Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6)(23)
Author: Brenda Novak

Reenie was coming down the hall. Still preoccupied and anxious to be gone, Isaac turned expectantly toward the entrance of the room, then caught what she was saying into the phone. “No, it’ll be better as a surprise. Just a minute…”

Dread filled Isaac as she appeared.

“Guess who I have on the phone?” she said brightly.

“Who?” he replied. But he had a sinking feeling he already knew.

KEITH’S BLOOD RAN COLD the moment he heard the man on the other end of the phone. It was Isaac. He instantly recognized his brother-in-law’s voice and could hardly speak for the fear that seized him.

“Wh-what are you d-doing in Dundee?” he asked. He didn’t know what else to say. Isaac was supposed to be in Phoenix, golfing this week. How could he have discovered Reenie?

“It’s over, Keith,” Isaac said simply. “It’s all over.”

Keith stared bleakly at the other parents in the gymnasium who were watching Mica’s gymnastics class. Before he’d withdrawn to return Reenie’s “urgent” message, he’d been talking and laughing with them. He’d been one of them, no different. Now they seemed so far removed from him. “What do you mean?” he whispered. “What’s over? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” On one level, the significance of finding Isaac at his house in Dundee registered; on another it didn’t. The idea of Isaac standing in the same room as Reenie was too horrible to contemplate.

“Of course you do.” Isaac’s voice came through low and somber. “I’m looking at your wedding picture right now.”

“I—oh, God, Isaac, please. What have you told Reenie?”

“Nothing. I wanted to talk to you and Elizabeth first. But…I wasn’t expecting…Now I can’t—”

“You’ll hurt them both,” he interrupted. “You know that, don’t you? Stay out of it. Leave it alone.”

“I can’t do that.”

Panic shredded Keith’s nerves. “Think of the damage you’ll do!”

“You caused this, Keith, not me.”

The heavy sadness that permeated those words stole Keith’s breath. He would have felt better if Isaac had ranted and raved or screamed at him. This unyielding response gave him no room to cajole or justify. “I have kids,” he said helplessly.

“I know. That makes the situation even worse, doesn’t it? Anyway, I’d—I’d rather not talk about it now. I’m coming to Los Angeles tomorrow. I’ll call you when I get in. Make sure you’re available.”

Keith could’ve sworn he had a steel ball crushing his chest. Reenie. What must she be thinking? He could hear her in the background, her voice rising as she demanded to know what was going on.

If Isaac told her, Keith knew she’d never forgive him. They’d been together for eleven years. She’d see what he’d done as the worst kind of betrayal. No one would understand how each decision had been forced by the one before it. “You have to let me explain.”

“I’d like you to do that, Keith. I really would. I can’t help hoping there is an explanation. Because Elizabeth doesn’t deserve this. From what I can tell, Reenie doesn’t deserve it, either. They’ve both been good…” Keith waited for him to say wives and felt a bead of sweat trickle down from his temple. Fortunately, Reenie spoke at that moment, and Isaac veered away from using that word. “They’ve been good to you.”

“I—I didn’t mean for it to end up this way. You have to believe me. Think of your sister and Mica and Christopher. Certainly you love them as much as I do.”

“Don’t try to manipulate me,” Isaac warned.

Keith felt like a drowning man clawing at the slippery rocks of a canyon wall. “I couldn’t walk away from them, Isaac. I—I didn’t know how to tell them. How could I?”

“You should’ve found a way.”

“Don’t get involved, please? Stay out of it.”

“It’s too late.”

“No! I’ll make up something to explain this to Reenie.”

“Keith—”

“Give me the phone!” It was Reenie, sounding almost hysterical.

God… “It would be better to leave things as they are,” Keith said, his words coming much faster than usual. “Believe me, I think about the situation all the time, searching for a way out. There isn’t one. Not now. Maybe when the kids are older—”

“Are you joking?” Isaac interrupted. “You should’ve told the truth from the beginning. You—”

Suddenly Reenie came on the line, sounding as breathless and panicked as he felt. “Keith, what’s happening? Who is Isaac? Why is he here?”

“Honey, I…I love you. I’m coming home. Do you hear me? Don’t do anything until I get there. I’m coming home. I’ll quit my job. Right now. Buy you the farm as soon as I get there. I won’t leave Dundee again. I promise, okay?”

There was a terrified silence as these words sank in. “Keith, what have you done? It’s something that will tear our family apart, isn’t it?”

“Not if we don’t let it, honey.”

“There’s another woman?”

He cringed at the high pitch of her voice. “There’s no other woman for me, Reenie. Just you. I promise. I’m coming. I’ll explain everything,” he said. But how? He’d lied to her for nine years. He had other children to support, other responsibilities. He’d been sleeping with another woman half of every month, a woman who depended on him as much as she did.

A pain-filled cry came through the phone. It traveled through him like a shard of glass. The cover-up was over. He’d known it had to end soon. He was exhausted and had been for the past several years. But not like this….

Maybe once he was back in Dundee he could convince Reenie that it had all been a terrible mistake. If she realized the dilemma he’d faced, maybe she’d forgive him. Reenie was an unusual woman, stronger than most. She’d stay with him for the sake of their girls, right? Which might give him enough time to resurrect their relationship. As much as he loved Elizabeth and Mica and Christopher, he’d known all along that it couldn’t last forever.

Wiping the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve, he tried not to think about them. They’d be devastated. He’d be devastated, too. He already was. But he had no choice now, except to let them go. He’d send them money. Reenie would have to allow that much. The court would mandate it. Eventually, he’d find relief in knowing he had nothing left to hide.