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The note would work. He could dispose of it on the way home, the same way she had disposed of the scrawled missives hurriedly passed to her at her classroom door. Like the e.p.t box she would ditch later today. All the detritus of an extramarital affair. Like that baby you’re carrying, said a vicious voice in her head.
The thing was, she couldn’t be sure the baby was Da
“So, what do you think?” Da
For the first time in her life, Laurel had not been listening to what Da
“Da
His face fell. “But we haven’t talked. Not really.”
“I can’t help it. I can’t deal with us right now. I can’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That doesn’t help.”
He stood, and it was clear that only force of will was keeping him from crossing the classroom and pulling her close. “I can’t live without you,” he said. “I thought I could, but it’s killing me.”
“Have you told your wife that?”
“Pretty much.”
A wave of anxiety mingled with hope swept through Laurel. “You told her my name?”
Da
“I see. Has she changed her mind about keeping Michael if you divorce her?”
“No.”
“Then we don’t have-”
“You don’t have to say it.”
She could see that he hated his own weakness, which had brought him here despite having no good news. Nothing had changed, and therefore nothing could change for her. He put his hands in his jeans pockets and walked toward the door. Laurel quietly tore the I’M PREGNANT Post-it off the pad and folded it into quarters. When Da
“Are you sleeping with Starlette?” she asked in a voice like cracking ice.
Da
She shrugged, her shoulders so tight with fear and anger that she could hardly move them. The thought of Da
“We’re broken up,” Laurel said. “She’s your wife. I just assumed…”
Da
“No,” Laurel lied, hating herself for it, but too afraid of giving him an excuse to make love with Starlette to tell him the truth. Besides…if she admitted to sleeping with Warren-even just twice, which was the truth-the pregnancy would become a nightmare of doubt for Da
Da
He was murmuring in her ear, “I miss you…Jesus, I miss you,” but she felt only the moist rush of air, which sent bright arcs of arousal through her body. As he lowered her to the floor, he slid her crotch along his hard thigh, and a shiver went through her. She would be wet in the time it took him to slide his hand past her waistband. She was thinking of helping him do just that when she saw a dark flash at the window in the door, as though someone had looked in and then jerked suddenly out of sight. She clutched Da
“Keep hugging me,” she told him. “You’re an upset parent.”
“What?” he groaned.
“There’s someone at the door. I think they saw us.”
Da
“I love you,” he said under his breath. “I think about you every minute. I fly over your house every day, just hoping to get a glimpse of you.”
“I know.” She had seen the Cessna he taught lessons in buzzing over Avalon several times in the past five weeks. The sight had lifted her heart every time, in spite of her vows to forget him. “Please shut up.”
“It’s better that you know than not. I don’t want you thinking there’s anything between me and Starlette other than the kids.”
She felt a surge of brutal honesty. “But what’s the point? Either you talk some sense into your wife, or you may as well start sleeping with her again. This is the last hug we’ll ever have. I mean it.”
He nodded soberly.
“Da
“What?”
She moved forward, but now there was a face at the door, and this time it did not retreat. It belonged to A
“To hell with her,” Da
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“It was important. I could tell.”
Laurel waved Mrs. Mayer in, and the door opened immediately. “Michael’s going to be fine, Major McDavitt,” Laurel said, using Da
“I appreciate you saying so, Mrs. Shields,” Da
“Don’t give it another thought. It’s tough raising a special boy. Especially for fathers.”
Mrs. Mayer nodded encouragingly to Da