Point Hope by Kristen James Page B

now that I think back, it makes me wonder if that caused the distance in your marriage.”
    They were doctoring their tea, adding organic rock sugar. They had a routine. Each added sugar to her cup, stirred, and added more sugar. You had to get the exact right flavor, because it was so sweetly perfect when you did.
    “Different how?” Rosette asked, even though she knew. It was something she couldn’t do anything about, couldn’t change. She led the way into the living room, and they sat on the big couch, looking out the window at the ocean blanketed with incoming fog flitting through the tree tops.
    “He used to laugh and joke a lot. Like Mitch. He was confident, too. I remember all of us listening to his stories and how he’d joke around with Mitch. They had that running bet going about shooting hoops. Remember?”
    “Yeah.” But she didn’t like to. It hurt to think about happy times with Trey, back when he’d wanted her all the time. He would come through the door and pull her into a hug, chew on her neck like a wild mountain man, or sometimes he’d take her hand and twirl her . How was your day, Mrs. Sinclair? She finished the story for Angel: “When he finally came home, after he was wounded, he became quiet and preoccupied. I remember you and I actually talked about it. We thought he was healing emotionally, and that he’d come back to us.”
    Rosette was still waiting in some ways. In other ways she’d given up.
    They switched to less serious topics and sipped their way through the pot of tea, but that previous conversation kept playing in the back of Rosette’s mind. Another cry came over the baby monitor, and this time Hope woke up. They went upstairs together to get her.
    “What a pretty little princess!” Angel pulled her up into her arms.
    Rosette watched her and asked, “Do you ever wish you had more kids?”
    “After watching you? No. Oh, gosh, sorry! I didn’t mean anything, but no, I don’t think I could handle more than one.”
    Rosette could hardly remember what it was like to have just one. She stood lost in thought until she noticed Angel watching her.
    “You know,” Angel said, “Maybe we should try to get the guys together some time.”
    Maybe that’s what their marriage needed. They just needed to get “their” life back instead of running two separate lives.
    She thought about it even after Angel left as she walked with Hope and cooed at her. Somehow the opportunity hadn’t come up to tell Angel about the girl who walked by so often. Actually, she didn’t want to tell anyone—just in case Trey had something to do with that girl.
    She heard the car pull into the garage and then the kids’ happy voices. The door into the house burst open a minute later.
    “Mom! We saw a seal on the beach! And we went to Cranberry Sweets!”
    A twinge of jealousy zinged her. She hadn’t stopped by Cranberry Sweets for chocolates in a while.
    Candice plopped down next to Hope and started telling her about the beach. Jake pulled a seashell out of his pocket and held it out for inspection. That meant there was sand in those pockets as well, but that was typical.
    Trey came in behind the kids and handed her a big white bag. “They had grab bags again. I checked—it has all of your favorites.”
    She accepted the bag, too emotional to say thank you. It’d been a while since he’d brought her an impromptu gift…but maybe it was entirely the kids’ idea. They had probably asked to bring her back something. The bag had her favorite cranberry jelly candies, plain and covered in chocolate; the lemon meringue jellies she adored; and the raspberry cream chocolates. The store had jelly candy galore and everything a chocolate lover could want, and they always had free samples all over the store.
    Trey sat down next to her as the kids rushed out of the room. Candice said something about adding their new seashells to the picture. The “picture” was a big board where they glued all their beach