“You are, sugar.”
“I get it, Kaci. I know you don’t want to put your research on hold to have kids right now. I know your job’s important. To you. To the world. We can fix this.”
There was nothing to fix, but instead of being angry with him, she simply felt sad. She kept her voice down and watched her kids to make sure none of them were listening in. “You need to let go, Ron.”
“If you’d come to therapy with me?—”
“You ask your therapist if it’s better to be with a woman who loves you or with a woman who doesn’t. I’m not trying to be cruel, but wouldn’t it be worse for me to lie to you?”
“Is this about that kid you’re messing around with?”
Her heart slammed into her ribs.
Lance wasn’t hers. He was fun, he was smart, he was brave, and he wasn’t hers.
She suddenly had more sympathy for Ron. “It’s about me not being a good fit for you.”
He shoved away from the tree. “I knew you could hold a grudge, but this is extreme, even for you.”
That did it. A red haze spiked in her vision. “Because you know better than me what I want? What Ineed? Because you’re the man, and my female parts interfere with my ability to think and act rationally?”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m not the one who won’t takenofor an answer.”
“Um, Dr. Boudreaux?” Zada squinted her dark eyes, flicking glances between Kaci and Ron. “We need another aluminum plate.”
Kaci turned her best disappointed-professor glare on Ron. She kept her voice low,but she suspected everyone was listening. “You bring up personal issues here again, I’m filing a harassment complaint with the chancellor. My job is no place to bring your emotional baggage.”
She left him standing there and forced a smile while she turned to dig through the supplies under the pizza table. Her face was hot, but she kept her voice steady and concentrated on the solid, comforting physics principles Zada demonstrated for the prospective student.
She didn’t want to be the woman who had married Ron Kelly. She didn’t want to keep fighting for professional respect. She didn’t want to have to resort to empty threats of harassment charges—which she wouldneverfile for fear of being labeled a whiner—to make her point.
She simply wanted to teach these kids, do her research, and go home to her undefinedand most likely short-lived relationship with one of the best men she’d had the privilege of knowing. She wanted not to have to think about Germany next month. She wanted Miss Higgs to live forever.
Maybe Ron was right.
Maybe therapy was a good idea.
18
Lance pulled up to Kaci’s apartment late Friday afternoon with a light heart and a truck full of camping supplies.
Some he hadn’t used in years. Others were new.
Despite being there to pick up the craziest woman he’d ever known, his soul was at peace. His pulse surged in anticipation. Campfires and starry skies and temperatures just low enough to require sharing body heat to keep warm.
Yeah, this would be one hell of a good weekend. Best way to spend his last weekend in Georgia before he deployed.
He took the steps two at a time to her floorand rapped on her door. But it wasn’t Kaci who answered.
Instead, it was her curly-haired friend. “This isn’t a good time.” Her lips were set in a grim line, and her eyes dared him to contradict her. She started to shut the door on him, but Lance was quick with sticking a foot in.
“We have plans,” he said.
“Not tonight.”
What the hell? “Did her ex-husband do something?”
