Page 37 of First Date: Divorce (Wyoming Marriage Association #1)

TUESDAY

They’d packed and were to leave their suitcases by the reception desk, so the room could be prepared for the next couple.

She looked around the space quickly. To someone else it might look like she was making sure she hadn’t left anything here.

Maybe she was.

“K.D.—”

“Don’t say it, Eric.”

And she honestly didn’t know if she was stopping the real Eric or the pretend Eric.

He opened the door for her and she took the handle of her suitcase and started out.

As she passed him, Eric leaned near and said in a low voice, “You know, before you leave me, you have to come home with me.”

*

A note from Melody at their breakfast table asked each to write a new set of lists about the other, and to bring them to their last session.

She rose to greet them in the now-familiar room, accepting their lists, and looking them over as they all sat.

“Oh.” She looked up with a smile. “This is much better. Much, much better. It’s—”

K.D. jerked one shoulder as if someone tried to hold it. “I’m frustrated. I don’t see this getting better. The differences are so basic to who we are—”

She broke off with emotion.

Only the emotion wasn’t the one she wanted to sell Melody on.

“K.D., on your assessment the first day, you marked very few areas as being a problem. I found that surprising. If things were as smooth as you indicated, I wondered why you were here.”

She’d marked things as not being a problem in their “relationship” because they didn’t have one. How could she have felt taken for granted by Eric, how could not touching each other be a problem?

Now, it was the opposite.

The closets…

No, she shouldn’t think about that.

Not about lying beside him in bed, either. Whispering to each other. Feeling his breath on her ear, feeling it through her whole body. Her toes curling, her fingers clutching, her nipples beading.

Melody was still talking. “Or if you cared so little, why you were here. Frustration can be good. It shows you do care. You’ve made such progress. Both of you. Now, let’s talk about a few things for you to work on, individually and together.”

“More work? For what ? What’s the point? This was wrong from the start. We never should have gotten married.”

There. That should be a plain enough invitation to give her name to Gail Bledsoe.

“You never gave it a chance,” Eric said. “I saw your face coming down the aisle toward me. You were terrified. Of being a wife, of getting married. But you’ve gotten past some of it. You can get past it, K.D.”

Startled, she looked over at him.

She thought of his refusal to wear rings carrying someone’s dashed hopes and dreams.

She thought of her recognition during their ride that the trouble in his eyes was gone.

He might not know it yet, but Eric Larkin once more believed in marriage.

Maybe he always had.

“You’ve had … concerns about your role from even before you married?” Melody asked her.

K.D. shifted her focus to the concerned counselor. “Yes. And I still do.”

*

As they finally left Melody in the counseling room, they saw Albert down the hall. K.D. raised a hand to him and he nodded farewell.

They retrieved their suitcases from Lily’s care, still smiling as she said good-bye.

Orion and Izzy hurried up the front steps as K.D. and Eric came out to the porch.

“Oh, good, we didn’t miss you. We so wanted to say how much we’ve enjoyed our time with you both.”

Izzy threw her arms around Eric, while Orion engulfed K.D. Then they swapped off.

K.D. told herself the warm hugs would allay any doubts the Rettafords might have about her and Eric being anything other than they said they were.

Before she let go of K.D., Izzy whispered, “Don’t be sad. You and Eric will make it.”

The couple stood at the top of the steps, each with an arm across the other’s back and waved them off.

K.D. hoped Izzy and Orion weren’t Gail Bledsoe’s accomplices, but she couldn’t be sure.

Of anything.

*

The debriefing was at Cully and Jessa’s house and included everyone from the original meeting in Cully’s office, plus Grif.

From the outside, it might look like a social gathering.

But Cully kept it on track, dividing the session into four parts.

Eric and K.D. recounted what they’d experienced and what they’d found out — but only the parts that had to do with Marriage-Save and divorce attorney Gail Bledsoe.

They swapped back their Marriage-Save phones for their personal phones. He noticed K.D.’s slight delay in handing over the temporary phone, but she covered it quickly enough that he knew she wouldn’t explain.

They all ate a delicious meal provided by Ellyn.

They all speculated about who could be the mole.

That fourth part dragged on and on.

Finally, Cully said, “You two did great. You made yourselves the perfect bait, just like we hoped. It was always a long shot that we’d figure out who was feeding Bledsoe. Now we wait. Hope that bait gets snatched up.”

“Happens this way with investigations,” Tal said. “You go in, get as much information as you can. But sometimes you don’t come out with anything definitive. You keep working the case.”

Eric thought about that driving them back to his house for the final time.

Yeah, he’d work his own case. Because he had come out of this with something definitive.

He was in love with K.D. Hamilton.

*

Eric put down their suitcases in his front hall — he’d finally succeeded in carrying both up the outside steps — and turned to her.

“Pauline doesn’t get back from Chicago until the morning.” He held out his hand. “Come upstairs with me, K.D.”

“Eric—”

“I have plenty of closets.”

She chuckled, but sobered quickly. “I don’t think—”

“Don’t think. Feel. I also have a bed. Make love with me in my bed, K.D.”

Slowly, she put her hand in his, and they walked upstairs.