Page 100 of First Date: Divorce
There.That should be a plain enough invitation to give her name to Gail Bledsoe.
“You never gave it a chance,” Eric said.“I saw your face coming down the aisle toward me.You were terrified.Of being a wife, of getting married.But you’ve gotten past some of it.You can get past it, K.D.”
Startled, she looked over at him.
She thought of his refusal to wear rings carrying someone’s dashed hopes and dreams.
She thought of her recognition during their ride that the trouble in his eyes was gone.
He might not know it yet, but Eric Larkin once more believed in marriage.
Maybe he always had.
“You’ve had … concerns about your role from even before you married?”Melody asked her.
K.D.shifted her focus to the concerned counselor.“Yes.And I still do.”
*
As they finally left Melody in the counseling room, they saw Albert down the hall.K.D.raised a hand to him and he nodded farewell.
They retrieved their suitcases from Lily’s care, still smiling as she said good-bye.
Orion and Izzy hurried up the front steps as K.D.and Eric came out to the porch.
“Oh, good, we didn’t miss you.We so wanted to say how much we’ve enjoyed our time with you both.”
Izzy threw her arms around Eric, while Orion engulfed K.D.Then they swapped off.
K.D.told herself the warm hugs would allay any doubts the Rettafords might have about her and Eric being anything other than they said they were.
Before she let go of K.D., Izzy whispered, “Don’t be sad.You and Eric will make it.”
The couple stood at the top of the steps, each with an arm across the other’s back and waved them off.
K.D.hoped Izzy and Orion weren’t Gail Bledsoe’s accomplices, but she couldn’t be sure.
Of anything.
*
The debriefing was at Cully and Jessa’s house and included everyone from the original meeting in Cully’s office, plus Grif.
From the outside, it might look like a social gathering.
But Cully kept it on track, dividing the session into four parts.
Eric and K.D.recounted what they’d experienced and what they’d found out — but only the parts that had to do with Marriage-Save and divorce attorney Gail Bledsoe.
They swapped back their Marriage-Save phones for their personal phones.He noticed K.D.’s slight delay in handing over the temporary phone, but she covered it quickly enough that he knew she wouldn’t explain.
They all ate a delicious meal provided by Ellyn.
They all speculated about who could be the mole.
That fourth part dragged on and on.
Finally, Cully said, “You two did great.You made yourselves the perfect bait, just like we hoped.It was always a long shot that we’d figure out who was feeding Bledsoe.Now we wait.Hope that bait gets snatched up.”
