Read Online Enchanted Heart by Felicia Mason - Free Book Online Page B

remotely odd? What the hell is wrong with us?”
    She leaned forward, tucking her legs under her. “I don’t know, Cole. Maybe we’re too wrapped up in other things to focus our primary concern and energy on us, with each other.”
    She watched him chew on that for a bit. He shrugged and Sonja was struck with how defeated the gesture appeared. This past year had been tough on him. She’d tried to be supportive, but her own company needed tending as much, if not more, than Cole’s ego.
    â€œLance thinks we worship money.”
    Sonja smiled, indulgent. “The Lance who has a shrine to the female breast in his living room? The Lance whose only serious relationships are with his tailor and masseuse?”
    Cole laughed. “That sculpture is modern art.”
    â€œNaked breasts,” Sonja maintained with a smile.
    She realized then that they’d done it again. Deflected the issue by steering clear of the areas where the hurt might sneak in. It was always easier to laugh and joke about little things, unimportant things. This time though, Cole guided them back to the subject at hand.
    â€œSo, if we still lo . . .” he cleared his throat. “Care for each other, but we both want to focus on other things, where does that leave us? I’m about to head to Brazil for at least six weeks, probably longer. You won’t come with me.”
    â€œCan’t come with you,” she interjected.
    He shrugged. “It’s all the same. You’ll be here. I’ll be there.”
    â€œWhat about if we go to a marriage . . . ?”
    Cole stomped over to his side of the bed and snatched open a drawer. He pulled out his antacids.
    Sonja didn’t even bother arguing with him about them.
    â€œI’m not sitting in some therapist’s office spilling my guts about how awful my parents were. I already know how awful they are. So do you. If it hadn’t been for my mother I wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”
    Just that fast they were back to Cole and the stores. What happened to the man she’d married? The one ever solicitous of her needs, who cared about her dreams and goals?
    And just what had happened to her?
    She’d tried to get him to see a therapist to work out some of the issues that lingered from both his childhood and his tenure as CEO of Heart Federated. Now Sonja wondered if he’d just revealed something he’d rather have kept to himself. Did he blame Virginia for his uneasiness and uncertainty about the Brazil project?
    â€œYou could have accepted the offer from Knight and Kraus,” she told him. “You could have had a seat on the board and a division to run.”
    Coleman snorted. “I was running the entire company. I was president and chairman of Heart.”
    â€œBut you’re not anymore,” Sonja snapped.
    â€œYou enjoy pointing that out, don’t you?”
    â€œNo, Cole. Actually, I don’t. What I’m pointing out is that the past is gone. You have now. Not then. And, for your information, I wasn’t going to say a marriage counselor.” She reached for the novel she’d been attempting to read and plucked from a page in the back a piece of newsprint. “This was in the newspaper,” she said, handing it to him. She didn’t add that her mother had dropped it off, a not-so-subtle suggestion that Sonja and Cole could use some help in the relationship department.
    He didn’t move to take the proffered paper. “What is it?”
    â€œA couples retreat. Rekindling the Fire.”
    This time, Cole’s snort was even more derisive.
    Sonja pursed her lips and let the clipping fall to the bed.
    She was tired of the conversation that went around in circles, constantly returning to Cole’s needs. And she’d long since grown weary of having a marriage without emotional intimacy.
    For years she’d run the Pride Group, her consulting firm. Everything she