Leslie found herself hoping that Nora would be outside with her children when she came home from work. She’d love to wave to her—three doors down the street—and invite her for a glass of tea. She’d offer to hold the baby for her bottle….
Instead, there was a shiny Caddy parked in front of her house, and she groaned.
“Crap,” she said aloud. “What now?”
She quickly considered her options. She could go to Jack’s and wait him out. She could drive out to Paul and Vanni’s house and get herself some backup. Fortuna was an option—she could just go to a restaurant, shop, kill time. But she wasn’t afraid of Greg—she was simply sick of him! So she pulled into her drive and got out of the car.
He wasn’t waiting in his car but on the porch, sitting in one of those canvas chairs, the collar of his white dress shirt open and his sleeves rolled up. And she didn’t recognize his expression. It was odd. Maybe sad. Possibly contrite. Neither was an expression that was familiar to her.
When she stepped away from her car, he stood. He put his hand up, palm toward her. “Don’t shoot me with anything. I just came to talk. Not argue, just talk.”
She approached the porch. “You’re not coming inside,” she said with as much authority as she could muster.
“Fine. Will you sit out here and talk to me for a few minutes?”
“How did you find my house?”
“I’ve been down here a couple of times before. It’s a little town, and I spotted your car in the drive. I also spotted a great big construction worker’s truck parked on the street. I finally decided I had to brave the new boyfriend if I wanted to talk to you.”
“You didn’t think approaching me at work again was a good idea?”
“Paul seemed kind of opposed to that notion the last time I ran into him,” Greg said.
“Right. He offered to beat the shit out of you if you didn’t just leave me alone.”
“I’m not going to hurt you, for God’s sake! Can’t you give me ten minutes?”
She sighed deeply. “Stay right there. I’m going to pour a glass of wine. Can I get you anything? Merlot? Glass of tea? A little hemlock?”
He winced. “Tea would be nice.”
She went up the step and onto the porch. She opened the door. “You come in this house and I’m going to shoot you. Do you understand?”
“Leslie…”
“I’m serious. I’m so bloody sick of you, I will shoot you if you get in my space.”
“Fine. I’ll be waiting right here.”
She locked the door behind her for good measure. After dropping her purse on the counter and pouring a glass of wine and a glass of tea, she went back outside. She handed him his tea and sat in the other chair. “I came down here to get away from you,” she said. “I’ve told you that a number of times. When are you going to hear me?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I have heard you. I’m having a hard time letting go.”
“No kidding. But since you’re the one that ended our marriage and you have what you want, why not just enjoy it?”
“That’s the problem.” And then he sipped his tea and didn’t say more.
“What’s the problem now?”
“I hardly know where to begin,” he said, and he looked down into his glass. “I’ve made so many mistakes….”
“There’s a mouthful….”
He met her eyes. “Your boyfriend isn’t here, is he?”
“He’ll be along shortly,” she lied. “If I were you, I’d make this quick. What is it you want now?”
“Leslie, I’m sorry. I made a mess of our lives. I’m not sure what happened. But I’m now a man with many regrets.”
She was a little surprised to hear this. “What’s the matter, Greg? New marriage not working out so well?”
“It’s exactly what I thought I wanted, and now, I’m very embarrassed to say, it’s not what I want at all. I was a fool. I made a terrible mistake letting you go. I’m still in love with you.”
She was stunned speechless. She struggled to recover. There’d been a time, not very long ago, she would’ve given the earth to hear that. “I’m afraid that ship has sailed….”
“Has it? Because it’s never too late to repair the damage, if we handle ourselves appropriately. It’s time to put the cards on the table, Leslie. I’m not sure what happened to me—I was seduced, I guess. I was vulnerable for some reason and seduced and look what a fool I made of myself.”
She took a fortifying sip of her Merlot and then leaned forward in her chair. “You’ve fathered a child! Regrets or not, you have obligations!”
“Absolutely. And I intend to honor them. Allison makes a good living—she doesn’t need alimony from me but I will insist on supporting my child, both financially and emotionally. The sad truth is, I can’t stay in that marriage. It was a mistake, Leslie. I never really let you go and you’re the soul mate I should be with for the rest of my life. I want you to give me another chance.”
She actually gasped. “Are you crazy?”
“No, sweetheart, I was crazy. I was crazy when I thought an affair with a pretty young woman made sense, but I’m recovered now. I came to my senses. Late, I admit, but I finally see how wrong it was to leave you. I can’t tell you how sorry I am or how much I want another chance. We were so happy—”
“No, we weren’t,” she said, though she said it softly. And to her surprise, he turned his head to meet her eyes. “We weren’t. In fact, that’s what you told me when you were leaving me—that you weren’t happy. That you couldn’t live a lie. That you were really in love for the first time! And now that it’s in the past and I have some perspective, I can see that I wasn’t happy, either. I gave up so much to be your wife.” She shook her head. “I’ll never be that foolish again.”
“What?” he said, scooting forward in his chair. “What did you give up? I gave you everything!”
“No, you gave nothing and I gave up everything. We both worked tirelessly for your success and never discussed what was important to me. I wanted children, Greg. How many times did I tell you I wanted a family? You were so busy talking about yourself and your ambitions, you never listened to a word I said.”
“You want children? Fine, then. We’ll have children.”
She shook her head. “No, Greg. You’re much, much too late.”
“Don’t be hasty, Leslie. Don’t make the same mistake I made. We had a good life, you and me. You begged me to stay and I was the idiot who didn’t take you seriously when I should have.” He tried to reach for her arm.
“No,” she said again. “I’m over you. Completely. In fact, I have no respect for you.”
“God!” he said. “How can you say that to me?”
“Easily. It’s time for you to get over yourself. You didn’t honor your vows. You betrayed me and left me and went on your merry way to a new life. Made a mistake there, did you?” She shook her head. “Well, there are consequences, Greg. I guess you’re going to have to live with that.”
“Leslie!”
She shook her head, though she was not completely unmoved. She couldn’t imagine what he must be thinking and feeling. She couldn’t guess what it might be like to be him right now. Greg wasn’t used to being rejected. “I wish you’d leave so I can enjoy my wine.”
“Is this about him? The man you’ve been seeing?”
“Did I trade you in for a new man? Absolutely not—I was completely faithful while we were married. I didn’t so much as go out for coffee with a man for a year and a half after you left me. Have I found someone worthy now? Oh, yes,” she assured him. “In fact, in about thirty seconds I’m going to go inside and phone around to see if I can find him. I’m going to ask him to hurry up and get you off my porch. Seriously. Because if you have regrets, it’s your own damn fault and I’m not even slightly interested in giving you another chance to hurt me.”
“I would never—”
“Listen to me,” she said. “You don’t even tempt me. For the past few months I’ve been trying to remember what I saw in you in the first place.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying this to me,” he said. “We were so good together!”
“Go. Please, go. Ask Allison to forgive you for being stupid and take good care of her and your child.”
“Leslie, if you think about this—”
She slowly stood and went into the house. She threw the dead bolt and then went around to the back door to be sure it was locked. She took her glass of wine with her to the bedroom and sat on her bed, leaning back on the pillows. Using the cordless phone, she dialed Conner’s cell. It was about eight-thirty on the East Coast. When he answered, she said, “I miss you so much.”
“Not much longer, baby.”
“Are you in the middle of things?”
“I was doing dishes,” he said with a laugh. “Katie’s getting the boys showered and ready for bed. I was going to call you the minute the house got quiet. What I really want is to roll over and grab you and pull you closer. And make you beg…”
“I want that, too.”
“What’s wrong, Les? Something’s wrong.”
“How can you tell?”
“Your voice—it’s in your voice. Tell me. Don’t make me worry.”
“It’s just Greg. I found him on my porch when I got home from work. He’s sorry—how about that? He’d like another chance. He’d like us to try again.”
Conner was quiet for a long beat. “Is that so?” he finally said.
“Have you ever heard anything so absurd?”
“And what do you want, Les?” he asked softly.
“I want to take a shower with you, that’s what I want. I want to roll around in the bed with you. I want to feel your prickly mustache against my neck.” She sighed. “I want to be with you because I understand you, because I’m understood by you. Because I trust you and love you.”
“But he screws up your head,” Conner said.
“I can’t for my life figure out why,” she said. “He has only one agenda. It’s all about him. Why does it even distract me? I’m finished with him.”
“Maybe not quite,” Conner said. “Something is unfinished….”
She thought for a second. “Conner, I’m going to go see my parents this weekend. I’ll drive up early Saturday morning and come back here on Sunday. I’ll have my cell phone with me. It works just fine on the road to Oregon. I’m not going to see Greg, I promise you that.”
“I didn’t ask. Les, if you have to see him, I’m not going to try to talk you out of it. Do what you have to do. I’ve told you before—when we move on together, I don’t want you to have any doubts. I want you to be sure.”
“I am sure, Conner. I love you.”
“But something’s eating at you….”
“And I’m not sure what it is. All I’m completely sure about is that I want to be with you. Only you. I just have this baggage…. How do I dump the baggage?”
“I don’t know him like you know him. I can tell you what I did. I wrote Samantha a letter.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I did it right before I left,” he said. “I told her I was happy in a way I’d never been happy before and it had nothing to do with her. I wished her well and said I was moving on and hoped she would, too. I didn’t give an address for her to respond to—but I said goodbye in the only way I knew how.”
“I keep saying goodbye to Greg and he just won’t go!” she protested.
“You’ll figure this out. And I’ll be with you soon.”
“I need my mother,” she said. “I’m going to go home, see my mom and get her to help me with this. My mom never liked him to start with! God, I wish she’d have told me and saved me the time!”
“If not for your marriage and divorce, we’d never have met,” he said.
That stopped her. She thought about that for a second. “Isn’t it funny,” she said, “that our biggest blunders can end up being the best thing that ever happened to us.”
When Leslie looked outside again, the shiny Caddy was gone, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she walked three doors down to Nora’s house and made her apologies—she had to cancel their Saturday trip into Fortuna together. “I have to take a drive up to Grants Pass to see my mother.”
“No problem, we’ll do it another time,” she said. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m not sure. My ex-husband showed up again. He’s a complete pest. But I need to talk to my mother about him. My mom is kind of…well…opinionated would be a mild description. I think she might have some advice for me. I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“I saw the car,” Nora said. “Wow.”
“It’s a very pretty car,” Leslie confirmed. “It’s not making him at all happy right now. But it used to. Things like clothes, cars, country-club memberships, all that stuff used to get him all excited. Not me,” she said. “Never me.”
Leslie hadn’t exactly lied to Conner, but there was a little more to her agenda than a nice visit with her mother. She called her mother on Friday morning and said, “I hope you don’t have really big weekend plans because I need you on Saturday—I want to come up to Grants Pass.”
“Sure, darling,” Candace said. “We have a kickboxing class in the afternoon, but we can miss it, I suppose.”
“Kickboxing?”
“You just can’t imagine how much fun it is. There’s a group of us who go to the community center for the class. And you know what? We’re not terrible!”
“I’m not at all surprised. But listen—I’m having issues with Greg. He is still bothering me. He was down here again. Can you do a little detective work for me? Make a phone call or two? I’d like to see Allison. Can you call her and maybe set something up? I’ll meet her wherever, but I have to talk to her about Greg, who is driving me crazy. And I’d like to talk to her alone. Tell her it’s very personal and important.”
“Sweetheart, what is it?” Candace asked.
“It’s just that I don’t understand myself, Mom. How did I not notice this about him for the eight years of our marriage? Does the whole town think I’m just an idiot? And why didn’t I know I was being used?”
“Oh, crap, Leslie—you’re overthinking the whole thing. The ‘town’ thinks you were the best thing that every happened to Greg Adams and he was a damn fool to let you get away! As for Allison, I doubt she’ll confirm that for you. But I’ll call her and try to set up an appointment with her. Maybe you can meet her at the mall or something. Get it all off your chest, then we’ll go out for sushi.”
“Sushi?” Leslie asked.
“We just started eating sushi. It’s wonderful. Don’t you think?”
She just shook her head. “Be sure to tell Allison I’m not upset or anything—I’m very happy in my new life. I just want to…check in with her. Tell her I have a baby gift. And it’s girl stuff—not for Greg! I won’t take much of her time.”
But when Leslie got to Grants Pass, what her mother had arranged for her came as quite the surprise. “Well, she wasn’t very receptive to this idea, nor was she impressed by the baby gift. Do you actually have one?”
“Not yet, but I can get one on my way to see her.”
“I bought you one to give her. I had it gift wrapped. And to be classy, I also bought a gift for the mother—some lotions.”
“You are the best,” Leslie said.
“What’s bothering you?”
“I’m not sure. I’m afraid there’s a part of me that still loves Greg. I hate that, but…”
“Phhhttt,” Candace said, giving her hand an impatient wave. “I saw that godlike man in your house. And I got to know him a little. Funny, smart, attentive… You can’t be pining for Greg!”
“Okay,” Leslie said, “this time are you telling the truth? Or in ten years are you going to tell me you never liked Conner in the first place?”
“Absolutely not! At least not unless he screws up and hurts my little girl. Now, hurry and put on some fresh makeup. Look your best. You’re meeting Allison at Premier Nails on Nineteenth. She’s getting a mani-pedi at noon.”
“No way,” Leslie said.
“That or nothing, honey. She wasn’t exactly easy to persuade. She said she has nothing to say to you. She was rather bitchy.”
“What’s up with that?” Leslie asked her mother. “She won! How can she be mad at me?”
“I’m sure by the time we get to sushi, we’ll have at least some of the answers. Now get going!” Candace looked her over. “Don’t you have something nicer than jeans to wear?”
“I have a fresher pair of jeans, but that’s it.”
“Well,” Candace said. “Whatever.”
The nail salon was crowded, it being Saturday. The owner immediately asked if he could help her, and she shook her head. She lifted the gift bag. “I’m just here to see someone.” And she craned her neck, trying to spot Allison.
Fortunately she was in the back of the room, sitting in a large, leather chair that reclined slightly, soaking her feet in the pedi whirlpool tub. Her eyes were closed—ah, clearly unstressed about this meeting. And her pregnant belly was huge. She wore a red sundress with spaghetti straps and some kind of pattern in blue and green—very bright. Her thick blond hair was pulled back and held with a headband, as though she might be getting a facial today, as well.
Leslie approached warily. “Allison?” she said softly.
Her eyes opened lazily. “Oh. It’s you.”
“I brought you something,” Leslie said, holding out the bag.
“You can put it right there,” she said, pointing to the floor. “Right beside my purse and shoes.”
Leslie put down the gift bag and looked around uncomfortably. “I was hoping we could talk. Maybe privately.”
“Unfortunately I don’t have time for a private meeting today, Leslie. You can pull up a chair and state your business or forget about it. This is just about the only time I have for myself all week. This is it. Take it or leave it.”
“It’s personal,” Leslie tried.
“Then speak a bit softly if you like. I assume it has to do with Greg.”
Leslie tilted her head. This wasn’t like Allison. She was usually much more pleasant. Not warm, certainly, but at least polite. Leslie looked around for a chair; there were only little ones on rollers, the kind the manicurist used to be seated at the client’s feet. She shrugged and pulled one over to the pedi tub, sitting at Allison’s feet. Like one of her subjects.
“Well,” she began. “I’m tired of telling your husband I don’t want to be friends. We’ve been divorced for two years and—”
“Not my husband much longer,” Allison said coolly. “I filed for divorce a month ago.”
Leslie’s mouth fell open, and she stared at Allison in shock; Allison returned the stare with cold eyes. “But you’re having a baby!” Leslie said.
Allison rolled her eyes. Right at that moment a young Vietnamese woman pushed a low chair on wheels over to the pedi tub and pulled on her latex gloves. She gently lifted one of Allison’s feet out of the tub and began to remove the polish.
“Please,” Allison said, not in the least intimidated by their audience. “I don’t need Greg to have a baby. He’s pretty useless anyway. What does he do? He does nothing but schmooze and network and try to impress people. Sometimes I wonder if he even has an office—it seems all his work is done on the golf course or at lunch and dinner meetings. It didn’t take me too long to get bored with playing on the Greg Adams team.”
“But, Allison, you haven’t been married all that long!” Leslie said.
“Long enough, in my estimation. I have a very busy practice. I don’t have time for more than one baby.”
“But, Allison,” she said, lowering her voice. “I thought the two of you were madly in love.”
Allison just shrugged. “I thought we wanted the same things. When I first met him, he was all about forming a power couple. His ambition was tantalizing. He put a very good face on it. I admit, I got a little hooked.”
“When did the two of you meet?” Les asked. “I don’t think I ever heard that story….”
Allison sought the answer in the ceiling tiles. “Hmm. I think it was at an investment seminar. He was talking with a couple of my partners about tax shelters and limited partnerships, and I asked him if I could buy him a drink to learn more about it. He was more than willing. And willing and willing. I thought he had a lot of money. I thought we were headed in the same direction. He said you were holding him back.”
“Me?”
“Uh-huh. It took me a while to figure out—he wanted me to play second chair. He wasn’t really interested in playing Bill and Hillary. He wanted to play George and Laura.” She made a little face. “I could go along with that as long as we were perfectly clear—I’m George. Greg just isn’t smart enough to take the lead.”
“And his money?”
Allison laughed. “Leslie, he doesn’t have any money. He spends money, he doesn’t save or invest, not exactly a big earner, either. Big talker, though. Thank God I kept our finances separate and wrote us a pre-nup.”
Leslie started to wonder if she’d ever be able to close her mouth again. “I’m not really hearing this.”
“You can have him back,” Allison said.
“I don’t want him back! But don’t you love him?”
“I suppose I did. For a while. He does seem to know how to treat a woman. Most of the time.”
Leslie frowned. “Most of the time?”
“He’s chivalrous. Amusing. He does things like bring flowers. Loved the engagement ring—I think I’ll go ahead and have the stone reset.” Then she leaned closer and whispered. “He does have that little bedroom issue.”
“Bedroom issue?” Leslie asked.
Allison leaned back again and ran her hand over her big belly. “Not exactly reliable in the erection department. You know what I mean?”
Leslie tilted her head and affected a perplexed expression. “I have no idea what you mean. Of all Greg’s shortcomings, that certainly wasn’t one of them. At least with me. In any case, it seems to have worked well for you—” she nodded toward Allison’s belly “—at least once.” She stopped herself just short of claiming Greg was a stallion. Leslie stood up from her little chair. Now she could look down at Allison. “So—what tipped you over the edge?”
“I decided to run for City Council. He informed me, in that extremely polite and superior way of his, that he would run first, and then, if I was still interested, I could file the paperwork for my own campaign. I told him to go to hell. It pretty much deteriorated from there.”
“Oh, my. And are you? Running for City Council?”
She nodded. “The baby’s due next month. The primary is in the fall.”
“Well, then. Best of luck.” She nodded to the gift bag. “Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?”
“Girl. Thank heavens. I don’t imagine Greg will take much interest.”
“Best of luck, Allison. I hope it all goes well…the delivery and everything.”
“Sure. Right.”
Leslie just looked into those icy blue eyes for a second, and without really meaning to, she uttered, “Poor Greg.”
“Poor Greg?” Allison repeated. “He’s a loser! Poor Greg?”
“He’s a lot of things, true. You’re right—he’s pretty self-centered. He’s also kind. There’s not an ounce of malice in him. I can’t say that about you.”
“Hit the road, Leslie. You’ve wasted enough of my time.”
Leslie left feeling as though she’d just had an out-of-body experience. And yet—she suddenly felt she understood everything. First of all—Allison had gone after him. He’d been what she wanted at the time. And while Greg was always looking for someone to promote him, Allison was undoubtedly every bit as inclined. She’d wanted Greg because she’d thought he’d be good arm candy. And she was also cruel. Cold and very, very calculating.
And where did that leave Leslie and what she’d experienced in her marriage and in her divorce? Well, it was pretty simple and awfully sad.
“I think I was a pleaser,” she told her parents with a shrug. “As annoyed as I could get with Greg, I never wanted any trouble. I just wanted a happy home. I wanted to laugh and relax and have harmony. I didn’t care if Greg wanted to be the mayor, if that made him happy. That Allison,” she said with a shake of her head. “Boy, she’s cold. I wouldn’t want to tangle with her. But if you ever have to go to court—you should hire her. Not a lot of emotion there.”
“Seemed like she adored him and he adored her,” Candace said.
“Birds of a feather,” Robert said. “I almost feel sorry for Greg.”
“Well, I do feel sorry for him,” Leslie said. “He’s always had these grandiose ambitions and this truly inflated image of himself and yet…he’s so totally alone. He has no one to believe in him. Even when we were married, I did what he asked me to do—wrote letters for him, took messages, kept his calendar. But I did all that to keep the peace, make him happy and show support, not because I really believed he was going to be a big political hero. I didn’t believe in him, either.”
“But he has a shiny Caddy and a very nice wardrobe,” Candace said.
“The poor slob,” Robert said. “He’s so shallow. You must have been so lonely while you were married to him!”
And she smiled. “Nah. I had you, I had a really fun job with a bunch of great guys, sometimes girlfriends. I was actually pretty happy. And yet…” She thought for a second and remembered what Conner had said to his ex-wife. I’m happy now in a way I was never happy before and it has nothing to do with you.
“I’m going to skip sushi and just drive back to Virgin River,” she told her parents. “I want to spend some quality time on my flowers tomorrow so that when Conner comes back from visiting his sister, the yard looks perfect.”
