The Other Woman

“Some people might be tougher than you think.”

“That’s definitely a more pleasant surprise than finding out the opposite is true.” He rose to his feet. “I’d better go. It’s been nice chatting with you, but—” he offered Liz a brief smile “—I’ve got an early day tomorrow.”

After coaxing Carter to take home a plate of cookies, Celeste showed him out.

In the silent aftermath, Liz squirmed against the pointed stares of everyone who remained.

“What?” she said.

The front door closed and Celeste’s footsteps echoed across the entry.

“What’d he do?” Reenie asked, sounding a little shocked.

“Nothing,” Liz said.

“But you never act like that. You’re soft-spoken, well mannered, reserved. I’m the temperamental one.”

“You went after him like a piranha,” Isaac added. “Why don’t you like him?”

Liz offered Reenie’s father a feeble smile. “I do like him. Really.”

“He comes highly recommended,” the senator responded. “He used to work for a state senator who is now a congressman, and even though Carter’s very discreet about the past ten years or so, according to Congressman Ripley, he’s honest, straightforward, fiscally responsible and hardworking. I’ve seen a lot of that in him myself. I wouldn’t have set you up with him otherwise.”

“I know.” Liz patted his arm affectionately. Since her own father had remarried eight months after her mother’s death and basically dropped out of her life, she regarded the senator as a sort of replacement, even though she’d only met him eighteen months ago. She hadn’t meant to be rude to his aide. The frustration she’d felt at dinner, and the disappointment she was experiencing with her love life, had simply boiled over. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he assured her. “Carter has a few rough edges, I can see that. Go ahead and challenge him, make him think.” He sat back and smiled. “If anyone can handle it, he can.”

LIZ WASN’T HOME fifteen minutes before Reenie called. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Of course. Why?” Carrying the cordless phone with her as she moved through the house, Liz began to straighten up. This part of the day was typically the most difficult. Once the kids were in bed and the place had fallen silent, she rambled, feeling more alone than at any other time and looking for ways to fill the void Keith had left behind. In recent weeks, creating lists and projecting financial statements for The Chocolaterie had given her fresh purpose, but she was too agitated to concentrate on her lists tonight.

“You seem stressed.”

She was stressed. She feared her investment in her new candy-making enterprise might be a mistake and she wasn’t sure what she’d do if it failed. She didn’t want to go back to working at Finley’s Grocery. There, she couldn’t earn enough to squeeze by. And in such a small town there weren’t many better jobs available for a former flight attendant. “I’m just overwhelmed, trying to launch my own business and all that.”

“You need to slow down and relax. Isaac and I are worried about you.”

Liz’s brother had always been there for her. When they were young and their stepmother had been making life so miserable for Liz, it had been Isaac who had defended her, supported her, given her a shoulder to cry on. He’d helped her through the rough time right after she’d found out about Keith, too.

“Tell him I’m fine. You two have enough to worry about with Gabe. Have you heard from him?”

“Yesterday. They’ve postponed the surgery.”

“Why?”

“They’re still running tests.”

Liz picked up her son’s sweatshirt and hung it on a hook in the coat closet. “I wish he’d play it safe and come home.”

“So do I,” Reenie said. “If the operation goes badly…” She drew an audible breath. “It’d kill my parents.”

It would affect Reenie and Isaac and a lot of other people, too. Since the car accident that had ruined Gabe’s NFL career three years earlier, he had been coaching football at the high school. Most of his players worshipped him like a big brother. “He’ll be okay,” she said.

There was a brief silence before Reenie continued. “Mica seemed happy tonight. She talked a lot about the store. She’s so proud of you.”

A candy shop had been Liz’s mother’s dream. And now it was hers and Mica’s, too. At Mica’s insistence, Liz had driven by the store on the way home so she and Christopher could see the progress and say good-night to their father. “The kids are doing well.”

Liz felt certain she’d done the right thing in following Keith to Dundee. He was a good father, despite what he’d done, and her children were thriving. She had to keep her mind on that, on what really mattered, or the loneliness would drive her crazy. Reenie and Isaac tried to support her, but they were caught up with their own family. And now, with surgery for Reenie’s brother looming in the near future, they were more preoccupied than usual.

“So…was it Keith?” Reenie asked.

“Was what Keith?” Liz replied absentmindedly.

“Did he say something that upset you tonight?”

“I wasn’t upset.”

Silence met this response, which compelled Liz to elaborate. “I was frustrated.”

“Over what?”

Where did she start? Eighteen months earlier, she’d been devastated to find out that her husband had another wife and three children living in Idaho. When he’d left her to try and save his first marriage, Liz had followed him from L.A. in order to keep her children near their father. Mica, now ten, and Christopher, seven, desperately loved Keith, but the change had been a shock to Liz. Especially when she’d had to deal with Keith’s first wife so much.

Fortunately, that was behind her now. She loved Reenie and, for the most part, she’d made her peace with Keith. But life still wasn’t easy. She was going from blind date to blind date, denying herself contact with Dave, who was the only man she really wanted to be with, and investing every dime she possessed in a business that could break her if it didn’t succeed. She’d known hard times before but she’d never felt so insignificant or overlooked, or so immature and guilty for feeling insignificant and overlooked.

“I want to call Dave,” she said simply.

“Liz, I know you’re homesick for California and probably a tad lonely—”

“A tad?” she interrupted.

“That’s what makes it so hard to say go ahead,” Reenie told her. “At this point, you’re too vulnerable.”

“Oh, so I could call him if I didn’t need him?”

“He’s only twenty-five. If you fell in love with him, would he marry you? Be a good stepfather for your children?”

Wearily, Liz ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t want to hear that tonight.”

Reenie’s voice rose. “At least one of us has to be realistic.”

“It’d still be nice if once in a while you asked if he makes me feel attractive. Or if I’m happy when I’m talking to him. Or even if I think he’s good in bed!”

“You’ve slept with him?”

Liz silently cursed her own big mouth. She hadn’t told anyone about meeting up with Dave three months ago. She’d simply explained to Keith that she was going back to L.A. to visit her friends and flew to Vegas on a weekend when he had the children. But as much as she and Dave had enjoyed their time together, she regretted that trip. It had started them thinking more seriously about their relationship, and Dave had been after her to meet him again ever since. “It was just one weekend.”

“Liz, how long could you reasonably expect a relationship with him to last?” Reenie asked. “You told me yourself that you’ve never seen him with the same woman twice.”