Nobody's Baby but Mine(104)
She glanced at her watch and saw that it was nine o’clock. She’d already wasted too much time this morning brooding, and she wasn’t going to add Brian Delgado’s call to her worry list. Returning to the kitchen, she poured herself a mug of coffee and carried it to her room, where she turned on her computer and logged in.
The date flashed, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled. For a moment she didn’t understand why, but then she finally took in what she was seeing, and it came to her. May 5. She and Cal had been married two months ago today. Happy anniversary.
She pressed her fingertips to her lips. Was it a coincidence? She remembered Delgado’s gloating. I didn’t want to use your fax for obvious reasons . . . What obvious reason? The fact that she might read this mysterious report before Cal saw it? She jumped up from her chair and went down to the study, where she sat behind the desk replaying the message and thinking.
Shortly before ten, the FedEx carrier arrived. She signed for the package, then carried it into Cal’s study. Without a moment’s hesitation, she ripped it open.
The report was several pages long and contained numerous typos, indicating that Delgado had probably prepared it himself. No wonder. Heartsick, she read every damning detail of Delgado’s proposal and tried to absorb the fact that all the time Cal had been making love to her, he’d also been plotting revenge.
Over an hour passed before she could bring herself to go upstairs and pack. She called Kevin and asked him to come over. When he saw her packed suitcases, he immediately began to protest, but she refused to listen. Only after she threatened to carry the computer downstairs herself did he finally do as she wanted and load it into her car. Afterward, she made him leave, then she settled down to wait for Cal to come home. The old Jane would have slipped away, but the new one needed to face him down for the last time.
Jane hadn’t left!
Cal spotted her through the sliding doors in the family room as she stood in the backyard looking up at Heartache Mountain. Muscles he hadn’t even realized were tense began to ease. She was still here.
He’d been working out at the Y when Kevin had burst into the weight room with the news that his wife had packed up her computer and was getting ready to head back to Chicago. It had taken Kevin a couple of hours to track him down, and as Cal had sped home, still dressed in his sweat-soaked T-shirt and gray athletic shorts, he’d been terrified she might already have gone.
He still didn’t understand why she wanted to do something so drastic. Granted, he’d been surly and rude this morning. He’d regretted it ever since, and he’d already made up his mind to get back in plenty of time to eat her homemade chicken noodle soup. But Jane wasn’t one to run from a fight. He could easily imagine her taking a cast-iron skillet to his head, but he couldn’t imagine her just packing up and leaving.
Now she stood below him, all buttoned up and battened down, and it occurred to him that the only person he knew whose clothes were as neat as hers were his younger brother’s. She’d chosen one of those high-waisted cotton dresses to travel in, a creamy buttery color, with big tan buttons going all the way up the front. It fit her so loosely no one could tell she was pregnant, but she somehow still managed to look tidy and trim. The dress’s full skirt covered most of her legs, but not those slender little ankles or the narrow feet tucked in a pair of simple leather sandals.
A tortoiseshell headband held her hair neatly back from her face. He watched the sunlight play in the golden strands and thought how pretty she looked. She was a classic, his wife, and as he watched her, he felt a jumble of emotions: tenderness and lust, confusion and resentment, anger and longing. Why did she have to go and get all temperamental on him now? One bad disposition was more than enough for any family, and that bad disposition belonged to him.
But his disposition wasn’t the real problem. A couple of hours in the bedroom, and he could make her forget all about what a prick he’d been this morning, let alone any asinine ideas she had about going back to Chicago. No, the real problem lay deeper. Why did she have to tell him she loved him? Didn’t she understand that once those three words were spoken, nothing could ever be the same?
If only she’d come into his life ten years earlier, before he’d had to deal with getting older and the fact that he couldn’t see anything but a blank space waiting for him after he stopped playing ball. It was easy for the Professor to think about settling down. She had worthwhile work to do that would keep her busy for the rest of her life. He didn’t, and now he couldn’t get past the feeling that his life was careening in a direction he wasn’t ready for it to take, a direction that might suit Bobby Tom Denton, but sure as hell wasn’t right for him.