There were other symptoms of the chasm widening between them. Determined to prove himself, to exceed Brandon’s high expectations, he’d begun spending longer and longer hours at the office. Lacey had even suspected, but never proven, that he was having an affair.
There were desperate times when she even pinpointed something as silly and unimportant as the moment when he’d traded folk songs and rock for classical music as an indication of all that was going wrong with their marriage.
Somewhere along the way, though, the life she’d anticipated with Kevin had changed. She had never expected to be caught up in a whirlwind of social, business and charitable demands. She had never expected to see Kevin’s decency and strength lost to ambition.
As CEO of Halloran Industries, Kevin had become a respected member of Boston’s elite establishment. But ideals they had once cherished, dreams they had worked for together, had been lost. Worst of all, Kevin seemed blind to the significance of the changes and the destruction of all they once held dear.
In the heat of that last, bitter argument, he had accused her of not keeping pace, of being unwilling to change, unable to accept the reality of getting ahead in a world that respected nothing so much as success.
If that was a flaw, so be it, Lacey thought, angrily snapping off a dead geranium leaf. What was so terrible about wanting to help others? Wanting to make a home for her family?
Wanting a husband to stop killing himself?
She sighed. Was there anything more important than love and family and commitment? It might be old-fashioned, but dammit she would fight to her dying breath to preserve those simple ideals, to get her husband to wake up before it was too late. She wanted that special, wonderful man she’d loved for so terribly long back again.
Even so, even though it had broken her heart to watch his rare, generous spirit wither and die, she might have forced herself to accept the changes if only Kevin had seemed happy. In lives otherwise rich with love, she might have accepted that no one ever stayed the same, if only his complexion hadn’t taken on that deathly pallor.
Instead of being happy and energetic, he’d merely seemed driven. The effect on his health was devastating. He’d already suffered one heart attack, a mild one that the doctor described as a warning.
Rather than modifying his life-style, though, Kevin had become even more obsessed. They had argued again and again. Lacey had pleaded with him to stop killing himself, for him to at least try to make her see why he felt so driven. His response had been to avoid the arguments by spending even longer hours at the office. There had been one last explosive argument and then she had gone, unable to bear even one more day of watching him die before her eyes, one more lonely evening waiting for a call from some hospital emergency room.
Lacey couldn’t say all that to Jason, though. He hadn’t even been married an entire year yet himself. How could a mother explain the tarnish that eventually robbed love of its shine to a man for whom it still held a shimmering beauty? Instead she deliberately asked about Dana and watched his expression soften, heard the warmth steal back into his voice, replacing the despair that had been evident only moments before.
“Dana’s glowing,” he said. “She considers this pregnancy the grandest adventure in her life. Quite a statement given her decision to raise her brother on her own.”
Lacey chuckled. “It certainly is an adventure. You’re both happy about it, then? I wondered. It seemed a little soon. You have so many adjustments to make, especially with her brother living with you.”
“To my astonishment, Sammy is no trouble at all. He spends every spare second with Granddad. The other night I found them crawling around under one of the looms at the plant. Granddad was trying to explain how to get a white-on-white pattern on damask.”
“Does Sammy even know what damask is?” Lacey asked, trying to imagine the sixteen-year-old hell-raiser with the outrageous haircut being familiar with fine fabrics.
“Actually that’s how the subject came up in the first place, as I understand it. Sammy wanted to use Granddad’s tablecloth for a ghost costume for some play.”
The image brought a smile to her lips. “I can just imagine Brandon’s reaction to that.”
Jason shook his head. “No, you can’t. He actually got the scissors for him. But before he’d let Sammy ruin the tablecloth, he insisted on showing him how it was made. Off they went to the plant, leaving dinner still sitting on the table. Needless to say, Sammy changed his mind once he saw that the cloth wasn’t some old rag Granddad had gotten from a discount store.”
Lacey tapped the soil gently around the geranium’s roots, then put the pot aside and reached for another. The rich scent of earth and the pungent aroma of the flowers had begun to work their soothing magic. She could almost forget her life was no longer complete.
“I saw Dad last night,” Jason said, all the laughter gone from his voice, replaced by a cautious note.
Lacey drew in a deep breath. Her hands stilled. The announcement brought a shuddering end to her tranquility. “How is he?” she asked finally.
“Terrible, though he won’t admit it. Mom, you still love him. I can see that. And he’s still crazy about you. How long are the two of you going to let this go on?”
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as it takes to do what?” Jason demanded, his tone filled with frustration. “Do either of you have the faintest idea why you’re apart?”
“We’re apart because that’s the way it has to be.”
Before she could stop him, Jason crushed the bright red petals of a geranium between his fingers. She wasn’t even sure
