There’d been some laughter, some groans and lots of general agreement. Annie had been too flustered to do much of anything except sit there and think how sad it was that all those women didn’t feel as she did, waiting for the sound of her husband’s key in the lock so that she could fly into his arms.
Her throat tightened. She leaned her head forward and pressed her forehead against the cool glass.
When had it all started to change? When had eager anticipation turned to annoyance? When had the clock on the wall become not a way to count off the minutes and hours until Chase’s arrival but an infuriating reminder of his lateness?
All the things she’d just said to him...how long had they been waiting to come out?
She’d hurt him, she knew. But he’d hurt her, too. Dragging her to those business affairs, with her all gussied up to prove his success.
That was the way it had been, wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it?
And he’d said such awful things just now. Implying that she’d studied stuff just so she could show him his ignorance of the fine arts...
Annie snorted and turned her back to the window. What a lie! She’d never done that. How could she? Chase was the one with the college degrees; she was the meek little wife with nothing but a high school diploma. It wasn’t her fault if she’d taken an interest in obscure poetry and Indonesian art and things that were beyond his comprehension...
Things that were beyond his comprehension.
She drew a deep, shuddering breath.
No. Never. She wouldn’t have studied anything for such a shabby reason. She’d enjoyed the poetry, the art; she’d improved herself with the vocabulary courses and the Great Books series, and if Chase just happened to be overwhelmed by the books she left open on the kitchen table, it wasn’t anything deliberate on her part.
A muffled sob burst from Annie’s throat.
“I never meant to hurt you, Chase,” she whispered.
Never.
She’d loved him, with all her heart. She loved him still. That was the awful truth of it, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it now because he didn’t love her, not anymore.
Their marriage was over. Chase was engaged to another woman, and she—she was going to have to go on without him.
It was just that it was going to be harder, now.
It was always harder, once you knew the truth.
Chase knocked on the open bedroom door.
“Come in,” Annie said politely.
He stepped into the room.
She was sitting in the rocker, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Her face was pale but her features were composed, and she smiled when she saw him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Did you go for a walk?”
“Yeah, I did.” He hesitated. “Listen, about all that stuff we said before. I’m really sorry—”
“Me, too. There’s no reason to quarrel over the past.”
Chase nodded. “No reason at all.”
They smiled at each other, and then Annie cleared her throat. “So,” she said briskly, “I’ll bet the island’s beautiful.”
“It is. I was here before. Tanaka bought the place from some computer megamillionaire. He flew me out to see it after he’d signed the papers. He wanted to know what I thought of his plan.”
“What plan?” Annie asked politely.
“He’s going to tear this place down, build a kind of retreat.”
“Ah.” She looked down, and plucked a bit of thread off her jeans-clad leg. “Buddhist?”
Chase smiled. “Top-class hotel, would be closer to the mark. What he’s got in mind is a kind of hideaway for his executive staff. You know the sort of thing—elegant but rustic. Simple food, prepared by a Cordon Bleu chef. Simple suites, with a Jacuzzi in every bathroom and a wet bar in every sitting room. Simple pleasures, starting with a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts and an Olympic-size swimming pool.”
“A bigger, even more elaborate version of this, you mean.”
“Yeah.” Chase grinned. “Incredible, isn’t it?”
“Incredible’s the word, all right. So, you’re going to build this Shangri-la for him?”
“Well, not quite the way he’d envisioned it, no. I told him that he’d ruin the feeling of the land and the sea, if he went overboard on the luxuries.”
“No wet bars?”
Chase grinned. “And no suites, no golf courses, no tennis courts, and why put in a pool when Puget Sound’s outside your door?”
“That’s darned near a pool in the bathroom already,” Annie said, smiling. “Heaven knows, it’s too big for just one pers...” Color swept into her face. Her eyes met Chase’s, and she looked quickly away. “I’ll, uh, I’ll bet you had a tough time, convincing him.”