“Maybe. You have to allow she’s putting on a brave face. And don’t tell me it’s the Botox.”
“All right. I won’t.”
Ramsey indicated the cake topper again. “Do you suppose they’re going camping on their honeymoon?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
“Well, I think they are. Those aren’t beach chairs the bride and groom are sitting in. Where did you go on your honeymoon?”
“Jamaica. Montego—” Sullivan stopped. His eyes shifted from the cake to Ramsey. She did not look smug as though she’d caught him in a lie; she merely looked interested. “I’m not married.”
“I believe you. You were, though.”
He nodded. “Let’s keep walking.” Sullivan noticed she did not hesitate to fall into step beside him again. “How did you know? Not many people do.”
“No one told me, if that’s what you’re thinking. I watched your face during the ceremony, and it crossed my mind that you had been married. Listening to Linda and Tug exchange vows you seemed…I don’t know…serious. More than that, maybe. Grave.”
“It’s a serious business, those vows.”
“I think so.”
Sullivan veered in the direction of the large dressing tent and then passed it by in favor of a path into the trees. “You don’t mind if we go this way?”
“Not at all.”
He liked it that she didn’t pepper him with questions, that she let him sort it out before he spoke. “I met Diane when we were students at Tennessee. She was a diver. I swam. We were never what you would call friends. We just knew each other. We fell into dating our senior year and things just rolled along. I qualified for the Olympic trials. She missed the qualifying cut by a tenth of a point. It all seemed so important then. I guess I felt bad for her because I think that’s why I asked her to marry me.”
Beside him, Sullivan felt Ramsey’s small start as a hesitation in her step. “Yeah, I know. It was stupid, but I didn’t understand that then. I came in fourth in the hundred free and qualified for the relay. Missed the games altogether because I banged my knee pretty good on the ten meter platform while I was showing off for Diane. More stupid. Maybe Diane felt bad for me and that’s why she said yes.”
“So then it was a divorce? I mean, she didn’t—”
“Die?” He gave a harsh, back-of-the-throat laugh. “No, she didn’t die. God, but that would have made it worse. By the time we were married, I already knew I didn’t love her. It was just that the train was moving fast in that direction and neither one of us knew how to stop it and we were too scared to jump. At least I was scared. She might have just been stubborn.
“We were married in Philadelphia. That’s where she was from, and she had a teaching position waiting for her and family all around. My degree was in sociology with a criminal justice concentration so I looked for a job in probation and detention. I thought I’d work with kids, but the job wasn’t there. I applied with the city police and was lucky to fall into something I liked.” He shrugged. “Diane felt differently about what I was doing. Small disagreements stayed unresolved. There was tension. Conflict. It wasn’t all that long before I was taking overtime when it was offered. She was staying later at school. Her first grade classroom was in perpetual need of organization, or so she said.”
“There was someone else?” Ramsey asked quietly.
“For me? No. Well, maybe the job. For Diane it was the phys ed teacher in her building.”
“Male? Female?”
“Female? Going for the stereotype, are you?”
“I guess I did. So? What’s the answer?”
“As it happens, he’s male. Mr. Scott.” He surrendered a wry chuckle. “Diane is a dedicated heterosexual and a serial monogamist. After Mr. Scott it was Principal Howard. He was in the middle school. Then it was the high school football coach. She married him, and as far as I know, they’re still married. We don’t keep in touch. In hindsight, I know there were others. I guess I didn’t care enough to prove it.”
“Who initiated the divorce?”
“Mutual decision. We made it over breakfast coffee. It was civil, but I suspect that’s because we were exhausted by then. I let her file because the grounds I had were ugly.”
“What did she use?”
“The usual. Irreconcilable differences. But what she was accusing me of was indifference. She wasn’t wrong.” He stopped, made sure Ramsey negotiated a fallen tree in their path before he went on. “So, yeah, I took the vows I made seriously, but I’m not blameless.”
“You’re hard on yourself.”
“You think so?”
