She wrapped her arms around her chest and squeezed to dispel the internal fighting. Divorce wasn’t on her calendar, but neither was living with a man who didn’t love her.
It was time for a new plan.
CHAPTER THREE
Not every man could appreciate the beauty of an alphabetized medicine chest, but he was not just any man.
—The Temptress of Pecan Lane, by Mae Daniels
Anna flew down the hallway to the lab. She was late. Her first class of her new life, and the samples were late. Which meant the documentation was late. Which meant she was late checking it all into the system. Which meant she would bethatstudent in class tonight when she walked in fifteen minutes after the first roll call of the semester.
She’d never been that student.
She hit her passcode wrong on the lab door and had to enter it twice before she finally got through. Rex had fallen asleep. She jiggled his mouse. “Come on, come on,come on.” She should’ve been halfway to James Robert College by now.
Jules leaned into the cube and tapped her stubby fingernails on the doorframe. Her normally poofy brown hair was even bigger today, apparently still recovering from all the humidity of her tropical honeymoon. And seeing her smile so much was plain weird. But other than having to listen to her tell the story about Brad and the horny dolphin half a dozen times, the wedding and honeymoon talk had been minimal.
The familiar box Jules carried on her hip didn’t look promising for the trend to continue.
“I’m hurrying,” Anna said.
“Eh. It’ll wait until tomorrow. Got a minute?”
Work, waiting until tomorrow?
She eyed the box again. Oh, jeez. Not now. “Actually, I’m late.”
Jules set the box by the door, then propped herself on a corner of the desk and grabbed Anna’s silver letter opener out of the desk organizer. “Meeting with the lawyer?” She casually flicked the letter opener beneath her fingernail.
“Class.” Despite her mother’s insistence that Anna could still save her marriage if she tried, her sister had come through as the voice of reason.If he doesn’t love you, screw him. You deserve better. Judging by how fast Neil had accepted her lawyer’s proposed settlement, Anna figured Beth had been right.
Even if it still stung a bit. Like losing an arm in a paper shredder.
Rex finally came to life. She pounded in her password. The dinosaur thought about accepting it.
Jules slid further onto the desk. Her rump scooted Anna’s desktop calendar crooked. “They have divorce classes?”
“Thermo,” Anna said. “I enrolled last week.”
Jules glanced up sharply. She dropped the letter opener into the organizer amid the highlighters. “Didn’t you take that in college?”
“Too long ago. James Robert College wants me to take it fresh.” Anna plunked the letter opener into its slot beside her ruler. “And I’m late. Really, really late.” She told Rex to close her mail program, then tabbed over to the database and told Rex to close that too.
“Listen, about your scene at my wedding.”
Anna cringed. “Really?”
“Dude. Bad juju. You don’t think I’m going to forget that shit, do you? Now listen. Rodney’s coming through on leavethis weekend before he ships out, and I promised the big lug we’d do karaoke at Taps. He wants a Sandy to his Danny. You come be his date, or I’ll tell my Aunt Bernie that Brad’s holding back on sex and I think it’s your fault. She’ll come up with some crazy-ass juju-washing ritual involving that gift right there and dancing naked in the moonlight, and then you’ll wish singing in public was all you’d done. ’Kay?”
A date. She was late for class. She could still barely process that she was about to become the first Jensen in the history of Jensens to get divorced. Her closest local friend was returning the wedding gift Anna and Neil had given her. And she was supposed to go on a date.
She gulped back the diamond-sized lump lodged in her esophagus. “If I say yes, can I go now?”
Jules slid off the desk and gestured to the cube door. “Of course. But if you’re just saying it, youwillpay. I told Brad you get us in the divorce, but that’s negotiable if you act like you don’t want us.”
God. It wasn’t enough to split their belongings, they had to split theirfriendsnow too?
She was never,everdoing this again. “Thanks.”
