Brenda Novak - Big Girls Don't Cry

The panic he’d felt in that moment rose inside him again. He couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t lose her or his girls.

“How’s it goin’ in here?”

Swiveling in his seat, he found Reenie standing at the door wearing only the see-through lingerie he’d removed—far too quickly—last night. With her long, shiny dark hair, deep blue eyes and small, compact body, she was certainly striking. Every bit as pretty as Elizabeth. Only in a completely different way. Reenie was a nature lover—earthy, real, demonstrative. She felt every emotion to the extreme, argued passionately and made love the same way.

Liz, on the other hand, behaved like the typical upper-class city girl she aspired to be—reserved, refined, elegant. She was a generous lover, but there was some small part of her she held in reserve. Sometimes he found himself saying things to her, hurtful things, just to see if he could pierce that protective shroud, get as close to her as he felt to Reenie. But Liz avoided emotional extremes as much as Reenie embraced them.

Eventually, he had to figure out a way to let Liz down easy, to tell her that he’d made a dreadful mistake, that he already had a family in Dundee. He knew he couldn’t live the way he’d been living forever. But he couldn’t even begin to imagine how Liz—or Reenie, for that matter—would react.

Feeling the onset of the panic that overwhelmed him so of-ten of late, he took a deep breath. He’d fix everything next year, he decided. Or the year after that. It would be a lot easier when Christopher and Mica were older.

“Wanna take a shower with me?” Reenie asked, her voice sultry, her grin suggestive.

Keith let his eyes lower over her soft round breasts, her small waist, the flare of her hips—and felt his body react. He really should’ve taken more time to admire her in that sexy lingerie last night. But he was always too eager when he first came home. He had to feel her beneath him right away. Her warm response reassured him that she still believed in him, that she was still in love with him. Once he knew that, he could relax and slow down when they made love again.

She came toward him, and he quickly stood to block her view of the computer. He’d tell her about his summons to L.A. later. After they made love. Or tomorrow. He didn’t see any reason to ruin the little time they had left. What she’d said this morning had really frightened him.

Bending his head, he kissed her exactly the way she liked. He needed to give her something she couldn’t get anywhere else. “You wouldn’t really leave me, would you?” he asked when they finally made their way into the bedroom. “You’ve never even slept with anyone else.”

“I know.”

“Tell me you love me,” he said.

“I do.”

“We’re a family, right?”

She threw her head back as he kissed her breasts, touched her elsewhere. “Right.”

“And families stick together,” he murmured against the skin of her throat.

“For better or for worse,” she repeated as she wrapped her arms around him. But when he pulled back to look in her face, he saw the sad little smile those words engendered, and the fear returned.

Chicago, Illinois

KEITH’S CALL CAME on Saturday, catching Isaac in his car on the way to the university.

“Hey, why are you coming to Phoenix?” his brother-in-law asked, as engaging as ever. “I thought you had work to do at home.”

Isaac marveled at the fact that Keith sounded perfectly normal. Was it only the night before last that he’d seen him with another woman? “I figure another week off work won’t matter. I haven’t been golfing since before I went to Africa. And the weather in Phoenix is pretty good, isn’t it? This time of year, it’s got to beat Chicago.”

“It’s beautiful here,” Keith said without hesitation. “Not a cloud in sight.”

God, he was a good liar. Isaac wondered if it was still raining in Idaho. “So what do you say? Can you do it?”

Would Keith squirm? Make up some excuse?

“I’d love to, man, I really would,” he said. “But I won’t be here. I have to head back to L.A. tomorrow.”

“So soon?” Isaac struggled not to sound suspicious.

“My company’s having trouble with a new piece of software I developed. They need me there to work out the bugs.” Keith sounded sincerely disappointed.

“Do they call you home early very often?”

“Not often, but occasionally. L.A. is our base.”

Isaac pictured the blurry shape of the female he’d seen through the window of the modest white house—the house with the childish note that had acted like a talisman against his intrusion. “What about the, um—” he cleared his throat “—people you were supposed to train in Phoenix? They won’t mind letting you go?”

Keith’s laugh sounded rather uncomfortable. “They won’t be happy about it, but…I don’t really have a choice.”

Maybe the woman’s husband had returned. “Does Liz know you’re coming home?”

“I’m just about to call her.”

Keith had to be telling the truth. He knew it was likely that Isaac would be speaking to his sister in the next few days. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear the news.”

“Now I can watch Mica in the spelling bee.”

Isaac slowed as he approached the exit that would take him to the university. “Mica’s a great kid.”

“She is. So smart. But Chris is, too.”

Were the children the only reason Keith kept coming back to Liz?

Isaac’s call-waiting beeped. Glancing at the screen, he realized it was Reginald and knew he had to take it. “I’ve got to run, Keith. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

He switched over but couldn’t quite erase the vision in his mind of Keith kissing his lover. “What’s up, Reg?”

“Isaac, where are you?”

“Nearly in the parking lot. I’ll be up in a minute.”

“Please tell me you’re wearing a tie.”

“Of course I’m not wearing a tie. It’s Saturday. No one at the university wears a tie on Saturday.”

“Then I’m afraid you’ll have to turn around. You’re going to need one.”

“For what?”

“The committee has agreed to interview you this afternoon.”

“Today?”

“It was the only option. Mr. Zacamoto, the chair, leaves for Detroit on Monday.”

“I thought I had to wait until next month. Why would they be so accommodating?”

“Because of your recent and very extensive experience in the Congo. They’re trying to expedite your application.”

That meant he was probably the center’s favorite contender for the grant. “Great,” Isaac said, allowing himself a huge sigh of relief. He couldn’t wait to fly back to Africa and continue his research. But now that he knew Keith was heading to L.A., Isaac needed to finish up a little business in Dundee first.

“MOMMY, THERE’S A stranger here!”

At the sound of Angela’s voice, Reenie pulled her head out of the refrigerator, which she’d been cleaning, and tossed her rag in the sink. A stranger? Reenie had grown up in this small community. There was hardly a stranger in all of Dundee.

Quickly wiping her hands on a towel, she tucked the wisps of hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ears and hurried to the front door.

On the porch stood a tall man, maybe an inch or so taller than her husband. He wore his thick dark hair, which had significant curl at the ends, longer than she liked, but the golden cast to his eyes made them intriguing.

“Hello.” He was a stranger, all right. Reenie would’ve remembered the unusual color of his eyes, if not the long, dark lashes that framed them. Only the thick eyebrows that encroached ever so slightly on the space above the bridge of his nose kept those startling eyes from looking too feminine.