All That Lies Broken (Ashmore's Folly Book 2) (12 page)

She still didn’t look at him, but she heard his sharpness above her head. “Considering Kevin was filing this subpoena at the very moment you were driving her home, I find her comment more than a little self-serving and her request more than a little suspicious.” He waited until she looked at him. “Listen to me, Laura. You are not to feel guilty. You didn’t cause this. I should have filed years ago and spared us all several highly unpleasant months. I had my reasons, but—” He gave a shrug. “I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time over the next few months to regret waiting. But I don’t want you to worry about her.”

“I can’t help it,” she said wearily. “She’s my sister.”

Oh, heavens, how had she gotten herself into such a melodramatic situation – feeling sorry for her lover’s wife? Maybe Cam had been right. Maybe she needed a keeper.

“She’s upset right now,” Richard said flatly, “but deep down Diana is a very pragmatic woman. She’ll curse me out and drown her sorrows tonight, and tomorrow she’ll go weep on Kevin’s shoulder because Lucy won’t talk to her about this. Then Kevin will call Tom to open negotiations. We have an offer all ready to go.” He covered her hand. “Before we ever talk money, which I promise you is what she cares about most, she has to waive any claims about Francie, sign a custody agreement, and drop the subpoena. That’s why you aren’t going to testify.”

Laura’s mind was in turmoil. She pulled her hand away from him and stood up to carry her cup back to the counter. “I still think – Richard, you don’t know that Di will go along with that. I think,” her voice faltered, “she cares about you more than she wants to admit.”

Richard shook his head in answer.

She picked up a towel to wipe the counter, wishing she could wipe this whole situation clean as easily as she cleaned up the stray coffee grounds. “I think I should go see that lawyer.”

He faced her across the island. “That’s a good preventive measure. I’m giving Diana an excellent incentive to cooperate, but God knows how long before she decides to go along. Laura—” His voice turned serious, and she stopped cleaning to look up at him. “If it ever comes to that deposition, don’t be concerned about either Francie or me, do you understand? Tell the truth. There’s very little damage you can do to either of us. Don’t hand Diana any weapon she can use against you. Just tell what you know, and let me worry about the damage control.”

But she couldn’t, she thought with a sinking heart. She’d had the entire evening, between emails, to work her way through the possible quicksand of testimony. What if, by accident, Kevin asked the right question –
was Francie pregnant?
Now that she and Meg were thwarting Emma’s lawsuit for Cam’s death, she couldn’t run the risk of admitting the truth about Meg. Telling Richard in private was one thing. Telling Diana in a public pleading that Emma might access was quite another.

But she
couldn’t
tell Richard now. What if Diana made him testify? What if they asked
him
the pertinent question? Emma might be able to get her hands on that too. As long as he didn’t know about Meg, he could honestly say that, as far as he knew, there’d been no consequences to that long-ago relationship.

She hated feeling so paranoid, but Emma’s vicious attack and her attempt to sue for Cam’s death put Meg in too vulnerable a position. She didn’t put it beyond her sister-in-law to try to overturn the adoption if she ever found out that Francie had lied on the birth certificate, depriving Richard of his rights. She’d heard of adoptions overturned for one parent and not the other.

What a disaster! She’d been home less than three weeks, and she was embroiled in a tangle of lawsuits and emotions with her sister and her brother-in-law, her lover and his wife, her twin and the natural father of her daughter. She was a sister, lover, mother – all threatening to collide.

She whispered, “I’m the other woman. How did this happen?”

Richard said quietly, “You don’t have to do this, Laura. I’ve been concerned all along about coming between you and your sisters. You can walk away from this.” He gestured at the two of them. “Things are going to be messy. I’ll understand if you want to back off.”

Her throat caught. “I thought we stood together.”

“Only as long as you want. I don’t want you hurt. This isn’t your fight.”

She regarded him, her soul-nicked, heart-banged knight, ready to stand alone as he had for so many years, and she tried to think back before that moment when he’d lowered her to this very floor. Time before had receded into an ancient forgotten past. “Oh, dear
God
.”

“I’ll go along with that.” He gave her a rueful smile. “If ever there was a time for prayer, this is it.”

She couldn’t help but smile back. “Do you know,” she said, “suddenly I’m covered with lawsuits? I’ve never had a lawyer of my own. I always used Cam’s – even when we started working out the divorce, I just used his. We weren’t arguing about anything, and Cam went out of his way to be generous to me. I’ve never had a lawsuit as Cat Courtney. And now, in one day’s time—” She lifted her hands. “Lucy’s threatened Mark with a restraining order, and Emma wants to sue everyone in the world, and you and Di – if I’ve been subpoenaed against you, are you and I supposed to have any contact? What if this lawyer says I can’t talk to you?”

“Then we’ll deal with it.” Richard shrugged. “That’s what lawyers are for – you pay them to give you advice that you don’t follow.”

She had to laugh at that, and for the first time that evening, he seemed to relax. This day had been hard on him too, she thought. He hadn’t made the decision to end his marriage lightly. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she started more coffee brewing. She’d left her mail on the counter earlier, and he’d found the costume sketches for the tour that Dell had FedExed. His raised eyebrow told her immediately that he’d seen the dress made of leaves and vines and very little else. “See anything you like?”

He gave her a bright look from under his lashes. “You bet. How does this stay up?”

“I don’t know,” Laura admitted. “I have a fitting in August. It probably has very uncomfortable boning.”

“I’ve heard haute couture and structural engineering have a lot in common.” He put the sketches down and picked up the package from Terry, turning it over absently. “There’s the old story about Howard Hughes designing the cantilever bra—”

He stared at his hand. Then, “You get remarkable mail.”

“What?” Laura turned from the coffee pot.

He gave her a quizzical look and raised the box so that she saw the bottom, and her jaw dropped.

Roger had had himself some fun. In bright red comic letters all over the bottom of the box, he had written WARNING! LOVE TOY INSIDE! PRACTICE SAFE SEX!

Kisses and hearts decorated every
I
.

If it hadn’t come after such a stressful conversation, she would have burst out laughing. Vintage Roger. That it had traveled across an ocean on an airliner, gone through Customs, and made its way to her by courier – seen by who knew how many people along the way – was just icing on his cake.

Richard was looking at her in clear expectation of an answer, and at that, she did start laughing. “Roger is such a jokester. I asked Terry to send me—”

“Roger Duncan is sending you sex toys?” He was frowning. Obviously, the only risqué thing Richard had ever received through the mail was a tape. “I thought he was gay.”

“He is.” Laura took the box from him. “I asked Terry – Roger’s partner – to get my diaphragm from my flat and send it to me.”

The blood drained from his face. “Your
what?
”

Oh, no. “My diaphragm. It’s a—”

He interrupted her. “I know what a diaphragm is, damn it. Why do you need one?”

Why did she need one?
Did he think that she wasn’t a normally functioning woman? She chose to be obtuse. “For birth control, Richard. That’s what you use it for.”

Silence between them, a long, awful silence, while he stared at her in shock.

“Do you mean to tell me,” his voice sounded dangerous, “that – even though I asked you Friday night if I needed to use something and you said no – we made love God knows how many times over the weekend, and
you weren’t using any contraception?
”

Put like that, it did sound bad. Still…. She lifted her chin, steadied her shoulders, and looked him square in the face. “Yes and no.”

Her words rang between them.

“Yes and no what?”

“Yes, we made love God knows how many times, and no, I wasn’t using any contraception.”

He drew in a sharp, audible breath. She nearly jumped as his hands slapped down hard on the counter. “Dear God, Laura!”

She said nothing.

“How could you be so irresponsible! Do you have
any
idea—”

She understood his anger, but she didn’t appreciate his assumption that she had behaved carelessly. “I have every idea.” She let the frost drip in her voice. “I am not stupid. I knew
exactly
what I was doing.”

Oh, dear, that sounded even worse than what he was already thinking.

“Oh,
God.
” Richard drew in another deep breath and ran his hand through his hair in distraction. “All right – we are going to discuss this calmly and rationally.” He sounded anything but calm and rational. “I need to know, Laura, no games, nothing but the truth. Could you possibly have gotten pregnant this weekend?”

As if she would have gotten that way all by herself. But she was too angry to relieve his mind. Irresponsible! “No.”

“Listen, Laura.” He put both hands down flat on the counter and leaned in towards her, his eyes boring into her. His voice was low and taut. “I have just filed what will undoubtedly be a long, painful, nasty divorce. If I need to – I can force a settlement, fly down to the Caribbean, and get it over with fast. For various reasons relating to my property, I prefer to do it here in Virginia. Now – tell me right now – is there any possibility you could be pregnant?”

She was still smarting. “No.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Laura glanced ostentatiously at the clock on the wall and then slowly, deliberately, looked back at him. She made him wait for three full measures. “Because,” she made her voice syrupy sweet, “my period started fourteen hours ago.”

That stopped him cold in his tracks.

She added helpfully, “Nine o’clock Monday morning, every four weeks. You can set your watch by me. And
you
,” a winsome smile, “are not going to get lucky tonight.”

Dead silence. Then he said tightly, “You might have said that to begin with.”

“Why?” Laura returned. “You were having too much fun assuming that I am a stupid, irresponsible woman playing games with my body and your life.”

“What was I to think—” He broke off and inhaled. “All right. I apologize for implying you were stupid or irresponsible, but you did run a hell of a risk.”

What a backhanded apology. “No, I did not run a hell of a risk. I’m like clockwork. I never deviate – I didn’t even skip last fall after Cam died. I knew this weekend was perfectly safe.” She looked at his skeptical face, beginning to regain some color. “I’m just like Di. Don’t you remember?”

He waited a few seconds before he said, “It’s been a long time since I had to concern myself with Diana’s cycle, thanks.”

There seemed nothing to reply to that. She turned away from him and began to straighten up the towels hanging on hooks over the dishwasher, and the silence stretched out between them, giving both of them time to think through their words. Laura knew perfectly well that she had behaved badly – she hoped it was more in reaction to Emma and Mark and the subpoena than to what he had actually said. Any man might have thought she’d behaved irresponsibly.

He said finally, “How are you feeling?”

She glanced at him in surprise.

Richard threw his hands up. “Now don’t bite my head off. I grew up with Mom and Lucy having migraines every month.”

She offered him a small smile in truce. “I’m fine, thanks.”

“And, for the record,” he added, “I didn’t come over here to
get lucky
. I’ve had a long day, and I’m tired. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in days. I’m not twenty anymore. You needn’t think I’m going to throw you down every time I see you.” He gave a small laugh. “I can’t believe this conversation. Not exactly what I expected.”

She couldn’t help it; she melted at the exhaustion on his face. She came back to the island and touched his arm. “I know. But a wise woman told me once that a man who enjoys my body should know how it works, so maybe this was necessary. You don’t have to worry, Richard. I’m not going to trick you, and truly I don’t want to get pregnant right now. I have a tour this fall. I had to cancel a tour two years ago – I don’t want to do it again.”

He gave her a telling glance. “Who was this wise woman – my mother?”

Laura nodded. She saw his eyes drop to Roger’s artwork again – oh, she was going to give Roger and Terry a piece of her mind – and she was thinking that it was just too bad that nature and exhaustion were intervening between them, when he said unexpectedly, “Why did you cancel two years ago?”