Now she just looked tired.

His joy at taking the bike for a spin vanished. “Fine, I won’t ride it anymore. Will that make you happy?”

Raina just blinked at him. “No, because if it’s not this it’ll just be something else dangerous. This is who you are. I shouldn’t have expected anything different.” She turned and trudged back toward the house.

“Raina!” he called.

She didn’t look back once.

“Now you’re not speaking to me?”

The quiet click of the door closing seemed to reverberate in the otherwise silent street.

*   *   *   *   *

“WHERE’S YOUR PRETTY wife? I hope she’s feeling well.”

Nick looked up to see his father observing him closely. He’d stopped by after work to drop off some information about individual retirement accounts for Bennett. He’d ended up sticking around for dinner and then following his father out to the garage where he was tinkering with the engine on his ancient pickup truck.

It wasn’t like there was a warm welcome waiting for him at home.

“The truth is I think I might be in the doghouse with my wife.”

“Already? That was fast. What’d you do?” Mark asked.

“Who said I did anything?” Nick crossed his arms.

“Son, the first thing you need to learn if you want a happy marriage is you’ve always done something.” Mark chuckled as he pulled down a bottle from one of the shelves on the wall of the garage.

Nick stared at the tips of his shoes, debating whether to just make up something or tell his father the truth. After their fight a few days ago, Raina had been largely ignoring him. It was slightly embarrassing to have to admit that his marriage was on the rocks already.

He looked up to find his father watching him closely. He tensed under the scrutiny. There was no one whose opinion he respected more than Mark Alexander but he hated to tell his dad when he’d screwed up.

Disappointing his father was the worst feeling in the world.

“What’s wrong, son? I hate to see you like this.”

“Raina and I have been trying for a baby. It’s kind of tricky because she has fertility issues. She was willing to marry me so I could get her pregnant, but she doesn’t love me, Dad. I’m starting to think she never will.”

Nick didn’t look up but he could feel the weight of his dad’s stare.

“I won’t speak on what initially brought you together. I don’t condone what you did, but what’s done is done. It sounds like your lady is dealing with a lot of heartache right now. I can understand her fears about not being able to have children. It’s a little different for women, I think, but as a man, I can tell you my life wouldn’t be the same without you boys in it. The four of you are truly my greatest accomplishment. You are my gift and legacy to the world.”

“I didn’t think I’d feel this way. I thought of the baby as just a means to an end, a way to get Raina to agree to marry me. But I’m already attached to this baby. I can’t stand the thought of her leaving me and not seeing her or the baby. But we fought and now she thinks I’m immature. Too immature to be a good parent. I’ve screwed things up so badly and I can’t see how to fix the damage I’ve done.”

“Nothing is unfixable. If I could win your mother’s heart after making a sexist comment, then anything is possible.”

Nick sat forward, suddenly intrigued. “You did what?”

It was part of the family lore that his father had initially struck out with their mother after saying something stupid. He’d had to work long and hard that summer to regain her good opinion. Neither of his parents had ever said what the “stupid thing” was. He’d assumed it had been a dirty comment, so he’d never had any interest in hearing it.

But if his father had really said something sexist, he was definitely interested in how he’d atoned for it. Their mother had been a feminist for as long as Nick could remember. If his dad could change her mind after a strikeout of that magnitude, maybe there was hope for Nick after all.

Mark grumbled. “It wasn’t that bad. I was trying to make a joke and she took it the wrong way.”

Nick folded his arms and tried not to smile. “What exactly did you say?”

“We were talking about colleges and I may have said a pretty girl like her didn’t need to worry about it.”

Nick winced. “Nice, Dad. So she should have just gotten married and stayed barefoot and pregnant, huh?”

Mark hitched up his pants and circled the hood of the truck again. He wiped his hands on the old rag thrown over his shoulder. “It was a joke! I’m willing to admit it was a bad one.”

Nick finally gave in to laughter. “Um, I can see how you might have thought you were complimenting her, but knowing Mom, I’m sure she wasn’t amused.”

“She let me know in no uncertain terms what I could do with my attempts at flattery. After that, she didn’t even look at me when she visited Maria. No more flirtatious looks or conversations. She wasn’t rude—she’s far too classy for that. But I could see she thought I was an uncivilized oaf. She was pretty determined to keep me at arm’s length after that.”

The situation was eerily similar to where he found himself with Raina. She was unfailingly polite and she hadn’t asked for any more space. But she didn’t come seek him out when he got home anymore. She didn’t complain about her nausea or her random food cravings. There were no more late-night cuddle sessions and no more monster muffins with the bottoms burned off.