Weddings in the Family. Tessa McDermid

that he could ever tell her how he felt. Except for her “I love you” at the end of each conversation, Caroline never expressed any emotion and certainly never let him know that she missed him. He knew it was foolish, but his pride wouldn’t let him say that he missed her first.

      “When are you coming home tomorrow?” she asked after a detailed description of her open house the night before.

      He kicked off his running shoes. The phone had been ringing when he came in from his run and he had grabbed it before she hung up. “About tomorrow night—”

      “No!” she interrupted. “Nick, you don’t have to work late, do you?”

      He dropped his sweaty clothes on the floor and grabbed a towel off the rack, mopping up the sweat dripping from his forehead. “They’re having a picnic to introduce the new employees to the community. I’m expected to be there.”

      “Why didn’t they have it earlier? Your boss knew I was going back to Iowa.”

      “The picnic isn’t just for our company. The chamber puts it on every year to welcome any new employees that have been hired by the different businesses. They have it in the fall to include the new teachers. I have to be there, Caro. It’s a big deal around here.”

      “Fine. Can you leave after it’s over?”

      He wanted to. He’d planned to show up, eat a few hot dogs, chum around with the people he was starting to know by name and sight. Then leave and be home by midnight at the latest.

      “I don’t think so. There’s a dance, some speeches, lots of mingling. Most people don’t leave until around eleven, I’m told.” Too late to drive three and a half hours. Even if he wanted to see his wife after four days without her.

      “Can’t you explain you have to get home to your wife?”

      It was the closest she had come to saying she missed him in all of their phone conversations.

      “I wish I could, honey. I’ll leave first thing Saturday morning. I’ll be there before you wake up.” He would crawl into their bed, nuzzle the soft skin of her neck, wake her up just enough to rekindle those fires they had been burning all summer.

      Her sigh sounded over the line. “We have a fund-raiser for school. A car wash. I took the first shift, from nine to eleven, figuring I’d be there and back before you woke up.”

      He stretched out on the bed, the towel wrapped around his waist. “Then I’ll be waiting for you when you come home.”

      THE WEEKEND WAS BUSY. Except for several hours in bed after she came home from the car wash, her hair wet and her skin slippery and soapy from the kids’ antics, their time together was spent on household chores. He caught up on the bills, ran a few loads of laundry, helped her stop a leak in the shower. She made what she expected to be a quick trip to the grocery and ended up stuck in the weekend crowd. They had considered a movie but decided Saturday date night wouldn’t give them any privacy.

      “I’m coming to you,” she announced over the phone the next Wednesday. “When you come here, you work on the house. I want to have you all to myself, no chores.”

      “About this weekend—”

      “What this time?” Her voice was resigned.

      “We have a retreat to determine the direction for the new year. Mr. Abbott is coming himself.” The boss had been in communication with him during the summer months, but this was the first time he had shown up at the office since Nick’s move.

      “I’ll come home next weekend, no matter what,” he added.

      Her long sigh echoed over the line. “All right. I can’t go two weeks without you, Nick.”

      The longing in her voice warmed his heart. They might not say how much they missed each other, but he knew the need was there. He felt it every night when he crawled into his lonely bed.

      THE RETREAT WAS DEEMED a success, Mr. Abbott calling him aside to praise the work he was doing. Nick was certain the business would continue to thrive if they took advantage of the growth spurt that was happening in the town. He was in daily contact with the home-builders’ association, working with the contractors developing new neighborhoods. He had heard a rumor that a large company was considering the area for its latest factory and he was following up on that possibility. Abbott’s Heating and Air could benefit from both the new factory construction and employee housing that would be needed.

      He missed talking with Caroline about the progress that was being made. After the first month and the arrival of their phone bill, they had curtailed the long evening phone calls in favor of shorter calls each morning. He’d call and wake her up, they’d chat for a few minutes, and then both rush off to get ready for their day.

      Little talk had gone on during the two weekends he made it home. He had tossed in a load of laundry and they had jumped into bed. Once, Caroline had started to tell him about her latest workshop, but he had been distracted by the movement of her lips and they had fallen back into bed, surfacing only when it was time for him to leave.

      “Come down next weekend,” he urged at the end of September. He had an important meeting on Friday with the factory manager that would no doubt last late into the night. If she drove to Wheeler, they could salvage the rest of the weekend. “I’ll make sure nothing interrupts our time on Saturday. We’ll hide away from the rest of the world,” he whispered into the phone. “Have that affair you talked about.”

      “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing when you come back here?”

      He laughed and then glanced around the small space he was calling home. The current state of his apartment couldn’t be further from a secret love nest. Clothes from his week were spread on the chairs and couch. His running shoes and shorts trailed a path to the bathroom. Papers from the current project were piled on the dinette table and chairs. Dirty dishes littered the small sink, and old newspapers were stacked against the overflowing trash can.

      He had a week to clean up or she would leave him for being a slob.

      “Just come,” he begged. His adrenaline over winning the bid for the factory’s heating and air-conditioning systems threatened to overtake him and he needed to release steam. With his wife.

      He arrived home late Thursday after an intense meeting with the department heads. Hammering out their figures before the next day’s meeting meant the team worked through dinner. He was confident the final negotiations would go well for both parties.

      Now he needed to spend some quality time with his apartment. The days had blended into the nights and the mess had grown. He planned to crank up some rock and roll and get down to the dirty business of straightening the place before Caroline saw that their love nest had deteriorated into a sloppy bachelor pad.

      Whistling, he walked up the two steps to his front door, his tie loosened and the top button of his shirt undone. The suits were the worst part of his day. Who had ever decided a man needed a cord tied around his neck to be successful? He stuck the key in the door and pushed it open.

      “Surprise!” Caroline jumped from the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck.

      He staggered and caught the edge of the door to keep his balance. “What are you doing here?”

      She blinked and he shook his head, sorry his voice had sounded so rough. “I didn’t mean it that way.” He dropped his tie and hooked an arm around her neck, tugging her close. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”

      “I gathered that.” Her voice was dry and he glanced around the room.

      She had washed and dried the dishes, putting them away in the open cupboards that flanked the kitchen window. His clothes were gone from the various places he had flung them each night. The covers on the bed were smoothed down and he saw a wad of bedding in the hamper. She had even changed the sheets.

      He sat down on the couch, keeping her close to him. The citrusy