The snow crunching beneath their boots was the only noise disturbing the serene night. Ben had told her to dress warmly and had grabbed a handsaw as they passed the garage. “This isn’t going to be one of those horrible things you see on TV where the ex chops up his wife, is it?” She was joking, but he didn’t share her humor. Either that or he hadn’t heard her. They climbed higher up the hill behind the house until they were well within the woods bordering the ranch. Puffing and out of breath, Joely leaned her hands on her knees when he stopped at last. “What’s the matter?” Ben asked, his voice gruff. “Don’t you go to that trainer anymore?” She shook her head, and sucked in a cold lungful of air, regretting it a moment later. “No, I gave him up. I haven’t worked out in weeks.” It was really four months, but she didn’t want to tell Ben that the reason she’d stopped working out, and going out, for that matter, was because the income stream she’d depended on for so long was drying up.
