“You have a point. No, I don’t guess there is. Mine sure wasn’t.”
Most of the time, Harlan did his best to forget Vanessa and succeeded pretty well. He’d fallen for the package, not realizing that inside was a woman he should never have gone out with, much less married. The best he could say was they’d married young and he hadn’t become successful yet. Since Texas is a community property state, there wasn’t a lot for Vanessa to take.
“It still bothers you,” Savannah said.
“Yes, but not because I’m hung up on her.” He drained his beer and set it down. “Because I can’t believe how stupid I was.”
Savannah smiled wryly. “Funny, that’s exactly how I feel. Should we trade war stories?”
“Why not? I’ll go first. She had an affair. Hell, she probably had several. But I only found out about one, and it was so obvious, everyone but me knew about it.” He smiled grimly. “I only figured it out because one of my friends finally clued me in. He thought I knew and couldn’t understand why I stayed with her.”
“I’m sorry. That had to hurt.”
Harlan shrugged. “I had just gone out on my own when we married. I worked a lot, was gone a lot. Vanessa got bored.”
“Did she work?”
“Yeah. She was an executive assistant at an oil company.”
“Let me guess. She had an affair with her boss.”
“You got it. Married him, too.”
“Good riddance?” she suggested.
He laughed at that. “Yes. We weren’t married long. A little over a year. So at least it was over with quickly.”
“Mine lasted almost two years. I don’t think he cheated on me. If he did, that wasn’t why we broke up.”
“Why didn’t it work out?”
“Phillip never loved me. He saw me as a means to an end. When I was no longer useful to him, he divorced me.”
“Useful in what way?”
“Climbing the success ladder. My father handpicked him as his protégé. Marrying me assured Phillip an easy way to the top. But then he got what he decided was a better offer from a bank in San Antonio. We moved down there but it became obvious pretty quickly that I didn’t fit into his future. So he divorced me, after telling me he’d only married me because my father expected it.” She met Harlan’s gaze. “So, you see, I understand feeling stupid.”
“Why don’t we agree they were the stupid ones, not us.”
“I like the sound of that,” Savannah said. “So you’ve never remarried?”
“No. I take it you haven’t either.”
“No. I was engaged but I realized I didn’t feel about him the way I should. I care about him. He’s a great guy, but I don’t love him. We broke up several months ago.” She shrugged. “Just as well. I hear he’s engaged now to a very nice woman. I’m happy for them.”
“Are you really?”
“Oh, I won’t deny I had mixed feelings when I first heard, but he’s a good guy and deserves to be happy. And we wouldn’t have been.”
“That’s a very mature attitude.”
Grinning, she said, “It took me a little while to get there.” She was quiet for a moment, then said, “Did you ever think about what would have happened if we...” She broke off and shook her head. “No, that’s pointless.”
“Did I ever think about what would have happened if we hadn’t broken up? For a long time I thought about it a lot. Eventually I realized that I had to go on with my life and leave the past in the past. But did I think about you and me? Damn right I did.” For far too long.
“We were awfully young,” she said.
“We were.” He reached for her hand and held it. “We can’t change the past. But we can have the present. If you want it.”
