With This Ring

No. They’d gone to high school with someone named Cathy Girling, but she was not the woman who’d been with Brent that day at the deli. However, Cathy had been one of the glamour girls in the gaggle of admirers that had followed him around the school. Was Brent seeing her? She’d never seemed like his type.

Not that it’s any of your business.

A red light on the phone started to blink. Whoever she was, she’d left a message.

Leslie hefted the dog food bag back into the cupboard and glanced again at the phone. She should call someone and let them know where she was, or at least that she was all right, and she should definitely check her own messages.

She picked up the phone and called Nick. Luckily she reached his answering machine and not him. She left a longer-than-necessary message, telling him she was okay but not where she was or what had happened. They’d drifted apart since they were teenagers and she regretted that. Great as it was that they’d reconnected in the past few weeks, she wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say about this disaster.

After she hung up, she called her voice mail to check her messages. There was one from Nick. “Call me,” was all he said. Three were from a frantic-sounding Allison, who had already sent her husband to check Leslie’s town house and the law office where she worked. There was one from her mother, sternly demanding that she return her call immediately, and two of the calls had been hang-ups. Gerald? He wouldn’t call, would he? But trust him not to have the guts to leave a message if he did.

She hung up and looked around the kitchen again. It was neat and tidy, except for a few dishes in the sink. There was no dishwasher and without giving much thought to what she was doing, she filled the sink with hot, soapy water.

The tag on Max’s collar jangled loudly against the metal bowl as he wolfed down his lunch. “Must be good stuff, Max,” she said.

“You didn’t have to wash those.”

She dropped the pot she was scrubbing, splashing herself with soapy water as she whirled around. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Brent had a wide smile but his eyebrows suggested he was a little puzzled. He pointed to Max. “He swindled you into feeding him, did he?”

“His bowl was empty and he seemed hungry, so I thought I’d feed him for you.”

The dog looked up from his once-again-empty bowl and licked his chops.

Brent ruffled the fur on the top of his head. “Max, you old rascal.”

Leslie dried her hands on a dish towel. “I wasn’t supposed to feed him?”

“He only gets fed once a day. I put his food out in the evening.”

“I’m so sorry. Will he be all right?”

Brent laughed. “He’ll be fine, except now he likes you better than me.”

Max was clearly devoted to Brent, but she still liked the idea. “He’s a great dog. How old is he?”

“The vet thinks he’s about three.”

“You haven’t had him since he was a puppy?”

He gave the dog an affectionate scruff on the neck. “I found Max at the SPCA. I did some work there last summer, repairing their kennels, and there he was. He had been badly neglected by his previous owner. He needed a home and he seemed to think I needed a dog.”

“Poor fellow.” She knelt beside him and put an arm around his neck. He licked her ear, making her laugh. “How could anyone not love you?”

“I hear that a lot,” Brent said.

“Very funny. I was talking about Max.” She stood up and hung the dish towel on a rack near the sink.

Brent looked at her and for a moment he seemed as uncomfortable as she felt. Now that they’d exhausted Max’s history, he didn’t seem to know what else to say.

“You have a message,” she said. “Someone called while you were out.”

He picked up the phone and checked the number of the last caller, then gave her a quick, questioning glance.

“I didn’t answer it.”

“I see that.” But he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to check it. Instead he handed her the bag he was carrying. “Here’s the stuff I found at my mother’s place. I’m sorry they’re not nicer or…” His voice trailed off.

“I’m sure these things will be fine.”

“I bought you a toothbrush.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“It was my mother’s idea.”

Panic grabbed her heart and held on. Brent’s mother didn’t like her, although she’d never understood why. “You told her I’m here?”

“Didn’t have to. She guessed it was you.”

“How…?” But she knew how. Collingwood Station had an efficient gossip mill, to which she herself had contributed on more than one occasion. “The news really spread that fast?”

“Afraid so. She went to Donaldson’s earlier today and people were talking about it. I ran into John at the drugstore and…”

Oh, no. “Was Allison with him?” When it came to sniffing out gossip and dragging it out of people, Allison had a nose like a bloodhound and a mean streak like a pit bull.

“Apparently she was already at home nursing a headache,” he said. “John didn’t seem to know why you were gone, but he did mention that Nick was looking for you.”

“While you were out I called my brother and left a message on his machine. I didn’t tell him where I am, so thank you for covering for me.”

“No problem.”

She tightened her grip on the bag of clothes as if it was a security blanket, which in a way it was. The things Brent had brought for her meant she wouldn’t have to go home for a few days. If he didn’t want her to stay here, maybe he’d lend her some money so she could stay at a hotel. “Did your mother know what happened? Why I—”

Brent shook his head. “And my mother’s not one to gossip. She won’t tell anyone where you’re staying.”

Leslie supposed she should be relieved to hear that, but she knew Brent’s mother. They had served on Collingwood Station’s redevelopment committee and from the start, Colleen Borden had treated her like an adversary. Still, she hoped Brent was right and that his mother wouldn’t tell anyone she was here.

She wasn’t ready to face her family and friends, and she definitely wasn’t ready to tell them what had happened. But what about Brent? Did she owe him an explanation?

“Gerald is having an affair,” she said, even before she’d made a conscious decision to tell him.

He looked as though he didn’t believe her. “Are you sure? I mean, maybe—”

“I saw them together.” The flash of memory was accompanied by a wave of nausea.

“Why didn’t you dump him when you found out?” He sounded incredulous.