Mark Gimenez - Accused

"Is it true?"

"That I need sex?"

"That you're broke?"

"Yep, I'm broke. But I have options."

"Such as?"

"Ford Fenney. Dan Ford offered to change the firm's name, pay me a million a year to come back."

"Are you going to?"

"Not if Option B comes through."

"What's Option B?"

"Judge Fenney."

"You're going to run for judge?"

"Appointed. Federal bench. Sam Buford's dying of cancer, wants me to replace him. But that requires the U.S. senators from Texas to back me."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"And I'm not helping, am I? My case? What if Option B doesn't come through? Do you want to go back to the firm?"

"No. But I will. For the girls. So they don't have to lie to survive."

"But what about your life? Your happiness?"

"Theirs comes first."

"So you'll never have the life you always wanted?"

"I made too many mistakes to have the life I wanted."

"Me. I was your mistake."

"It wasn't your fault, Rebecca."

"I had the affair."

"But I had the career. I didn't give you the attention you needed."

"And I had the Highland Park lifestyle, shopping and society balls, wearing five-thousand-dollar dresses."

"You paid five thousand dollars for a dress?"

"You paid two hundred thousand for the Ferrari."

He smiled. "I did." He shook his head. "That car was so…"

"Sweet?"

"I was going to say arrogant. But it was a sweet car. Sid's driving it now."

" Sid Greenberg? In your Ferrari? Now that's just wrong." She laughed. "It's a nice night, let's take a walk."

They went down the stairs and onto the beach. The sand felt warm and soft on his bare feet. The moonlight off the water provided enough light to walk the beach.

"Desolate out here," Scott said.

"Since Ike. Except for the birders during the spring and fall migrations. They come from all over the country, the birds and the birders. We get ducks, herons, loons, falcons, hawks, sandpipers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers…"

"Didn't know you were into birds."

"They're pretty."

So was she.

"You always wear bikinis?"

She shrugged. "I live on a beach. You don't like it?"

"No, I like it. You like living out here?"

"I did."

"Bobby says Lafitte supposedly buried his treasure out here somewhere. He's been reading the tourist guide in bed. Pregnant wife."

"That's the legend. No one's found it yet." She was quiet then she said, "I thought I had found happiness out here."

They walked down the beach a distance before she spoke again.

"This last week, Scott, it's been like the old times."

"Except for a pending murder trial."

"Except for that. When do I take the polygraph?"

"Karen's setting it up. You're not worried?"

"I have nothing to worry about. I'm innocent."

"Prisons are full of innocent people."

"Okay, now I'm worried."

"Sorry."

She laughed. "I'm not worried because you're my lawyer." She paused then said, "Scott, why are you my lawyer? Why are you doing this? Because you still love me?"

"Because you're still Boo's mother."

"She's lucky."

"That you're her mother?"

"That you're her father." She took his hand. "But you do still love me, don't you?"

The night air had a hint of cool. She put her arm through his and leaned into him as they strolled. He felt her skin against his, and he thought of all the times their bodies had been skin to skin. He missed those times. She abruptly stopped, turned to him, and kissed him. She pressed her body against his, and he felt the old desire for this beautiful woman rise in him again. Like the old times.

When he was at Ford Stevens, the male lawyers had often gathered after-hours and drank and talked about women and marriage, about how the heat of passion they had initially enjoyed had subsided after a year or two of marriage and it was only then that they had gotten to know their wives as people rather than objects of desire. For some of the lawyers, that had not been a good thing; they soon divorced and rediscovered the passion with a younger woman. The others had settled into a marriage in which children replaced passion. They had accepted the tradeoff-little league baseball in place of passionate sex-as an inevitable fact of life. Of course, Dan Ford's take on the matter was more succinct: "Hell, Scott," he had said, "marriage isn't about love; it's about survival." But then, Dan had always been a romantic bastard.

Scott had listened to the other lawyers complain about their sex lives, and he had felt lucky. Because his wife and his marriage were different. He had it better than those other lawyers. He had Rebecca. From the moment their eyes had first met and their hands had touched and their desire for each other had risen inside them, and for the next eleven years of marriage, sex had been as much a part of their life as breathing. It was as if sex were their reason for breathing. They had had sex anywhere and everywhere, anytime and all the time. Their heat for each other had never subsided… until she had taken up with Trey. Her passion had found another man but his had never found another woman. He had always wanted her, physically and desperately. He still wanted her. And she wanted him again.

"Are you healthy enough for sexual activity?" she said.

Breaking through the heat was Boo's admonition to use a condom.

"Rebecca…"

She released him and skipped down the sand, her arms spread and turning in circles. Then she stopped and faced him. She untied her top and tossed it aside. She pushed the bikini bottom down and kicked it away. Then she ran into the surf.

"Come on-for your health."

He went to her.

He embraced her and lifted her and kissed her, hard this time, and he wanted her as desperately as the first time. And it felt like the first time as the heat consumed them, and they touched each other. He had missed the heat of passion. He had missed being one with a woman. And he would miss it now. He had failed again.

"Sorry, it's been a while."

She smiled. "Don't worry-there'll be more opportunities."

She dove into an oncoming wave then surfaced and brushed her hair back with her fingers. The moonlight captured her face.

"God, I love the water," she said. "Being in it, on it."

They sat in the gentle surf. She pointed out to sea. The lights of the offshore drilling rigs twinkled in the night sky.

"Cancun is seven hundred fifty miles that way."

They sat in silence for a time then she said, "Scott, if I'm not… well, you know… we could try again. I'm not the woman who left you. I know a lot more now. I know you're the best man I'll ever know. And I know who I am now. I'm not the beauty queen or the society belle anymore, and I don't want to be. I know I don't deserve her or you, but I want to be her mother again. I want to be your wife again. If you both can forgive me." She turned to him. "Scott, maybe we can both have the life we always wanted."

"Missy Dupree made chair of the Cattle Barons' ball."

" Missy Dupree? Oh, God! She's so… me two years ago… except she's enhanced." Rebecca smiled. "Remember what I wore to the last ball? Powder blue fringed suede miniskirt and silk halter top, matching cowboy boots, and a pink suede cowboy hat. I spent days putting that outfit together."

"You looked good. How much did it cost?"

She laughed now. "You don't want to know. What'd you do with it?"

"Sold it. We had a yard sale."

"In Highland Park?"

"Yeah, it was quite the event."

"I can only imagine." She shook her head. "Society balls, social climbing, gossiping about other women at lunch…"

"What'd you call it?"

"Scandal souffle. I'm sure they had a field day with me back then

… and now. Rebecca Fenney on trial for murder and defended by her ex-husband-that'll keep them busy all summer." She turned to him. "When is the trial?"