An Ounce of Prevention

While she was certain that what was troubling him was personal, she also recognized that he was feeling overwhelmed at work. Alex wanted to be in control all the time, at work or at home. It was difficult for him to relinquish any responsibility to others, even when he knew they were qualified. He had far too many clients who requested him personally. He wouldn't say no.

Alex didn't want to go on this vacation. He didn't say that, but she could see it in his eyes every time she mentioned the vacation. It was too late to cancel it now. The children were looking forward to it. It was the first time they had been on vacation any place but Texas, visiting relatives on his father's lavish hacienda.

Alex needed this vacation too, even if he didn't want it. She was certain that once they were on the road, he would enjoy it - though it might take some time and effort to get his mind off the clinic. It would only be for two weeks. The clinic wouldn't fall apart in that amount of time. Whether or not she could keep him from calling them on a daily basis was another story.

Meanwhile, she tried to avoid mentioning the vacation to him. Katie shouldn't have said anything about looking at the motor homes. If it had come up in a week or so that she had looked inside a motor home, he probably would have expressed interest, but Katie made it sound like she was hiding it from him because she thought he wouldn't want her to look. She hadn't actually seriously considered buying one. Katie was the one who wanted to look at the motor homes. Renting a van made the most sense to Carmen and she had already checked out that idea. It was within her budget. She had talked to Alex about it and he thought it was a good idea. She had even researched the cost of renting a pop-up trailer after they got to Arizona. That way they wouldn't have to tow it across three states. Again, it was feasible. The children wanted to camp with a tent, but Alex didn't want to do that. It seemed that whatever she mentioned, he was against it. A few years ago she would have thought it was because he didn't think she was capable of making a good decision, but he had complimented her frequently on how well she was managing the American Wildlife Safari. Actually, she was certain that he simply didn't want to go, so he was shooting down everything. Surely he knew that wasn't going to make her give up on the idea. Hopefully when they got on the road, he would relax.