Just A Little Bit Married

“It ended after a nanosecond, so not really married that long.”

“Might not feel that way but legally you’ve been his wife all these years.” Vicki sighed and held up a hand. She was sitting at the other end of the couch and tucked her legs up beside her, settling in for a marathon heart-to-heart. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

Rose blew out a long breath as the highs and lows of that emotional time tumbled through her mind. “It was the summer before I started college. I got a clerical job at Hart Industries. Lincoln Hart had just finished his master’s degree in business and was taking his place in the company his father started.” Although now she knew Hastings Hart wasn’t his biological father.

“So... What? He hit on you? Used his position of power to sexually harass you?”

“Why would you think such a thing?”

“Because I’m a lawyer,” Vicki said.

“A very cynical one.” Rose shook her head. “He was a perfect gentleman. The truth is we fell madly in love and got married.”

“And you never saw fit to say a word about it when we met at school? I thought we shared all of our secrets.” There was just a tinge of hurt in her friend’s brown eyes. Vicki wrapped a long strand of silky blond hair around her finger and stared accusingly. “But you kept the secret that you were Rose Hart.”

The name had a nice ring to it, but she’d never even had a chance to change the last name on her driver’s license. “Linc abruptly ended things and said he would handle the divorce details and a lawyer would contact me if he needed anything from me. No one did, so I thought it was done.”

“And you didn’t wonder why you never heard anything about signing the settlement papers?”

“What did I know about a divorce?” And if she was being honest, there’d been a lot of denial going on. And she’d been so hurt. The pain of not being with him was almost more than she could bear. So many awful feelings. The shock of being dumped without an explanation. Overwhelming bewilderment. Now she knew what happened but still didn’t understand why he had to leave her. She would have done anything for Lincoln Hart—or whatever his name was. “I was practically a baby.”

“You weren’t too young to get married.”

“He swept me off my feet. I couldn’t say no to him. And he—”

“What?” Vicki’s eyes narrowed. “Did he do something?”

“Not what you’re probably thinking. He was incredibly sweet and understanding.” Not to mention sexy and handsome and completely irresistible. Unfortunately the “sexy and handsome” part hadn’t changed. But he was totally resistible to her now. “I was a virgin.”

Vicki nearly choked on her wine. “How is that possible?”

“You make me sound like a weirdo. I was only eighteen.”

“And crazy in love,” Vicki reminded her. “You just told me that you couldn’t say no.”

“To marriage,” she amended. “My mom drilled into me that a man has no need to buy the cow when he gets the milk for free. And if you give it away, he’ll just mosey on down the road to another cow. That’s what happened to her. Unfortunately when my father moseyed, she was stuck with a baby.” Rose pointed to herself. “Yours truly.”

“Ah.”

“She was determined that the same thing wouldn’t happen to me and never let up with the warning not to sleep with a man until I had a ring on my finger. I thought I got really lucky that the man of my dreams was determined to marry me. Of course I couldn’t say no.”

“So he married you to...” Vicki tapped her lips. “Pop your cherry?”

“That’s what I believed for ten years.” Rose recalled every word of what he’d said before walking out of her life. She remembered him telling her that he couldn’t be with her because he wasn’t in her league. She’d thought that was about him having more money than God and her not fitting into his world. Now she knew he’d been talking about himself because his father wasn’t who he’d thought. “He had a crisis of identity.”

Vicki rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I can see how that could happen. Must be tough figuring out which billions belong to you or your brothers when you’re a Hart.”

That’s just it. At the time he’d recently learned he wasn’t biologically a part of the family. But she didn’t feel comfortable revealing that.

“Things aren’t always what they seem.” Rose knew that statement was cryptic, but it wasn’t her secret to share, not even with the friend who was like a sister to her.

“A case could be made,” Vicki said pointedly, “that he proposed because he was after one thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he got what he wanted, then said adios.”

“You’re not wrong.” But there was more to it.

“And you’re not divorced? Seems to me someone from the legal department at Hart Industries should be canned over this.”

“You’d think.” Rose shrugged. “It’s probably not a stretch to say that my vow of chastity could have impacted the haste of his proposal. But, I am my mother’s daughter.” Although she’d made up her mind to be different from Janie Tucker and not play the victim card for the rest of her life.

“So, how was it?” Vicki sipped the last of the wine in her glass. “Seeing him again, I mean?”

“It was surreal. He hasn’t changed, other than being ten years older. But it looks good on him.” And she hated that. If he was fat, bald and irritating the trauma of having her heart ripped out and handed back would have been worth it. But her luck wasn’t that good.

His eyes were still a mesmerizing shade of dark blue. He was tall, lean and broad-shouldered. Walking, talking animal magnetism that was so powerful she could hardly remember what she’d said to him. “And, darn him, like all men he just looks better. Call me shallow, but this would be so much easier if he looked like a troll.”

“Very annoying of him.” Vicki shifted her position on the couch. “Were there still sparks between you?”

Not unless anger counted. Or maybe it never went away. It had been hard, but ten years ago she pulled herself together and patched the hole Linc left in her life. There was a good possibility that anger had filled up that empty space. “Nope. No sparks.”

“So, he came to personally inform you that your divorce never happened.” Her friend tilted her head. “That means your tenth wedding anniversary is coming up soon.”

“Since we haven’t lived together, I don’t think there will be an exchange of gifts.” Sarcasm was good, Rose thought. It was a sign that she was rebounding.

“I wonder what you give for ten years of marriage.”

“A divorce, hopefully.” Yay her. A pithy comeback. She was on a roll.

Vicki shook her head, still trying to take in the situation. “How could you never tell me about all this?”

“Haven’t you ever done something that is so completely mortifying and humiliating that you didn’t want anyone to know about it ever?”

“Of course.” Her friend grinned. “But nothing this spectacular. And you know all of my mortifying and humiliating escapades. Yet you kept this to yourself.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no. Don’t give me those big, blue Kewpie-doll eyes. You’re only sorry you got caught. I want to know why I didn’t hear about this until crisis time.”

“At first I just wanted to forget. Start college and put it behind me.” She’d thought not talking about it would make the pain go away but she’d been wrong. Time had been the cure. “You and I met, and clicked, but I didn’t really know you that well. Then the longer I didn’t say anything, the more I didn’t know how to bring it up. Besides, I thought I was quietly divorced and no one ever had to know.”

If no one knew, it wouldn’t hurt as bad, right?

“Speaking of that... It’s probably a good thing that you found out. Otherwise, when you and Chandler went to get a marriage license, that could have been a shock,” Vicki commented.

“That’s what Linc said.”

“Good. He knows you haven’t been pining for him.”

If she’d never seen him again Rose would accept that as true. But the rush of emotions when she’d answered her door and instantly recognized him stirred memories of that brief, shining moment when she’d had everything she ever wanted. Had there been pining going on and she wasn’t aware of it?