by Brenda Novak
“Hello? Anybody home?” A knock sounded on the front door, which Isaac had left standing open to accommodate his many trips to the truck.
Dashing a hand across her wet cheeks, Liz immediately scrambled to her feet. “Who is it?”
Footsteps started down the entry hall. “Hey, you haven’t forgotten me already, have you?”
Isaac stood as a man about five foot eleven, one-hundred-eighty pounds of tanned lean muscle strode confidently into the room. Although it was pretty chilly outside, he wasn’t wearing a coat, just a pair of long baggy shorts, flip-flops and a tight-fitting T-shirt—along with a cocky grin that disappeared the moment he saw Isaac.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, drawing up short and shooting a glance at Liz. “I didn’t realize you already have company.”
Liz cleared her throat. “This is my brother, Isaac.”
Isaac brushed the dust and dirt off his sweatshirt and jeans while waiting for the other half of the introduction. “This is Dave Shapiro,” Liz said. “He’s the club pro who’s been giving me tennis lessons.”
“When she bothers to show up,” Dave added with a toothy smile and offered Isaac his hand.
Isaac shook with him while Liz tightened her ponytail in a self-conscious movement that said she wasn’t thrilled about being caught looking as she did.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should’ve called you. I—I won’t be coming back to the club. I’m moving to Idaho.”
He frowned at the boxes, wrapping paper and packing tape. “That’s what Lauren said.”
Isaac nudged Elizabeth. “Lauren?”
“She lives down the street,” Elizabeth explained. “We play tennis together.”
“She told me what happened,” Dave said. “I’m sorry.”
Isaac looked from Dave to Liz. What exactly was their relationship? He could feel some sexual tension between them. But he knew Liz had been a faithful wife and was still in love with Keith.
Liz offered Dave a ghost of her usual smile. “You tried to warn me, right?”
“I’m not here to say I told you so. I wish I’d decked Keith when I had the chance.”
Isaac stiffened. Those were pretty protective words from a man six or seven years too young for Elizabeth.
Liz tucked the wisps of hair that kept falling forward behind her ears. “Aren’t you the one who told me cheating is man’s basic nature?”
“If it’s not his basic nature, it’s definitely his baser nature. Just ask my old man.” Dave’s car keys rattled as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Anyway, don’t hate us all after this, okay? I never would’ve been stupid enough to walk away from a woman like you.”
If Isaac had any choice in the matter, he’d never get close to Liz in the first place. Not only was Dave too young, he seemed…unreliable.
Fortunately, Isaac didn’t need to say anything. Liz was already laughing as though her coach hadn’t meant a word he’d said. “You wouldn’t have married me in the first place. You prefer a bachelor’s life, remember? You told me that yourself.”
Dave made a careless motion with his hand. “Details, details. Besides, I was speaking hypothetically.”
Liz laughed again. “For a womanizer, you really are a pretty nice guy.”
For a womanizer… If Liz already knew what Dave was, why did she seem so flattered?
“What’d I tell you?” Dave flashed her a smile, and Isaac decided that moving his sister out of Southern California might not be such a bad idea. She needed time to recover, get over Keith; she didn’t need the attentions of a tennis pro who probably changed women as often as he changed his sheets.
“Is there any way to talk you out of this?” Dave asked, frowning at all the boxes.
“I’m afraid not,” she said.
“Her children need to be near their father,” Isaac inserted.
Liz blinked at his sudden change of heart but turned her attention back to Dave, who was talking. “So you’re going to follow Keith? Give up L.A. for Idaho?”
“You have any better ideas?” she asked flippantly.
“You could stay here and have an affair with me to even the score.” His wry grin indicated he only was joking. But Isaac suspected he was at least partially serious.
“I appreciate your willingness to help out in the revenge department,” she said. “But I don’t see how our sleeping together would benefit anyone—”
“Hey!” He pressed a hand to his chest as though she’d wounded him. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”
“And since my brother’s in the room, I know you’re just being your normal, outrageous self.”
The crooked grin reappeared. “Well, there’s always tennis. We could keep working on your serve.”
“I can’t stay,” she said. “Isaac’s right. My kids need their father.”
The club pro sighed heavily. “I’d have to be a jerk to argue with that, right?”
She offered him a sweet smile. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head in apparent regret. “I suppose there’s nothing left to do but help you load the truck then, huh?”
At least he’d given in gracefully—and offered to help. Isaac decided to put him to work so he’d quit flirting with Liz. Motioning to several boxes that were ready to go, he said, “You can grab those, if you like.”
Dave scratched his head as he ambled toward the closest one. “Idaho. I’ll bet you fifty bucks you’re gonna hate it there.”
Isaac knew better than to take him up on that bet. But at least in Dundee there probably wouldn’t be any young tennis pros hitting on his sister.
Hefting one of the heavier boxes into his arms, Dave started out with it, then paused before disappearing down the hall. “Promise me one thing?”
Liz’s eyes narrowed with mock wariness. “What’s that?”
“Look me up when you move back?”
Her lips curved in another smile, this one a little more genuine than the last. Her response concerned Isaac almost as much as it gave him hope that she’d be okay, that she’d recover.
“You’re twenty-four, Dave,” she said.
“So?”
“I’m thirty-one. Why would you want to hear from an older woman who’s divorced with two kids?”
“What do you think?” he said. “You play a mean game of tennis.”
Liz chuckled as his footsteps trailed down the entry hall.
Isaac waited for her to glance over at him and tried not to scowl too darkly when she did. “Who is this guy?”
“I told you. He’s my tennis coach.”
“Why haven’t you mentioned him before?”
“Why would I?”
“Because he likes you.”
She shook her head. “He likes every woman he meets.”
But she still seemed ready to flirt with him. Moving to Idaho was beginning to feel like a good idea. “Okay,” he said. “We leave tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TEN
“ARE YOU SURE about this?” Reenie’s mother whispered.
The smell of books and leather furniture filled Reenie’s nostrils as she sat with her mother across from the attorney’s wide, neatly organized mahogany desk. She could hear the murmur of Mr. Rosenbaum’s voice in the next room, speaking to the secretary who’d just ushered them into his office. Reenie and Celeste had passed him on their way in. He’d greeted them with a warm smile, but she wasn’t fooled. The business she had with the attorney would be anything but pleasant.
“I’m sure,” she replied stoically.
“But Keith’s so contrite,” her mother argued.
At first Reenie gaped at Celeste, but on second thought she realized she shouldn’t be so surprised by her mother’s sympathy for Keith. Celeste was capable of forgiving anything, loving anyone. When Garth had finally admitted his affair, Celeste, who should’ve been the most offended party, had been one of the first to reach out to Lucky.
“Mom, Keith has another wife, another family. He’s been with her for nine years.”
“I know that, dear, but sometimes it’s possible to get beyond this kind of thing.”
“Dad had a brief fling with a woman who is now dead. The child resulting from that affair is an adult. I don’t mean to make light of what happened, but this isn’t the same. This is…this is—” almost unfathomable “—bigger than I am,” she finished helplessly. “It’s shown me that the marriage I believed in never really existed in the first place.”
The advancing years were beginning to take their toll on Celeste’s beauty, but her mother’s pale blue eyes were still pretty. They filled with concern. “What about Jennifer, Angela and Isabella? They love their daddy. And Keith’s so miserable. He came over last night, pleading with me to speak to you.”
Reenie dropped her head into her hands. She should’ve brought Gabe along instead of Celeste. Her brother understood and agreed with her decision to end her marriage. “Why did you wait until we were sitting in the attorney’s office to bring this up?” she whispered harshly.
“Because you didn’t want to talk about it in the car.”
“I still don’t want to talk about it,” Reenie said. “Anyway, I’m being as kind to Keith as I possibly can be. I’m hiring an attorney in Boise so we don’t make a public spectacle out of him, so that we’re able to keep his dirty little secret in the family. If I wanted to be vengeful, I would’ve gone to Warren Slinkerhoff, like almost everyone else in Dundee who’s ever filed for divorce. Then every sordid detail would be all over town inside of ten minutes.”
“You didn’t leave Dundee to protect Keith. You left to protect the girls,” she said.
And to protect herself. Reenie felt like a fool for not discovering Keith’s deceit years ago. Somehow he’d been able to compartmentalize it all so well. And yet she should’ve suspected something.
“I’m not sure you want to hire any attorney,” her mother was saying. “Do you really want a divorce? You and Keith have always been so in love. Think of your father’s birthday last week. Lucky was there and we enjoyed her. Even Gabe was on his best behavior. Time changes perspectives. It’s only been two weeks since you found out about this…this affair.”
It wasn’t just an affair. But Reenie refused to explain it all again. What mattered was that she was where she had to be. She knew she wouldn’t feel any differently in a year.
“What about the other people involved?” Celeste continued.
“You’re asking me about Liz?”
“Is that her name?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, I’m talking about the O’Connells. They’re heartbroken that the two of you are splitting up.”
They weren’t half as heartbroken as Reenie was. They couldn’t be. They only knew what she and Keith had told them—that Keith’s traveling had caused some marital strife and they were separating.
“At the very least, give yourself some more time to think,” Celeste said.
“I don’t want to put off the decision.” Reenie couldn’t dwell on what had happened any longer or she’d lose her mind. She had to take control and reorganize her life. Except for Keith’s visitations with their children—which she intended to make as pleasant as possible for everyone involved—she was going to cut ties with her husband and go back to teaching. Her father had even agreed to help her buy the farm, and to let her pay him back over the next several years.
Maybe she wasn’t building the idyllic dream she’d once imagined. But she was facing this challenge squarely. She wasn’t about to sit around and cry.
“Keith’s quit his job,” her mother ventured.
“I know.”
“He’s now managing the hardware store for Ollie.”
“I know that, too.” Keith had told her during one of his many phone calls. But Reenie had a hard time imagining her husband among all those tools and cans of paint. He’d always been fabulous on a computer and incredibly bright—but not very handy around the house. “So?”
“So he’s not traveling anymore. Chances are good nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Reenie wasn’t sure what part of that statement offended her most. Her mother’s cavalier attitude toward the existence of Keith’s other family? The way Celeste overlooked the fact that Elizabeth O’Connell and her children wouldn’t simply and conveniently disappear so that Reenie’s life could go back to the way it once was? Or the implication that it was all as simple as keeping a tighter rein on her straying husband?
“Chances are?” she echoed incredulously, but the attorney cleared his throat to warn them that he was entering the room. Reenie shot her mother a look that said they’d talk later.
“What can I do for you ladies today?” he asked, his expression a perfect model of professional interest.
The answer to that question was pretty obvious, since he was a divorce attorney and they’d made a formal appointment, but Reenie knew he was really asking which one of them wanted to end her marriage.
While he took his seat, she explained that she hoped to get a divorce as soon as possible.
“Most people suing for divorce would like the same thing, Mrs. O’Connell. But I need to be completely honest here. Divorces don’t happen overnight.”
The expensive-looking cut of Mr. Rosenbaum’s short, dark hair and tailored suit told Reenie he was successful in his work and probably knew what he was talking about. But he didn’t fully understand her situation. Yet. “This one will be uncontested.”
He offered her a patronizing smile. “Anger and greed can complicate the simplest issues. When a divorce turns adversarial, it can take several months to complete, sometimes as long as a year.”
“If it is strictly uncontested, how long will it take?” she pressed.
Reenie guessed he didn’t run into uncontested divorces very often, because he steepled his fingers on the desktop and answered somewhat reluctantly, “As little as a month.”
A month. She could dissolve what she’d thought was a lifelong commitment in four weeks. In a way, Rosenbaum’s answer was a relief but in another way, it was incredibly depressing to think she could so easily end vows she’d considered sacred.
“Do you have children, Mrs. O’Connell?”
“Yes. Three girls.”
He put on a pair of glasses and made a few notes on a pad embossed with his name. “Then there’ll be custody issues.” The tone of his voice seemed to add, See? The trouble’s already starting.
“I don’t think so.”
He stopped scribbling long enough to stare at her over the rim of his glasses. “Excuse me?”
“My husband will agree to give me full custody of the girls in exchange for the house and most of the furnishings. The piano that came from my parents, the photographs that were a gift from my sister-in-law, and the furniture my brother made will go with me, of course. And so will the dog. Keith gave Old Bailey to me for my birthday the year we married, so he’s been part of the family for a long time. My girls couldn’t manage without him right now.” Actually, she couldn’t manage without him, but she refused to admit that to anyone else. “Keith can have the rest,” she said. “As for the vehicles, he’ll take his SUV and his Jeep. I’ll take the van.”
Reenie was treated to another glance over the rim of Mr. Rosenbaum’s glasses. “He’s already agreed to these custody issues and division of property?”
“Not yet. But I have good reason to believe he will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because it’s a very generous offer, for one. Two, he’s guilty of bigamy. If he doesn’t fully cooperate, I’ll turn him in to the police.”
Reenie’s mother gasped, but Mr. Rosenbaum acted as though he’d heard it all before. Taking off his glasses, he used a soft cloth from his desk drawer to wipe the lenses before setting them aside.
“Bigamy,” he said slowly, leaning back. “Is this a religious thing or…”
“No. This is an adulterous affair that my husband took to the next level.”
“So this
second marriage is recent?”
She hated admitting the rest. “Actually, it’s lasted for nine of the eleven years we’ve been married. They have two children together. But—” she still couldn’t believe it “—I only recently found out.”
The human side of Mr. Rosenbaum finally presented itself. He shook his head and leaned forward, his eyes shining with curiosity. “How’d he keep this other family a secret from you for so long?”
“He’s a better liar than I ever imagined,” she said with a sigh.
“I see.”
“Keith’s really not as bad as this makes him sound,” Reenie’s mother piped up.
“And you’re…Keith’s mother?” he asked Celeste.
Reenie rolled her eyes. “No, she’s my mother. But every once in a while, she forgets where her loyalties lie.”
“I don’t forget, dear,” Celeste assured her. “I support you one-hundred percent. I just—”
“I know,” Reenie interrupted. “You feel terrible for everyone involved.”
“I do,” her mother said.
“Where does your husband’s other wife live?” Rosenbaum asked.
“In California. Which is why our paths never crossed. I guess you could say the distance between us served as a contributing factor to my ignorance.” She frowned. “My own innocence and gullibility did the rest.”
Rosenbaum rubbed a finger thoughtfully across one eyebrow while she explained the whole situation. When she finished, he scooted forward, reclaimed his glasses and made a few more notes. “I’m afraid I need to explain something to you, Mrs. O’Connell.”
Reenie was already raw inside. The gravity in his voice terrified her. “What’s that?”
“I can’t use the threat of criminal action as a bargaining chip in your divorce.”
“Why not? He’s guilty!”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m an attorney. As such, it would constitute an ethical violation. So, if you’re going to threaten him, I don’t know about it, okay?”
She hesitated, wondering if threatening Keith violated her own ethics, and decided it did not. “Okay.”
“And…”
Reenie clenched her hands in her lap. This was probably where things got worse.
