Page 51 of First Date: Divorce
“I didn’t do anything to her.”He cracked eggs into a bowl and whisked them.
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
“Pauline—”
“Don’t Pauline me.You can pretend with other people, but you can’t pretend with me.Left you alone to start, letting you tend your wounds.But they’ve healed up enough for you to start living again.And if you don’t, those scarred up wounds’ll stiffen so bad you’ll hardly be able to move.Time to face facts.Hilary was a lemon.Just because you bought a lemon car doesn’t mean you never get another one.Hell, never drive again.”
He could have argued with the notion that she’d ever left him alone.
But there were bigger fish to fry in that speech.
He could justifiably express outrage she thought he’d neverdrive again.Instead, he had the strongest urge to share Pauline’s relationships as cars theory with K.D.She’d try to suppress her amusement, but he’d see it and enjoy it.
He settled for, “Thanks for that wisdom.”
“I mean it.There’ve been plenty enough women since we came here who let their interest in you be known.Bet there’re several sniffling in their hankies right now over this supposed wife of yours showing up unexpectedly.”
“Then there will be rejoicing in Bardville when we hit the breakup portion of this show.”The eggs were nearly done.He took out a plate and fork.
She snorted.“Won’t do them any good, because you not only don’t go after a woman, you don’t respond when they fall over in front of you.”
“Hah.Kiernan McRae reminded me Tuesday that I made a play for Bexley when we were all stranded at Gramps’ store.”
She snorted again.More emphatically.Apparently, she never ran out of the raw material for that sound.
“Made a play for her my eye.Even you caught the currents between those two from the second they walked in from the blizzard.”
He turned to her.“They were distant.Sometimes politely, sometimes not.It wasn’t until after Kiernan and I talked while we got boxes from the attic that it started to change.”He transferred the eggs to his plate.
“Talked?About what?”
“Guy stuff.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.“You asked if he had a claim to Bexley because maybe, possibly, on some distant planet you might do something to show an interest in her.”
“Iwasinterested in her.”
“You weren’tinterestedin her.You liked her and she’s sure attractive, but down deep in your lawyer mind, you knew she was safe because it was her and Kiernan all along.I’ll even give you credit for bringing it up to Kiernan to wake him up.”
“I am not that devious.”Another snort.“I asked Kiernan because they came in together.And Iwas interestedin Bexley.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him with a mixture of disapproval and hope.He put the pan in the sink and ran water in it.
“She was safe because she was taken.That let you pretend you’d picked up the pieces after Hilary and were all ready to re-enter the land of the living, but, gosh, golly, the woman you were interested in chose someone else.”
“You’re nuts, Pauline.”He stood, gathering his plate and fork to take them to the table on the deck.
“That suited you fine, making out that Bexley loving Kiernan excused your return to the deep freeze.And one more thing, Eric.”
He delayed his departure only out of politeness.He didn’t need to turn around to face her words.
“Bet you haven’t asked Tal Bennett if he’s interested in K.D.Because that wouldn’t change your feelings about her one bit.He could be shouting it from the top of the Big Horn Mountains and it wouldn’t matter to you.Not unless she returned his interest.”
His turn to snort, though he wasn’t as good at it as Pauline.Sure didn’t get as much practice.
On the deck, though, he couldn’t avoid his thoughts … and memories of words.
Not Pauline’s.
