Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(73)

Erin crossed her arms over her chest. “Please, don’t take me for a fool. You were married three months before signing your divorce petition.”

“Three years,” she tossed back rather softly.

“The documents are dated,” Erin pointed out matter-of-factly.

“Of course they are. So were the next documents and the next and the next. We went that route more than once. The first time was soon after we were married, probably three months. Those were probably the ones he showed you. In fact, we separated for quite a while—several months. There was always something, though…I’m not sure what it was…We always ended up back together for a while.”

Ew, that caused a shiver to go up Erin’s spine. Chemistry? That thing she was feeling with him now—that irresistible, insatiable hunger? “How long since you’ve actually lived together?”

“A long time,” she admitted. “Four or five years, I think.”

“There was a check,” Erin said. “Also dated…”

“For ten thousand? Yes, that was the reason for the first separation. The abortion. It was a horrible fight. In the end he was very generous, since he didn’t want a baby with me. I went home, saw a very good doctor, spent some time to think things over.” She looked down. “I probably shouldn’t have gone back to him. He was—He wasn’t always easy to get along with, but I probably wasn’t, either. He said I provoked him, and thinking back, maybe I did. I was so young when we got married. Young and not very smart.”

She was very young-looking now, Erin thought—feeling every minute of her thirty-six years. “How young?”

“Eighteen.”

Erin knew she was being taken for a ride here, but she didn’t know how. “You seem to have done quite well for yourself, for a woman so young,” she said, nodding toward the car.

“Thank you, yes,” she said, smiling. “The car is a rental. It’s important in my business to look successful when I’m meeting clients. I’m a fashion buyer and consultant. I was meeting a designer in San Francisco and the car is a business expense. I’ve only been doing it for a couple of years and it’s gone so well for me.”

Erin frowned. “Yet this whole time, longing for your ex-husband?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Oh, no, it isn’t like that. It’s true—I spent a lot of time wondering how I could have done things better. I regretted our mistakes, of course. I think anyone who goes through a divorce does—but I was moving on. And when I discovered something went wrong with the paperwork, I thought…” She shook her head as if it didn’t really bear mentioning. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Just how did you discover the oversight?” Erin asked.

She lifted her chin. “A man I was seeing for a couple of years asked me to marry him. I told him about my marriage and divorce, of course, as anyone would. He’s the one who discovered it.”

“When are you getting married?” Erin asked.

“That’s looking doubtful now. The gentleman isn’t happy about me meeting with Aiden. But I had to tell Aiden what we’d found out! I couldn’t let him make the same mistake I almost made! What if he remarried and it wasn’t legal?”

“This is all pretty far-fetched….”

“I imagine it seems so. Really, I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little out of my mind to even consider second chances. But I’d like you to know one thing—I might’ve been really young and not terribly experienced, but I loved him. I did. Even though our relationship was full of problems, I still—”

“You met his brothers, I understand,” Erin said.

She laughed very suddenly. “Oh, yes. Only Sean and Luke. I never met Colin and Patrick, but I have no trouble picturing them. There were lots of photographs around our apartment, of course. The Riordan men would kill for each other. Quite the band of brothers there. Be careful—don’t cross one of them.” Then she laughed humorlessly. “God, what am I doing? I can see I’m just making a giant fool of myself. Again.”

“Wait a second. You’ll be needed to sign new documents….”

“Aiden can call me—he knows how to reach me if he wants me, which he seems to every now and then.”

“What does that mean?”

“We haven’t lived together in a few years, but he stays in touch.”

“Is that so?”

She just made a face and shook her head. “Has Aiden led you to believe we haven’t seen or heard from each other in eight years? Has he really? Well, that wouldn’t come as a surprise—he has a short attention span, my husband. I stayed in San Diego until a couple of years ago, when I finally tried to make a clean break. Please, be so careful. Aiden can make a woman believe anything. And I learned the hard way—it’s dangerous to confront him, to fight with him. He has an ugly little temper.”

“Aiden?” she asked, aghast.

“You haven’t known him very long, have you, Erin?” Her expression was pained, sad. “Be very careful of him. Most of the time he’s an angel, sexiest angel on earth, but he doesn’t handle his anger well. He has a hair trigger.”

Then she gave a wave of her hand and got in her car. She backed up, turned around and drove slowly away from the cabin, down the road.