be horribly embarrassing. But if she wasn’t, she’d have been a fool to keep quiet.
She laid her napkin beside her plate and drew in a steadying breath. “I am not having an affair with Ralley Hall,” she said quietly. “I am not involved with him in any way. I can’t explain why he put on that show for you, but that’s all it was. A show.”
“That isn’t what he told me,” he replied curtly, and his eyes were cold.
She frowned slightly. “But he didn’t talk to you...”
He put down his own napkin and stood up. “I called him while you were fixing lunch.” He shot back the cuff of his shirt and checked his watch. “I won’t be able to wait until your aunt gets back from her shopping trip. Tell her I appreciate her hospitality very much. I’ve already thanked your uncle and phoned for a cab to take me to the airport.”
She caught his arm hesitantly. “Cal, what did he tell you?” she asked, fearing the worst.
He looked down at her with the cruelest expression she’d ever seen. “Come on, honey, don’t give me that. No wonder your conscience bothered you about your friend. Did she know you were seeing her husband behind her back?”
Her heart fell over in her chest. Ralley had told him that! How could he, how could he!
“It’s not true!” she burst out, horrified. “Cal, you’ve got to believe me!”
He removed her hand from his jacket, gently but firmly. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” His dark eyes searched her face narrowly. “You wanted him before he married your friend. You loved him, you said. Well, nothing’s changed except that she’s dead and he’s free.”
Nothing? she wanted to say. Everything had changed. And it hadn’t been love she’d felt for Ralley—she knew that now for certain. It hadn’t torn her heart out by its roots when Ralley had left; it had only hurt her pride. What she was feeling now made that remembered agony less painful than a pinch. Losing Cal was a little like dying. She didn’t know how she was going to breathe when he was gone.
“Why won’t you believe me?” she asked sadly. “Is it because you don’t want to? Does it give you an excuse to keep from getting involved? You didn’t have to worry about that. I wasn’t going to try to trap you.” She turned away and sat back down at the table. “I learned a long time ago that you can’t make people want to be with you, any more than you can force them to love you.” Her fingers reached for the half-full cup of coffee in front of her; she swallowed it down quickly and got to her feet, dabbing at her mouth with her napkin. “It was nice to see you again. If you’ll excuse me, I’m already late for work.”
She didn’t look at him as she went out the door, hiding the tears that threatened to spill over onto her pale cheeks. Neither of them said a word about work, although they both knew Mike had told her she didn’t have to come in.
As she drove with determined calmness down the driveway, she didn’t even look back. She was hurting too much.
Ralley looked up sharply when she walked into his office and slammed the door behind her, shutting them off from the rest of the staff.
“Why?” she asked venomously. Her eyes were still red from the tears; her voice shook with controlled fury.
He knew what she meant. He got up from behind the desk with a conciliatory smile on his handsome face. “Now, honey, don’t get all up in the air. He’s an old guy, much too old for you.”
“Is that what you told him?” she asked.
“Sure. It was the truth,” he said defensively. He approached her, but she backed away, her eyes openly hating him.
“What else did you tell him?” she persisted.
He stopped, leaning his back against the desk, not so confident now. “That you loved me,” he said hesitantly. “You do, don’t you? You always did, even when I married Leda. I knew it. Nikki, I missed you,” he said softly, leaning toward her. “Leda was a lovely girl, a sweet girl. But she wasn’t you. If I’d just kept my head and waited, it would have blown over. We’d have got married...”
“And made each other miserable for the rest of our lives,” she finished for him, certainty in her pale green eyes as they cut into his. “I was