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Jerry volunteered the info…besides, unless he degraded her, beat her or cheated, she figured Nancy must have been nuts.
    “What?” Marty asked innocently, rubbing his arm.
    “That’s not nice asking—”
    “That’s okay. You two are closer to me than my own siblings.” Jerry grabbed a half of a sandwich and got comfortable on his side. “The sun didn’t rise and set on Nancy, that’s what happened.”
    “Huh?” Lacy poured him some more sun tea.
    “Well, that’s what she thought. I wasn’t giving her as much attention as I could have. But I was put on a very important project. One of our VIPs, you know what I mean. It took up most of my time.”
    “So, you couldn’t take her places, or go out with her on a regular basis temporarily. Didn’t she realize it was only temporary?” Marty asked.
    “Apparently not. The irony is, a huge five-digit bonus was coming my way. We were going to use the money to take a vacation to Europe, and would have spent a lot of time together. And, I was going to buy her anything her heart desired.”
    “Aww, that’s too bad.” Lacy laid her head on Marty’s lap. “Some women don’t know they have it so good. It ruins it for the rest of us.”
    “I’ll admit, I’m a bit burned and not just from work. But, I’ll get over it.” He reached for the other half of his sandwich. “You know, just looking at you and Marty gives me hope.”
    Lacy and Marty looked at each other. “How?” they asked in unison.
    “You’re devoted to each other, the love between you two shows, and you’ll do anything for each other.” His voice was wistful. “Plus, you being a stay-at-home writer, and him with a fat bank account, neither one of you have to worry about long projects keeping you away from each other and being neglected.”
    “Well, my friend, you know the old saying, too much of a good thing. Lacy and I do take a vacation from each other once in a while.” Marty popped a deviled egg in his mouth.
    “Yeah.” Lacy chuckled. “Do you think either one of us would still be alive if we didn’t?”
    They laughed, continuing to eat and talk about relationships. A few hours later, the sun began to set, and they packed up the picnic gear.
    “I forgot how much I missed the west coast,” Jerry said, helping Marty with the umbrella.
    “No one told you to go to the Big Apple.”
    “I tried getting a gig here, but I love New York. You need to come visit more often. When was the last time you visited?”
    They got in the car. “Umm…three years ago,” Lacy said, as she fastened her seatbelt. “Okay, it has been a minute.”
    “I’ll say.”
    “We promise this Christmas we’ll come. It will be perfect. Lacy loves the cold winters in the east.”
    “You’re weird.” Jerry smirked.
    Lacy twisted in her seat and playfully smacked him.
    Back at the house, they helped Jerry put away his things. Lacy sat on the bed, while the men chatted, mostly about guy stuff. She listened and piped in when she felt comfortable about the topic.
    “Any plans tomorrow?” Marty asked.
    “I think I’ll sleep in. That drive knocked me out.”
    “I’ve been meaning to ask you.” She picked up a pair of horrible Bermudas from a suitcase and tossed them aside. “Why did you drive instead of fly?”
    “I wanted to see the country. Interesting places.”
    “Hey, maybe one summer we can rent an RV and travel cross country.” Marty tossed Jerry his shaving kit.
    “Great idea, don’t know why we haven’t done it sooner.”
    “We’re all so busy and we can never time our days off. Even though Marty and I don’t do nine to five, sometimes I have deadlines to meet and sometimes he’s out of town, doing one of his philanthropy things.”
    “This is true. All right then, let’s put on our calendars right now, next summer, road trip.” Jerry took his organizer out of one of his suitcases.
    Finishing the unpacking, they headed back downstairs to the den. Lacy stretched out on one of the