Sweet Anger(68)

“Send her in.” He stood up and buttoned his suit coat. He rounded the desk just as Pam came through the door.

She looked sensational. Her sable hair was still glossy and hung straight to her jaw, just curving inward toward her cheek at the last inch. Her body was as lithe and graceful as ever. She hadn’t a trace of extra poundage. She was taller than Kari and attractive in a totally different way. While Kari exuded a feminine vulnerability, Pam was all cool sophistication. Even when Kari was playing her professional role, she seemed warm and approachable. Pam always maintained an aloof detachment.

Hunter grinned broadly as he went to her with both hands extended. “This is a surprise.”

She laughed as she accepted his hands. “I thought it might be.” Glancing at the paper-heaped desk, she said, “I know you’re very busy.”

He smiled ruefully and turned to offer her a chair. “You caught me on a bad day. I was out last week.”

“Oh?” One dark brow arched eloquently, just the way he remembered.

“Vacation,” he said succinctly, indicating the subject was closed to discussion. He sat on the corner of his desk.

She assessed him with dark, liquid eyes, eyes that promised more warmth than was there. “You look good, Hunter.”

“So do you.” He returned the compliment sincerely. Her suit was chic and fit her figure to perfection. As always, she was impeccably groomed. “You’re as gorgeous as ever.”

Her hair moved against her cheek as she laughed. “And you’re as full of blarney as ever. But it’s nice to hear.” She cocked her head to one side. “I sensed an urgency when you said you were finally agreeing to a divorce. I’m curious. Was there a specific reason?”

His expression was guarded. “Yes.”

“Hmm,” she said coolly. “A woman?”

“Yes.”

“Are you happy?”

“Very.” There was no qualifying that. He’d never been happier in his life. “You?”

She shrugged. “My work is extremely satisfying.”

That had been their problem. When he had met her, she was in her final year at medical school. He had been attracted to her intelligence, her courage, her ambition.

But that very ambition had finally been the undoing of their marriage. Like any man, he had wanted to be needed, just a little. He wasn’t a chauvinist, much as he had teased Kari about it. His problem hadn’t been that his wife enjoyed a successful career. His problem had been that her career came before anything else, even before her husband.

With each passing year, their life had become less a marriage and more a contest to see who could reach the top of his chosen field first. When he had been offered a chance for advancement in another city, she had refused to move with him and leave her position in a major hospital. He had seen that as a definite choice on her part between him and her career. It had been a bitter pill to swallow.

“You’re stubborn, Hunter,” she said now. “You held out for three years of separation before you called and said you’d grant me a divorce.”

“You know I hate to fail at anything. I didn’t want to fail at the most important commitment of my life. Which is what a marriage should be.” He smiled lopsidedly. “I finally had to admit that we had. Or that I had. I’m willing to accept my losses and go from here.”

“I never considered it a failure for either of us. We just outgrew each other.”

She must be dating a shrink, he thought a bit unkindly. “I suppose.” He agreed merely to avoid another argument on a tired subject. Besides, her opinion no longer mattered to him.

“I brought you this.” She extracted a legal-size envelope from her purse. “Apparently the attorneys didn’t have your latest address. They sent both copies to me.”

“The final divorce papers?” he asked, not opening the envelope.

“Signed, sealed, and delivered. You can’t ask for much more than that.”

She stood and he joined her. Taking her arm, he escorted her to the door. “I’m glad to have seen you, Pam.”

She gazed up at him. “Me, too, Hunter. We had some good times, didn’t we?”

He recognized a plea for ego-salving. Now that she was no longer an element in his life, he could feel kindly toward her. And probably, if he thought about it very hard, he could remember a few good times before things had gone wrong.

“We had some very good times. I’m sorry we couldn’t make each other happy.” He wasn’t about to say he was sorry it had come to this. He was now glad it had. Meeting Kari had made him glad. “Good luck to you, Pam.”