Read Online Robin's Reward (Bonita Creek Trilogy Book 1) by June McCrary Jacobs - Free Book Online Page B

smirk on his face, Thomas responded, “You didn’t really expect this marriage of convenience to last forever, did you?  Let’s face it—the marriage served its purpose for the both of us. We saved a lot of money by living together in married student housing. I really lucked out you worked so hard to put me through school so I could earn my degree. You slaved away so I didn’t have to work at a paying job all this time. You never even complained about the unfairness of it all, dear wife. You were so oblivious and gullible.”
    She was sobbing quietly by this time as her husband continued his ranting. “Do you want to know what the best parts of this marriage have been for me? I had really good financial support, top-notch maid service, and a warm, cozy bed partner for the past two years. It’s time for me to move on. You’ll get over me soon enough.”
    Not content to leave without a tossing out a parting barb, he continued, “Since it’s so important to you to be in a Christ-centered relationship you should probably wake up and realize it’s doubtful you’ll ever find another Christian man to marry you since you’re ‘soiled’ goods. You would be some man’s ‘recycled’ wife, and any guy with an ounce of pride isn’t going to choose someone like you who has a losing record at keeping your husband happy.”
    Thomas laughed cruelly in her tear-stained face as he left their apartment abruptly, slamming the door forcefully for added dramatic effect.
    Astonishment, shock, sorrow, and abandonment were a few of the raw emotions Robin experienced. The pain was so intense she feared she was having a heart attack. She later learned she’d experienced a major panic attack that night.
    She slid down to the floor and cried until she had no tears left to shed. Then she prayed. She prayed God would intervene with Thomas’s thinking and make him return to her soon. She asked God to make her a better wife. She prayed Thomas would love her as she loved him. When she finally prayed for God to give her peace and comfort, she felt a powerful serenity wash over her soul.
    Later in the evening when she’d composed herself a bit, she found the bakery box lying on the table. She opened its lid to face a freshly-baked dried apple pie, her husband’s favorite. At Robin’s request, the head cook at the diner had written a frosting message on the pie’s upper crust. The text was surrounded by a red frosted heart: “Happy 2nd Anniversary, T. I’ll always love you, R.”
    Yes, Thomas Bennett certainly had a great sense of timing. He’d made his grand exit on the evening of their second wedding anniversary. She seriously doubted he’d even remembered their wedding anniversary when he made his forceful pronouncements earlier. She then considered perhaps he did remember and had timed his abandonment to create the most pain possible for Robin.
    Through her briny tears, she dumped the pie in the garbage can and ripped the greeting card she had signed into about a thousand pieces of confetti and threw it on top of the pie. Apparently the word ‘remorse’ was not in Thomas Bennett’s vocabulary, because Robin heard nothing from him for close to three years.
     
    ~*~
     
    So here she was again, five years after Thomas’s desertion, crying over a man yet again. Her warm tears did not subside for close to an hour after Jeff Clarke left her garden. You should have learned this lesson from what you went through with Thomas! She stood up and declared she could and would get on with her day—and life—without Jeff Clarke’s interference. Armed with new determination, Robin went out to the patio and gathered all of the food, dishes, utensils, and linens and returned them to her cottage. She swept the patio stones around the table and picked up her sun hat and gardening gloves.
    She made her way quickly to her little wooden gardening shed at the back of the garden and selected her tools for the day. In her angered state, she admitted