Page 6 of Wild Ever After
Chapter Two
Halfway to Pat’s Pub, Belinda eased her foot off the gas. There was an exit a quarter mile up the road. She could take the ramp and get back up on the interstate headed home to the quiet of her apartment. Calling herself ten kinds of fool, she kept driving.
Will meant well. The entire group who’d befriended her when she walked into her first day as a professor at her alma mater, meant well. She just wasn’t the birthday party girl. Not anymore.
Hell, she wasn’t a lot of things anymore.
She used to love parties, though, and the small gathering at Pat’s was as close to a party as she’d been to since that night.
As she neared the turn off, she thought again about turning back. It had taken her forty-five minutes to get to the pub, what was another forty-five to get home?
Several blocks from the pub, Belinda pulled into a parking garage and walked into the lobby of a small, boutique hotel. She’d stayed there twice before. Once alone when she’d come up for a reunion with college girlfriends that took place along the boardwalk and everyone wanted to be centrally located, and another time with her husband, Harry.
She tried to tell herself it was the best possible option as it was close to Pat’s. The truth was that it was familiar, filled with good memories and she needed that tonight.
She took the steps to the street after picking up her room key.
Years in public like had taught her not to walk alone, day or night, but night in particular.
If she were honest, years in public life had taught her many things she’d rather forget.
“Stop it,” she muttered. She couldn’t go back in time. She couldn’t change anything. She could only move forward, continuing to put one foot in front of the other.
For early April, it was unseasonably mild out, but the rain had a way of cooling things off. Inside, the pub was warm and raucous. Not that she’d expected any different, especially on a Friday night.
She spotted the small group of friends at a table toward the center of the room. They hadn’t seen her yet and just as she had in the car, thought about backtracking and heading home.
Indecision weighed heavily and she was thrilled when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She stepped back into the shadows by the door and look at the caller ID.
Her heart sped up. Her palms began to sweat.
“Son of a —”
“I wouldn’t finish that statement if I were you.”
“Harry,” she breathed.
“You know the rule.”
She clamped her mouth shut. Yes, she knew the rule. He didn’t like it when she cussed. It was a punishable offense. The taste of soap was not her favorite and if she concentrated hard enough, she could recall the texture against her teeth, the way it made her gag, the foam and lather. It made her shudder.
“You can put the phone back in your pocket now. I just needed a way to keep you from meeting your friends for a few minutes.”
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s your birthday.”
“No, I mean, here. At Pat’s. How did you know?”
“Riley.”
Their daughter. “Such a traitor.”
A smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “She would agree with you.”
“We’re separated.” They were, but they weren’t and Belinda knew that statement wouldn’t hold water.
“Semantics. And not legally. Look at me.”
