Richard laughed. “I do try to go a little easier on the grease than I used to.”
“I suppose not having anyone else to cook for cuts down on the incentive.”
“You could say that.” He sighed and stretched out his legs, stacking one booted foot on the other. “I’ve been trying a little harder since Trevor arrived, but he’s walked out on so damn many meals, it’s a little discouraging.”
“Still?”
He sipped his coffee before answering. “Not as often.”
“That’s good.” She hesitated. “Isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s good. Sometimes I think he’s mellowed toward me, then something happens and it’s like a lit fuse. I don’t know what to think.”
“Does he talk to his mother at all?”
“Not according to her.” He unwrapped his sandwich.
“Do you talk to her often?” Belatedly, she thought, Not my business.
“No.” His gaze fixed on the river, face unreadable. “We don’t have much to say to each other.” About the time Molly was wondering if she’d been warned off, he spoke again. “You and your ex?”
“Heavens, no! I haven’t talked to him in years beyond saying ‘yes, Cait is here’ and passing on the phone. And not even that in a long time.”
“Years?” He glanced at her, some lines having deepened on his forehead. Not a frown, but…something. “You said he doesn’t see much of Cait, but I wondered if you’d told him…”
“No. Absolutely not,” she said strongly. “He has no interest in her whatsoever.”
“I don’t get that.”
“I don’t, either.” She was shredding her own multigrain roll, so that seeds pattered onto the paper wrapping that lay open on her lap. “The ironic thing is, he was hot to have more children. His pressure was one of the things that damaged our marriage.” Wow, did she want to tell him this?
“You didn’t want a brother or sister for Cait?”
“It wasn’t that. I did agree to try, but I was in grad school and the timing was lousy. We already had problems, and some of the pressure was coming from his parents. As it was he didn’t have much time for Cait.”
“His parents?”
“He’s an attorney. Did I tell you that?” When he shook his head, she smiled wryly. “Family law firm. Colt is the third generation to make partner. No surprise there. Believe it or not, he’s Colton Callahan the Third. He suddenly decided—or his parents decided, I’m not sure which—that it was time we hatched a Colton Callahan the Fourth.”
“Good God,” Richard muttered. “Caitlyn Callahan wasn’t good enough?”
“Apparently not. After all, she was only a Caitlyn the First. His parents weren’t what you’d call warm. They never made me feel as if I measured up. For one thing, in their world the wife didn’t work. She entertained for her husband, she served on the boards of charities, she put on fundraisers for appropriate causes. College was fine, good. Graduate school unnecessary.”
“And you stuck to your guns.”
His approving smile turned her to mush. “I did.”
“Wasn’t Colton in law school at the same time you were in grad school?”
“No, I was an undergrad when we met, but he was already in his second year of law school. Not thrilled when I got pregnant.”
“I don’t suppose you were, either.”
“No, of course not. But…” She looked down, evading the warmth in his eyes. “Once I felt her move, I was a goner.”
“So you ended up divorced before you could get pregnant again.”
Decision time. Did she really want to get this personal?
“It wasn’t that simple,” she said, stalling.
When he reached out and removed her sandwich from her hands, she realized she was mangling it. He rewrapped it, his eyes never leaving her face. “In what way?”
“I had endometriosis. Increasingly painful menstrual periods. It turned out the scarring was so severe, it would be difficult to impossible for me to get pregnant.”
His face hardened. “Tell me the son of a bitch didn’t leave you because you didn’t get pregnant on demand.”
“I think it contributed, but that wasn’t the whole story. We didn’t have much marriage by then.” Colt hadn’t taken well her rejection of his sexual advances when she hurt too much. She’d needed pampering and sympathy he never thought to give. Didn’t care enough to give, Molly had come to believe. Their marriage, their family, increasingly became for show, while at home they hardly spoke. “I’ve suspected for a long time that I never would have married him if we’d waited.”
“If you hadn’t gotten pregnant.”
She nodded.
“Ditto for me.” He wadded the wrapping for his own sandwich and tossed it from hand to