Page 90 of First Date: Divorce
“Look at that view,” he invited, drawing to a stop on a rise looking across open land and the first fires of sunset.
“It reminds me of the painting over your fireplace.”
He smiled slowly.“Yes.”
Not a carryover from his marriage to Hilary.A visual reflection of his new life here in Wyoming.
They cantered a bit, then, without consultation, slowed to a walk once they neared Cambria, as if reluctant to have this time end.
*
The silence of the van ride back to Marriage-Save had a different feel — from all the couples.
Eric nodded off, his head tipped the opposite way, against the window, with his side and thigh pressed against hers.
Mimicking the other woman around her age, K.D.opened her phone.No messages.Idly, she scrolled through Kendra’s photos.
She stopped abruptly.
Not a kissing one.
The one Kendra took when Eric reached over to snag an extra forkful of chocolate cake from her plate.
It wasn’t sexy or intimate or anything that one friend wouldn’t do with another, so why did it stop her?
Because of her expression.
Smiling.
Okay, that was no big deal.A friend might smile at a friend stealing a forkful of cake.Especially cake that came in a distant second with her to the frosting.So…?
Not that kind of smile.
The smile of a woman attracted to a man.Strongly attracted.
She put the phone face down on her thigh to block its light.To block that photo.But she couldn’t block what rattled her.
Not what it looked like from the outside — the kissing and wedding and all of it — but what it felt like on the inside.
*
“How was your riding and cookout?”Melody asked at their post-return check-in.
“Great,” Eric said.“Felt good to get out like that.”
“K.D.?”Melody asked.“You seem pleased, as well.”
“We didn’t talk about ourselves.It was a relief.”
Melody looked a little taken aback, then covered it.“I’m glad you both enjoyed it.”
K.D.fought against the unity.She had to for the good of their goal.“It’s not real life.It’s playing at cowboys — the hats, the horses, the wide-open spaces.But my real life is far away.Would he move back to Illinois now that he’s settled into his Wyoming practice?”
“Have you considered moving here?”Before K.D.could say no, the counselor added, “Have you ever talked about trying a long-distance relationship, to give yourselves a chance to explore your possibilities for the future?There are hazards, of course, but—”
“Especially when the commute is from Wyoming to—” He paused long enough for K.D.to mentally fill inMontana.“—Illinois.”
She remembered Melody’s words in the hallway.
