Susan Mallery - Delicious

“I want to hit him.”

“I appreciate that, but I think I’ll clobber him financially, instead. I was going to be fair and kind during the divorce. Not anymore.”

He reached for her hand and felt her trembling. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.”

Hugh rolled into the hallway. “Dani, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

She stopped and looked back at him. “How did you want me to find out, Hugh? What’s the best way to tell your wife that you want a divorce so you can screw someone else? You should have told me the truth. I would have been angry but I wouldn’t have thought you were such an asshole.”

She walked away.

“Dani! Come back.”

She shook her head and kept walking.

“Just one punch,” Cal said.

“Thanks, but no. It’s fine.” They reached the stairs and she hurried down them. “This is good. I’d actually been wondering what I could have done to make things better between us. I won’t be doing that anymore.”

They reached the outside. Dani stopped walking and covered her face with her hands. “My whole life totally sucks. I don’t have a career or a marriage. I hate this.”

He pulled her close and let her cry against him. “Things will get better.”

“When? I want a date. Tell me when.”

He stroked her hair. “I’m sorry, Dani. I don’t know. But soon.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.”

“POOR KID,” Penny said. “I can’t believe Hugh was cheating. I always thought he was a decent guy.”

“We all thought that,” Cal told her. “Guess we were wrong.”

“It’s good you didn’t hit him. I don’t care how strong he is, he’s in a wheelchair and you’re a big, burly guy. No way you would have won that in court.”

Cal shrugged and she could see he didn’t much care about the ramifications of his actions. Someone he cared about was hurt and he wanted to lash out.

Funny how she’d never noticed that about him when they’d been married. She’d never seen his protective streak for what it was. Instead of appreciating what he was trying to do and looking for compromise, she’d rebelled against what she’d thought was unreasonable behavior.

She sank lower into the chair and closed her eyes as he continued to push his thumbs into the ball of her right foot.

“You’re really good at this,” she said, enjoying the massage. “I spend my life standing. Most of the time I don’t mind it but lately I’ve been in some serious pain.”

“You’re pregnant.”

She opened one eye and smiled. “I’d heard that rumor. Where did you learn to do foot massage? One of the many women you dated after our divorce? Or did you know it while we were married and keep the information from me?”

“I took a class on the Internet,” he joked. “Just relax and enjoy.”

“I might have to make moany noises.”

“Have at it.”

She gave herself up to the slow, steady massage. There was something erotic about having Cal rub her bare foot. Or maybe it was the fact that when he concentrated on her toes, her heel seemed to end up pressing against his-

Don’t go there, she told herself. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. There hadn’t been a repeat performance-no surprise, given the emotional roller coaster they’d been on for the past few weeks.

In some ways they were getting along better than ever. In other ways, he was more of a stranger than she could imagine. Neither of which kept her from lying awake in bed at night and wishing he were with her.

“When is Dani moving out?” she asked, as much to distract herself as to get the information.

“As soon as she can find a place. Hugh gets the apartment. It’s handicapped accessible.”

“She can live here while she’s looking.”

Cal’s hands stopped moving. She opened her eyes again.

“What?” she asked.

“You’d offer that?”

“Sure. I have a second bedroom.” She waved at her cozy duplex. “She needs some time to regroup and I don’t need the other bedroom until the baby gets here.” She smiled. “Plus, she’ll probably be so grateful, she’ll help me paint when she leaves.”

“I think it’s a good idea. I offered to let her stay with me, but she didn’t want to.”

Penny wrinkled her nose. “It would be too much like moving back home. I would move in with a friend way before I would go live with one of my sisters. I would hate the daily reminder I hadn’t turned out like them.”

He put down her right foot and reached for her left. After pulling off her sock, he rolled up her jeans. “You don’t still worry about that, do you?” he asked.

Penny relaxed and gave herself over to the stroking pressure of his fingers on her heel.

“Sometimes. Before I figured out I wanted to be a chef, I was a complete failure. I flunked out of college.” She winced at the thought. “I lived two years of my life in Pullman thinking I could become a vet. Like I could ever pass those science classes.”

“But you regrouped and moved to Seattle.”

“Oh, right. I moved away from Spokane because my parents were done supporting my various screw-ups. For the first month, I was so broke, I slept in my car.”

“All the more reason to be proud of what you’ve become.”

“You’re right. My parents are excited about my career.” If not the baby, she thought. No, that wasn’t fair. They were happy to have another grandchild.

“You should invite them out,” Cal said.

She opened her eyes and stared at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Why not? They can see you at the restaurant, see the city.”

“Oh, right. Because I need more going on in my life. Don’t you dare say anything to them, either.”

He grinned. “We don’t talk much these days.”

“I guess not. As it is, my mother is going to come out when I have the baby.” That might be good, what with Naomi talking about leaving. “Families. Who thought up the concept?”

“You love your parents,” he said. “You know you do.”

She nodded. “They’re great. I love my sisters, too. I wish they weren’t so perfect, but I can handle it.”

Cal moved to the ball of her foot and dug in with his thumbs. “I’m going to have to talk to Dani about her father.”

“The whole not being a Buchanan thing?”

“Yes. She told me she wants to have a heart to heart with Gloria and find out the real reason she hasn’t been promoted. The conversation isn’t going to go well.”

“It’s better that she hears it from you instead of Gloria. Dani knows how much you care.”

He shrugged. “I accept that, but I still don’t want to be the one to tell her. It’s going to hurt her and she doesn’t need any more pain right now. I’m going to try to hold her off a week or so. Let her get settled.”

“Don’t wait too long.”

“I won’t.”

His cell phone rang. He grabbed for it with an eagerness that told her he’d been waiting. To find out if he was a match, she thought, as he glanced at the display.

“It’s Tracy,” he said before he pushed the talk button and said, “Hello?”

She looked at him and saw the worry in his dark eyes. Then his mouth curved and she knew even before he hung up.

“I’m a match!” he said with a grin. “Nearly a perfect one. I’ve got to get through some tests, but I’m healthy, so we’re going to assume we can go through with this. I can save her.”

And because she knew how much that meant to him, she put her confusion aside.

“I’m glad,” she said honestly, then leaned forward and hugged him. “Let’s celebrate. We can’t go out for a drink, but we can go eat. Or you drink and I’ll watch.”

“No liquor for me,” he said. “I want to be healthy. Let’s go get a salad.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe you actually said that.”

“Me, either.”

She smiled and squeezed his arms. “Let’s call the whole family and have them join us. Everyone will want to know.”

“Great idea.”

He reached for his cell phone.

As he contacted Reid, Walker and Dani, Penny put on her shoes and socks. Cal was such a good man-caring, determined. He was a good father to Lindsey. But his heart seemed to stop there. No one new got in. Which meant only a fool would expect him to change.

But as he laughed with Reid, she found herself wishing things had been different. That he could have let her in, that they could have stayed together and made a family of their own.

THERE WERE A FINITE NUMBER of high schools in the Seattle area and Walker had been lucky enough to find Ben on the first try. His friend had attended West Seattle High School his sophomore year. There had been seven Ashleys in his grade and nearly thirty attending the school that year.

After making a list of them, Walker spent some time on the Internet, tracking down marriages, name changes and locations. Several had moved away. Ben’s last physical contact had been right before he’d shipped off to Afghanistan, which meant any Ashleys moving more than eighteen months ago could be eliminated. Anyone married longer than that same period could also be taken off the list. Which still left him with eleven women.

The first, Ashley Beauman, lived in Bellevue, just east of Lake Washington. He turned onto the residential street shortly after ten on Tuesday morning. While he doubted he would find Ashley home, he could at least find her house and come back later.

But when he pulled up there was a car in the driveway and several toys on the front yard. Toys for small children. Either Ashley had been keeping secrets from Ben or this wasn’t the right one.

Walker parked and climbed out of his X5. He stepped over a tricycle on his way to the front door.

A tall blond woman answered on the first ring. She looked frazzled and had a toddler on her hip.

“Yes?”

Walker had deliberately dressed casually. He smiled and introduced himself, then quickly explained he was looking for someone who had known a friend of his in the marines.

“I don’t remember anyone named Ben in high school,” the woman said, shifting her child to her other hip. “Was he in the same grade?”

“One year ahead of you.”

He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out the two pictures. The first showed Ben in high school and the second had been taken four months ago at their base camp.

She studied them, then shook her head. “Sorry. I don’t know him.” Then she frowned. “Why me?”

“His girlfriend’s name was Ashley.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You’re kidding. You’re going to talk to every Ashley who went to high school with this guy?”

“Until I find her.”

“Good luck with that.” She hesitated. “Your friend died, didn’t he?”

Walker nodded.

“I’m sorry. I hope you find her.”

“I will.”

“I’LL BE FINE,” Cal said. “I get to sleep through everything. Lindsey’s the one with the tough job.”

Penny nodded. She’d done a little research on the Internet and knew he was telling the truth. Cal would wake up with a few bruises, facing two or three days of recovery. Lindsey was in for a much rougher time as her body dealt with the new bone marrow.

“Are you sorry you put off meeting her?” she asked.

“No. Lindsey has enough to deal with right now. I want her to focus on getting better. She can meet me later.”

Several members of the hospital staff came into the room. “It’s time,” the nurse said.

“Okay.” Penny bent down and kissed Cal. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.”

“I know.”

He squeezed her hand. “Thanks.”

She waited until they wheeled him out, then she joined Reid in the waiting room.

“Some belly you got there,” he said when he saw her.

She smiled. “Gee, thanks.”

He patted the cushion next to him in the colorful, plant-filled room. “Just trying to distract you. There’s no reason to worry.”

“So everyone keeps saying. I’m not worried. Not exactly.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know. This is all so strange. Three months ago I hadn’t spoken with Cal in ages and now…”

“Now you’re in a hospital waiting for him to have a simple procedure that may save the life of a child you never knew about?”

“That’s a very nice summary.”

Reid leaned back in the sofa and picked up a paper cup of coffee. “Does his willingness to help Lindsey make you mad?”

She considered the question. “Not mad. I want her to be fine. And there was never any choice. Cal’s a good man. Of course he would do this.”

“But?”

“But…why wasn’t he like this with me?”

“When you lost the baby?”

She nodded. Why hadn’t he cared more? Why hadn’t he been willing to open his heart to their child? “There’s so much he didn’t tell me, so much he wouldn’t say. He’s not very forthcoming, emotionally.”