to come.
Xander
“It’s a cold bitch out there.” Dawson toed his boots off and shuffled across the hardwood floor on his stockinged feet. He tossed a big envelope down. “Something, uh . . . came for you.”
He didn’t run away, but he backed away slowly.
I scowled and ripped my gaze away from the computer. I’d been here for over two months, soaking up Dawson’s Wi-Fi and getting my shit together.
I guess it took a wife leaving me to make me grow the fuck up.
I had a website set up, but I was still learning the damn thing. If I’d waited for a few more months, I could have paid someone else to do all this, but there was a sense of accomplishment that came with watching how-to video after instructional YouTube to build something that was purely mine.
My time was bogged down because I was tying a lot of revenue streams into this website. I had a blog. I hadn’t written a damn word for it, but I had my portfolio loaded onto my site. My business wasn’t officially live, but it was all under my real name. No hiding. If Savvy could own her wealthy background in a field where it’d be held against her, I could too. I had an account on every social media site and ideas on how to use them. I had yet to post. I had plenty of past pictures and notes to work with, but no plans for the future.
My future was a big, black, gaping hole of unknown.
Savvy had left Montana and according to my past, I should’ve been gone too. One plane ticket to anywhere was all I needed. But I hadn’t left. All those years, I’d taken off, but whenever I’d come back, everyone was still here, in King’s Creek.
My brain knew that Savvy wasn’t from here. Nothing tied her here other than the great time she’d had before she’d been so pissed and disappointed in me that she’d left and told me to figure shit out.
I’d figured it out. But unlike me, she hadn’t come back.
My chest grew tight when I thought that I’d left for fucking years before showing up again. That I’d ignored written messages and voicemails while doing my own thing and . . . hiding from the world.
That was what I’d been doing. Hiding. Not taking responsibility. Blaming everyone else for why my life wasn’t working out when I’d tried something different.
Not my wife, though. She’d been stranded in a big city with no way to get home and she’d sucked it up and asked for help. She’d taken a job she didn’t like to make ends meet. Then when I’d left her behind, she’d packed it up and found me.
And she’d been right. I hadn’t given her credit for any of it. She’d done all the changing and I was still me. Irresponsible.
Dawson disappeared and I frowned. I helped him out in the mornings and evenings, then retreated to the house to get work done. Usually after he came in for supper, he pestered me about what I’d been doing all day on the computer. Talking to him was always easy and he’d had some good ideas for my business plans. But tonight, he’d dropped the envelope and vanished.
My gaze landed on the mystery mail. No one but my family knew I was here, yet it wasn’t unusual to receive a parcel of mail every once in a while.
The official return address caught my eye. A legal office. In DC.
I sat back and air eked out of me like a tire with a slow leak. My mind turned into sludge and refused to think. I stared at the address. My name in official letters. Xander King. I had no initials, no title. There wasn’t “Asshole who fucked up his marriage” behind my name. Just me.
I ripped it open like tugging a Band-Aid off. Now I knew which one hurt more.
The papers were as official as the envelope.
I set them down. Slumpi
ng back in my chair, I stared at the far wall. One of Mama’s pictures hung next to the fireplace.
She’d be so ashamed of me. The kid who’d never learned to deal with his emotions without hurting someone. The kid who didn’t have a fucking job and lived with his brother and had just been served divorce papers.
I don’t know how long I sat there, but eventually Dawson emerged from his master bedroom on the first floor.
He took one look at me and stopped at the edge of the short hallway. “You hungry, man?”
“She wants a divorce.”
He puffed out a breath and scratched the back of his neck. “I was afraid of that.”
“She could have millions and millions of dollars, but she’d rather divorce me.”
Dawson crossed to the table, but he didn’t say anything. We sat, two bachelors staring at the wood grains running through the surface.
Funny thing was, I didn’t feel like going anywhere. I could take Fool’s Gold out. I could walk into the airport and pick a flight to board. I could ignore these damn papers until the year mark passed and I got millions.
But the thought that I might not get the money whipped away the blanket of deception I’d been hiding under. A part of me had thought I’d land on my feet. I wouldn’t be the ultimate disappointment and let the neighbors get what my grandparents had worked their asses off for.
The envelope in front of me upended all that. I had no plan. Without at least the idea of that money to cling to, I was nothing. I was turning thirty soon and had been too afraid to do a damn thing with my life, and I’d used my college money and trust funds as excuses.
Even worse, I’d ruined my marriage in record time.
I’d known as soon as I’d seen her that she could be my world. That I wanted her to be my world. I’d had no idea until now what a miracle it was that she’d wanted to be with me too. Sure, we’d had our reasons. But she would’ve done what she needed to do without me. I knew she would’ve.
Did she want the divorce, or had she just given up on me?
I could ask. I could fly there and confront her, show her what I’d been doing. And then what? She’d ask the hard questions. Where were we going to live? What exactly did I have planned for the money? Why was I worth an extra few months of her life?
King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3) Page 24
