Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,48
walked through her front door, as though he were waiting there to reproach her. She still loved him, and knew she always would, but for a few days in London, Paul had filled her thoughts and her time, not her husband. She had finally fallen asleep when the sun came up. Helen called her three times after she got up, and she finally answered the last call. Maggie couldn’t avoid her any longer. She had to say something.
“Are you okay? I’ve been calling you all day.”
“I’m fine,” she said, but she didn’t sound it. “I was jet-lagged last night and couldn’t sleep.” The six-hour time difference with London was a plausible excuse, and Helen believed her.
“How does it feel to be home?” Helen sounded happy to hear her. She had missed her while she was gone.
“Strange. Hard. The house seems so empty without Aden.” She hadn’t really had time to realize to what degree. She had left so soon after he took off for Boston. It hadn’t hit her yet, the way it did now.
“I was afraid of your walking into an empty house, although I could use a little of that here. You missed Halloween. We had kids in costumes in and out of here for days, Joey was in two parades at school, and wanted two different costumes,” her youngest. Maggie missed those days and was happy she’d been in London. “So how’s your old love? Do you think you’ll hear from him again now that you’re home?” She sounded hopeful, which set Maggie’s nerves on edge immediately.
“I hope not. Sometimes the past is best left in the past. This is one of those times. Our lives are too different. And all the same things that would have made it wrong thirty years ago are still there and worse. I don’t need to be widowed twice. Once is enough for me. A race car driver is not an option. I don’t care how successful or famous he is.”
“He managed to stay alive this long. He might make it to retirement in one piece,” Helen said, sounding disappointed.
“He’ll find something else dangerous to do if he ever does retire. He can’t help himself. It’s stronger than he is. It always will be. Skydiving, helicopter skiing, mountain climbing, the possibilities are endless and he loves them all. If anything, he’s worse than he was as a kid. Maybe now he feels he has to prove something. He’s one of the older drivers around now. And he has greater access to dangerous activities than he did when he was young and poor. He can do anything he wants now.”
“It’s such a shame. He sounds perfect,” Helen said wistfully.
“Not for me. And apparently not for his ex-wives either. They both left him. One of them in less than a year.” He had told her that in London. She was a model, eighteen years younger than he was. He said it had put him off younger women, but she wasn’t sure she believed that either, if the temptation was strong enough. And Maggie had seen how women looked at him. He was a star everywhere he went. To his credit, she hadn’t seen him look at any other women when he was with her. He hadn’t been a cheater, even as a kid. And success hadn’t gone to his head in that sense. But his career and love of danger weighed heavily enough on the wrong side of the scale.
“I’m sorry, Maggie,” Helen said sincerely.
“I’m not. I averted disaster again this time.”
“How did you leave it with him?” She was curious, and didn’t want to let it go. He seemed like such an exciting option, and a way to fill Maggie’s empty life now. She still had hard times ahead. And she was going to be so alone, with even Aden gone. In Helen’s mind, a romance would have been a blessing. However loyal Maggie was to him, Brad wasn’t coming back.
“We agreed on the last night that it was over.” She didn’t say “after we kissed for half an hour.” Helen didn’t need to know that. Maggie wanted to forget it herself. She had to, for her own peace of mind. “I think he was sad about it. He’ll forget soon enough,” she said, sounding hard for a minute. “Women must crawl all over him. People recognized him wherever we went. Guys think he’s a hero. Women think he’s hot. He’s still good-looking.”
“I looked him up on the internet.