Gus rummaged through the kitchen cabinets until he found a pack of Marlboros. He could hardly wait to light the cigarette in his hands. It felt unfamiliar. But at that moment, he didn’t give a good rat’s ass about the Surgeon General’s report or all the horror stories he had read about smoking. This was now, and he needed something to get him through the mess he was wallowing in. And if it was a cigarette or multiple cigarettes, then so be it.
Maggie had disappeared somewhere in the house, leaving him alone in the kitchen. A good thing, Gus decided as he fired up still another cigarette. He was on his third cup of coffee, surprised that it had stayed in his stomach, and on his fourth or fifth cigarette as he tried to come to terms with the stack of papers on the table.
What really got to him, aside from the in-depth report, was the detective’s personal note to Barney saying he’d done a background check on the same individual for someone else and, at Barney’s insistence, had included it in the report, which he followed up with a current update. The previous client’s name was Rose Blossom. His grandmother had hired Phil Ross to check out Elaine before the wedding. Granny had known all along, had tried to tell him, to warn him without actually telling him about the report, and he had pretty much told her to mind her own business. No, not pretty much told her, he had told her to keep her nose out of his love life. Talk about being a total screwup. If they gave an award for biggest chump in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I’d take that prize hands down, he thought. Hell, I’d probably win if the territory expanded to cover everything east of the Mississippi.
How disappointed his grandmother must be in him, deservedly so. I am never going to be able to make this right. Never. Gus massaged his temples, hoping to ease the pounding headache. Why hasn’t the aspirin kicked in?
Gus reached over to the counter for his reading glasses. Like he really needed to read this crap again. He’d memorized it, every single word, last night. What he couldn’t remember was if it was before the two bottles of wine or after he’d emptied them.
Gus eyed the ugly, hateful dossier on his wife. His stomach crunched itself into a hard knot. Maybe it was better to think about the powerhouse lawyer Barney had presented him with, Jill Jackson. He hadn’t been impressed at first. Nor had he been impressed midway through dinner. It wasn’t until the end of dinner, when he’d started to really listen to her and look at her. He’d always gone for the flash when it came to women, much to his own detriment. He liked eye candy, he really did. He liked it when other guys looked at him with envy, which didn’t say a whole heck of a lot for him. Hell, it didn’t say anything about him other than that he was nuts. What good was a pretty package if the contents were downright ugly?
Right up front, the minute he’d shaken hands with Jill Jackson, Gus knew she despised him and the situation he was in. He’d cringed at the look in her eyes, which said he was worse than gum on the bottom of her shoe. To his credit, he’d done nothing to change her opinion of him. Probably because, if he was honest with himself, it was that Jill Jackson was not a looker, not even close to eye candy.
Gus drank more coffee, fired up another cigarette, and blew a perfect smoke ring as he let his mind wander back to the meeting with his brand-new attorney. His headache was now a drumlike throb. He tried to ignore it.
Jill Jackson. Short had been his initial assessment. Good things come in small packages. Sometimes. Not this time, though. Then the word squat came to mind. Then another word, fireplug. A short fireplug. Based, of course, on the clothing she wore. Cargo pants with stuff in the pockets, a Harvard sweatshirt that had seen years of wash and wear. Hair skinned back into a tight ponytail. No makeup. Granny glasses.
His spirits had plummeted during dinner, when he realized she wasn’t all that great at small talk or conversation in general. He cursed Barney then for hooking him up with such a dud. He remembered her healthy appetite. He’d struggled to keep