“And on the seat belt. Then you get out and the seat belt goes back in—”

“I get it.”

“And then you have to get out of the car and it’s leaking everywhere cuz you had a bowl of cereal—”

“Sophie.”

She crossed her arms and hefted a challenging stare at me. “Jason cleaned it up. All of it. While I was inside crying, taking a shower, he ran the washer and cleaned every crevice of my car. So two questions—is Aiden the type of guy who’d do that for you, and would you let him? If the answer is no to either one, you might want to rethink what love really means.”

“Love means cleaning puke?”

She rolled her eyes and her lips twitched. “I know Aiden’s stupid rich and can pay for the car to get cleaned, or just buy you a new one, but you know what I mean.” She hooked her arm in mine again and dragged me back toward my parents’ house. “Just something to think about. There’s nothing like being with someone who knows the good, the bad, and the smelly. Marriage can be really smelly.” She wrinkled her nose. “Motherhood is smellier.”

I laughed with her, but my mind whirled. I thought I’d been oblivious to my unhappiness, but the family I didn’t spend nearly enough time with had seen it. That wasn’t Aiden’s fault.

Did you tell him that? Mom’s simple question the day I’d served him papers.

I’d been hung up on the trust and how little time he spent with me. I’d ruminated on how different or alike than my dad Aiden was. But the truth was I didn’t know as much about my husband as I should by now. And I had some responsibility in this failing marriage too.

CHAPTER 7

Aiden

I walked into the gymnasium that Randall was using for the tournament. His club headquarters was in a room just off the gym, part of a larger community center. He’d started the wrestling club decades ago. Kate said that was how he’d met her mom. Sharon used to clean the center. After they married, she’d brought Jason in for his first lesson and the rest was history.

This weekend’s tournament was smaller than most. Only two other clubs had come to town. Randall liked to supplement the season with shorter tournaments that meant the kids wrestled more and sat on the mat waiting to wrestle less.

I stood out in my work clothes, but I was used to that. Still, I should’ve brought something to change into. My suit jacket was in the pickup, but my steel-gray shirt and black slacks didn’t mix with the jeans and sweatshirts of everyone else. Normally, I didn’t waste energy on thinking about this stuff, but today I wanted to blend. I wanted to be Uncle Aiden and not the CFO.