Where is the Love in "That Tree"?

Some parts of the text make me feel as though “That Tree” is the story of a mean joke. Maybe a joke is not the best word to describe it but, I feel as though the narrator is only taking Miriam back in order to prove he has some kind of control. Perhaps I am way off. The narrator is telling this story and I feel as though he is merely bragging. He is bragging to his friends about how his first wife, after five years, has decided that she wants him back. She has realized that her life is not good without him. When we first discover whether or not the narrator with get back together with Miriam he says “he was going to break down and do that very thing”; he was going to give her another chance (Porter 79). “Break down”, he was going to “break down”? And he also states that he will not remarry her; “If she wanted to live with him on these terms, well and good” but her was not going to marry her (Porter 79). If her really loved her, wouldn’t he marry her again? Apparently if Miriam is going to live with him, she has to follow his terms, “She was going to take whatever he chose to hand her, and like it” (Porter 79). I feel this is his reason for getting back together with Miriam; he only wants to control her lifestyle as a way of getting back at her for their previous marriage. It seems like revenge. Yes, for a brief moment it does appear that the narrator still has feeling for his first wife, Miriam, because he ends his second marriage because his wife mocks Miriam and calls her “a mousy little nit-wit” (Porter 68). I still feel as though he wants to prove his worth; I feel as though he wants to show Miriam he is the boss in their new relationship.