Durrell phoned me.”
“I didn’t know if you’d be able to come. I know how busy you are this time of year and I managed to leave a few minutes early.”
“You assumed I wouldn’t come.” Zach was mildly offended that she’d expected him to put his work schedule ahead of his son’s needs. He might be lacking in a lot of other areas, but Zach prided himself on being a good father.
“Oh, no, I knew you’d come. I just figured that it’d be later, and I didn’t think it was a good idea for Eddie to sit in Mr. Durrell’s office all afternoon.” She gave a quick shrug. “I was wrong—you obviously came over here right away.”
He wondered if she’d said this just to prove she had no trouble admitting when she was at fault. Fine, he could do it, too.
“Speaking of assumptions,” Zach said, looking past his ex-wife. He owed her this, even if it meant humiliating himself in the process. “It’s easy to leap to conclusions.” He glanced at Rosie to see if she got his point.
“How do you mean?”
It should be obvious, but apparently she wanted him to spell it out. “The way I assumed you were talking to Cecilia to pump her for information about Janice.”
Rosie stared at him. Then she frowned as if she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “Are you apologizing, Zachary Cox?”
Zach clenched his jaw and nodded. “Yes, I’m apologizing. I was out of line that day.”
Her face relaxed, and she offered him a soft, almost shy smile. Then she said, “Thank you, Zach.”
“For what?”
“For admitting you were wrong. I know how hard it is for you to do that.”
“Really?” He didn’t think he was that bad, just reluctant at times. Still, he’d gotten worse once his marriage began to fall apart. Although maybe that was why his marriage had fallen apart—or at least a contributing factor.
“Oh, that sounded self-righteous of me, didn’t it?” Rosie laughed and shook her head.
It was easy to forgive her when she was so willing to laugh at herself. He smiled in response, feeling a connection with her that he hadn’t felt in nearly two years.
“I owe you an apology, too,” she told him.
“Me?” They’d waged war over a comma in their divorce papers. Their weapons had been highly paid attorneys. During the bitter months preceding the divorce, there’d been no interchange that wasn’t witnessed and presided over by those same attorneys. Yet here was Rosie, standing with him in a school parking lot, and they were having one of the most important conversations of their relationship.
“I apologize for assuming you were involved with Janice,” Rosie continued. “I convinced myself that you were having an affair and I turned into a vindictive shrew. I’m not proud of the things I said and did, and I apologize.”
Zach had never expected Rosie to do anything like this. For months she’d been filled with resentment and vicious anger. Now he saw the tears of regret in her eyes, and his own heart softened.
“Rosie…”
“You denied the affair from the beginning,” she went on, barely able to speak through her tears. “I never had any real proof. I’d decided it was happening, felt it must be. She was obviously attractive and capable, and you spent eight hours a day with her. I was insanely jealous.”
Zach swallowed hard. He looked toward the school, sick at heart. Even now, months after his divorce, Janice haunted his life. Today his son had even fought with hers. She wasn’t to blame for the death of his marriage, but she wasn’t exactly a disinterested bystander. Janice’s attention had flattered him; he’d liked the way she’d catered to him, liked it far more than he should have. And she’d been well aware of that….
Clearly embarrassed by her loss of control, Rosie shoved the hair away from her face. “I apologize for the ugly things I said, for the way I behaved.”
The school bell rang, but they both ignored it.
“Rosie, listen, I was as much at fault as you. More so,” Zach confessed. “I should never have let things go on as long as they did. I was wrong, dead wrong.”
“But—”
“Let me finish,” he said, fearing he’d lose his courage if he didn’t say it now. “I wasn’t physically involved with Janice, but I did care about her. And I relied on her.”
Zach held his breath a moment. “I didn’t sleep with Janice, although it might have gone that way eventually—it was definitely what she wanted. But I did become emotionally dependent on her.”
He watched as the color drained from Rosie’s face. He wanted to explain what he meant, but by then the school busses had rolled into the parking lot, belching smoke and diesel fumes.
“Mom,” Eddie shouted, running toward them. “What are you doing here?”
“We’ll talk later,” Zach promised, but he could see from the shock in Rosie’s eyes that she wasn’t ready to discuss Janice. For that matter, he wasn’t eager to bring up the subject again—ever.
Grace was breathing hard as she followed the aerobics instructor. “One, two, one, two, three. Come on, ladies! Pick up the pace.” She groaned at the young woman’s words; she could barely keep up with the other members of her Wednesday night class as it was. She had conceded a long time ago that Olivia was far more agile than she was. The only reason she’d signed up for this class was so she could count on seeing her best friend at least once a week. By now, three years later, she’d figured all these exercises would’ve gotten easier. Not so.
Back in the locker room, Grace felt convinced she was losing whatever ground she’d gained. The problem was, this was her only exercise program. Like it or not, she needed the class.
She used to take a brisk walk along the waterfront at lunchtime, especially on sunny days. Now she ate her lunch in front of the computer at the library. At home it was the same thing. If Will wasn’t online when she logged on, he almost always had a message waiting for her. She’d come to live for his messages. She’d let so many things slide, and all because of Will. She feared their online relationship had become an obsession, but recognizing that did nothing to change the way she felt about him.
“I don’t know why I do this to myself,” Grace complained as she slumped onto the bench in the locker room.
Olivia wasn’t even out of breath, whereas Grace was panting. Her hair was plastered to her head and her face felt hot. This couldn’t be good for her, although according to the pencil-thin group leader, she was doing wonderful things for her heart. Wanna bet?
“You’re going to seed, Gracie-girl,” Olivia teased.
Grace rolled her eyes. “And you’re not?”
Olivia braced her tennis shoe against the bench and untied it. “Not me. Say, you never did tell me what you did on Valentine’s Day.” Olivia sank down on the bench
