Take a deep breath. Hold it. One. Two. Three. Four.
Annie let out her breath. It wasn’t working. All she could see was the bed. All she could think about was Chase, standing next to her with a look of bland innocence on his face.
“Damn,” she said, and when that clearly wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough to relieve her anger, she gave up Zen for reality, swung around and punched her ex-husband in the belly. It was a hard belly—he’d always had a great body, and apparently that hadn’t changed, which somehow only made her more furious—and she felt the jolt of the blow shoot straight up her arm and into her shoulder. But it was worth it to see the look of shock that spread across his face.
“Hey,” he said, dancing back a step. Not that Annie’s reaction entirely surprised him. She looked as if she could have happily murdered him. Well, hell, he understood that. He’d have happily murdered good old Kichiro Tanaka, given the opportunity. “Hey, take it easy, will you?”
“Take it easy?” Annie slapped her hands on her hips and glared at him, her chest rising and falling with each quick, huffy breath. “Take it easy?” she repeated, her voice shooting out of its normal range into a ragged soprano.
“Yeah.” Chase rubbed his midsection. “There’s no need to get violent over what’s obviously a mistake.”
“Oh, it’s a mistake, all right.” She blew a breath that lifted the curls dangling over her eyes. “A big mistake, Cooper, because if you think, even for one minute, that I—that you and I—that the two of us are going to share that—that bed, that we’re going to relive old times—”
“Babe...”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me!”
“Annie, you don’t think...”
“But I do. I think. I always have, even though you never credited me for having a brain in my head when we were married.”
Chase almost groaned. Here they went again, plunging right into deep water.
“Listen,” he said carefully, “I know you’re upset. But—”
“That’s it. Tell me I’m upset. That way, I’ll shut my mouth and you won’t have to listen to the truth.”
“Annie...”
“Let me tell you something, Chase Cooper. That might have worked years ago, but not now. I am not the dumb little thing you always thought I was.”
“Annie, I never thought—”
“Yes, you did, but it doesn’t matter a damn anymore.”
“I swear, I didn’t.”
‘“Oh, Ba-aabe,”’ she said, cruelly mimicking his voice, “‘I’m so sorry, but you don’t mind if I go out, do you? I’ve got to attend a meeting of the—the Sacred Sons of the Saxophones tonight.”’
Despite himself, Chase laughed. “The what?”
“Don’t try and joke your way out of this, Cooper!” Annie took a step forward, her index finger uplifted and wagging an inch off his nose. “You can’t change the facts.”
“What facts?”
“I’m talking about our so-called marriage, that’s what! And how you used to treat me as if I never had a thought in my head.”
“I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”
“Well, let me refresh your memory. Think back to the good old days, when you used to drag me to all those horrible dinners and charity things.”
“Like the Sacred Sons of the Saxophones?”
“I just said, don’t try and laugh your way out of this, Chase. I am dead serious.”
“About what?”
She had to give him credit; he’d managed to put on an expression of total bewilderment. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought he meant it.
“I know how you worried that your poor little wifey wouldn’t be able to hold her own.”
“What?”
“And then, when it turned out I could, you just—just left me, dumped me into a—a seaful of sharks and took off by yourself.”
“Annie, you’re crazy. I never—”
“Was that when you looked around and decided you could have lots more fun if you left me at home?”
Chase’s expression went from bewilderment to confusion. “One of us is losing her mind,” he said, very calmly. “And it sure as hell isn’t me.”
Annie’s chin rose pugnaciously. “Hah,” she said, and folded her arms.
“You think I was glad when you stopped going to those dinners and things with me, so I could go by myself and have a wild old time?”
“You said it, not me.”
“Damn, but your spin on ancient history is truly amazing!”