notice if I worried about him, or if I was furious or in total despair. Nobody else was on his radar. Actually, nobody ever had been. But the big bang was what forced me to see the truth.”
“That’s a big hurt. Knowing you’re not even a little bit important to the person who was most important to you.”
“Are we talking about me? Or you?”
“It’s a scary thing, Trace, to realize you and I have something in common. Even down to denying that the divorce was as bad as having our hearts plucked out of our chests.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Was anybody there for you?”
She gave one shake of her head.
“You’re a lot stronger than you look. It’s going to be harder than I thought to knock you down to size.”
“It’s going to take an army.”
He laughed. “Pour us some wine, will you?”
She moved beside him and peered into the pan, which was sizzling. “Are you really going to fry that fish?”
“You were expecting sushi? In these parts we call that bait.” Then, before she could protest, he put a fishy hand under her chin and tilted it, probably leaving crumbs. He bent down and kissed her. Just lightly. The way one friend kisses another. “Be a spoiled brat for the rest of the night, okay? It will make things easier for both of us.”
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to do. She smiled up at him, her most blindingly expensive smile, then went to search for a bottle of wine.
chapter twenty-two
By the time Wanda dragged herself out of bed on Saturday morning, Ken was gone. No surprise. Old news. Package delivered in last year’s mail. Her husband was as useless as a screen door on a submarine, and she’d given up on him. What surprised her was that Chase was gone, as well. The fact that the greyhound hadn’t nudged her awake so she could stumble along the road clutching his leash while he peed on everything in sight was even more surprising. That was worth pondering.
She pondered on the front stoop, looking this way and that. The fact that the two males who lived in the house were both gone could be significant. Maybe Ken was walking Chase.
“Fat chance….”
The other scenario was more likely. Ken hadn’t closed the door securely on his way to wherever, and Chase had let himself out afterward. She wondered if the day and a half that the dog had been with her was long enough that he would find his way home. It hardly seemed likely.
“Well, ain’t that a kick in the head?”
She considered what to do, but she realized that whatever she did, coffee had to come first. She propped open the screen door, in case Chase came back on his own, then went to start a pot. In the kitchen, she found a nearly full one. At least Ken hadn’t been gone long, since it hadn’t boiled away to nothing. Even if Chase had escaped, he couldn’t have gone far. Under normal circumstances he might already be back at the track, looking for the nasty man with the cigar. But Chase’s leg was bandaged, so he was running slow these days.
She got the largest mug in the cupboard and filled it. Back in her bedroom, she tried to figure out what to wear. Her brain still wasn’t operating properly, not even after two big swigs. She was still staring into the top drawer of her dresser, trying to remember what she was looking for, when she heard the screen door slam and the frantic scurrying of paws.
She turned as Chase came limping into the bedroom. At the sight of her, he sped up the limp and before she could stop him, he jumped up and braced himself against her chest with his one good front leg to lick her face.
Ken appeared next. “You got yourself some kind of dog here, Wanda.”
She kissed Chase’s nose; then she gently pushed him to the floor. That was easy enough now, considering his injuries, but when he was all recovered, she didn’t think anything was going to be easy about having this dog living in her house. Except that he was going to be easy to love.
“Did you take him for a walk?”
“We were both itching to get outside.”
“After the money I paid that vet to prevent fleas, he’d better not be itching.”
“Hope you weren’t worried. I didn’t want to wake you and tell