Chapter Eight
As if her knees had given way, Haley sank onto the nearest chair. “Your…husband?” she repeated, obviously wondering if she’d heard correctly. “You’re married?”
“Yes.” Anne cleared her throat. “Let me get you a cup of coffee and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Coffee. Yeah, I could use coffee. Black.”
Anne nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
As she pulled coffee mugs from a kitchen cabinet, Anne tried to decide how to explain to her friend that she’d been hiding her marriage for almost two years. And then how to convince Haley to behave in front of their other friends as if nothing at all had changed. It wasn’t that she thought Haley would reveal her secret deliberately, but there was no doubt that this news changed everything Haley thought she had known about Anne.
If only she’d had time to prepare. To decide whether to keep Liam’s presence secret or to introduce him to Haley less…dramatically.
Haley accepted the mug of coffee, then held it between her hands without tasting it as she watched Anne settle on the couch with her own mug. “I know you weren’t expecting me this morning,” she said. “If this is a bad time, we can talk later.”
Anne shook her head. “I’ve been wanting to tell you, anyway. I was just waiting for the right time.”
“Waiting for me to show up on your doorstep and meet the hubby in all his, um, glory?”
Anne had to laugh at the ironic query. “No, that wasn’t exactly the plan.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m sorry I got that delectable eyeful.” Haley made a show of fanning her face with one hand. “The man is seriously hot.”
Hearing herself giggle like a schoolgirl, Anne felt her own cheeks warm. She drew another deep breath, telling herself to get a grip.
“So, how long have you been married?”
Anne replied almost apologetically, “A little over a year and a half. July tenth will mark our second anniversary.”
They had spent their first anniversary on separate continents, she recalled fleetingly. Liam had been filming in Bangladesh. He’d been able to call, but their conversation had been all too brief and dissatisfyin
g. It had been another month before they’d managed a long weekend together in New York—one of those covert escapes she had pulled off without anyone being the wiser that she’d even left the state. She was still amazed at times that they’d been able to keep their secret this long.
Liam reappeared just then, fully dressed now in a polo shirt and khaki cargo pants, his hair dried and neatly combed, his glasses perched on his nose. He looked at Anne a bit warily, as if wondering if she were mad at him for his lack of caution earlier. “Is there any more of that coffee?”
“Yes, it’s still hot.”
While Liam fetched his coffee, Anne filled Haley in about the details of her unannounced marriage. Even after he rejoined them to sit on the couch beside Anne, Liam said little, letting Anne choose how much to reveal. She couldn’t tell how he felt about her confiding in her friend. His expression was politely neutral during the conversation.
Haley looked a little confused when Anne finished speaking. “So, let me get this straight. The two of you dated in college, but your parents made you break up with him?”
Liam nodded. “Yes.”
“No.” Anne frowned at Liam. “That wasn’t why we broke up in college.”
He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Of course it was. They said I was holding you back, distracting you from your studies.”
She shook her head. “Liam, we didn’t break up because my parents made me. You wanted to drop out and tramp around the world doing your travel reporting. I wanted to get my degree and go to medical school.”
“I believed at the time that you didn’t really want to go to medical school, that you were just doing what your parents wanted you to do. The year you took to study abroad after college proved me right, you weren’t ready to go straight into medical school then.”
She shook her head. “That had nothing to do with what happened between us. We simply agreed that we just weren’t in the right places in our lives to maintain a relationship.”
“That’s not quite how I remember it,” he murmured.
Perhaps she’d made it sound easier than it had been. Less traumatic. She remembered a few heated discussions, plenty of tears—but she’d always believed the decision, while hard, had been mutual.
Haley studied them both. “Then you ran into each other by accident in London when you were studying abroad, Anne?”