While My Sister Sleeps Read Free

You
know
I love her. Why do you always ask me that?”
    He raised his hands in bewilderment. “You just said she wasn't enough. You were the one who wanted a baby right away, Erin. You were the one who wanted to stop working.”
    “I was pregnant. I
had to
stop working.”
    He didn't know what to say. They had been the town's favorite newlyweds, both blond-haired and green-eyed (Chris would say his own eyes were hazel, but no one cared about the distinction). They had been an adorable couple.
    But what was happening between them now was not so adorable. “Go back to work, then,” he said, trying to please her.
    “Do you want me to work?”
    “If you want to.”
    She stared at him, those green eyes vivid. “And do what with Chloe? I don't want her in day care.”
    “Okay.” He hated all arguments, but this was the worst. “What
do
you want?”
    “I want my husband to talk to me during dinner. I want him to talk to me after dinner. I want him to discuss things with me. I don't want him to come home and just stare at the Red Sox. I want him to share his day with me.”
    Quietly, he said, “I'm an accountant. I work in the family business. There is nothing exciting about what I do.”
    “I'd call a new building project exciting. But if you hate it, quit.”
    “I don't hate it. I love what I do. I'm just saying that it doesn't make for great conversation. And I'm really tired tonight.” And he actually did want to watch the Red Sox. He loved the team.
    “Tired of me? Tired of Chloe? Tired of
marriage?
You used to talk to me, Chris. But it's like now that we're married—now that we have a baby—you can't make the effort. We're twenty-nine years old, but we sit here like we're eighty. This is not working for me.”
    Unsettled, he stood up and took his plate to the sink.
This is not working for me
sounded like she wanted out. He couldn't process that.
    At a loss, he picked up the baby. When she put her head on his chest, he held it there. “I'm trying to give you a good life, Erin. I'm working so you don't have to. If I'm tired at night, it's because my mind has been busy all day. If I'm quiet, maybe that's just who I am.”
    She didn't give in. “You weren't that person before. What changed?”
    “Nothing,” he said carefully. “But this is life. Relationships evolve.”
    “This isn't just life,” she fought back. “It's
us.
I can't
stand
what we're becoming.”
    “You're upset. Please calm down.”
    “Like
that'll
make things better?” she asked, seeming angrier than ever. “I talked with my mother today. Chloe and I are going to visit her.”
    The phone rang. Ignoring it, he asked, “For how long?”
    “A couple of weeks. I need to figure things out. We have a problem, Chris. You're not calm, you're
passive.
” The phone rang again. “I ask what you think about putting Chloe in a playgroup, and you throw the question back at me. I ask if you want to invite the Bakers for dinner Saturday night, and you tell me to do it if I want. Those aren't answers,” she said as another ring came. “They're evasions. Do you
feel
anything, Chris?”
    Unable to respond, he reached for the phone. “Yeah.”
    “It's me,” his sister said in a high voice. “We have a serious problem.”
    Turning away from his wife, he ducked his head. “Not now, Molly.”
    “Robin had a heart attack.”
    “Uh, can I call you back?”
    “Chris, I need you here now! Mom and Dad don't know yet.”
    “Don't know what?”
    “That Robin had a
heart attack,
” Molly cried. “She keeled over in the middle of a run and is still unconscious. Mom and Dad haven't landed. I can't do this alone.”
    He stood straighter. “A heart attack?”
    Erin materialized beside him. “Your dad?” she whispered, taking Chloe.
    Shaking his head, he let the child go. “Robin. Oh boy. She pushed herself too far.”
    “Will you come?” Molly asked.
    “Where are you?” He listened for a minute, then hung up the phone.
    “A heart attack?”