“Karen Goodwin. How may I help you?”
“This is the nurse at Thomas Jefferson Elementary,” the voice on the other end of the line said.
“Is everything all right?”
“It’s Buddy. He’s come down with the flu and is sick and vomiting. Can you come for him?”
“Oh boy. Okay—I’m just about to go into a meeting.” The timing was the worst. “I’ll call my husband to see if he can pick up Buddy.”
Poor Buddy. More than anything, her young son hated throwing up. He must really be sick. Karen tried Garth’s cell, but it went straight to voice mail. Garth sometimes turned it off, especially when he was working hard on a project, so she tried the direct line to his office.
“Mark Holmes’s office.”
“Hi, Michelle,” Karen said, sitting up straight. “Mark Holmes’s office?” she repeated. Garth hadn’t said anything about his number changing.
“Mrs. Goodwin?” Michelle asked. “Karen?”
“Yes. I need to talk to Garth.” Looking out the glass door of her office, Karen saw that the Ansons had arrived and were seated in the waiting area. “It’s kind of an emergency. Buddy needs to be picked up at the school.”
Her words were met with silence.
“Michelle, did you hear me?”
“Yes. Karen, listen … um … Garth hasn’t worked here since the first week of April. I guess maybe you forgot and dialed this number from habit?”
Karen laughed softly. Surely there was some mistake. “Very funny, but this isn’t a joke. I want to talk to Garth.”
“This isn’t a joke,” Michelle insisted. “I’d never joke about something like this. Garth was laid off weeks ago … Are you saying he didn’t tell you?”
Karen was stunned.
“Karen? Mrs. Goodwin?”
Karen ended the call. Clearly something was drastically wrong. True, she’d noticed Garth hadn’t been himself for the last few weeks, but she had no clue he’d lost his job. Now that she thought about it, he had seemed depressed lately. When she’d asked him about it, he’d claimed it wasn’t anything serious. He might have mentioned problems at work, but certainly not that he’d been laid off.
If Garth was going without a paycheck, she would know and they’d be bouncing checks left and right. In fact, Garth had been paid regularly according to the bank statements, right down to the penny. This was crazy. Nuts. Of course Garth had a job.
Not knowing what else to do, Karen phoned his cell a second time. As before, the call went directly to voice mail. “Garth, if you’re there, then please answer. This is important. Buddy is sick and needs someone to collect him at the school. I have a signing and the people are here. Send me a text in the next five minutes if you get this message—otherwise, I’ll need to leave the office.”
Shuddering a sigh, her head swimming and her heart pounding, Karen stood to greet Mr. and Mrs. Anson. By the time she returned to her desk she heard her cell ping. The message was from Garth and read: On my way to get Buddy.
Garth didn’t know that she’d called his office. Nor was he aware that she was on to his secret.
But he’d learn soon enough. Oh yes, he’d find out the minute she was home to confront him face-to-face.
Karen wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get through the signing, not to mention the rest of the day. She called and talked briefly with her son but not to Garth. She needed the afternoon to think, and even then, she wasn’t sure what she would say to her husband. It was beyond the scope of her imagination that Garth would keep the fact that he’d lost his job a secret from her … from everyone.
As had become Garth’s habit, he was cooking dinner by the time Karen arrived at the house. It all made sense now that he’d been getting home from the office before her every night. He’d told her he was working fewer hours … yet another lie.
“Hi, honey,” he said, greeting her with a big smile.
She set her keys and purse aside. “How’s Buddy?”
“Better. He slept most of the afternoon.”
“Where is he now?”
Garth continued slicing tomatoes for the salad and didn’t look up. “In his room playing games on his iPad.”
“And Lily?”
Garth added the sliced tomatoes to the lettuce and reached for a handful of radishes, slicing those. “She’s with Elise Jefferies. They’re working together on some end-of-the-school-year project. How was your day?”
“Upsetting.”
“Oh? Didn’t the closing go well?” he asked, looking up for the first time since he’d greeted her.
“It went fine.”
“Oh good. Something else happen?”
A long time ago Karen had read parenting advice that suggested not setting her children up for a lie when she already knew the truth. She figured the same would hold true with her husband.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d gotten laid off?”
Garth’s head came up fast. He set the knife down on the cutting board and wiped his hand on a kitchen towel he had tucked into his waistband. “Who told you?”
“Does it matter?”
“I guess not.” Using both hands, he leaned against the counter as if he feared his legs might not support him.
“Michelle said your last day was weeks ago.”
Garth nodded. “It’s true. At first it felt like a bad joke, but unfortunately the joke was on me.”
In the hours since she’d learned her husband’s secret, she’d had time to think. “The day you got laid off was the day you forgot to pick up Buddy from baseball practice, wasn’t it?”
Garth swallowed hard and nodded. “I was in shock, worried and ashamed. I didn’t know how I was going to tell you … didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“Did you honestly believe I’d blame you?”
“I didn’t know what to think,” her husband snapped. “We’d gone through this once before and I wasn’t sure our marriage would survive. I couldn’t face that again and I wasn’t sure you could, either. I assumed I’d be able to find another job quickly—I have good references and plenty of experience, and I figured I’d tell you when I’d found something new and save you the worry. There was all this business with your sisters. And it hadn’t been that long since we’d buried your mother. I didn’t want to burden you with more bad news.”
“Those are not good excuses. I’m your wife! Don’t you think I have a right to know?”
“Okay, of course. I should have told you,” he said defensively. “But it isn’t easy to admit to your wife and family that you’re a loser.”
“Because you lost your job? Don’t be ridiculous, Garth.”
Straightening, he placed both his hands on top of his head. “Cut me some slack, Karen. A man has his pride.”
Did he really think she would think less of him? People got laid off all the time. Pulling out a kitchen chair, Karen slumped into it. “It hurts, Garth, that you wouldn’t trust me enough to tell me what you’ve been going through.” A number of things played back in her mind. His insistence that he take over the bill paying, the bounced check, and the “misunderstanding” when they went to the storage unit and found it locked up for nonpayment.
“I didn’t want you to know … I hoped to have another job in a few days, a couple weeks at the most.”
“You’ve been looking?”
“What do you think I’ve been doing every day?” he demanded. “I’ve sent out my résumé, pounded the pavement, looked online. It just seems like no one is hiring.” This last part was practically shouted in his frustration. “I know, because I have done everything within my power to find work.” His voice wobbled with emotion and his hands shook.
Silence vibrated through the kitchen.
“You got a severance package?” That was the only way she could explain the money that had continued to be deposited into their joint checking account for the last two months.