A Couple is Three: The Beginning (book 1 & 2 Completed)

Chapter 48 - Jason and Sherry

Sherry stood in the archway into their living room. She had been looking all over the house for Jason. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since supper. Now that Bryan was in bed, and Josh, Jake, and Samantha were in Jake's room watching a movie, she hoped that she would be able to get him to talk.

She watched him from the archway as he stood tall and proud looking out the living room window at the garden that he had had planted for her. The windows in this room faced west, bathing the room in the glow of the setting sun.

Her breath hitched. Even after eight years of marriage, she still couldn't believe how lucky she was. Her life had not been a pleasant one for most of it. She had been born on a reserve to a Native mother who had returned home pregnant after her affair with a married white man had dissolved when his wife's cancer had miraculously went into remission.

Her father had stayed a part of her life, but the loss of him from her mother's life, and life on the reserve had worn her mother down for a few years. By the time that she had turned ten, her mother had returned back to normal and was making a name for herself as an up and coming leader, not only on the reserve, but within the First Nations community as a whole. It all came to a tragic end when she was fifteen. Her mother had been in Ottawa representing the First Nations people at a meeting with Canadian government when she was struck and killed by a drunk driver.

Life became unbearable for Sherry, staying on the reserve an impossibility. Her mixed heritage was a perfect excuse for those who had resented the fact that her mother had had a life outside and they started to harass her.

Thankfully her father came to her rescue. He was in politics, but he never made her feel like she was a dirty secret. He had truly loved her mother and had never wanted to hurt her. Neither one had started the affair with any intentions of having one. It was just what happened when two friends, facing the idea that they were losing or had lost someone important to them, turned to each other for comfort.

The only problem with moving to Winnipeg at fifteen, was that her stepmother did not like having the reminder that her husband had only stayed with her because he didn't believe in divorce. Their marriage had not been based on love, but instead had been a business and political arrangement orchestrated by her grandparents.

Her stepmother wasn't abusive physically, but emotionally and mentally, she made Sherry feel every ounce of her mixed heritage.

To try to smooth things over and to protect Sherry, her father sent her to a private high school with residential facilities in Winnipeg. This way they could still see each other, but she would be out from under her step-mother.

Life was both worse and better there, but it did give her a great education. She received a full scholarship to the University of Alberta and completed her bachelor's degree before moving on to her Master's. It was while she was working on her Master's degree that she literally ran into Jason at a bar.

He had been so kind and helpful. She had fallen for him immediately. Before she knew it, she was living back in Manitoba, a wife, a stepmother to three boys, and loving every minute of it.

She walked into the room, her eyes never leaving Jason. She watched him, but he never moved to acknowledge her. His eyes never left the view outside. She wondered from the look on his face if he was even seeing it.

She stood beside him without eliciting a comment. She reached out and touched his arm causing him to jump. "Honey, what has you so tied up knots?" she murmured.

He put his hand on top of hers as he smiled down at her. His life had changed for the better when he met her. He thought that he had been in love with his first wife, but meeting Sherry has proven that he hadn't truly known what love was. He couldn't find himself feeling any regret though since he had three wonderful sons from his mistake.