What Love Is

Chapter 2

Dedicated to BrittniNicole123 for her lovely comments when my story was getting started :) thank you.

Drew walked home after ten interviews, unable to face the mountains of paperwork waiting for him in his office at the hospital. He was still on a short fuse from the train wreck that had been his interview with the lovely Miss Calloway.

She’d handled his irritation well, surprisingly, better than Jamie did. He felt a stab of pain as he remembered his cold wife, still stunning in his eyes with her navy blue eyes and platinum blonde hair and trim figure, despite two pregnancies.

And that was the moment he realized he’d been more distant to his children than anything.

It also became the moment he discovered the strange car in his driveway.

Drew felt like throwing up right there on the sidewalk, in the middle of Tall Street. His daughters were away at their friends’ for the weekend, and he, well, he worked.

Of course Jamie had someone over. It didn’t have to be man, he assured himself. She had plenty of friends, half of which he had met and half that Jamie was too embarrassed to introduce him to.

He strode quickly up the street to his drive, nearly sprinting as fear curled in his belly. That was his wife, he angrily thought to himself. He’d be damned if he would let another man touch her.

Drew paused at the front door, wondering if he should use the cellar door for more stealth. He felt shame at conniving against his wife, not trusting her, and chose to pull his keys out of his pocket and slowly unlock the door.

“Ja…” he slowly began, his voice dying as he did not discover her in the living room or the kitchen. When he confirmed that she was not downstairs, the bathroom, or in the girls’ rooms, he took a deep breath and started toward the room that he used to be able to sleep in.

When the sadness hit him, hearing them together, in his bed, he backed up until his back hit the wall. He held his hand over his eyes to keep himself from crying, nausea swimming in his belly.

Should he blame himself for Jamie turning away from him? He wanted to kick the door down and rip the man off of her, kill him. He was not sure if he could handle the scene that he would see, Jamie and her lover tangled in the sheets they used to tangle in.

Instead, he said one word. “Jamie.”

It was quiet enough for the word to float through the door. There were sounds of shuffling and hushed, panicked whispers.

All he felt was sick.

After a long, gut-wrenching minute, he heard the mysterious car in the driveway start and peel down into the street. There was no way she could deny it now, that she was cheating on him.

Jamie yanked open the door and stood there, calmly looking at him, hair brushed and looking perfectly normal.

He noticed the small details, the small purple bruises on her neck from his teeth, a button that she missed on her shirt, how red and swollen her lips were from kisses. She was clearly flushed, wearing a full body blush.

“You’re home early,” she said.

And you’re fucking another man, he thought.

“What, are you just going to stand there, Drew?” she snapped, folding her arms. “What do you want?”

“What were you doing with him?” he quietly asked, unable to look at her hard eyes. She was glaring at him, on the defense.

“With who?” she retorted.