hated this Friday night.
Letting himself into his plush Ahwatukee home, in a secluded Phoenix neighborhood set into the base of South Mountain, he tossed his keys on the antique cherry-wood table by the door, caught the alarm before it went off and headed straight for the phone.
He ignored the blinking red dot that signified messages. Saw on the LED screen attached to the blinking machine that there were twelve calls waiting for him and still ignored it. It was the same every day.
He’d push the playback button sometime that evening. And half listen to the messages. It was a form of treatment—to listen and remain calm, unaffected.
Sometimes he needed a drink first.
Tonight, he needed the phone.
Corporate attorney Troy Winston always picked up Kirk’s calls immediately. Even now.
“What’s up, buddy?” Kirk’s right-hand man of ten years greeted him.
“Susan had a baby.” Kirk could barely get the words past the stiffness in his face. He’d run into an acquaintance of theirs at the Corvette dealership when he’d gone in for an oil job that afternoon.
“Okay.”
No surprise there. Kirk felt the stab of disappointment.
“You knew.”
“Yeah. I ran into Bob Morrison a few months back.”
A name from his past. His ex-brother-in-law. Kirk didn’t respond.
“And you didn’t bother to tell me.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
Susan’s gone on with her life, Troy’s tone of voice told him. He stood, feet apart, the muscles of his thighs straining against the legs of his jeans.
“The baby’s a month old.”
“Let it go, buddy,” his attorney, the only person still on Kirk’s payroll, advised him. “Give up this idiotic plan you’ve locked yourself into and get on with your life. Go out. Call someone. Date. You could have a new kid, too.”
“I have a kid.”
“Kirk, you’re really starting to worry me. I went along with this whole school guard thing because I thought you needed some time off. But I didn’t think it would last a week, let alone three months. All this isolation is starting to get to you.”
“I slept with Susan ten months ago.”
“You guys weren’t speaking to each other ten months ago. As a matter of fact, as I remember it, the woman freaked out anytime you were close enough to breathe the same air.”
He could always count on Troy to tell him the truth. That was why the man had quickly risen to the seat right next to Kirk Chandler, CEO of one of the nation’s most controversial, well-known and financially successful acquisitions firms.
Of course, all of that was over. Done. Kirk had closed the company almost a year ago. And Troy, while still handling Kirk’s personal affairs, was enjoying the good life.
Kirk took a deep breath. And another. He concentrated on the fingers holding the phone, refusing to allow them to clamp the thing so tightly it bruised his hand.
“I ran into her one night at the cemetery. She didn’t freak.”
“Not freaking at a cemetery bears no resemblance to having sex. None. At all. Let me swing by, take you out for a beer. I know a couple of women who’d—”
“It was late. I was there when she came walking up. We were both too tired to make sense of anything….”
“Not good enough, Kirk. You forget who you’re talking to. This was the woman who, after your divorce, not only had her own name changed, but changed your daughter’s as well. Hell, I was there when Susan turned into a raving lunatic at the funeral just because your car was close by.”
Sliding his free hand into the pocket of his jeans, Kirk flexed the muscles in his shoulders and down his back. The flannel shirt he was wearing still felt odd to skin more used to silk.
“I was crying. That night.”
Silence hung on the line.
He’d left Troy Winston speechless. At a different moment, there’d be some satisfaction, maybe even humor, in that. Another moment in another lifetime.
“She walked straight into my arms, broken, needy. Hurting so bad she was craving death….”
Kirk knew he had to stop. To think about his fingers on the phone.
Loosen up, man. Loosen up. It’s in the past. It can’t be changed. The future can be changed.
They were the only words that kept him sane.
“The woman I’d married, planned to grow old with, was in my arms. I walked her home. And when she didn’t want me to leave, I stayed.”
“I’ll make some calls.”
Troy’s voice was deadly serious as he rang off.
And Kirk was satisfied.
BY SUNDAY NIGHT, all the boys could talk about was the basketball tryouts coming up that week. There was a practice Monday after school and the actual tryouts were on Tuesday. Throughout the weekend they’d alternated between half killing themselves in the driveway, attempting to become shooting stars in two days, and driving her crazy with energy that only seemed to grow the more they expended it.
“Larry Bird flicked his wrist right as he threw the ball. That’s the trick,” Blake said, rolling the die but forgetting to move his little metal car along the Monopoly board.
“Dan Majerle was the best-three point shooter in the league. I think he flicked his wrist, too,” Brian added, staring at the board. “We need to flick our wrists…”
“And we didn’t practice that at all.”
Neither boy seemed to notice that the game in which they were currently engaged had stalled.
“Mom? Can we go shoot—”
“No!” Valerie laughed. “It’s pitch black out there, guys. You have tomorrow’s practice and you’ll have time before dinner tomorrow, too.”
“Do you think we’ll have to do one-on-ones?” Blake asked his brother.
The die still lay, double sixes, on the Monopoly board. Valerie was quite proud of her six red hotels and twelve green houses.
Her boys, who were usually land magnates, owned the utilities and a few of the railroads.
“I’m sure,” Brian said, frowning. “You don’t have to worry, though. Just steal the ball and blow them away.”
Picking up the Community Chest and Chance Cards, she put them in their
