The Other Woman

Her knife scraped against the surface of her plate. “Because my husband cheated on me?” she asked, forcing herself to stay calm.

“He was husband and father to another family through your entire marriage and you never suspected it. That’s a pretty big thing to miss.”

Senator Holbrook’s new right-hand man certainly didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts. “If you’re intimating that I didn’t see the truth because I didn’t want to, you’re wrong.” Liz was tempted to tell him how devoted Keith had been, how he’d never even shown interest in another woman when he was in her presence. Reenie hadn’t suspected, either. But why waste her breath? She wasn’t ever going out with this man again.

“If you say so.”

“Are you trying to offend me, Mr. Hudson?” she asked.

“I’m trying to figure you out.”

She forked another bit of potato into her mouth and swallowed without tasting. “Don’t bother.”

He poured her more wine. “Too threatened by taking a hard look at yourself?”

She felt her eyebrows draw together. “Excuse me, but this is a first date.”

He studied her. “And that means what?”

“I’d rather pretend I’m having fun.”

She expected him to be offended. But her words seemed to have the opposite effect. He actually chuckled as though he approved of her response. “So you do have a backbone.”

“You were checking?”

“I was curious. Something has to explain what happened.”

“That’s it.” She nearly spilled their drinks as she shoved her chair away from the table. “I’m finished here.”

“Just because I won’t play according to the rules, Ms. O’Connell?”

“The rules?” she echoed, standing over him.

He didn’t bother getting up. “Stick to tedious small talk. Never say anything that evokes an emotional reaction. Be as solicitous and fake as possible. Those rules.”

“Maybe I like playing by the rules.”

“Then you’re smart to call it quits, because I value my time too much to waste it on superficial encounters.”

She blinked, surprised that he’d come right back at her. Earlier, she’d been halfway convinced he wanted to take her home with him. She’d had no plans to comply, but his willingness to let her go so easily still came as a shock. “That’s it?”

“If it’s all you can handle,” he said.

She stared at him. For the sake of her friendship with Reenie and Reenie’s parents, she knew she should sit back down. But she couldn’t. She had more than enough to worry about, getting her new business up and running. She didn’t need this.

“Fine, no problem,” she said and stalked off.

KEITH WAS BUSY TAPING the wall he’d just fixed when Liz came in through the back of the shop.

“Hey, that’s not bad,” she said.

The surprise in her voice made her ex-husband scowl. “You didn’t think I could do it?”

“You’ve never been known for carpentry. But most computer guys aren’t,” she added.

“I’ve been working at the hardware store ever since…Well, for a while,” he said, obviousy choosing not to refer to the reason he had given up a $190,000-a-year job with Softscape, Inc. to work for twelve dollars an hour in Dundee.

Liz was grateful he hadn’t reiterated what had caused the destruction of the life she’d previously known. She didn’t need to be reminded of the fact that he’d abandoned her in an effort to save his marriage to Reenie. Carter had already done that.

“I’m getting the hang of being a handyman,” he added.

She didn’t think he’d ever be much good at manual labor. It wasn’t in him. But she was grateful for his efforts, all the same. She’d sunk every dime from the sale of the house they’d shared in California into her new candy-making business and she didn’t have money left over to hire extra help.

“You’re learning.” The improvements to the premises she’d leased three weeks earlier lifted her spirits despite her frustration and anger toward Carter Hudson.

Pausing from his work, Keith ran his eyes over the simple coral-colored linen dress she’d worn for her date this evening. “You’re back awfully early.”

Liz didn’t want to admit that her encounter with Senator Holbrook’s new aide had been a flop, so she shrugged off the comment. “I’m tired.”

“You cut the evening short?”

She met his gaze. Dating was relatively new to her. Only in the past six months had she felt sufficiently recovered from her divorce to meet other men. “We’d already had dinner.” Part of it, anyway, she added to herself.

“So you didn’t like him.”

Her ex-husband’s apparent relief made her supremely conscious of how much Keith seemed to want her back. Sometimes she was tempted to relent, to do what she could to rebuild their relationship. With his chiseled features, deep brown eyes and dark blond hair, he’d always appealed to her on a physical level. He appealed to her in a lot of other ways, as well. Memories of better days occasionally teased her into wondering if she could reclaim what they’d once had.

But then she remembered that he’d loved Reenie more—that he’d been willing to give up Liz and their two children if it meant he could keep his other wife—and she couldn’t summon the trust. With Keith, she’d always be second best. He was only hoping to get back with her because Reenie was no longer available.

“I liked him fine,” she lied.

He wiped his hands on a pair of faded, holey jeans. “Garth acts as if Hudson’s the most brilliant man in the world.”

He was a Harvard graduate, which was impressive. “He’s candid and confident.”

“Do you think he’s handsome?”

She pictured the dark-haired man she’d left at the steak house. “He’s okay, I guess.”

Keith squatted to scrape the edge of his trowel against the lip of the bucket at his feet. “Reenie claims he’s one of the best-looking men she’s ever seen.”

Wanting to make sure the plumber had installed the new sink, Liz went into the small bathroom in the back corner. “Reenie’s a lot more enthusiastic about him than I am,” she called.

Evidently he heard her, because he answered right away. “Why?”

“He has a New York accent.”

“You said that as if he has an unsightly mole covering half his face. What’s wrong with an accent?”