The Distance Between Us

1

Lane

I'm not sure where things went wrong. To me, we seemed to be on the right track. The kids were happy, my wife seemed happy and I felt pretty good, but sooner than later I found myself sleeping in the guestroom of my home while hearing my wife, Rachel, cry herself to sleep. I've asked her several times what's wrong, but the only thing she does is shake her head as tears fill her eyes.

I'm a very confused man, but I don't have time for confusion. I'm the the top lawyer at the biggest law firm in the city. A man like me has no time for distractions, so I've stopped asking Rachel what the problem is. I think she just needs space to clear her emotional mind.

                                    ~~♡~~

Lane

I love my wife.

From the moment we met I knew that she was the one I would marry; I even told her that the day we met. She of course laughed and walked away, but as you can see I was able to tell her I told you so.

We met through mutual friends like most do. My buddy Will and his sister were getting a group together to go out to Carowinds. (If you don't know what that is, you should look it up cause it's amazing). But anyway, since I was what they call a nerd back in high school, I reluctantly agreed to go since it was senior year.

I and Will met up with our other friends before meeting his sister, Grace, and her group. As soon as I spotted Rachel, I know my jaw hit the ground. I couldn't stop looking at her the whole day. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a long braid that fell passed her slim shoulders; she wore a pair of cut-offs and a loose fitting red T-shirt. Every once in a while through the day her laughter would fill the air around us, and I would grin loving how it sounded so genuine.

Later that day as the sun started to set, we were making our way to the last set of rides. I started talking to her and falling harder for her with each passing moment.

Later that night as we were all leaving the nearby BBQ joint, I bluntly told her that we'd get married one day. She rolled her eyes and laughed it off before forgetting about it. The very next day I happened to bump into her at the local store, and I asked her out. She again laughed me off, not in a rude way but nervously. I asked her out several more times over the period of two months before she finally said yes.

Two years later, my love for her was overwhelmingly powerful as she walked down the aisle. I didn't think that I could ever love her more than I did that day, but surprisingly, my love continued to grow through our marriage. Of course we had our fights, and yelled out frustrations, but every couple does that. It's healthy. I even know for a fact that one of the times we made-up from one of our fights was when our first child was conceived.

                                  ~~♡~~

Lane

When our son was born there was this feeling in my heart that I can't explain. I couldn't believe that this little person that I was holding was something I had had a part in giving life too. He was a healthy little thing, coming in at nine pounds and three ounces.

Rachel was tired, but overjoyed as she held Ross for the first time. It's an amazing thing to watch a mother with her child. I used to watch Rachel breastfeed Ross in the nursery at home as she hummed a soft tune into his ears. I would walk in as she was laying him into his crib, and we would stand there staring down at him.

"He's beautiful." Rachel would whisper.

I would wrap my arm around her and let my hand rest on her now wide hips. "He looks just like you." I'd say back.

Then she would glare at me begging for silence so Ross wouldn't wake up. I must admit the first year was just about more than I could take, but I wouldn't trade a day away.

When Ross turned one I began focusing back on my career. I was already a lawyer for a firm, but I wanted to work my way up. I longed for my family to have everything it needed and then some. So I set out to do just that.

Sooner than later, our second child, Abigail was born and at the same time I was given a promotion at work. It was small, but I was excited knowing that I was finally making my way up.

Time went faster than I could keep up with it, and we found out that Rachel was pregnant with twins. It was crazy because twins didn't run on either side of our family, and she hadn't been taking fertility piles either. So the news blew our minds.

But life went on and the twins were born as I made my way up the ladder. Pretty soon I was doing longer hours, running different shifts and taking on harder cases. Some nights I would come in so late that everyone would already be in bed sound asleep. I would take a shower, have a snack and slip into bed beside Rachel. I hated not being able to spend more time with them, but all this would pay off in the end. I was doing it all for them anyway; things would slow down later on.

                                ~~♡~~

Rachel

I have never loved a man so much in my life. Lane has always been my one and only through everything and a chill still runs down my spine when his lips brush my neck. He's my rock and I can't put into words just how much I adore him.

When we were dating we used to have a saying between each other; I was his one weakness and he was my one strength. Even though I was a cheerleader and he a nerd, we fit so perfectly together. I must say though that he definitely never looked like a nerd.

He had thick black hair and dark brown eyes, he always wore his prescription glasses in sleek, black frames and his smile was always toothy. He was tall and muscular from helping his dad in the family butcher shop. Lane would have to lift the heavy ribs of the cows and other pieces of meat from station to station. It was a small but famous meat shop in town, and even though they had good money coming in, it wasn't enough to buy the fancy equipment that most butchers have. So Lane was stuck with a lot of the heavy lifting.

Not only was he cute, but he was of course a genius. Throughout every year in high school he made straight A's, and graduated top of his class. He was accepted into Harvard, and went straight into law-school the fall after graduation. He graduated from Harvard as third in his class, and found a job at the local firm two weeks later.

I was so proud of him. His dreams were coming true, and finally so were mine. We got married, and as time went on we had four children. I've always wanted nothing more than a family with the man I love and that's what I got. That is until Lane's job started taking over his life. At first I thought that it would all blow over, but he began taking more hours at work, and before long there would be some days I wouldn't even see him.

He of course started noticing something was bothering me. What broke my heart was that he didn't even know what the problem was when it was staring him right in the face. Every time I wanted to explain, he ran out of time before I could get it out. He's been missing so much of not just our marriage, but the kids' lives too. Ross has just entered high school, and was accepted into the baseball team, Abigail's report card came in and she's making all A's, Josh and Jared had a "My Dad's Job" at school the other day, but Lane couldn't show up or hear about it because of his job.

The list just gets longer and longer and Lane doesn't even see that he's slowly slipping out of our lives. I'm afraid that soon he'll slip out of our hearts just as fast. He's already sleeping in the guestroom, but that doesn't seem to bother him, which saddens me.

What happened to the man I fell in love with?

*****************************************
Hear of this too often, maybe their story will end better than most. =(
Let's find out what happened to him...