Read Online Let It Go by Brooklyn James - Free Book Online

says, her tone calm and detached. “You want your hand to end up like your foot?” She references a past argument where he kicked a tree, resulting in his foot finding its new home inside a boot cast for six weeks. “Or your phone?” she continues. “How many phones have you been through in the past year?” Seemingly one of his recently acquired venting mechanisms, slamming his phone against the ground.
    “Savannah, don’t patronize me.” He paces the sidewalk. “At least I care, which is more than I can say for you.”
    “Then why are you here? If I am so uncaring, unloving…incapable of giving you want you want, then you should be jumping for joy that we are divorced. Go. Go find what you want. Who you want.” She throws her arms out to her sides.
    “I’m never going to find anyone like you. Don’t you get that?” He stops pacing, facing her. “I didn’t want any of this.” He speaks to his resistance to the separation, divorce.
    “I didn’t want it either, Jack,” her voice softens. “It’s just sometimes what we want and what we need are two different things.”
    “I told you, you never really needed me. I knew it,” he deflects yet again. “You’re going to go on, just fine. You’ll be great.” He kicks at a pebble on the sidewalk. “My life sucks.”
    Savannah huffs, the inside of her palm slapping lightly against her forehead. “And here we go,” she says. “You’ve been saying that now for the past three years. If your life sucks and you’re married to me, what message am I supposed to take away from that?”
    “I don’t know,” he answers sarcastically. “How about sticking with me. Hanging in there. Seeing it through. That’s what you do when you get married, Savannah.”
    She chuckles, the action completely opposite of the contempt in her voice. “Why didn’t I think of that,” she spars. “What do you call the last three years, Jack? You weren’t open to therapy. I can’t make you have a better outlook on life. I can’t make you change the way you perceive and react to things. The only thing I can control is me and my reaction. I’m done. I’ve had it up to here.” She throws her hand up over her head.
    “You know I have a lot of issues. My childhood. My parents’ divorce. Anybody I’ve ever loved has walked out on me, Savannah. I never thought you’d be in that category.”
    She shrugs her shoulders, quieting the urge to point out his exhausting poor-pitiful-me focus. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m sorry I’ve hurt you, really, I am. I don’t know what else to say.” She pauses. “I mean, the only thing I know, if you don’t like where you’re at in your life, it’s up to you to change it. I want you to be happy, Jack.”
    “Have you told your family? Your mom? Your sisters? About the divorce.” He asks, knowing they all like him and treat him as one of their own. “Bet they’re not too happy about it,” he bites on her word.
    “No, they’re not,” she says. “I don’t think divorce is something people get elated about.”
    “What about the kids? Vangie’s kids…Zoey and Luka.”
    “You’ll always be Uncle Jack to them. You can see them anytime you want. Vangie and Payton.” She smiles with the mention, hoping Jack’s friendship with Vangie’s husband will give him something to look forward to. “Payton will still expect to see you for the monthly poker game, nights out with the boys, golfing tournaments. All the good stuff. You and I, our status doesn’t change any of that.”
    “What about your mama?” he continues, still playing the family card, hoping it’s enough to guilt her into changing her mind.
    “You’re always welcome at Mama’s.” She drops her chin to her chest, remorsefully. “Mama was really hoping we could work things out.” Returning her eyes to his, Savannah persists, “She’ll always consider you her son-in-law. And she told me to be sure to tell you, ‘Don’t be a stranger.’ You’re