"What do you mean you're leaving the area?" Stan Wilson demanded. "My daughter's flight will be landing soon and you'd damn well better be picking her up at the airp
"That's not going to happen," Blake Reynolds replied. "I doubt that I'll ever see her again. She's your daughter, so she's your problem again. I've got better things to do."
"What happened, Blake?" Stan's wife, Sandra, asked. "Angie's been telling me how you two were going to start a family once she returned from her business trip. Did you have an argument?"
"Not in so many words," Blake replied. "Starting a family is part of the problem, but not the way you might think."
"You're not making any sense. You both wanted to start having kids soon, didn't you?"
"Yeah, something like that," Blake answered vaguely and changed the subject. "I didn't want to leave without thanking you for the many kindnesses you've shown me.
"As you know, living this close to DC and in such a densely populated area never appealed to me. I moved here because Angie wanted to be near her family as well as pursue her career in government.
"My truck is packed with everything I need, and it isn't that much. Angie can have whatever's left. I'll be headed west before her jet touches down."
"I spoke to Angie two days ago and she sounded very happy," Carla, Angie's sister, insisted. "She said you were a little upset about her staying in Reno Saturday and flying home today, but she certainly didn't indicate that it would result in a divorce. She just wanted to catch up with Donna, her old college roommate."
"She knew very well that her actions would be cause for divorce," Blake countered.
"Is it possible you're overreacting?" Sandra asked. "Angie's deeply in love with you. She wants to have your children. Why would you consider divorcing her because she took an extra day to visit her friend? You need to sit down and talk it out with her."
"Her jet should land around 4 PM," Blake replied, obviously ignoring his mother-in-law's suggestion. "If one of you doesn't pick her up, she'll have to call Uber or hire a taxi."
"You're really leaving?" Carla asked. "In the romance novels, the handsome stud always falls for the wife's younger sister with the bigger boobs when he leaves his wife. That should be reason enough to stick around, don't you think?"
"There are a few reasons why that wouldn't work," Blake responded with a small smile. "You're her only sister, you're older than Angie and you're married."
"At least you didn't say that my boobs were smaller," Carla replied. She had always liked Blake and realized how badly she would miss him if he was as serious as he appeared about leaving her sister.
"Seriously, Blake, why do you feel like this? What's really wrong? You wouldn't leave Angie for spending a day visiting Donna. What did Sis do to piss you off so badly?"
"If her flight's on time, you'll be able to ask her about it over dinner tonight. You've always treated me well and I'll forever think of you in positive terms. Thanks and goodbye," Blake declared as he turned and headed toward his three year old pickup truck.
Two hours later, Carla pulled over to the curb at the airport 'arrivals' area to pick up her sister. For her part, Angie wasted no time venting her feelings.
"Blake doesn't answer his phone or respond to my texts. He made you drive out to pick me up because his little feelings were hurt when I took an extra day to spend time with my oldest and best friend. What an asshole.
"He'll be sleeping in the guest room for at least a week. Men want to control every move a woman makes." Angie continued her diatribe. "It's high time he learned his little hissy fits won't work with me."
"Did anything unusual happen when you visited Donna?" Carla asked cautiously."Why would Blake be so upset about you spending time with your old college roommate?"
"That's easy. I made the decision to spend an extra day without consulting him! It's just that simple," Angie declared firmly. "Blake has to learn that he just because I married him, he doesn't have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do."
"I don't know if that's going to be an issue, Sis. He stopped in at Mom and Dad's a couple of hours ago and told us he was leaving you."
"Blake said that?" Angie demanded. "He told Mom and Dad he was leaving me? I don't know what's wrong with that idiot, but I'm going to straighten him out when I get home."
"Did you not hear what I said?" Carla asked. "Blake left you. He hates living in northern Virginia. He was only doing it because you wanted to live close to family and work in DC. He's on the road, probably headed back to Montana or some other western state."
"Blake's leaving?" Angie barely managed to repeat. "He told you he's definitely leaving me? That doesn't make any sense. We were going to start a family when I got back."
"Blake made some kind of cryptic remark about starting a family. He said it was one of the reasons he was leaving."
"What the hell does that even mean?" Angie raged. "We can't have a family if he's not here and I know for a fact that he wanted kids. Even a western redneck rube should understand that biological fact."
"Maybe that's part of the problem," Carla suggested. "You often talk like Blake doesn't have the ability to appreciate or understand your views on a lot of important issues."
Angie tried hard to stifle her tears. She was certain Blake didn't know about Rick. It had only been one afternoon on Lake Tahoe and a night with him at Donna's apartment. Surely Blake hadn't had her followed, and even if he had, she had avoided any public signs of affection with Rick.
All of that said, something certainly had Blake royally pissed off. If he didn't know about Rick, what could have happened to upset him so drastically? He hadn't been happy about her spending Saturday with Donna and flying home Sunday, but this reaction was far beyond being annoyed or upset with her.
"Did he seem serious?" Angie asked softly.
"That he did," Carla confirmed. "He cut everyone off when they tried to get him to stay and talk it out with you, or even explain his thinking. Depending on what road he's taking, he's probably out of Virginia by now."
Angie was no longer able to contain her tears. They flowed freely down her cheeks as she considered how losing Blake would affect her life. Everything had seemed perfect. Now everything was ruined.
"I'm taking you to Mom's place so she can help you get through this," Carla told her gently. "You need to communicate with Blake and find out what's bothering him if you hope to ever get him back. Do you want him back, Angie?"
"How can you even ask?" a distraught Angie demanded. "He's my husband and I love the guy. We've only been married two years. The honeymoon is barely over."
"I was just wondering if you still felt the same about him. You insisted he move to Virginia. He wound up with an office job he hated. I've heard you make references about his lack of refinement and social graces more than a few times. Maybe you determined that he wasn't the right fit for an up and coming Washington lobbyist.
"I may not know much about western men, but I do know that my husband never would have put up with that level of disrespect and he's from Maryland. I doubt western men would like it any better."
Angie faced the third degree when she reached her parents' home.
"Why is Blake so upset?" demanded her mother. "There's got to be more to it than you spending an extra day with your girlfriend. Blake isn't a scatterbrain, fly off the handle sort of person. What aren't you telling us?"
"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Mom. Maybe you should consider the possibility that Blake isn't the standup man you think he is. Why would he leave me in the lurch like this? There's no sane reason for his actions.
"Some guys get cold feet when faced with raising a family. He hated living in Virginia and may have decided to get the hell out of Dodge while I was away," Angie suggested. "Living some place he doesn't like and raising kids he really didn't want could have set him off. We won't truly know until he tells us. He doesn't answer my calls, texts or emails, so I have no idea what he's thinking, if he's thinking at all."