Chapter Four

Audra impatiently checked the wall clock over the registration desk for the third time. Mitch had said he’d meet her fifteen minutes ago. Where was he? How long did it take to print out some paperwork?

Dumb question—he was obviously still caught up with whatever fascinating things his secretary sent. Sighing gently, she headed down the corridor to the conference wing of the main lodge. Why had she agreed to this stupid trip to the lodge? Just to set herself up for more disappointment?

She hesitated outside the glass door. Mitch was using one of the desks, his phone caught between his shoulder and his ear, his gaze fixed on the computer screen. A stack of paper in front of him.

“Disgusting, isn’t it?”

Audra turned. Another woman stood beside her, glaring at the only other occupant of the guest business office.

“Disgusting?” Audra asked.

“We came here for a vacation—and he spends his time on the darn phone to the office. I might as well have come by myself.”

The woman glanced at Audra.

“Same with you?”

Audra shrugged, she had no intention of going into detail about her relationship with Mitch. The woman obviously thought they were in the same situation.

“Is it a genetic thing with men, do you think?” she offered.

The woman laughed. “I’m Molly Harper. The gray-haired man at the desk on the right is my husband, Bill. We haven’t had a vacation together in three years and the last one was a combination business trip to Chicago. I loved the place. I doubt Bill remembers anything but the airport. Maybe it is genetic. I’ll have to look into his DNA. In the meantime, I plan to salvage at least the rest of the day.”

She pushed open the door and marched over to the desk.

Audra watched, amused. It was easier to feel that emotion when it wasn’t her husband.

Slowly she shifted her gaze to Mitch. What would he do if she marched in to salvage the rest of the day? Probably fall off his chair in shock. Then argue with her as he’d done before.

A moot point. She had no intention of ever again becoming enamored with Mitch Wells.

Audra watched as Mitch frowned at the couple at the next desk. Clicking off his phone, he closed his laptop and stood gathering the papers. The argument grew louder. Looking up, he spotted Audra through the glass wall.

In only a few seconds he’d pushed through the glass door.

“Did you get everything done?” she asked.

“Everything that was sent. I can read it at the cabin.”

“Success,” Molly called as she and her husband came into the hallway. “Good luck with yours.”

Audra smiled at her over her shoulder and waved.

“What was that about?” Mitch asked.

“They’re here on vacation and she’s a bit miffed he’s spending time on work. If you’re ready, I’m getting hungry. You’d said we’d be leaving a while ago. Next time, if there ever is a next time, I’m bringing a snack.”

He glanced at his watch and nodded.

As they headed back to her car, Mitch asked, “What did that woman mean, good luck with yours?”

“She thought you were my husband and working away your vacation time.”

He was silent for a long moment, his eyes searching hers as if looking for something he couldn’t find. “And what did you tell her?”

She shrugged. “We didn’t exactly stop to chat. She mentioned it in passing before storming into the room to get her husband. I guess she was tired of being ignored.”

“Ignored?”

“What do you call it when her husband brings her here and then leaves her for business? I’m fed up with men who can’t relate to needs of others. Men who are so self-centered and selfish that only their own desires count. Men who ignore their wives to the detriment of everything they once thought to build. Why marry in the first place, just to get a cook and housekeeper?”

Her temper erupted as all the old hurts and insecurities rose.

“Whoa, time out. What touched your hot button? I didn’t marry you to get a cook and housekeeper.”

She glared at him. “And why did you marry me? Why sweep me off my feet if I was only to become an encumbrance, something to be shunted aside while you spent your days and nights slogging away at work?”

“You’re going to have a lonely old age,” she muttered as she settled behind the wheel of her car.

He turned his head. “Did you say something?”

She shook her head. She wasn’t out to save the man, just bring some order and focus to her own life.

When they reached the cabin, Audra exited the car in a hurry. She was hungry and it’d take a while to prepare a meal. Cooking always soothed her. And she needed soothing after this.

Mitch stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Wait a minute, I want to talk with you.”

Startled, she stepped back, almost losing her balance on the three steps leading up to the wide porch. His touch sent tingling sparks skidding across her skin. For a moment, she couldn’t think, could only feel. Feel sensations she had thought vanished forever.

“About what?”

Sidestepping away she faced him from the distance of a few feet. Her breathing felt erratic. Her heart raced.

“If we’re going to share this place for a few weeks, we need to set some ground rules. I don’t want you exploding into a tirade again. It can’t be good for your or the baby. What caused it?”

She tried to organize her thoughts. Some men were driven to push themselves beyond what they could handle. Mitch had been consumed with work. He’d spent long hours every day at the office, brought work home at night. If he didn’t go in on the weekends, it was because he already had stacks of papers to read at home.

Their honeymoon had lasted a week and as their marriage progressed, he spent less and less time with her and more and more at work.

She looked at him, trying to ignore the feelings that fluttered inside. Trying to ignore the growing attraction that being with him seemed to engender. She refused to get involved with him again—even on a casual basis. She was still heartbroken they hadn’t made it work.

But, darn it, her emotions didn’t feel casual around him. Involuntarily her gaze dropped to his lips, remembering again the passion in that kiss. Would he kiss her again without the anger?

Did she want him to?

She stepped back, trying to distance herself from her own wayward thoughts.

She’d learned her lesson and learned it well, she reminded herself.

“You’re here to recuperate, so you said,” Audra began.

He nodded.

“Is that all?”

He started to nod his head again, then hesitated. “Not exactly. According to my doctor, I need to cut back. To get more rest.”

He moved impatiently, as if he didn’t like revealing that fact.

Bart and Patty strolled into view, smiling and waving. Audra returned the greeting, her smile feeling forced.

“Who are they?” Mitch asked as they passed.

“The Stevens. They’re staying in the next cabin. They’re on their honeymoon.”

“Do they know we’re married?”

Her eyes widened. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it. I introduced myself yesterday.”

For a moment Audra tried to remember what they’d discussed. It’d been a friendly, casual conversation. She’d said she was on vacation, they’d talked about being married three days and some hours.

She remembered more feeling jaded and cynical in the face of their obviously new love than she could remember the exact words spoken.

“I doubt it came up. They’re so in love they only see each other.”

“I don’t have time for that,” Mitch said.

“Meaning marriage?”

He gave a curt nod.

“Neither do I. Once burned, twice shy,” Audra said.

It obviously worked for others, but not her.

“Then we agree on one thing.”

“Absolutely. If they’re harboring any delusions we’re a happy couple, I’ll make sure they understand you’re practically a stranger who crashed my vacation and are sharing the house with me because you stubbornly won’t go elsewhere. Maybe you should try for a room in the lodge now that you know you’ll have to go there to use a printer. We wouldn’t want to slow down your ability to get more work done each day.”

Mitch’s gaze narrowed. Was her temper going to flare again? He almost wished it would. Her eyes sparkled, color rose in her cheeks. And the passion that emanated from her when she’d practically yelled earlier had been startling–and very interesting.

She’d been cool and distant when telling him she was leaving all those months ago. Now, he was seeing a side he didn’t recognize, except in bed. She’d never held back there.

For a moment he almost groaned. He couldn’t want her—not now. Not after what she’d done.

Yet, his body didn’t seem to recognize the restrictions. He wanted to capture that passion, feel the heat of her against him and recapture the ecstasy they’d always found together. That, at least, had never changed.

“I won’t interfere with whatever you had planned. I think I’ll plan to visit the lodge at a certain time each day,” he said, hoping she didn’t read minds.

He’d focus on his need to work. Get Audra out of his system once and for all.

She shook her head and stomped by him, opening the door to the cabin. “Do whatever you want, you will anyway.”

Before she could slam the door behind her, Mitch followed her, catching it with his shoulder. He had enough material sent from work to keep him busy until morning. But something wouldn’t let him give this up.

“What is it that bothers you so much about my working?” he asked, following her into the kitchen. “I’m trying to build a reputation, to get ahead. I’d think a wife would want to support a husband’s efforts toward that end.”

“I’ll tell you–again.” She spun around. “You were already a success when we met. I don’t see how poring over reports at all hours of the day or night and talking for hours to cops and other attorneys gets you ahead. The more you do, the more your boss piles on. You don’t know when to cut back. You’ll push yourself until you end up killing yourself. That’s what you almost did, right? Too tired to stay awake to drive home? No wonder your doctor ordered rest. But you’re too consumed to stop. Too arrogant to listen to him. Too stubborn to slow down when you were lucky enough to get a second chance.”

“Do you resent me for that?”

“Yes, for all the time I wanted to be with my husband and he wasn’t there. For all the nights I wanted someone to talk to–and you weren’t there. And I resent the fact you’ve put me in the position of having to ask for a divorce.”

With that, Audra burst into tears.

Nonplused, Mitch stared at her. In all the time he’d known her, he’d never seen her cry.

For a moment he almost panicked. He didn’t know how to handle a woman in tears. The people he usually dealt with were far beyond the concept of tears. Lowering his laptop to the floor, he took a step forward.

Audra buried her face in her hands, but he heard her sobs, saw her whole body shake with the force of the tears.

Awkwardly, feeling as unsure of himself as a young boy, he encircled her shoulders, trying to keep from whacking her with his cast. He pulled her into his embrace and felt her sag against him, her body shaking, tears soon dampening his chest.

“Don’t cry.”

He wasn’t sure she’d heard him. Nothing changed. Could he order her to stop crying?

Somehow he felt that wouldn’t do any good. He wished Thomas was here. Maybe he’d know, though maybe not. Tessa seemed sublimely happy with his brother. Maybe she never cried.

Teresa, his secretary, would probably know what to do. Didn’t she have three daughters?

“Don’t cry, Audra,” he said again, feeling totally helpless. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

At one time he’d wanted to give her the moon. Give her everything she could ever desire so she wouldn’t leave as his mother had.

But he’d blown it.

And, like his mother, she’d left.

Her hand crept against his shirt, bunching it. The tears continued.

He leaned his head closer. The sweet fragrance he’d smelled earlier enveloped him. He liked it, liked the memories that it brought. Hesitantly he reached up to pat her back, letting his hand move to her head, savoring the silky texture of her hair again. It was still as soft as it looked. What always surprised him was how warm it felt.

“I’m so mad at you,” she wailed.

“Why?”

She pushed against his shoulder, stepping back when he released her. Turning, she pulled a paper towel from the roll and blew her nose. Keeping her back to him, she wiped her eyes.

She shrugged. “You are risking your very life for a dumb job. That’s such a waste.”

“Sometimes a man has to work to get ahead—”

She spun around and glared at him. Mitch noticed the spiky lashes, still drenched in tears. For a moment he remembered he’d heard once that pregnancy lent a certain glow to women. It must be true. Audra looked beautiful—tears, enormous shape and all.

“No! I won’t accept that excuse. What are you getting ahead for?”

He didn’t want to be discussing this. He tried to avoid entanglements for this very reason. He felt totally out of his depth and didn’t like it a bit. Give him a clear-cut criminal case and he was a pro.

Not some emotional quagmire that he hadn’t a clue how to navigate.

“I wanted to provide you with nice things,” he said slowly.

“You’re talking about buying things. I didn’t want things. I earn a sufficient salary on my own to enable me to afford a nice apartment, pretty clothes, baby toys. I wanted attention from my husband. You’re devoted to work and that’s that. Of course, did you ever think about the fact you don’t have any outside activities? No hobbies? And you will be all alone in your old age, unless you count Thomas and Tessa. But I don’t have to worry about that do I? Nor will you if you keep crashing cars.”

“I work hard because I like it.”

Why was he defending himself? Was it because he’d heard virtually the same lecture from Thomas just a week ago?

“And what else do you like?” she challenged.

Mitch stared at her. The question echoed and reechoed.

What else did he like?

What had he taken time to enjoy over the years? When was the last time he’d gone swimming or played baseball? What was the last movie he’d seen for the sheer fun of it? What about the last time he went to a nice restaurant to enjoy a meal? Or seen a play or gone to a ball game?

He remembered and the memory was poignant. They’d gone together to that Italian restaurant and ended up fighting.

She gave a sad smile. “Go on and get back to your work. It’s what defines you.”

She spun around and pulled out a pot, banging it on the stove.

He cleared his throat. “Shall I plan to eat here?”

“Whatever.”

He didn’t want to leave. Yet Audra had obviously dismissed him. She was already pulling food from the refrigerator, then a huge frying pan from the lower cupboard.

Feeling disoriented, Mitch returned to the living room. He had several papers he had printed. His secretary was sending him two briefs and the report she’d drafted for his boss by courier. He’d have them in the morning.

But for the first time the exhilaration of work waned.

He placed the laptop on the table and walked to the door. Pushing open the screen door, he stepped out on the porch. Sitting on one of the dark green Adirondack chairs, he gazed out across the ground to the glimpse of the lake.

One small mishap and everybody and his brother thought they had the right to chastise him for his chosen way of life. First his doctor, then Thomas, now Audra. Or Audra again.

Could there be a hint of truth in what they all said? Maybe, just maybe, he needed to take a long hard look at his life.