In Confidence

“It’s not okay for Daddy to be friends with Ms. Francine?” Kendall looked in bewilderment first at Rachel, then at Nick.

“They’re more than friends, Kendy,” Nick said, softening his tone.

“Dad and Ms. Francine have special feelings for each other,” Rachel explained. “They want to be together…like Nick says…as more than friends.”

“But what about you if they want to be together like that?” Kendall asked, her frown returning.

“Dad has decided that he wants some time to live apart from me right now, Kendall. He’ll probably move to our cabin on the lake, so he won’t be here with us like he has been.”

Kendall’s eyes widened. “He’s going to sleep there and eat and…and everything?”

“For the time being, yes,” Rachel said, nodding. “But he’ll be close by when you want to see him. The cabin is only an hour from Rose Hill. It’s just that he won’t be living in this house.”

Kendall studied her mother’s face for a long moment. “Are we getting a divorce?”

Rachel brought the little girl’s hand up to her cheek. “Who said anything about a divorce, sweetheart?”

Kendy looked worried. “But you won’t, will you, Mom? I have friends who’re divorced and it’s not good.”

How Rachel wished she could make that promise. “I don’t think your dad is going to move to Dallas or any place other than Rose Hill, Kendy,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “His practice is here and he won’t be leaving that. So even though he’s living at the lake, he’s still here for you when you need him.”

“Yeah,” Nick muttered, glancing at the door where Ted had escaped. Then he added in a tone not overheard by his little sister, “Just don’t count on him when the going gets tough.”

“Francine? He’s having an affair with the wife of his partner?” Marta stood up and began pacing the length of the sunroom. “Has he lost his freakin’ mind? Walter Dalton will kill him!”

“He came close to it this morning,” Rachel muttered dryly.

Marta stopped. “What? Walter knows?”

Rachel sat with her arms wrapped around her knees. “He appeared before seven today, not ten minutes after Ted, who’d spent the night at the lake cabin. And you’re right. He was so furious when Ted didn’t deny the affair that he lost it, Marta. One minute he was hurling threats and insults and the next, he was at Ted’s throat, literally. If Nick hadn’t appeared just then and helped break them up, I don’t know how the fracas would have ended.”

Marta motioned toward the coffee table. “Is that why you have a coffee table with no top?”

“Glass went everywhere. They were like two schoolboys, Marta. It was dreadful. And to have Nick and Kendall see it all made it ten times worse.”

“They fought in front of the kids?”

Rachel sighed. “Kendall took pictures. You know she carries that camera everywhere she goes.”

“Oh, boy.”

Rachel rested her cheek on her knees, looking beyond Marta to her beautifully landscaped yard. “I had no choice but to tell them, Marta. Or, at least, I had to try to give them some kind of explanation once they saw what happened between Ted and Walt, plus they heard what Walt said. I’m not sure they’re convinced things are as dire as they really are, but personally, I believe Ted’s serious.”

“Classic male midlife crisis,” Marta muttered with disgust. “Or just your basic male propensity to cheat.” Marta, who had been engaged several years ago to a cop, had walked into his apartment unexpectedly one day and found him with his partner, a pretty brunette rookie fresh out of the police academy. She’d immediately broken the engagement and in less than six months had married Jorge Ruiz, a quiet, mild-mannered music teacher at RHH, who’d died of Hodgkin’s disease eighteen months later.

“Whatever you call it,” Rachel said, “he’s definitely infatuated with Francine right now, so much so that he seems blind to what it ultimately means to his children.”

“Or to you.”

“That, too.”

“What are you going to do?”

She shrugged. “What can I do? I think I owe it to the kids not to do anything rash just yet.”

“You mean in case he changes his mind and decides to let you forgive him and y’all just pick up where you left off?”

“I guess I’d be a dope to do that. You certainly didn’t give Pete a second chance.”

“Ted’s the dope, not you,” Marta said. “And Pete didn’t ask for a second chance, not that I would have considered it for one minute.” She reached over and patted Rachel’s knee. “I know you’re hurt and in a state of shock right now, Ray, but for too many years Ted’s been a selfish, narcissistic bastard—pardon me, but it’s true. You’ve spoiled him rotten.”

“Now you sound like my mother.”

“An astute woman. At least she’s never looked at Ted through rose-colored glasses.”

“The feeling was mutual,” Rachel said, thinking of the tension that had existed between the two for years. It had been difficult, as she’d felt pulled in opposite directions. “Mom and Ted are almost always disagreeing over something.”

“The miracle is that Ted’s found someone else willing to put up with his ego. I give it six months, max.” Marta straddled a chair and folded her arms on the back. “Can we assume this is the first time he’s cheated?”

That thought had been on Rachel’s mind ever since the scene in the Dallas restaurant. “I’m not sure,” she murmured, recalling the sexy, young workout coach Ted had been very friendly with at their club a few years ago. Rachel, whose weight had crept up a bit, had talked Ted into enrolling as they both needed more exercise. Kendall had been entering preschool and Rachel had been run ragged trying to juggle her responsibilities managing Ted and Walt’s practice and caring for the kids. Ted had admired cute little Wendy from the start, and although Rachel did whittle down to a size eight, Ted had thrown himself into the fitness program a hundred and ten percent. After six months, he was as buff as a college boy. Without admitting to herself that he showed more interest in Wendy than was appropriate, Rachel had concentrated on giving him extra attention. She’d planned special outings, a five-day cruise, a surprise birthday party for him, an intimate candlelight dinner on their anniversary.

Then Wendy had moved to Denver.

But what if Wendy hadn’t moved? she wondered now. Had she failed to heed signs that he didn’t hold his vows to be as sacred as she did? Had she closed her eyes to Ted’s true character then? Had circumstances alone saved the day when Wendy left town?

Marta took a sip of cola. “If the kids know, there’s no way you can keep this from your mom,” she said, adding dryly, “I’d love to hear her take on the situation. Dinah’s gonna want to hang him by his cheatin’ balls.”

“I know.” Rachel sighed and glanced at her watch. “Kendall has a soccer game at two, then the whole team’s going somewhere for Amy Milton’s birthday. As soon as the game’s over, I’ll stop by and tell her. I need to check on her, anyway, but I’ll have to do it after Kendall’s game. No chance of Ted showing up for that. As for telling Mom, best just to get it over with. I can imagine her reaction and it won’t be pretty.” Lifting her hand, she studied the wedding ring on her finger somberly. “I wish there was some way to avoid having the world know what’s happened, Marta. It’s painful and humiliating for me, but it’s going to be worse for Nick and Kendall. I see kids at school coping with the breakup of their parents’ marriage. The reaction of their peers is not always sympathetic. I hate subjecting Nick and Kendall to that.”

“It’ll be rocky at first, sure. But they’re tough, Rachel, and your relationship with them is great. Plus, you’re strong, and you’ll need that strength now. You’ll come through this well, whether your marriage survives or not. As for the kids, there’ll be as much moral support from their friends as otherwise. Even more. For the others—” she finished her drink and stood up “—when shitty people speak, just consider the source. The worst thing is, it’s all Ted’s doing and he’ll be distanced from a lot of the fallout living at the lake, the rat. Not fair, but that’s the way real life works.” She grabbed her keys, leaned over and gave Rachel a kiss on the cheek. “Call me if you need me.”

Cam seldom took a break for lunch as it tended to break his concentration, but he’d been interrupted this morning by a call from his agent, Ben Eckstein, who was hot to start negotiations for a new contract. Nothing distracted Cam like contract negotiations. So, after firmly quelling Ben’s enthusiasm—and failing to pick up after Ben had interrupted—he remembered he hadn’t eaten the night before, so he wandered into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich. He was standing on his back porch eating it when he saw the kid leave Dinah Hunt’s patio and start across the lawn.

The boy was lean and lanky, in his mid-teens, Cam guessed, feeling a catch in his chest. Looked athletic, too, moving with an easy gait in spite of the fact that he hadn’t yet grown into those long limbs and big hands and feet. A lot like Jack. And just about Jack’s age when—

Dark memories instantly killed his appetite and he tossed the sandwich, food for the squirrels. Standing motionless, he watched the kid step around Dinah’s newly planted herb garden, then move through the thick growth of azaleas that separated the boundaries of her property and his own. Her grandson, Rachel’s boy? No sign of a car in the driveway, so apparently it took more for Rachel to find a moment for visiting her mother than a brief collapse in the garden.

As the kid drew closer, he tried to come up with a name. Dinah had mentioned it. Nick. Yeah, Nick. And no mistake about it, he thought with a scowl, the kid was heading straight for his porch.

“’Scuse me, sir.” He stood looking at Cam, hesitant and polite. But determined.

Shit. It was too late to turn on his heel and go inside. “Nick, right?”

“Yes, sir.” The boy ventured closer, stopped at the bottom step. Dark hair like his mother’s and those same odd gold eyes, Cam noted. “Dinah Hunt is my grandmother.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Nick glanced down at his feet, as if to gather his thoughts. Or courage. Then he looked back up at Cam. “My mom told me how you happened to see Gran when she fainted yesterday and that you took her to the hospital. I just wanted to come over and thank you for doing that.”