Part-Time Wife by Susan Mallery Page B

hurt, but I got over it. Then one day we ended up in court."
    She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her calves. He wanted to move around the table and comfort her. The impulse surprised him. He'd known this woman less than twenty-four hours. Yet there was something about the night. Something about the moment and the confessions that made it seem that they'd known each other for much longer. Maybe it was the shared pain. Like wounded warriors, they talked about their injuries and knew what the other had endured.
    "His ex-wife won back custody of her daughters and just like that the girls were gone." She blinked several times. "Then Aaron didn't need me anymore."
    Everything about her – the way her shoulders hunched forward, the set of her mouth, her fingers locked so tightly together that her knuckles turned white – told him there was more to the story. But he didn't ask.
    She looked up and forced a shaky smile. "I tell myself it's Aaron's loss. I doubt I was the best wife in the world, but I tried hard, and I make a dynamite meat loaf. How many people can claim that kind of f-fame?" Her voice cracked on the last word.
    She cleared her throat and continued. "I could have handled it," she said softly. "If only someone had told me it was just temporary. I wouldn't have felt like such a fool. I would have made sure it wouldn't hurt so bad."
    "Your ex-husband and my ex-wife should be locked up together. They deserve each other."
    She glanced at him. "I thought you said Krystal was, ah, you know."
    "Dead?"
      She nodded.
    "She is. But they still deserve each other. Aaron sounds like a jerk."
    "Don't expect me to defend him," she said. "I'm done with that. And while I appreciate the words of support, I'd like to remind you that you've known me a day. You've only heard my side of this story. His is probably completely different."
    "Maybe, but I'll take your word for what really happened. I'm sure Aaron regrets the loss. You've got a lot going for you."
    She chuckled. "Oh, sure. I have a temporary job, after which I'll be unemployed again. I'm divorced and just turned thirty. Men are lining up for miles."
    He wanted to tell her he would line up, but that would lead them in a direction neither of them wanted to go. Even as he held back the words, he noticed how the soft light cast shadows on her face, highlighting her cheekbones. In his mind, she did have a lot going for her. She was bright, funny and sexy as hell. And small. Concern mixed with desire as he wondered if he would physically hurt her if they ever…
    He cut off that line of thought. They weren't ever going to do anything. They'd both learned their lessons.
    "You've probably been wondering why I'm living with Kim," she said. "I do plan to get back to my life. I did fine for just over a year. I grieved, I got angry, I did all the things those self-help books say you're supposed to. I moved on. Then one day I couldn't do anything but feel the pain. The thought of going to my job overwhelmed me. I realized that instead of actually going through the steps, I'd been talking about them and thinking about them, but not being in them, if that makes sense. Circling around them like a caged lion. I needed to get away and start over. Kim had lost her roommate so moving in with her seemed like the perfect thing to do. I leased out my condo and drove up."
    She rested her chin on her knees. "You know what hurts the most?"
    "No."
    "I don't miss Aaron so much. I miss those girls. That was the worst. Finding out they'd been using me, too. Apparently they'd been calling their mother all the time and I never knew. She was telling them things about me. Mean things. I thought they cared about me and they didn't." Her voice got thick. She swallowed.
    "In court—" She cleared her throat, obviously fighting tears. "In court, when we lost custody, I asked if I could see them sometime. The judge told me I had no legal rights. Then he asked the girls what they wanted. They