From His Wife to His Uncle's Wife novel Chapter 157

Eleanor really didn’t want to go home. Things with her family had been tense, and the idea of spending the weekend there felt exhausting. So she made a different plan. On Saturday, she went to the art exhibition alone.

Jared messaged her, asking if she was coming back. She gave him a quick, polite reply and left it at that. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go home. It was just that home didn’t feel like hers anymore.

She handed over her ticket at the entrance and walked into the gallery. The show was called “The Silent Expanse.” Eleanor had to admit, Mr. Sidler’s artist friend was seriously talented. The first painting, “Sky,” stopped her in her tracks. Huge, sweeping clouds filled the canvas, so realistic and endless that she felt like she could fall right into them.

Eleanor stared, lost in her thoughts. The past twenty-something years of her life felt like a blur, every moment spent living for someone else. Everything had been an act. Even the walls of love Peter Clarkson had built around her were just for show. She realized she’d never really had anything that belonged to her alone.

As her eyes started to sting with tears, a deep voice sounded behind her.

“You’re here too?”

She turned and froze. Max Clarkson was looking at her, his dark eyes steady and unreadable. Her heart gave a quick, embarrassing jump. “Mr. Clarkson.”

He flashed his ticket at her. “Looks like when Linden dropped mine off yesterday, he gave you one, too.”

He said it so casually, like he was just a bystander here. The tickets couldn’t possibly have anything to do with him. He was just here to see the art, just like her.

Eleanor thought about it and figured Linden must have gotten two tickets from a friend and given one to each of them. It was a strange coincidence.

The truth was, she’d been dodging Max lately, making excuses not to go over and cook for him. Running into him like this made her a little self-conscious, and she wasn’t sure what to say.

Max smiled a little. “Good. Since you’re not busy and it’s about time for dinner, let’s get something to eat.”

He didn’t really ask; he just decided. Something about the way he said it made arguing impossible. Eleanor let out a silent sigh and accepted her fate. “Okay.”

They left together, walking side by side through the shopping center. They probably looked like a couple to everyone else, though neither of them seemed to notice.

Katie had come to see the exhibition, too. When she spotted a familiar figure up ahead, she stopped in surprise. Was that Max? And was he with a woman? Since when did Max have a date?

Katie quickly pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of their backs before they turned the corner. The photo was a little blurry, but it would do. Maybe she could use it to win some points with her grandmother. After the mess she’d made at Grandma Marleigh’s birthday party by introducing Jessie Goff, Katie was desperate to get back in her good graces. And she knew exactly what her grandmother wanted most: for Max to finally find someone.