It was while she was debating with herself that she heard the front door close. Hurriedly shoving her feet into her slippers, Hannah rushed into the living room.
She reached the front window and parted the drapes in time to watch Riley climb into his friend Burt's battered blue pickup. Burt must have said something to Riley about seeing her at the window, because Riley's gaze reluctantly returned to the house.
Her heart demanded that she do something. Raise her hand in a gesture of farewell. Press her fingers to her lips in an effort to let him know he'd be missed. Something.
Hannah, however, did none of those things. Unshed tears burned her eyes, and still she stood there, wanting to blame him, blame herself for ever having agreed to this farce of a marriage. No more than a few seconds passed before the pickup pulled away and the opportunity was lost.
Two weeks into the training cruise, Riley was convinced he was the biggest heel who'd ever walked the face of the earth. If he'd plotted the ruin of his marriage, he couldn't have done it with any more expediency.
He'd wanted to talk over their problems with her before he shipped out, but a man has his pride. Everything he'd done or tried to do, she mistrusted. Okay, so he'd made a mistake by not telling her he had orders for the training cruise. Surely a man was allowed one small error in judgment. The least she could do was cut him some slack; he was new to this husband thing.
Not Hannah. Not his dear, sweet wife. She'd settle for nothing less than blood.
He'd made the mistake of viewing her as a timid soul. His wife, he soon learned, had more fight in her than some tigers. Misjudging her wasn't a mistake he planned on making again.
Personally, he didn't think withholding information from one's spouse was grounds for placing him in front of a firing squad. Hell, Hannah might as well shoot him for all the good he was doing the Navy. Riley had never felt emotionally lower in his life. It showed in his attitude and in everything he did. If this was the way matters went, he didn't know how the hell he was ever going to last---
Six weeks had never seemed so long to Hannah. Two of those weeks had slipped by with sluggish disregard for her remorse. Not an hour passed when she wasn't thinking about Riley, regretting the way they'd spent their last few days together. They'd wasted those precious hours when so much could have been resolved. Instead she was left to wait day after day, week after week, for his return just so she could tell him how terribly sorry she was.
They were both so damned proud, so damned stubborn. Neither one of them had been willing to give an inch. Their stubborn pride was like a cancer that had eaten away at their better judgment. Both were at fault. Above everything else what was troubling her was the knowledge that if they continued to feed the mistrust and the doubts, in time it would destroy them. There was too much at stake to play such cruel games with each other: their child's future, their future.