Read Online Contingency (Covenant of Trust) by Paula Wiseman - Free Book Online Page B

commanded. “Bobbi is afraid that you’re through with the marriage. If she knows there’s something to save, she’d be willing to give you another chance.”
    “You think so?” Chuck lifted a little.
    “Yes, but ...”
    “I knew it. There’s always a ‘but’.”
    “Yes, but,” Ann repeated, “you’re going to have to drop that Molinsky ‘I know everything—I can do it all myself’ attitude. That might work in the courtroom, but not in this situation.”
    “I know.”
    “There you go again with the ‘I know.’ Son, you don’t have this kind of humility in you. God is going to have to give it to you.”
    Chuck thought of his resistance to going before the church and his simmering anger at Gavin for speaking the truth to him. His mother nailed him. With Phil last night, he prayed out of humiliation, not humility. The discovery embarrassed him far more than the sin shamed him.
    “Phil wants me to go before the church and confess this.”
    “Then you should do it. Give up the fight, Chuck, or you’re going to lose your family.”
    *******
    “ Have you got a few minutes now?”
    Chuck looked up from his desk and saw Bobbi standing in the doorway of the study. He didn’t, but she said she needed to talk days ago and he’d put her off. “Sure. What’s on your mind?”
    She frowned, and slipped a hand across her belly. The baby was kicking again. “Can we ... I don’t want the desk in between us.”
    He laid his pen down and walked around the desk. “Is everything okay?”
    “ Yeah ... It’s just ... The baby will be here in a few months.”
    “ You’re gonna be a great mother.” He took her hand and smiled.
    “ That’s just it.” She pulled her hand back. Her eyes darted past him, then to the floor. “Chuck ... I’m ... I want to stay home with the baby. I’m not going to look for a teaching job for the fall.”
    “ What?” Her words stung like a slap in the face. “After everything you’ve worked for? Why would you throw that away?” This was crazy.
    “ I’m not throwing it away.”
    “ Yes, you are! What brought this on? Did you have a bad day at school or something?”
    “ You don’t give me any credit at all. Just because I’m not a lawyer ...”
    “ That’s ridiculous. I’m upset because you made this decision just like that!” He snapped his fingers. “Without even talking to me about it.”
    “ I beg your pardon! I’ve tried to talk to you about this for three months! You’re never here, and when you are here, you’re holed up in this study! I feel like your roommate, not your wife.”
    “ I have some ambition. I’m not going to apologize for that.”
    “ And I do, too!”
    “ Not like you should!” He lowered his voice and took a long deep breath. “You’re brilliant, for crying out loud. I don’t know anybody that finished their undergraduate degree in three years, and you’re wasting that reading Clifford the Big Dog all day long. You belong in medical school, or in a research lab or something. At the very least, you should be looking at being a principal.”
    “ It’s not about me. This our child. He’s a gift God’s entrusting to us.”
    “ I realize that.”
    “ But you don’t think he’s worth my time?”
    “ Anybody can change diapers and wipe noses. Anybody can sing the ABC song. You should be doing more. My mom’s around. She’s already asked me what we’re doing with the baby.”
    “ And what’d you tell her?”
    “ I told her we haven’t made a final decision. And we haven’t.”
    “ I have.”
    “ This is an epic mistake. I’m not going to go along with this.”
    “ Then divorce me.”
    He waved a hand at her. “That’s your hormones talking.”
    “ You’re insufferable.” She turned and walked out of the study.
    He groaned. Why was she making this so difficult? He didn’t have time for this today, but he knew better than to let her walk away. “There’s no way you’re gonna convince me you really want me to