Leaving at Noon Read Online Free PDF Page A

revelation.
    “ I realized you don’t like
me so much either.”
    Instinctively, Theo opened his mouth to call
bullshit. Zoey was his world. She had been for over eight years.
She was it for him. The one. The only. He’d known it from the
beginning.
    The idea that he didn’t like her was a bad
joke. It made a mockery of their marriage. Zoey had it wrong. Theo
loved her. Always had, always would, and that was a simple fact of
life.
    But somehow, he couldn’t quite call her on
her realization or make himself object. This wasn’t another one of
her malicious barbs, designed to hurt. This comment had an ugly
ring of truth to it.
    As he stared at her, seeking his wife
beneath the frigid, unfamiliar stranger she presented to him, the
truth hit him in the gut.
    She was right.
    Theo might love her with everything he had,
but right then, he didn’t like her very much.
    Zoey raised an eyebrow. “What? No arguments
for once?”
    Electricity zapped at his ribs, making his
heart pump jaggedly. His foot prickled with the need to kick
something again, but he’d already damaged the door.
    Theo shoved his hand through his hair.
“Fuck.”
    For a heartbeat, Zoey’s mask dropped. Her
eyes, which minutes ago had flashed emerald fire, filled with
unfathomable pain. Her shoulders drooped and her breath escaped in
a harsh hiss.
    And then she straightened her spine, threw
her shoulders back and turned around. “I phoned Fiona while I was
in the taxi,” she said in a dispassionate voice. “Spoke to her for
a while.”
    Fiona Wells, the absent member of the Dinner
Club. She’d moved to Queensland two years ago for work.
    That would explain why most of Theo’s calls
had gone to voice mail. Zoey and Fiona never had quick
conversations. Once the two got started, they could speak for
hours.
    Zoey climbed back into bed. “I’m going to
visit her tomorrow.”
    Visit her? As in pop in for lunch? Fiona
lived in Noosa, a good twelve-hour car journey away.
    The muscles in Theo’s neck spasmed.
    “ I spoke to Katie and
Steve too.”
    Katie Bonnard and Steve Sommers. They owned
the GP practice where Zoey worked.
    “ I let them know I’d be
taking time off work.”
    Evidently, his wife had been busy while he’d
searched the streets of Sydney for her. “How much time?”
    “ Two weeks. Maybe more, if
necessary.”
    “ You’re going to Noosa for
two weeks or more?” They’d never spent more than a weekend
apart—and Theo had hated every second of being separated from
her.
    “ It depends.”
    “ On what?”
    She settled the doona over her body, leaving
her arms exposed. “On us.”
    Theo stared at her, dumbfounded. “You’ve
lost me here, babe. I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”
Only he did have an idea. He knew exactly what she was saying, and
it shook him down to his bones.
    “ I’m going away, Theo.
Without you. You and I… This…” She waved her hand between them.
“We’ve become toxic. I need to get away before the venom between us
poisons our marriage completely.”
    “ You’re going away?” he
repeated, his brain struggling to comprehend it all.
    “ We need it. We need to be
apart.”
    “ You’re leaving me?”
Jesus, fuck. This wasn’t happening.
    “ I’m taking time out from
us.”
    “ You’re leaving
me.”
    “ No. If I were leaving
you, my bags would be packed and the house would be half empty. I’m
going away for a few weeks so I can gain an objective perspective
about what’s gone wrong.”
    “ And you can’t do that
here?” With him?
    “ With us continually at
each others’ throats?” She shook her head. “Things are bad enough.
I fear if I stay they’ll just get worse.”
    Theo stared at her in disbelief. “You don’t
think gaining perspective means sorting things out together? You
and me?” What the fuck did she hope to achieve a thousand
kilometers away, without him?
    “ We don’t like each other
anymore. Somewhere along the way, something went very wrong. If