LITMIR.BIZ

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to break in and kill her, she’d welcome death. It was better than this nightmare that had become her life, better than having to walk into an empty house every night and acknowledge that the man she’d loved no longer wanted to be with her.

      What was it Dan had told her? His idea of hell was spending the last thirty-five years living with her. Right to her face he’d said such a thing, not caring how that made her feel. Not caring that his words were as brutal as any weapon.

      “I hate you…” she whispered as she crawled back into the bed. “Oh, God, I hate you.” Curling into a fetal position, she began sobbing again, until there were no tears anymore.

      Grace woke at first light. She didn’t move, but remained in the same curled-up position, her knees tucked against her stomach. The memory of the night before flooded her mind. She’d been like a wild woman, purging her life of Daniel Sherman.

      A sound came from the front room. Dan? It’d be just like him to appear now, she thought wryly. Just like that bastard to show up and behave as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.

      “Mom? Are you all right?”

      “Mom?”

      Maryellen and Kelly. Dear God, not her daughters. Grace didn’t want them to find her like this.

      Maryellen stepped into the bedroom, and sobbing openly, Grace covered her eyes.

      “Mom…” Maryellen leaned forward, and wrapping her arms around her, pressed her cheek against Grace’s hair. “It’s all right. Don’t cry, Mom, please don’t cry.”

      Grace’s eyes burned, and even after sleeping for what must have been several hours, she felt as though she hadn’t rested a single moment.

      “What happened?” Kelly begged. “Tell us what happened.”

      Grace didn’t know how to explain that the clothes strewn across the front yard had been the result of a temper tantrum. “Why are you here?” she asked instead.

      “Mrs. Vessey phoned,” Maryellen explained. “She woke up and saw all Dad’s clothes outside and was worried about you.”

      “Oh.”

      “Did you hear from Dad?” Kelly pressed, and it killed Grace to hear the eagerness in her child’s voice. With all her heart, Kelly believed that Dan loved them all. Soon, any time now, he’d return with a perfectly logical explanation of where he’d been and why.

      “Do you know where Dad is?” Maryellen asked gently.

      “No.”

      “Daddy…where…are…you?” Kelly raged. She started to sob.

      Grace didn’t have any answers for her daughter. All she could say for sure, as she caught a glimpse of gold on the other side of the room, was that when Dan had left, he hadn’t bothered to take his wedding band with him.

      Justine couldn’t concentrate on banking. Already she’d made two mistakes and it was only eleven o’clock. This was not the way she wanted to start her work week. The problem had to do with her class reunion. The planning committee had gotten together Friday night for an informal dinner and discussion. Everything had been set in motion weeks earlier and the reunion was less than a month away.

      Justine had never intended to get this involved. She blamed Lana Rothchild for being so eager to enlist her help. And she blamed her mother for encouraging her. Before she could back out, Lana had her collecting the money and paying the bills. At the last meeting, Justine discovered she was also expected to be part of the decorating committee. Now it would be impossible not to attend.

      It wasn’t only the reunion that was getting her down. Seth was on her mind constantly, although she hadn’t heard from him since the night Warren proposed. Not one word. For a man who claimed to be so crazy about her, he did damn little to show it.

      She’d thought… She’d hoped… The hell of it was, Justine didn’t know what she thought anymore. Not about Seth and certainly not about Warren.

      She and Warren weren’t getting along, either. It’d serve Seth right if she did accept Warren’s proposal. Even as that idea went through her mind, she knew it was the worst thing she could possibly do.

      “Looks like you’ve got company,” Christy Palmer whispered as she walked past Justine’s desk.

      Seth. It had to be Seth. Her head shot up with a smile she couldn’t restrain.

      Only it wasn’t Seth who strolled into the bank, but Warren. He carried a huge bouquet of fresh flowers in a glass vase. Every eye in the room turned to him as he headed directly for her office.

      If Justine could have slid out of her chair and hidden beneath her desk, she would have. She’d promised an answer to his proposal, and the deadline had come and gone, and still she didn’t know what to do.

      “Hello, baby.” Warren greeted her loudly enough to ensure that everyone in the bank heard him.

      “Hi, Warren,” she returned without emotion.

      “I came to invite you to lunch.”

      “Sorry,” she said, fighting the urge to be flippant, “but I have a noon meeting.” That was true enough, but she didn’t mention it was a meeting with one of the tellers and would take all of five minutes. If that.

      Warren sighed. “I’m still waiting, you know.”

      “For what?” She closed the file she was working on.

      “You still haven’t given me your decision.”

      “I told you,” Justine said impatiently, lowering her voice, “that if you pressure me, the answer is no.”

      “Hell, I figure we might as well get married, seeing that all we’ve done lately is argue. Is that what you want? What’s happened, baby? We used to be close and now all of a sudden, it’s like I’m not good enough for you.”

      “That’s not it.” How could she explain something she didn’t fully understand herself?

      “It’s that high-school reunion of yours, isn’t it?”

      Justine didn’t know how many times she’d had to tell him otherwise.

      “If that’s not it, then it has to be that old boyfriend you met up with.”

      Seth wasn’t an old boyfriend. “I never went out with him.”

      “But you wanted to.”

      “No.” Not when she was in high school, at any rate. The problem was a more recent one.

      “We need to talk,” Warren said urgently.

      “Warren,” she began, doing her best not to show her frustration, “I can’t just take off in the middle of the day because you want to chitchat.”

      “You could if you married me—you wouldn’t have to work.”

      Justine narrowed her eyes. “Don’t say another word.”

      “All right, all right.” He held up one hand, smiling. “Come on, this’ll only take a moment.” He set the flowers on the corner of her desk and pleaded with his eyes.

      It wasn’t like Warren to be humble. She realized this must be important, at least to him. Normally he went out of his way to act arrogant.

      “Fine,” she said, motioning for him to sit down.

      “I’d rather do it someplace more private,” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder.

      Justine darted a look at her watch. “Listen, I have an appointment in ten minutes. I can leave after that. Would you like to meet outside? We could talk there.”

      “All right.”

      Justine thought he seemed relieved.

      Sure enough, Warren was waiting

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