Tim returned to his room and found his message light blinking. Knowing that it was Jill he pressed play. Her voice came on the phone "Hey honey, sorry I missed your call we were out to dinner. I miss you too and I will call you in the morning." The next message played and it was her voice again "I thought I might catch you before you went to sleep. I hope you are having a good time. I love you. Talk to you in the morning." The next message was again from Jill "I guess I missed you again. Well I am off to school. I guess I will talk to you this evening. Have a great day. I love and miss you. Talk to you soon." The final message was from Al "Tim where are you? We are setting up the Tool Time booth and need your help. Come down as soon as you get this." Tim knew he had to go to work but he felt horrible. He took a quick shower, got dressed and went down to the show.
When Tim got down to the floor Al noticed he seemed a little off. Al asked, "Are you ok Tim?" "What, yeah Al I'm fine" Tim hastily said back. "Sorry I just didn't get enough sleep." Tim apologized. They started the Tool Time show live from the Hardware Show and as Tim was going through one of the booths Kelly walked by, he flubbed and tried to cover up. Al noticed that Tim was more distracted than usual and followed his eyes but couldn't see what had distracted him. After the show was finished Tim rushed back to his room and tried to call Jill, he really needed to hear her voice right now, only to have the answering machine go on. He left another message and laid down on the bed when there was a knock on the door. When he answered it he found Kelly on the other side, "I don't think it is a good idea for you to come in right now." Tim said. "Come on Tim we are both adults" she said "consenting adults" she added. "Yeah but one of us is a happily married consenting adult." He said. "You know you wanted to as much as I did. Why not just admit it? It doesn't have to end here either. We can continue this when we get back." She said. "There is nothing to continue. I love my wife." He responded as the phone began to ring. He ran to answer and was happy to hear the door close. "Hello." "Hey there I thought we were never going to catch each other." Jill responded. "What does that mean" Tim asked defensive. "Nothing I just thought I was going to be leaving you messages and you were going to be leaving me messages for the whole time you were gone." Jill said. Tim heard a noise and turned around to find Kelly in a sexy lingerie outfit, he let out a groan and Jill asked "Are you ok, Tim" "Yeah, just room service at the door. I'll call you later." He hung up before she could respond. Tim turned to Kelly and pleaded with her to leave the room. She declined and tried to give him a kiss. Tim pulled away. "Come on Tim we both know you want me." There was a knock on the door and Tim pushed Kelly into the bedroom and answered the door. He was surprised by what he found.
There standing in front of him was his wife Jill. "Surprise!" She said. "Well that would be what you would call it." Tim said as he tried to push her out the door and close it behind him. She was persistent in getting into the room. "Tim what are you doing." She asked confused as to why he was pushing her out of the room. She was about to give him a hug when Kelly walked out of the bedroom wearing only her lingerie. Jill looked from her to Tim and said, "What the hell is going on here?" Tim trying to remain calm said "Honey you remember Kelly Barnes from Detroit Today. She did that story on me a while back. Remember? She just happens to be staying here as well. You know doing a little something on the hardware show." Jill just looked at Tim and said, "Doing a little something? Tim why is there a woman in her underwear in your hotel room." "That is a funny story." He started. "Well go ahead I am waiting" She said sounding very inpatient. "Tim, honey let me tell her." Kelly said. "No that is ok" Tim said. Jill looked at her husband and said "No let her tell me." Kelly said "Well you noticed the chemistry between us when I was doing the interview on Tim. Last night we had dinner and just couldn't deny our feelings anymore." "What are you saying? Jill, it didn't happen like that. I was drunk, I thought she was you. I really don't remember much about it." Tim responded. Jill just looked at the in disbelief "So you are saying that you thought this was me because you were drunk and what happened." "You know" Tim said, "I need you to say it" Jill said "Well one thing led to another and went too far. Jill if I could I would take it back but I can't. Honey, we need to get past this." Tim pleaded with her. Jill asked, "This has been going on how long?" "Last night was all" Tim responds. "And I am supposed to believe you" Jill says. "Yes. Please Jill I love you. You are the only one for me." Tim says. Unable to control her emotions any longer Jill breaks down and says, "I need some time alone. Obviously this was a mistake to come here." She turns around and walks out the door. Tim tries to run after her but Kelly stops him. "Come on she already knows about us, Tim, let her go." "I can't Kelly she is my life." Tim says breaking down.
All the way home Tim just kept thinking about how he was going to make this up to Jill. He knew it was going to be hard but he had to get her back. When he got back to the house that he shared with his family he sat outside in his car for a while trying to work up the courage to go in and face Jill. He slowly got out of the car and opened the front door. The boys were sitting at the kitchen table doing their homework and Jill was cooking dinner. He said his hellos to which Jill didn't respond. Then he asked the boys to go up and get washed up for dinner. Jill continued to mull around the kitchen ignoring him, he could tell she had been crying. Her face was red and her eyes were puffy. Seeing this made Tim ache to hug her and protect her from everything. "Jill please talk to me." Tim pleaded. "I know I made a mistake but we can't end things like this. I won't let us." He continued "Please Jill you are my life. I don't think I will make it without you there." Jill looked at him and said, "I need some time to compute everything I saw. You can stay until we figure things out, but on the couch." Tim responded "I know it will be hard work but I will get you back." Jill turned her face away and through tears said "Tim I am not sure if I will ever be able to trust you again." Hearing her say that tore his heart out because of how much he loves her and knowing that he was the cause of the pain in her eyes.
Dinner that night was tense. The boys noticed that their parents weren't talking so Randy tried to break the ice "So Dad how was the Hardware show. I thought you were going to be gone longer." Tim looked at Jill and answered "It went well, we finished up early, so I thought I would come home." Brad added, "Were you tempted by anything there." "What is that supposed to mean?" Tim asked loud and defensively. "Tim" Jill said forcefully. "What all I wanted to know was what he meant by that question." Tim said. Brad rephrased his question "I meant were there any cool new tools that you were tempted to buy." "Oh, no not this year." Tim said and looked down at his dinner. The rest of the evening went by quietly for the Taylor's. The boys went to bed and Tim and Jill started arguing.
The next week went the same way. Tim and Jill would only argue when the boys were not around but the boys knew something was wrong. There were mysterious phone calls where the caller would hang up if Tim didn't answer the phone and when he did Tim would say "please stop calling here" and hang up. The boys could sense the tension between their parents and then came the night they watched their father leave with his bags packed.