The Day I Stopped Trying

Synopsis

Every woman on the military base envied Avery Lancaster. She came from money, and her husband, Captain Charles Sutton, was young, ambitious, and impossibly handsome. But only Avery knew the truth. This picture-perfect marriage, the one everyone called a match made in heaven, had been half-baked from the very start. In three years of marriage, Charles had kept her at arm's length with a politeness so careful it could cut. During the first year, she tried to pick up his dirty clothes to wash them, but Charles stopped her. "Don't bother. I'll take care of my own laundry from now on." In the second year, Avery worked up the nerve to put on a new negligee and waited for him in the dim glow of the bedroom. Charles walked in, let his eyes drift over her for half a second, then grabbed a spare blanket and headed for the guest room. His voice was ice. "Training's been brutal lately. I'll sleep in the other room. You should get some rest too." By the third year, Charles took a hit below the belt during a field exercise, and Avery volunteered to look after him. Charles shut her out. "Avery, this isn't appropriate. A man needs his privacy." Avery held her ground. "I'm your wife. What's inappropriate about it?" Something flickered behind Charles's eyes, a flinch he almost managed to hide. "I've never been comfortable with a woman fussing over me. Go home. My orderly can handle it."