addictive. Yet she’d had to let him go in order to save him.
“Are you okay, Mommy?”
Tara turned her attention to Marley and smiled, though her throat burned with emotions. “Better now that you’re home.”
“Is Daddy okay? You guys seem kinda sad.”
Why were kids so in tune with their surroundings? Tara could tell Marley eight times to get her shoes on in the morning for school and her daughter would still shuffle around in her socks until the last minute. Yet here she was, picking up on the tension between her parents without a word being spoken on the topic.
Tara would have to work harder because, as much as she hated to admit it, Sam had been right. They had to pretend to be happily married, just like they had been.
Oh, they’d been so happy. They’d been that sickening couple who held hands in public, who sent lovey-dovey texts throughout the day, who woke up holding each other after making love and falling asleep in each other’s arms. They’d had their occasional disagreements, but nothing they hadn’t been able to overcome.
Until addiction crept in and they couldn’t overcome.
“Mommy?”
Tara smoothed Marley’s hair away from her face and tapped on her daughter’s nose. “What do you say we binge-watch your favorite movies all day? We’ll have your favorite foods, too.”
“Well, Dad is already making tacos, so that only leaves pizza for lunch.”
“Pizza it is,” Sam stated, coming into the room juggling three bowls of strawberry ice cream. “I’ll go out and get the stuff and you can help me make it.”
“Deal,” Marley squealed as she took her ice cream. “Are both of you off today?”
Sam’s eyes met Tara’s. He offered a smile and a wink. “I took time off to be with my family.”
Those last two words nearly gutted Tara. Sam seemed a little too settled into this temporary role and they’d only been faking it a few hours. How would she survive the rest of this farce?
More important, what would happen when Marley remembered that her father didn’t actually live here anymore? How would she react to reliving her dog dying, her father leaving? The first time had been crushing to her sweet girl. She’d had nightmares, worried something would happen to her daddy because he wasn’t home where he should be. Tara had just gotten Marley sleeping through the night again.
Tara didn’t like the lies already mounting. Nothing about this was okay. Nothing.
After they finished their ice cream, Tara sent Marley to her room to get her favorite pillow, blanket and stuffed animal for movie time. Once she was out of earshot, Tara crossed to the mantel and adjusted some of the photos to give her hands something to do.
“I lived with half-truths and flat-out lies for too long,” she started. “I don’t like this, Sam.”
His boots shuffled on the hardwood floor and she tensed as he moved closer. But he didn’t reach for her.
“I don’t like lying to her, either,” Sam agreed. “But we have to trust the doctors. Telling her about an entire year will only confuse her and hurt her even more. Do you want her to relive that all over again? And then again when she really remembers it?”
Tara pulled in a deep breath and turned to face him. “She’ll have to relive it at some point and I think it’s better coming from us than to have her smacked in the face with a blindsided thought.”
“Not today.” He took another step forward until he was too close. “Today, let’s be the family she needs.”
“And the family you want?”
The muscles in his jaw clenched. “I can’t change the past, Tara. But I can sure as hell make the future better for all of us.”
She’d never heard him speak with such conviction. Before he’d entered rehab, Sam had begged her to give him another chance, but she’d been all out and knew if she didn’t push him away, he’d never get better. She simply couldn’t risk letting him in again. Not into her heart, not into her bed.
Since he’d gotten out of rehab, he’d been the epitome of a gentleman and she wasn’t sure if that pleased her and made her life easier or if it irritated the hell out of her because she couldn’t figure out his angle. She thought he wanted her back, but he’d never said the words. He was just always present in one way or another.
Damn it. Her nerves were utterly shot.
“You need to sign those papers.”
Sam opened his mouth, but Marley came into the room and dropped her stuff right at their feet.
“Can we watch cooking shows instead of movies?” she asked, looking between her parents, completely oblivious to the turmoil.
Well, she hadn’t been oblivious. Marley knew something was up, but Tara vowed to make sure her daughter didn’t suspect anything was wrong from here on out.
“Of course,” Sam replied. “Then maybe you can make dinner.”
“No way. You promised me tacos and I want corn cakes to go with it.”
Sam ruffled Marley’s hair. “You’re lucky I love you.”
And he did. Above all else, Sam loved Marley like she was his very own. He had from the moment he’d come into their lives. Even during his treatment, he’d made sure Marley knew he would be okay.
But he couldn’t be the man she’d married. He would never be that man again and for that reason alone Tara had had to come to grips with the fact they were over.
Playing house was not helping her already battered heart and this was only the beginning.
“Where’s the picture when we were skiing?”
Sam stilled in the recliner across the room from Marley. Tara had gone into the other room to call Kate and Lucy since they kept texting and were worried.
“Which one?” he asked, knowing full well which photo she referred to.
There was only one that had been displayed on the mantel before. The ski trip had been one of their first getaways as a family.
Marley paused the television show as the chef set the dessert on fire. Sam watched as she slid from her makeshift bed on the sofa and crossed to the mantel. The same photos Tara had fiddled with earlier were spread across the top of it. Sam had noticed some were missing, but he hadn’t said a word earlier. This was no longer his house, and as much as his obvious absence hurt him, he had no right to question Tara. She’d had to move on; she’d had to cope however was best for her.
“It always sat right here.” Marley pointed to a spot where a decorative black lantern now sat. “It’s my favorite family picture because we had that lady take it right
