Do You Take This Maverick?

This was definitely a side of his wife he had never seen before.

Industrious, ambitious and hardworking, Levi rarely, if ever, took any time off from his job at the furniture store. As the recently promoted store manager, most of the time he even worked on the weekends, but this weekend—the Fourth of July—he’d taken off to escort Claire to a wedding in Rust Creek Falls. He could have skipped it, personally, but it seemed to be really important to Claire that he attend, too. Her grandparents were putting them up for the weekend at the boarding house that they ran.

The wedding was held in the town’s park, and it was a great afternoon. The ceremony was crowded and joyous, the reception even more so. A few of the attendees had decided to get up a little friendly game of poker. Levi wasn’t quite sure why, but he was really tempted by the game, so he’d joined in.

Since he, Claire and their eight-month-old daughter, Bekka, were all spending the weekend at the boarding house, he felt that Claire wouldn’t lack for company while he was gone. Especially since Melba Strickland, Claire’s grandma, had graciously offered to babysit so the couple could enjoy the wedding together. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity for him to knock off a little steam.

Besides, he noticed that Claire was busy talking to a woman she knew at the reception when he’d allowed himself to be lured away by the promise of a little harmless diversion.

It was only supposed to be for an hour—two tops.

It had run over.

Way over.

But that still wasn’t any reason for Claire to explode this way.

“Oh, you don’t, do you?” Claire cried heatedly. Up until this point she had managed to keep her ever-growing discontent under control. She’d never allowed Levi to even catch a glimpse of it, just as she wouldn’t dream of letting him see her without her makeup on or with her hair looking anything but perfect. For Claire, it was all about maintaining the illusion of perfection. It always had been.

But tonight, for some reason, she was feeling rather light-headed, although all she’d had to drink at the reception was some of the wedding punch. Despite her petite frame, punch wouldn’t affect her like this, she reasoned.

Still, because of her light-headedness, her discontent had slipped out of its usual restraints, and before she knew it, the second Levi had walked into their room at the boarding house, she was giving it to her husband with both barrels.

“No,” Levi answered, standing his ground and waiting for Claire to say something that made sense to him, “I don’t. I’ve been working really hard lately, putting in some really long hours. I came to the wedding because you wanted to come and when this poker game came up, I didn’t see the harm in taking a little time off—”

“Didn’t see the harm?” Claire echoed incredulously. Her eyes narrowed into angry, accusing slits. “No, you wouldn’t, would you? Well, I’ll tell you what the harm is. The harm is that you just walked off and left me—again.” Not wanting to wake up anyone at the boarding house, she struggled to keep from shouting at him, but it wasn’t easy.

“Again? What again?” he demanded, stunned. “Claire, what are you talking about? When did I leave you?”

Was he serious? He couldn’t possibly be as clueless as he was pretending to be, could he?

“When didn’t you leave me?” Claire countered, her anger all but running over like a boiling pot of water. “You’re always going off out of town to some sales meetings or other. And if it’s not a meeting, then it’s a seminar.” She said the word as if it was a lie that he fed her. “I never get to see you anymore,” she complained.

Levi felt his own temper surging, something that almost never happened. Ordinarily, he could put up with his wife’s fluctuating moods, but right now he felt as if he’d had more than he could stand.

“You’re seeing me now.” Levi spread his hands wide, as if to highlight his presence. “I’m standing right here,” he pointed out.

Was he mocking her? His attitude just kept fueling her anger. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean,” he told her, feeling more and more bewildered and put upon by the second. “I’m going to those sales meetings and seminars because my job demands it. I’m doing it for you and the baby,” Levi stressed.

But Claire saw it differently. “You’re doing it to get away from me and the baby.”

Levi blew out a long breath as he gave up. There was no reasoning with her. “You’re tired, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Levi concluded, feeling rather desperate. He just wanted this to stop.

Her big brown eyes—eyes he had fallen in love with the first time he saw her—were all but shooting daggers at him. “Oh, so now I’m just crazy?”

Where had that come from? “I didn’t say that,” Levi insisted.

She was twisting everything, he thought helplessly. He felt as if he had stepped into quicksand and was sinking fast, no matter how hard he tried to pull himself free.

“Maybe you didn’t say it but that’s what you implied,” Claire retorted haughtily. “And who could blame me if I was crazy—which I’m not,” Claire underscored. “The only one I get to talk to all day is a colicky, crying baby. Don’t get me wrong, Levi, I love Bekka, but you’re never around.” It was an angry accusation, one she dared him to deny.

“Yes, I am,” Levi insisted. “I come home to you every night,” Levi told her.

“Sure, you come home,” she jeered. “You come home to fall into bed, dead asleep before your head hits the pillow.”

“I put in long hours, Claire, and I’m tired,” Levi tried to explain.

Claire’s back went up as she instantly took offense at what she thought he was implying. “Oh, and I don’t and I’m not?”

Levi threw up his hands, thoroughly frustrated. He had stayed longer at the game than he had intended and lost money, to boot. He hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. He wasn’t really sure why it had happened. But he knew that her anger was way out of proportion.

“Look, let’s not get into this now,” he pleaded. “I’m sorry, okay?”

“No, it’s not okay—and you’re not sorry,” she told him angrily. “But I am. I’m sorry I ever met you. I’m sorry I ever married you!”

Levi was close to being speechless. “Claire, what are you saying?”

Heightened fury was all but etched into her fine features and had colored her cheeks to a bright shade of pink.

“What I’m saying is that it’s over,” she retorted furiously. “I made a mistake. We both made a mistake. We should have never gotten married in the first place.”

All this because he stayed out playing poker too long? He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Claire—”

“Get out!” she cried. Circling him, she put her hands on his back and started pushing him out the door into the hallway. “Get out now!”

“Claire—” It was all Levi could get out of his mouth. He was completely stunned and unable to even understand how they had gotten to this impasse so quickly.

“Now!” she yelled, managing to shove him out all the way only because she had caught him so completely off guard.

The second he was across the threshold and in the hall, Claire pulled off her wedding ring.

“Here, I don’t want this anymore, either!” she cried, throwing her wedding ring at him.

The next second she slammed the door shut behind him.

He heard the click and knew she’d flipped the lock. Claire had the only key.

Levi stood there in front of the door to their room for several moments, dazed and wondering if he was hallucinating all this for some reason. What had just happened seemed to have come out of nowhere.

This trip was supposed to have picked up Claire’s spirits. Instead, he felt that he had just witnessed his marriage falling apart.

What the hell had just happened here? Levi wondered. He hadn’t a clue.

As he walked away from the door, Levi heard Bekka beginning to wail from inside the room.

“You and me both, kid,” he murmured under his breath. “You and me both.”