Why did he have to be so thoroughly intriguing? Of all the pitfalls she had imagined in this marriage, growing to care so much about him had not been one of them. As much as he irritated her, she loved the fact that her intelligence didn’t intimidate him, as it did so many others. She felt alive when she was with him: her blood pumping, her brain at full alert, all senses engaged. Until now, she’d only felt that way when she was engrossed in her work.

Everything would have been so much easier if she could dismiss him as an egotistical, self-centered jock, but he was far more complex than that. Beneath that belligerent good ol’ boy exterior lay, not only a keen mind, but a highly developed sense of humor. In light of the marshmallow incident and the fact that he would soon find out about her car, she rather hoped it kicked in soon.

She pulled up in front of Annie’s house and turned off the ignition. The Escort shuddered for several seconds before it finally shut down. As she’d hoped, Lynn’s car was nowhere in sight, so she was still at lunch with Cal, which gave Jane a chance to check on Annie.

She climbed the front steps and let herself in without knocking, just as Annie had ordered her to do the last time she’d been here. You’re family now, missy, in case you forgot.

“Annie?”She walked farther into the empty living room.

To her dismay, Lynn Bonner poked her head through the kitchen door, then came slowly forward as she saw her daughter-in-law.

Jane noted the pallor of Lynn’s complexion beneath her makeup and the dark smudges under her eyes. Plainly dressed in jeans and an old pink pocket T-shirt, she bore little resemblance to the well-groomed, stylish hostess who had presided so graciously at the dinner table five days earlier. She wanted to express her concern, but realized even that small gesture would do more harm than good. She wasn’t going to add to Lynn’s troubles, and that meant playing the bitch. “I didn’t know you were here. I thought you were having lunch with Cal.”

“His morning meeting ran long, and he had to cancel.” Lynn set the dish towel she’d been holding over the back of the wing chair. “Did you stop by for any particular reason?”

“I came to see Annie.”

“She’s napping.”

“Tell her I was here, then.”

“What did you want to see her about?”

Jane began to say she’d been concerned about Annie, but stopped herself just in time. “Cal told me I had to drive up today to check on her.” Did lies count with God when they were uttered with good intentions?

“I see.” Lynn’s blue eyes grew frosty. “Well, I’m glad duty forced you to stop by because I want to talk to you. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?”

The last thing she needed was a private chat with Cal’s mother. “I really can’t stay.”

“This won’t take long. Have a seat.”

“Maybe another time. I have a dozen really important things to do.”

“Sit!”

If Jane hadn’t been so anxious to get away, she would have been amused. Apparently Cal hadn’t received all his leadership abilities from his father, but then, she supposed any woman who had raised three strong-willed sons knew something about exercising her authority. “All right, but just for a few moments.” She took a place at the end of the couch.

Lynn sat in Annie’s upholstered rocker. “I want to talk with you about Cal.”

“I’m not comfortable talking about him behind his back.”

“I’m his mother, and you’re his wife. If that doesn’t give us a right to talk about him, I don’t know what does. After all, we both care about him?”

Jane heard the faint question mark at the end of that statement and understood that Lynn wanted her to confirm her feelings for Cal. Instead, she kept her face carefully expressionless. Cal was right. Lynn and Jim had endured enough grief without having to mourn the failure of his marriage. Let them celebrate, instead, the end of a disastrous alliance. Maybe it would give them something to share.

Lynn’s posture grew more rigid, and Jane’s heart went out to her. She regretted the pain she was causing her now, but knew that, in the end, it was kinder this way. Her in-laws seemed destined for heartbreak, but at least she could make it as short-lived as possible.

“In some ways Cal is like his father,” Lynn said. “They both have a lot of bluster, but they’re more easily hurt than people imagine.” A shadow crossed Lynn’s face.

Maybe a simple concession on her part would somehow ease her mother-in-law’s mind enough to end this conversation. “Cal is a special person. I knew that the moment I met him.”

She immediately realized her mistake because a spark of maternal hope ignited in her mother-in-law’s eyes, and she could see Lynn nurturing the possibility that the frosty, snobbish bride her eldest son had brought home wasn’t as bad as she appeared to be.

Jane’s hands tightened in her lap. She hated causing this woman pain. There was something frail about Lynn, a sadness that lay just beneath that sophisticated veneer. No matter how bad Jane made herself look, she couldn’t hold out false hopes. In the end that would be more cruel than anything else.

She forced her stiff lips into a thin smile. “If anyone ever doubts that he’s special, all they have to do is ask him. He does have an ego.”

Lynn’s chin shot up at the same time her fingers gripped the arm of the chair. “You don’t seem to like him very much.”

“Of course I do, but no one’s perfect.” Jane felt as if she were suffocating. She had never been deliberately cruel in her life, and even though she knew she had to do this, it made her ill.

“I can’t understand why you married him.”

Jane had to get out of here before she fell apart, and she lurched to her feet.“He’s rich, intelligent, and he doesn’t interfere with my work. Is there anything else you want to know?”

“Yes.”She released her hold on the arm of the chair and stood. “Why in the hell did hemarry you?”

Jane knew she had to drive the final nail into the coffin of Lynn’s hopes. “That’s easy. I’m smart, I don’t interfere with his work, and I’m good in bed. Look, Lynn, don’t get yourself in a tangle over this. Neither Cal nor I have a big emotional investment in this marriage. We hope it works out, but if it doesn’t, we’ll both survive. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my computer. Tell Annie if she wants anything to call Cal.”

“I want him to finish paintin’ my house.”

Jane’s head snapped around, and she was dismayed to see Annie standing in the doorway that led to the back bedroom. How long had she been there, and how much had she overheard? Annie was unpredictable. She obviously hadn’t informed Lynn that Jane was pregnant, but what had she said? Beneath the wrinkles and blue eye makeup, the old woman regarded her with what could only be compassion.

“I’ll tell him,” Jane said.

“You do that.” Annie gave a short nod and walked into the kitchen.

Jane hurried to her car, tears stinging her eyes. Damn Cal for making her come to Salvation! Damn him for forcing her into this marriage and believing it would be so easy to distance his parents!

But as she jabbed the key into the ignition, she knew the fault didn’t lie with Cal. It was hers alone. She was to blame for everything, and the wrong she’d done had spread until it touched more people than she could ever have imagined.

She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and drove blindly down the lane, thoughts of the butterfly effect swirling through her mind. It was a concept that scientists who studied chaos theory talked about, the notion that something as simple as a butterfly’s wings stirring the air in Singapore could cause a ripple effect that would eventually affect weather systems in Denver. The butterfly effect could also be a mini morality lesson, and she remembered talking to her third graders about it, telling them that any good deed, no matter how small, could keep multiplying until it had changed the whole world forever for the better.

Her deed had done the same thing, but in reverse. Her selfish act was causing pain to an increasing number of innocent people. And there was no end in sight. The harm kept spreading, the butterfly effect multiplying. She had hurt Cal, she was hurting his parents, and, worst of all, her bad judgment was going to hurt their baby.

She was too upset to work, so she drove into town and went to the drugstore. As she came out, she heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, beautiful. Did you pray for me?”

She whirled around and found herself looking into a pair of cocky green eyes. For absolutely no reason that she could think of, her flagging spirits lifted a few notches. “Hello, Mr. Tucker. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Why don’t you call me Kevin? Even better, how about calling me honey and really pissing off the old man.”

She smiled. He reminded her of a young golden retriever: attractive, overly eager, full of restless energy and unlimited self-confidence. “Now let me guess. You’ve shown up in Salvation to cause Cal as much trouble as possible.”

“Me? Now why would I do something like that? I love the old guy.”

“If someone doesn’t put you in your place soon, there’s no justice in the world.”

“My place is sitting on the bench, and I don’t like it one bit.”

“I’m sure you don’t.”

“Let me buy you some lunch, Jane-I can call you Jane, can’t I? Why are you driving that old heap around? I didn’t know they still allowed cars like that on the road. Whose is it?”

She opened the door of the Escort and set her packages inside. “It’s mine, and don’t talk about it like that, or you’ll hurt its feelings.”

“That car’s not yours. The Bomber’d never let you drive a junker like that in a million years. Come on, let’s go have some lunch at the Mountaineer. It’s the best meal in town.”

He grabbed her arm, and she found herself being swept around the corner toward a small, tidy-looking wooden house with a roughly carved sign on the porch indicating this was the bar she’d been hearing about. The entire time they walked, he talked.

“Did you know this is a dry county? There are no bars. The Mountaineer is what they call a bottle club. I even had to buy a membership card to get in. Don’t you think that’s bogus? You can still drink in this county, but you have to have a membership card to do it.”

He led her up the stairs, across a wooden porch, and into a small entryway where a young woman in jeans stood next to an old classroom lectern that held a reservation book. “Hi there, sweetheart. We need a table for two. Someplace cozy.” He flashed his membership card.

The hostess smiled at Kevin and directed them through a small, spartan dining room that looked as if it had originally served as the living room of the house, but was now furnished with half a dozen square wooden tables, all of which were empty. Two steps led down into an open area with a brick floor, mahogany bar, and large stone fireplace whose hearth held a rush basket full of old magazines. Country music played in the background, but the noise wasn’t deafening, and an assortment of local people sat at the round tables and barstools enjoying their lunches. The hostess led them to a small table tucked near the fireplace.

Jane had never been a fan of bars, but she had to admit this one was cozy. The walls were hung with nostalgic advertising signs, yellowed newspaper stories, and football memorabilia including a blue-and-gold Stars’ jersey emblazoned with the number eighteen. Next to the jersey hung an assortment of framed magazine covers, all of them picturing her husband.

Kevin glanced over at them as he held out a cane-backed chair for her. “As good as the food is, the view sure could spoil your appetite.”

“If you didn’t want that kind of view, you shouldn’t have come to Salvation.”

He snorted as he took his seat. “The whole town’s brainwashed.”

“Grow up, Kevin.”

“I should have known you’d be on his side.”

She laughed at the injured expression on his face. “I’m his wife! What did you expect?”

“So? You’re supposed to be this genius or something, aren’t you? Can’t you be fair-minded?”

She was saved from replying by the arrival of the waitress, who regarded Kevin with rapacious eyes, but he was absorbed in the menu and didn’t seem to notice.“We’ll have a couple of burgers, fries, and beer. Make it Red Dog.”

“Will do.”

“And two side orders of coleslaw.”

Jane could barely resist rolling her eyes at his high-handedness. “Make that a cobb salad for me, no bacon, light with the cheese, dressing on the side, and a glass of skimmed milk.”

Kevin grimaced. “You serious?”

“Brain food.”