Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(63)

“I’m going to go home, change, get rid of the tux, check on the family and I’ll bring dinner back. Informal dinner tonight,” he said with a smile. “You don’t have to wear your prom dress. How does that sound?”

“Perfect.”

They cleaned up the breakfast dishes together and he kissed her ten or fifteen times before he could get out the door. Except for Luke’s baby coming, he was going to spend every spare second with Erin. She had about six more weeks in her cabin until Marcie delivered, and during that time they could talk about their futures, their careers. He would unleash the headhunter and get serious about finding work. In lieu of a practice that wanted him, he could always find hospital work in or near Chico.

Had he rushed her? he wondered. He’d ask. It would be perfectly understandable if she wanted a little more time to get to know him. In fact, though he’d confessed that he’d always been looking for a woman who could be the one, she hadn’t exactly said the same thing.

When he pulled into Luke’s compound, he knew immediately that something was different. Too many cars, for one thing. Too many people on Luke’s porch, for another. He parked in front of his cabin and, wearing his tux shirt and pants, shirtsleeves rolled up, collar open, jacket slung over one shoulder, he walked toward Luke’s house. Had he missed something by way of family plans? he wondered. In his concentration on Erin’s prom night, had he forgotten some important gathering or event? His mother and George were there, Franci and Sean, too, and if he hadn’t seen a very pregnant Shelby he would wonder if it was time. As everyone turned to watch his approach, he could see they were not wearing their happy faces.

Then he saw her. Annalee. She had been behind Luke, leaning against the porch railing. She stood straight and came around Luke. She was wearing that totally phony, contrived, I’m-so-young-and-vulnerable expression. She wore a black snug-fitting but classy sleeveless dress and black sandals—all so conservative on her tiny, completely perfect body, her white-blond hair pulled back in a clip, her huge, luminous blue eyes trained on him. Did any of them—his family—buy this shit? This wasn’t real! He remembered that same little-girl look—she’d turned it on the hospital commander. Poor little Annalee. She could turn that whole image into a hot little dish in less than five seconds. Or a screaming, clawing banshee.

She walked toward the porch steps as he walked toward her.

“Aiden,” she said in a soft, breathy voice.

“If you’re not an apparition, I’m going to have to kill myself.”

“You wouldn’t answer my calls, messages or e-mails,” she said. Oh, and there it came, the tears. By God, the woman should really act! She could cry on demand!

“I did answer. I said, we’ve been divorced for eight years—we don’t have any business. Stop with the bloody tears, goddamn it! You flooded my in-box with hundreds of hostile e-mails! I’m afraid to turn the computer on—you probably crashed it!”

“Aiden, please,” she said sweetly, pathetically. “There was nothing hostile—I was begging you to talk to me. I just meant to send a couple and only because I so need to talk to you.”

“No! We’re divorced! You have no business here!”

“But we’re not! That’s why I’ve been trying to reach you! The divorce—I don’t know how it happened, but it didn’t go through! We’re still married!”

His mouth fell open and he felt the knife twist in his gut. She could still do it to him, totally surprise him. Totally scare him to death. He checked eyes with Sean and Luke and he saw that, thank God, they weren’t buying her crap. Aiden briefly wondered, Does everyone get one person in the universe who can throw them completely off balance like this?

“That’s ridiculous,” he said.

“No, it’s true. That lawyer we used? He’s gone—pfffttt. Gone. Not a member of the California bar, never filed our divorce paperwork. I checked—it should be a matter of public record, but the only thing on record is our marriage.”

The sudden suicidal urge he felt was real. He couldn’t be married to this…this…“Then fine, I’ll get a lawyer and make sure it’s done right this time.”

“But wait,” she said, stepping toward him. “Can we at least talk about it?”

“No, Annalee, there’s nothing to talk about. And you didn’t have to come here for this. You could have told Jeff to tell me, or since you found my e-mail address you could have e-mailed me about the failure of the divorce. But you’re here. There can only be one reason for you to be here. It’s not about the problem with the divorce. You want something. Why don’t you cut to the chase—what do you want now?”

“A chance,” she said in a tiny voice. “Just a chance.”

Again Aiden was stunned. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “A chance?”

“I’d like to try to work through this. I was only twenty-one years old and—”

“Did you bring back the ten grand you demanded from me to sign the original papers?” he asked. Then he stole a look at his mother out of the corner of his eye; oh, boy. She was not happy. He had no way of knowing who she was least happy with.

“Aiden, I was a kid, I was in trouble, I did a stupid thing and I’ve regretted it every day since. When I learned that the divorce hadn’t gone through, that we’re still married, I thought it was kind of a message. A gift from God. A chance for us to—”