A part of her hated him for having told her the truth that day and fracturing her belief that their life together was rock solid. For plunging them into this black vortex of anger, grief and shame. But for the first time since that day, she heard the torment in his voice. Something in her softened.

“I never thought I’d say this, but hearing it from you was better than hearing it from anyone else.”

“Thank you.” Gratitude played in the hollows of his cheeks. “Libs, when we lost Dom, we both fell apart. I don’t think either of us had anything left over to help the other. I want us to learn how to do that so we’re never lost in this hell hole again.”

Panic joined the flood of emotions rolling around inside her. If they went to this workshop, her thoughts and actions would be exposed, examined and judged. “I bought a new book yest—”

“No more books! Right now, we’re treading water. Something has to change or we may as well call it a day.”

Her mouth dried. “You really want to spend a weekend with strangers?”

“No. But I’m desperate and I think we should try. It says we’ll be taught ways to bring back the trust. That sounds pretty bloody good to me.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

He sighed. “Can we focus on now instead of trying to predict the future?”

She couldn’t argue with that—it was the same approach she’d been operating on for weeks. “I guess.”

“Please.” He reached his hands toward her. “We owe it to ourselves and the kids to do something that will help us live happy lives again.”

The kids, not the girls. And just like that, they were back to where they’d started. Leo was never going away. “And your interpretation of us being happy involves you seeing Leo?”

“Us seeing Leo.”

“I can’t do that.”

Anguish creased his face. “You just said you wanted to try.”

“I do. I want us to be happy again, but don’t push me too fast, Nick. I need more time. Can’t we concentrate on fixing us first?”

“I want to say yes, but if we don’t agree to some sort of access arrangement, I don’t trust Jess not to carry out her threat and tell the girls. I don’t want that to happen. I want them to hear it from us.”

The thought of telling the girls made her gag. “I hate that she has the power!”

“So we take it back.”

“How? I don’t particularly want to explain to Lucy that you had sex with that woman.”