Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
“I married Cam for all the wrong reasons,” she continues. “We had such similar backgrounds, grew up with the same struggles, even survived similar traumas, but in the end, none of that kept us together.”
“So what does make it work?”
“This will sound like an oversimplified answer.” She leans forward, her eyes serious. “But it’s love. I love Walsh more than I knew I could love anything, and I’m absolutely confident he feels the same way about me.”
She laughs, dipping and shaking her head, dark hair caressing her shoulder.
“Me, the girl who comes from nothing and no one, who doesn’t even know her parents, ended up with a guy who comes from everything and a family that everyone knows.”
“It didn’t make sense to me either,” I tease.
“I still pinch myself sometimes, that this is my life.” She waves her hand around the don’t-be-fooled-by-the-quaint expensively outfitted kitchen. “Not all this. These are trappings. This isn’t my life. My life is that man who works harder than anyone I’ve ever met, but tries to make it home in time to tuck in our girls. He doesn’t always make it, but he wants to. He wants this life with me.”
“But how does it work?”
“Because we want it to.” She twists her wedding band and ring. “Because it has to. He’s more important to me than I am to me, and I’m more important to him than he is to himself. We find ways to put each other first and to—even though we’re so different—value the things that matter to the other. To make sure the other person is positioned to achieve what matters to them. Whether that’s me creating a home for our family so Walsh can focus intensely on Bennett Enterprises, or him supporting my ventures and loving me unconditionally, making sure I’m fulfilled, too.”
Her sweet mouth takes on a hard curve.
“I know what it’s like being in a bad marriage with someone who makes perfect sense.” She shakes her head. “Give me the challenges of making it work with someone who makes absolutely no sense, but I can’t live without. It’s that desperation that makes you fight for it because you realize you have no choice. The alternative is to be without Walsh, and I’ve done that. I found out that I can’t do it. Or at least I never want to again. It’s miserable, and you ache like half of you is missing. And it is missing because even though on the surface we’re vastly different, he has my heart.”
I’m not sure what to say. The concept of loving someone so much that I put them first is almost completely foreign to me. It’s not the operating system I saw in my parents’ marriage, or in any of the Upper East Side unions I saw growing up.
A plaintive cry comes across the monitor on the countertop. Kerris walks over and grabs it, turning the volume down.
“That’s Brooklin,” Kerris says. “And Harlim’ll be next.”
Sure enough another cry comes more faintly over the monitor she’s holding.
“Productivity is about to go down considerably.” Kerris smiles. “You’re welcome to stay for a while, though.”
“No, I’m sure you’re busy.” I stand and we head toward the foyer.
“Actually, it was nice talking to another adult.” Kerris pulls my coat from the coat tree in the corner. “With Mama Jess and Meredith still in Rivermont, and the girls consuming so much of my time, it’s been hard to connect here in the city.”
Mama Jess is like the mother Kerris never had, and Meredith is her best friend and co-owner of Déjà Vu, Kerris’s shop in North Carolina. I can imagine the transition into New York society without them has been challenging. I take my coat, meeting Kerris’s cautious glance with caution of my own.
“Maybe we could…” Kerris looks to the floor, then back up at me as the two cries, nearly indistinguishable from each other, reach us from upstairs.
When I don’t respond, but just stare at her blankly for a few seconds, she walks me to the door, a polite smile in place of the openness I’ve seen from her over the last hour. I would have bet my favorite pair of Loubs that we’d never be in this place, but I think we are. I think we’re going to be friends one day. I turn from the open door to face Kerris briefly, giving her a small smile.
“Hey, Kerris?”
She looks at me with raised eyebrows, half of her attention already up the stairs and in the nursery.
“Maybe we could.”
Our eyes hold for an extra second before she nods, smiles, and closes the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Trevor
Johannesburg is one of my favorite cites in the world. It’s gorgeous and cosmopolitan and sophisticated, but those aren’t the qualities that draw me to South Africa’s crown jewel. The dark, ugly shadow of apartheid could have defined this country forever. By all rights, it should have, but the courage and endurance of one unifying figure made something that seemed impossible a reality in a nation divided by hate and violence and prejudice—forgiveness. Of course it wasn’t just Nelson Mandela who abolished apartheid, but every revolution needs a hero, and he was theirs. He led this nation in a revolution of healing, showing the world that we don’t have to be defined by our mistakes. We can be redeemed. We can do better.