Thirty
Mr. Nice Guy
“W hat do you mean you’re leaving?” Hallie couldn’t believe her ears. For the second time in as many days, Steve was walking out on her. Her chest tightened with a growing sense of frustration and anger.
“Hallie, it isn’t like I want to go.” It helped to hear the regret in his voice. But not enough.
“Why? What is it this time?” Although she’d heard his half of the conversation, it hadn’t told her much. Hallie guessed this supposed crisis had something to do with his ex-wife. Steve had made his feelings for her no secret, and it seemed he’d be forever at the woman’s beck and call.
“There’s trouble at Mary Lynn’s,” he explained.
“With one of the kids?”
He hesitated, and in that instant she knew. Whatever the problem, it did indeed involve Mary Lynn. Her knees felt as if they were about to buckle, and she lowered herself onto a kitchen chair. “It’s Mary Lynn, isn’t it?”
He paused and with reluctance answered, “Yes.”
At least she should be grateful he hadn’t lied. “I see.”
“Hallie, trust me, walking out on you now is the last thing I want.”
“Then don’t go.” Her voice was high-pitched and mildly hysterical.
“I have to. Meagan sounded near panic. It isn’t like this is a common occurrence. In fact, it’s never happened before.” He knelt in front of her and gripped her hands tightly in his. “I’ll be back, I promise, and then we can talk. Just remember it’s you I love.”
Hallie desperately wanted to believe him, but she’d been a fool before and was determined not to repeat the same mistakes. “I don’t want to argue about this. If…you feel it’s necessary to go, then you should.”
His relief was evident.
Steve started to get up, started to walk away, but before he left she had to ask him one last thing. Hastily she got to her feet. “Steve.”
He turned to look at her.
It wasn’t the time to ask him this. Wasn’t even fair, but right now, that didn’t matter to her. She’d seen his expression when she’d brought up the subject earlier. Viewed the stricken look in his eyes and laughed it off. She wasn’t laughing now. She had to know where they stood before he went to Mary Lynn. “Are you going to ask me to marry you?” she said.
He couldn’t disguise the dread in his eyes. “Do we have to discuss this now?”
How odd that she’d smile just then. Perhaps it was because she’d guessed his response long before he spoke. His eagerness to delay the discussion was an answer in itself. “No,” she said, putting on a brave front, “we can talk about that later—that and everything else.”
“I’ll be back before you know I’m gone.”
That wasn’t possible. She felt his absence immediately, felt it like a knife in her gut. Caught on a gust of wind, the door closed hard. Hallie sat down again after he’d left and shut her eyes. Breathing in deeply, she was surprised to discover she was trembling.
Steve was furious by the time he arrived at Mary Lynn’s. He had to hand it to his ex-wife; her timing was incredible. The very last thing he’d wanted to do was walk out on Hallie just then. She’d gone to so much trouble, cooking dinner, preparing a homecoming for him. She’d been trying to prove how much she loved him, and his response had been to walk out on her.
He slammed the car door and marched up the front walk, taking the steps two at a time. He almost walked in without ringing the doorbell—something he was prone to forget since he’d once lived in this house.
As soon as Meagan opened the door, she hugged him tight, obviously relieved to have him there. “I’m so glad you came, Daddy…I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. It wasn’t any problem.” So, he lied. He had the feeling Hallie wasn’t going to forget and forgive as easily this time, and he didn’t blame her. He’d deal with whatever was bothering Mary Lynn and be on his way, hoping he could make amends to Hallie. “Where’s your mother?” he asked Meagan.
“In the bedroom.” She pointed toward it as if he needed directions. He didn’t.
“Where’s Kip?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since this morning. I…I don’t think they’re getting along.”
“What about Kenny?”
“Asleep. He went to bed soon after you dropped him off.”
Bed was exactly where Steve longed to be, and he didn’t plan on cuddling up with a stuffed animal, either. He ran his hand through his hair and exhaled sharply. He was tired, impatient and in no condition to deal with one of Mary Lynn’s moods.
He walked through the kitchen on the way to the master bedroom. Meagan had apparently made a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for dinner; the peanut butter was still out and so was the jelly, along with an open loaf of bread.
“I didn’t do that,” she said, her gaze following his. “Kenny did.”
“Have you had dinner?”
“Not yet,” she said with a shrug. “I’m too worried about Mom.”
“Hey, sweetie, I’m sure everything will work out. You eat something now and I’ll go talk to your mom.” He left Meagan rummaging in the refrigerator and hurried to the bedroom. He knocked once, then entered.
Mary Lynn was lying facedown on the bed, sobbing steadily. She raised her head to see who it was. When she saw him, she cried out, flung herself from the bed and ran into his arms.
“I’m so glad you came,” she wailed. “Oh, Steve, I don’t know what to do.” In all the years he’d been married to Mary Lynn he’d never seen her this distraught. Meagan was right to be concerned.
He wrapped his arms around her and they both sat on the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong?”
Her crying subsided to soft sniffles. “I…I’m such a fool. Oh, Steve, how could I have been so incredibly stupid?”
“You’re not stupid,” he assured her, gently rubbing her back. “Now tell me what’s upsetting you so much.”
“It’s Kip—he lied to me.”
Steve forced himself to relax. He was concerned about his children, and the effect Kip’s lie, whatever it was, might have on them.
“I learned he’s been married twice before—he didn’t tell me about his second wife. I found out by accident. I…I opened some mail. From his ex—his second ex. He has a little girl by that marriage. She’s barely two years old.”
Steve continued patting her back. Okay, Kip had been married one time more than Mary Lynn realized, but she made it sound like the end of the world. “I’m sure this is a shock, but—”
“That’s not all,” she cut him off. “There’s something else…”
Steve’s shirt was damp with her tears. She lifted her eyes to his and bit her lower lip, as if to gauge how much she should say. “You can tell me anything, Mary Lynn, you know that.”
“I…I’m afraid I might be in trouble with the law.”
“The law? ”
“I married a man…who’s already married.”
It took a moment for the meaning of her words to sink in. “You mean to say Kip never divorced his second wife?”
“No, he didn’t. I talked to her myself, and she told me. I didn’t want to believe her, and when I asked Kip he was so convincing. He said she was a shrew and a bitch who’d say or do anything she could to ruin our happiness.”
“Maybe she is lying.”
Mary Lynn shook her head violently. “I asked Kip if I could see his divorce decree and he couldn’t find it, and then…then I had a friend—you remember Kelly, don’t you?—check at the courthouse for me. There’s nothing there. Nothing.” Her shoulders shook with the force of her tears.
“Did you ask Kip about that?”
“Yes. He…he was furious I’d gone behind his back and had Kelly check the court records. He tried to tell me he’d gotten a divorce in Vegas. I said if that was true, he should be able to produce the documents and…he couldn’t.”
“Oh, Mary Lynn, I’m sorry.”
“We had a terrible argument and he walked out. I don’t think he’ll be back—I’m not even sure I want him back. Oh, Steve, how am I ever going to face my friends? What will I tell my family? I feel like such a fool.”
“When did you find all this out?”
“I talked to Kelly Friday afternoon, but Kip was away at a sales conference and I hadn’t had a chance to hear his side of it. It’s been eating away at me all weekend…you can’t know how dreadful this week has been. He…he hadn’t mentioned the second marriage, but I assumed he was divorced until Linda told me otherwise. Then Kip arrived and we had this terrible fight—and then he…he drove off in a huff.”
“He’ll be back,” Steve said, looking toward the closet—formerly his closet—filled with Kip’s clothes.
His ex-wife gazed up at him with wide appealing eyes.
“You’d never have done anything like this to me. You were always a good husband.”
If that was the case, he wondered why she’d been so quick to divorce him. He continued to hold her because that was what she seemed to need. Really, there was nothing else he could do. Nothing he could say.
Kneeling on the bed, Mary Lynn placed her arms around his neck and pressed her head to his shoulder. “Hold me, Steve, please, for just a little longer.”
His ex-wife had never been a clinging violet. “Everything will work out,” he reassured her, repeating the words he’d said to Meagan. “Kip will be back and you two can sort all this out. You loved him enough to marry him, didn’t you?”
“I…I’ve been so foolish.”
He wanted to agree with her, but resisted the impulse.
Mary Lynn lay back down, and the pressure of her arms still circling his neck pulled him down with her. “Make love to me, Steve. I need you.”
He groaned. Not with desire, but with anger and frustration. She could have had him anytime, anyplace, a few months earlier. Instead, she’d left him high and dry and turned her loving attention to Kip. Now she was back. He’d gone through several of the longest and most sexually frustrating months of his life, and in the space of a single day he had two women wanting him. If it wasn’t so ironic, he might have laughed.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said gently, trying not to distress her any more than she already was.
Mary Lynn raised her head from the pillow and kissed him, using every bit of knowledge, every advantage, that their years of marriage had taught her.
Steve broke off the kiss.
“No, Mary Lynn,” he said sternly. “It isn’t going to work for us any longer. You’re feeling low and miserable. You don’t really want me.”
“I do, Steve. I want you so much.” She squirmed and bucked beneath him, grinding her pelvis against his. “Don’t reject me now. Please. Not when I feel like the whole world’s caved in on me.”
It wasn’t him she wanted, Steve recognized, but the security his love had always offered her.
“Come on, Mary Lynn, you’re involved with someone else.” He nearly made the mistake of saying she was married to someone else when in all likelihood, she wasn’t.
Steve struggled to a sitting position. She sobbed louder and clung to him, refusing to release him. “Lie down with me. Please. Is that so much to ask? I can’t even remember the last time I slept.”
He let her direct him downward, back onto the bed. She snuggled close, still sniffling. Steve kept his arm around her, thinking she’d soon drift off to sleep. The minute she did, he’d slip away.
“I don’t know why I ever fell for Kip,” she said, apparently needing to talk.
“He seems all right,” Steve muttered.
“He’s deceitful and stubborn,” Mary Lynn countered.
Steve didn’t feel obliged to list Kip’s good points; besides, he didn’t know the man. But as long as Kip was a decent stepfather, Steve didn’t really care.
“I don’t think he’ll be back,” Mary Lynn said bleakly.
Now Steve understood: This was what truly bothered her. “He’ll need to pack his clothes, won’t he?” he asked. “You can talk to him then.”
She raised herself up on one elbow and reached for a tissue to blow her nose. “I don’t know. He might have someone else come for his things. I told him I never wanted to see him again, and I don’t think he’ll want to see me, either. I really don’t.”
“Let’s not borrow trouble.”
“How could Kip do this to me?” she asked, sounding more and more like a frightened little girl.
“Shh.” Steve cradled her head against his shoulder. “Go to sleep.” The sooner she did, the sooner he’d be free to leave. It wasn’t Mary Lynn he wanted to hold, but Hallie. Although his ex-wife was in his arms, the woman he loved was in his thoughts. Her rose-petal-littered bed, the promise of her smile. The joy he felt just thinking about Hallie made him impatient to return to her.
“I’m so tired.”
So was he, Steve realized with a yawn. After spending a whole night in one huge tent with ten Cub Scouts, he was exhausted. The nine-year-olds had been up and down until well after two. Steve was convinced he didn’t get more than a couple of hours’ sleep, if that. His son had already crashed.
Mary Lynn sobbed quietly.
“Everything will work out,” he whispered again. “Everything does sooner or later.” He wouldn’t have believed it a few months ago, but he did now. Mary Lynn’s decision to file for divorce had drastically changed the course of his life. For a time, a long time, he felt it had all been a terrible mistake. His pride, his ego, his sense of who and what he was had suffered one hell of a beating. It’d taken damn near a year to fight his way back, to rise above the shock and the rejection.
A year, and things hadn’t seemed to get any better. And then he’d learned Mary Lynn was dating Kip. That had hurt, and it’d hurt even more when she remarried. But her marriage, above anything else, had helped him face the truth. It was over for them.
He loved her, yes; a part of him always would. His being with her now was evidence of the depth of his feeling for her. She was the mother of his children, his first love—but their marriage was over. Dead and buried.
Accepting that had probably taken much longer than it should have, but he’d felt like he was fighting for his family, for the dream of what it could have been. He didn’t blame Mary Lynn for the failure of their marriage, nor did he accept full responsibility himself. Despite his best efforts to keep his family intact, the divorce had happened and he couldn’t turn back the clock.
Steve loved Hallie now. He wasn’t sure about leaping into another marriage, but he knew her well enough to realize she wouldn’t take anything less. The two of them could discuss that later.
Mary Lynn released a long wobbly sigh. Her shoulders trembled and her grip about him tightened, as though she feared he was about to leave her.
He would eventually, but only after she fell asleep. He battled back his own fatigue and decided to rest his eyes. But only for a minute. One minute.
The next thing he knew, Kenny was standing over him. “Dad?”
Steve’s eyes flew open.
“What are you doing here?” Kenny whispered. “Where’s Kip?”
Steve glanced to the other side of the bed to discover Mary Lynn curled up with a loose blanket tucked around her shoulders.
“I can’t find my shoes,” Kenny said, again in a whisper. “Are you and Mom getting back together?”
“Your shoes?” Steve sat up and tried to focus on his wristwatch. “What time is it?”
“Six.”
“In the morning?”
Kenny nodded, and Steve cursed under his breath and bolted off the bed. He was going to have one hell of a time explaining this to Hallie.