Christine Rimmer - The Millionaire She Married

“I can’t believe you were watching that.”

“You bet I was. It was probably the most exciting thing I ever saw you do.” Lacey shoved a thick hank of curly blond hair back over her shoulder and sipped from her coffee cup. “And I still want an answer to my question. What’s going on?”

“I don’t—”

“Oh, stop it. Something is going on. You try to hide it, but you’ve got that worried, nervous look in those eyes of yours. It’s the way you looked when you ran away from Mack McGarrity.”

Jenna stiffened. “I beg your pardon. I did not—”

Lacey didn’t even let her finish. “You did, too. Okay, okay. You called it a visit home. But you brought your cat with you, for heaven’s sake. And you never did go back to New York. You bustled around here, inventing little cleaning and decorating projects to spiff up the house, acting busy but looking worried and sad, putting on fake smiles and trying to stay upbeat. But I could see. Anyone who cared about you could see. Something was very wrong.”

“Well, my marriage was ending. Of course I was worried. And I didn’t go back to New York because there was no point in going back. It was over between Mack and me.”

“Jenna. I’m saying that you’ve seemed the same way for the last couple of days—not sad this time so much, but worried and really preoccupied. And I want to know what’s bothering you.”

Jenna looked at her sister for a long time, torn between the probable wisdom of keeping her own counsel and the real need to share her problem with someone she could trust.

Need won out. “Mack’s in town.”

Lacey set down her bagel without taking a bite of it. “You’re joking. It’s a joke, right?”

“No. It’s no joke.”

“In town? Where in town?”

“He’s staying at the Northern Empire Inn.”

“And he came to town to see you?”

“Yes.”

“Does Dr. Do-Right know?”

“Lacey, I really wish you’d stop calling Logan Dr. Do-Right.”

Lacey wrinkled her nose. “Sorry.” Then she put on a contrite look. “Let me try again. Does Logan know?”

“I’m telling him as soon as he gets back from Seattle.”

“Translation. You haven’t told him yet.” Lacey picked up her bagel again, looked at it, then dropped it for the second time. “I can’t stand it. Talk. Tell me everything.”

“It’s awful,” Jenna warned. “It’s embarrassing and unfair and just plain wrong. And if I thought I could get away with it, I’d do something life-threatening to Mack McGarrity.”

“Just tell me what’s going on.”

So Jenna explained the whole mess to her sister.

At the end, Lacey asked, “Have you called your lawyer about it?”

Jenna sighed. “I don’t have a lawyer, not as of this moment. The lawyer I did have has apparently closed up shop and moved away. He’s not in the phone book anymore. And yesterday I drove by the address where he used to have his office. There’s a florist shop there now.”

“Great,” Lacey remarked, in a tone that said it was anything but. “So you need a new lawyer.”

“That’s right. And I’ll need a good one, I think. If I do end up having to divorce that man for the second time, he’s promised me he’ll think of a thousand ways to drag things out all over again.”

“You know, he’s always been kind of an S.O.B.”

“You said it, I didn’t.”

“Maybe if you just hang tough, he’ll give up.”

“I keep hoping the same thing. But…” Jenna let a weary shrug finish the thought.

Lacey nodded. “Mack McGarrity is not the type who gives up.”

“Exactly.”

Lacey picked up her coffee mug and sipped. Then she set the mug down. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Didn’t you notice that you never got the final papers for your divorce?”

Jenna braced her elbows on the table and rubbed at her eyes. “It crossed my mind now and then. But you have to understand, it was over. We’d made an agreement. The rest felt like formalities. And I wasn’t thinking about marrying anyone else then, so…”

Lacey was watching her way too closely. “Don’t hate me, but are you really sure it’s over between you and Mack?”

Jenna’s answer was immediate. “Of course I am. Why?”

“Well, there was just something so…powerful, between the two of you. It’s not the same with Dr. Do—er, Logan.”

Jenna knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “What do you mean, not the same?”

“Well, you and Logan are just perfect for each other, on the surface. A couple of straight arrows who want to raise a bunch of cute, happy kids. But there’s something a little bit…” Lacey let the sentence trail off unfinished.

Jenna shifted in her chair impatiently. “What? A little bit what?”

“I don’t know. Lukewarm, I guess. Something kind of tepid about the whole thing.”

Jenna felt defensive—and tried not to let it show. “Logan and I are both mature adults now. We know what we want. If that seems lukewarm to you—”

Lacey put up a hand, palm out. “Look. Sorry. I’m talking out of turn. Logan adores you. He always has.”

Jenna easily read between the lines of what Lacey had just said. When Lacey used words like tepid and lukewarm, it wasn’t Logan she was talking about.

Jenna shifted in her chair again. “There is a lot more to making a marriage work than how much heat is generated.”

“I realize that,” Lacey said gently. “Honestly I do.” She reached across the table and wiggled her fingers. “Come on. Put ’er there.”

Jenna slid her hand into her sister’s.

“So,” Lacey said. “What do you plan to do now?”

Jenna groaned. “Leave the country?”

Lacey gave Jenna’s hand a squeeze. “Come on. Seriously. What next?”

“Well, I’ll see a lawyer on Monday, just to make certain of my options.”

“And then?”

“If it turns out there’s nothing I can do but give Mack his two weeks or divorce him all over again, I’m going to wait a while. Hang tough, as you put it. See if, just maybe, I can outlast him. I mean, eventually he has to get tired of hanging around here…doesn’t he?”

“Hey, don’t ask me. I’m only the little sister—and if he won’t give up and give you the papers, then what?”

“What choice do I have? I’ll start divorce proceedings. Again.”

Lacey looked down at their joined hands. “What will you tell Logan?”

“The truth.”

“When?”

Now Jenna was squeezing Lacey’s hand. She teased, “For someone who has never liked Logan, you seem awfully worried about him all of a sudden.”

Lacey pulled away. “What do you mean, I never liked Logan? Of course I like Logan. Just because he drives me insane with his endless and irritating advice on how I should run my life doesn’t mean I don’t care about him—and you haven’t answered my question. When will you tell him?”

“As soon as he gets back from Seattle.”

Jenna went to see a new lawyer on Monday and heard what she already knew. She could turn in the old papers, signed by both parties, and be eligible to remarry in about six months. Or she could start the whole process all over again.

After she talked to the lawyer, she did nothing. After all, she told herself, that was what she had planned to do, see if she could wait Mack out.

Logan had arrived home too late on Sunday for them to get together. But Monday night they went out to dinner. Jenna planned to tell him about Mack then. But she didn’t. She said nothing. She spent the meal asking him a thousand unnecessary questions about his trip and trying her best not to let him see how on edge she was.

Logan stopped in at the house for a while when he took her home. Lacey was there. Logan mentioned that he’d noticed an ad in the Meadow Valley Sun. The local art supply store needed a sales representative.