First the door was nudged open just a crack—just enough to reach him right where he was most vulnerable. That voice in his head started to tell him it wasn’t fair that he was being put in this position. After all, he was a man who had achieved a great deal from humble beginnings, and now he had to worry that his partner in life might be going off the deep end. Other men didn’t have to put up with such things and, frankly, he deserved a better life than he had at the moment. His marriage was feeling less like a marriage every day; he shouldn’t have to wait forever for Carolyn to get back to her old self. As it so happened, recently someone had come into his life who appreciated him, admired him for his success, and was cheerful and fun-loving. He didn’t mention it to anyone, but she began popping into his mind more and more often.

Mitch couldn’t deny his attraction to Jennifer Brueuer, the young vice president of marketing for the Superfood Supermart. To a man, the guys were gaga over the clever, slender blonde with the dry British wit and fashionable outfits. They would all smile slyly to one another and yuck it up like schoolboys whenever Jennifer walked out of the room, though she was way ahead of them and accustomed to that sort of reaction from the boys. Mitch imagined she had a special fondness for him. Whether she did, or whether she was playing him—getting her way when it came to important design decisions or other areas where Mitch would normally assert his authority—it didn’t matter. He felt powerful when Jennifer would clap with glee and peck him on the cheek when the big man caved in to one of her requests.

So it wasn’t surprising that, increasingly, he enthusiastically anticipated his West Coast trips. It was all harmless, after all, and he deserved a break from the cloud that had descended over his home in Chesterland. At one point, for an instant, it dawned on him that he was thinking the same sorts of things Danny had mentioned that day they built the deck—that stuff about just pointing your car in some new direction and driving off to a new life. But he quickly dismissed that thought for the nonsense it was.

Lately, he felt that if he and Carolyn weren’t talking about the kids or the bills or some upcoming social obligation, they didn’t really have much to say. Then somehow things would come back to the events in Akron. The concept of the two of them just having fun seemed totally alien. Even his father-in-law noticed something was wrong.