Challen and Addy

Chapter 33 (Addy): Magical

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

I'd spent the weekend with my husband.

On the surface, that sounded like such a simple statement, but it held a much deeper truth. The man I'd been with all weekend had been the man I'd fallen in love with and had married. The man I'd missed for so damn long.

But he'd shown up in force this weekend, as he'd been showing up for a while now, and I could also see it was a new and improved version of himself. Challen had done some growing and changing, and it was becoming more and more obvious.

We'd ended our Saturday of shopping, then explored the other, non-baby related, stores and shops. Challen watched me closely, asking every couple of hours after lunch if I was still doing well, or if I wanted to return to the B&B and rest. I was infused with so much energy, I said no, so we kept shopping, and eventually had a beautiful dinner along the riverwalk.

Looking at his face across the table, I silently answered the question I asked him after the Pizza and Piano night at the Center.

Do you think it's possible to learn to love again?

I do, Addy. I'll fix it for us.

I was now solidly in the yes, it's possible column. You could learn to love again, and although it might not be the same as it was, that was probably a good thing since the way it had been had led to a breakdown.

"What?" Challen asked, his eyes taking in some expression that had crossed my face. "What's happening in your head right now?"

"I keep breaking the rule about wanting a nice weekend."

"Addy, we've been having the best time today, so you asking questions isn't going to ruin our time together. Ask whatever you want. Who knows? Maybe it'll even make tomorrow better."

"Hypothetically, suppose we get back together. What's to stop cracks from forming again?"

It wasn't until I asked the question that I realized there was a correct answer I was looking for, a specific reassurance I needed to hear. Just as I was about to retract it for being a bit unfair, Challen answered.

"I think there are always cracks forming in a marriage," he said. "We had huge cracks in ours, and I take the blame for not fixing them. You kept drawing my attention to them, but I wouldn't stop with my crazy hours at work, with my workouts and with all the time I spent with Jennifer."

"You were avoiding home."

"Hannah and I have talked about this. You're right, a lot of it was avoidance, plain and simple. Because we were fighting so much, Addy, and I didn't want to deal with that on top of all the anger and grief. I just...I just didn't want to have to feel anything."

"And you didn't feel anything for Jennifer?" I knew I'd brought this up before, but it was probably my biggest fear, and he knew exactly what kind of feelings I was asking about.

"No. Since I met you, you're the only woman I've felt anything for romantically. I don't want to be with anyone but you and that's never changed, even when we were at our lowest. The thought of anyone but you touching me turns my stomach."

"Tell me again what you talked about with her."

"With Jennifer, we talked about either work or our workouts -- bike paths we wanted to try, hiking trails, running times. Nothing more. You and I were fighting about work, and I was feeling like you didn't understand what kind of pressure I was under in my job to always perform, improve, innovate. Jennifer knew, so it was easy to talk to her about work expectations and ways to get our teams to meet the impossibly tight deadlines," Challen said. "You thought I was working to work, but I was working to keep proving my worth to the company. Five minutes after my team would hit the deadline for a major project, there was an attitude from the higher ups of...so, Challen, what new product are you going to create for us tomorrow?"