Midnight Remedy (14 page)

Kimberly flicked her a smile. “I realize I haven’t been a conventional mother, but you’re still my daughter and I know you. You’d never have slept with him if you didn’t love him.”

Piper frowned. “Why are you so sure I slept with him?”

“Please,” she said, and gave a dry laugh, “give me some credit. I know a morning after look when I see one. I ought to.”

Piper rose and poured herself another cup of coffee. “Mother, I appreciate the interest, but I really don’t think we need to go into this. If I did without your advice when I was a child, I can certainly do without it now.”

“That’s putting it bluntly, isn’t it?” Kimberly said, her face going pale.

“I’m sorry.” Though she tried not to, a part of her still resented her mother for not raising her. Sometimes it showed.

For a moment her mother looked sad. “All I meant to do was offer you an ear, if you needed it. However close you are to Charlie, he’s not a woman.”

Piper laughed, breaking the tension. “No, he’s definitely male.”

“Does Eric know about Cole?”

Piper picked up her coffee, warming her hands on the cup. “He knows he’s illegitimate. I’m not sure what else he’s heard.”

“Will you tell him?”

Not unless she had to. “He hasn’t asked and I haven’t offered.”

“If you’re
 . . .
” Kimberly hesitated and began again. “If you’re serious about him, you might consider telling him yourself. Men have a nasty habit of finding out things we’d rather they didn’t, and usually with the worst possible timing.”

“I’m not ashamed of having Cole, Mother.”

“But you are ashamed of what happened. Why you chose to shoulder all the blame is more than I can understand. You were only a child. He should have paid a heavier price.”

“Nineteen isn’t a child. It’s old enough to know better.” Had she really been that naïve? How could she not have known that Roger was lying? Had lied from the time she met him until the last time she saw him, sitting in the courtroom at his wife’s trial for attempted murder.

Piper could forgive herself for her naïveté. But she couldn’t forgive herself for not
wanting
to know. She’d believed the lies because she’d wanted the fairy tale to be true. When the truth had exploded in her face, she knew she’d been deliberately blind.

Just then Cole came in, demanding breakfast and a kiss, and the moment passed. But later, after taking her mother to the airport, she thought about what Kimberly had said. Her mother and grandfather still thought of her as the naïve girl who’d ruined her life by falling for the wrong man. Truth was, she hadn’t been that girl for years. The barrage of publicity, the hounding from the press, being an unwed mother in a small Texas town had destroyed any innocence she had left.

Because she had wanted a family—a normal family—so desperately, she’d been blind to the truth. She had that family now, though not the traditional one. But she had her son and she had no illusions. Cole was the important one.

Her relationship with Eric wouldn’t last, but she had gone into it knowing that full well. This time the blinders were off. If she didn’t fall in love with Eric, then he lost the power to hurt her, whatever happened in the future. So she would enjoy what she had with him for as long as it lasted. And when it was over, she would walk away with her heart intact.

In the meantime, though, Eric was waiting for her. The night before, when he’d brought her home, he’d asked her to meet him in town for lunch. The thought of seeing him again sent a thrill coursing through her veins. Nothing to worry about, she assured herself. They’d just become lovers. She was supposed to feel this way.

Effie wasn’t at her desk and no one answered when she called out. Thinking he hadn’t heard her, Piper went back to his office. The door was ajar, so she knocked and shoved it open.

He was leaning against his desk. A gorgeous redhead stood close beside him, talking earnestly. They looked up in surprise at Piper’s entrance.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were with a patient,” she said. Must have just moved here, Piper thought. She sure didn’t look like she belonged in Capistrano.

“Don’t go, Piper,” Eric said, straightening. “Dawn was just leaving.”

Dawn. Oh, Lord,
this
was his ex-wife? This walking advertisement for D magazine? The woman was stunning, a striking redhead flawlessly attired in an elegant powder blue suit. Piper felt slightly nauseous.

“Yes, don’t go. I’m Dawn Chambers,” the vision said, offering a hand.

“Piper Stevenson,” Piper replied automatically. Why, oh why had she worn her work clothes to town? At least her jeans and T-shirt weren’t muddy, but compared to Dawn’s perfection, she looked and felt like a total slob. Jealousy slashed through her like a hot knife through butter.

“Happy to meet you.” Turning back to Eric, Dawn said, “What about later? We could have a drink. Or dinner.”

With a sinking feeling, Piper watched Eric.

He shook his head. “Piper and I have plans.”

“I
 . . .
see.” She gazed at him for a long moment before she finally said, “I’d better be going.”

Piper almost felt sorry for Dawn, except she was too busy being relieved that Eric hadn’t taken his ex up on her offer. And wondering why in the devil he’d divorced her in the first place.

“A pleasure meeting you,” Dawn told Piper. She put her hand on Eric’s arm. “It was good to see you again, Eric.”

He didn’t answer, or make a move to see her out. With a last, revealing look at him, she left. An awkward silence ensued until Piper broke it. “She’s still in love with you.”

He jammed his hands in his pockets and paced away from her. “No. She isn’t.”

“If you’re thinking of getting back together with her—”

“That’s the last thing that’s going to happen,” he said bitterly. “No matter what Dawn thinks. Don’t worry about it.”

Her temper spiked. “How can I help but worry about it? I walk in and find you with your ex-wife—your gorgeous ex-wife who wants you back—and I’m not supposed to worry?”

Turning around, he frowned at her. “There’s not a chance in hell we’ll get back together. God knows why she bothered coming here. It’s not enough that she
 . . .
” Abruptly, he broke off, his hands balled into fists. “Let’s just drop it.”

Drop it? Oh, he’d like that, wouldn’t he? “Just like that? Forget about it because you said to? I don’t think so, Eric.”

He took hold of her arms and said carefully. “I don’t want her back. This doesn’t have anything to do with you and me.”

Didn’t it? “But she
 . . .
she was your wife. You were
 . . .
” Intimate with her, Piper thought, unable to continue the sentence aloud. Dawn knew him in ways Piper might never know him. Her stomach jolted unpleasantly. “You had a life together. Memories. You must have some feelings left for her.”

He gave a harsh bark of laughter, dropped his arms and paced away from her a few steps. His back to her, he spoke. “Believe me, they’re not the kind of feelings that would lead me to marrying her again.”

Or marrying anyone, Piper thought, though he hadn’t said the words. That was fine; she wasn’t interested in marriage, either. But meeting his ex-wife had shaken her, more than she’d ever imagined it would. She wished
 . . .
oh, why did the woman have to be gorgeous? And
 . . .
nice, dammit. What could have made him so bitter towards her? What had happened between them?

He wouldn’t tell her unless she pushed him. Did she have the right to do that? When she wasn’t looking for forever, either? Eric hadn’t lied to her. That was the important thing. She could deal with his ex-wife wanting him back as long as he didn’t want Dawn back. At least, she hoped she could. “All right. It doesn’t matter.”

Turning, he stared at her in surprise. After a long moment he said, “You mean that, don’t you? You won’t be angry if I don’t tell you.”

She crossed the room to lay a hand on his arm. “No, I won’t be angry.”

For a minute he looked at her, his expression completely blank. When he spoke his voice was as expressionless as his face. “She had an affair with a friend of mine. I came home one day unexpectedly and found them together.”

Piper closed her eyes, opening them after a few seconds. “Oh, Eric. I’m sorry.”

“We’d been having serious problems. That was Dawn’s way of dealing with them. I guess it shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me, but
 . . .
” He broke off, his eyes hard. “Call me old fashioned, but I have a problem with adultery. Especially when my wife is committing it.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again, unsure what else to say.

“It happens.” A shrug. “I’ve gotten over it.”

No he hadn’t, but she knew he needed to believe he had. Infidelity. Adultery. Oh, God, what would he do when he found out the truth about her?

The next evening they attended
an engagement party for an old friend of Piper’s.

“You make it real hard for me to drum up any interest in this party,” Eric said when he picked her up. His gaze wandered over her slowly. “Are you sure you want to go?”

Piper laughed. “Marianne would shoot me if I didn’t. I’ve known her forever.”

Going to a party with a date for a change was fun, and it didn’t hurt a bit that he was the area’s current most eligible bachelor. But every time she caught Eric’s eye, he gave her a smile that made her blood race and her insides shaky. Somehow, she didn’t think they’d stay long at the party.

Lynn strolled up and they exchanged greetings. “Thanks for taking care of Jason this afternoon,” she told Eric.

“No problem. Jason’s a good kid.”

“Eric, he threatened to bite Effie Lou. How can you say that?”

“Easy. He didn’t try to bite me,” he said grinning, drawing a laugh from Lynn and Piper.

“What happened?” Piper asked.

“Three stitches and a tetanus shot,” Lynn told her, shaking her head.

In a series of weird facial contortions, Lynn conveyed that she wanted to talk to Piper alone, so Piper sent Eric to get her a drink. When he left he gave her a look that suggested that he knew she was trying to get rid of him. “Lynn, subtle you’re not. Okay, what’s up?”

“Neil’s been holding forth about your lurid past.”

“That’s nothing new. He’s drunk, I’m sure.”

“As a skunk.” Lynn nodded in agreement. “Slimy as always. He’s hitting on Marianne’s little sister.” She waved a hand in the direction of the pool. “Not that she minds.”

Piper stared at her. “Why in the world would she want him? Even Angela knows he’ll never divorce Nadine.”

“Who knows?” her friend said with a shrug. “Myself, I’d druther do it with a snake, but there’s no accounting for tastes.”

Laughing, Piper agreed. “Thanks for the warning, I’ll steer clear of him.”

“You’d better steer Eric clear of him, too, unless you want his ears filled with garbage.”

“Maybe I should tell him. If he finds out about Roger
 . . .
” Piper trailed off, thinking of what he’d said about Dawn.

“My God, honey, it was years ago. Why should he hear anything about it? Unless it’s from Neil, of course.”

“You know how people are.” When she’d first returned home, everyone hadn’t been as understanding and supportive as Lynn. “Scandals, even old ones, never completely go away.” Eric returned with her drink and they went on to another subject.