moment ago stacked to the left of his feet.
“And I won the woman,” Madison said.
“Temporarily. Until somebody with more money came along.”
“There was more to her than that,” Madison said, placing his own feet up on Hellman’s desk. “She had her faults, but she had a good heart.”
“What made you suddenly think of her?”
“I had dinner with her last night.”
“You did what?” Hellman yanked his feet off the desk and sat straight up.
“I had dinner with her.”
“Your wife’s left you and you think the way to coax her back is by having dinner with an old flame who you almost married? An old flame who was hotter than-”
“Jeffrey, nothing happened.”
“What am I gonna do with you? You’re well-meaning, but you seem to be looking for ways to bury yourself.”
“Hey, it was no big deal. And I don’t regret it. She made me feel good about myself for the first time in a long time. Is that so bad?”
“She wants to get in your pants. She wants to crawl inside your chest and capture your heart again. Fifteen years ago she made the mistake of her life and now she sees an opening. She’s swooping in for the kill.”
“You’re reading it all wrong.”
“Am I?” Hellman asked.
“Yes.”
“And what do you base that on?”
Madison paused. “Because you just are.”
“Oh, okay, the old ‘I-just-know-it’s-true-but-I-really-don’t-have-any-proof’ defense.”
“Must you always look at things from a legal perspective?”
“Let me guess. She’s divorced from that rich guy. What was his name? Todd?”
“Tom,” Madison said. “Yeah, divorced.”
“That’s a surprise.”
There was silence for a moment. “She wanted to use my sperm to impregnate her.”
Hellman laughed, then realized Madison was not smiling. “You’re serious. With Catherine, I guess I’d believe just about anything.”
“I turned her down, don’t worry,” Madison said.
“I’m not the one who has to worry.”
“What does it matter? I had dinner with an old friend. She made a proposition and I turned her down. So what?”
“So I know how much your family means to you and right now you don’t need stirred-up memories of Catherine the vamp floating around in your sea of hormones.”
“Just because you lost out on her doesn’t mean-”
“I put that behind me many years ago. I got over her and moved on with my life.”
“And you’re saying I didn’t?”
“You did. Sort of. You more or less placed your feelings in suspended animation. She’s reawakened them.”
Madison rose from his seat. “I don’t need this, not now.”
“Now is exactly when you need it.”
Madison shook his head and walked up to Hellman’s eighteenth-floor window that looked out over downtown Sacramento. “But I didn’t do anything. We just had dinner. Proposition aside, she seemed very genuine.”
“She may have been genuine. She may’ve just been trying to be a friend at a time when you need one. But how many years has it been since you’ve spoken to her? Is that the mark of a true friend?”
Madison did not say anything.
“I know you better than anyone else in this world. At least as well as Leeza knows you-but at the moment, her view’s been influenced by external forces. You’re only human…and if you have this trump card-Catherine the vamp-in your back pocket, then subconsciously you may not try as hard to get Leeza back.” More silence. “Putting your emotions aside for the moment, if you can honestly tell me that that’s not a possibility, then I’ll leave you alone.”
A long moment passed. Without facing Hellman, Madison said, “It’s possible.”
“Don’t talk to her again. Focus on getting Leeza back. Appreciate her, Phil. I don’t have that luxury. I lost Hannah. Don’t let that happen to you.”
Madison turned around. “If it makes you feel better, I told Catherine I still held out hope of getting Leeza back, and I spent the rest of the night alone.”
“Well, that’s a good first step. What else are you going to do?”
“Try to get Leeza to come home.”
Hellman nodded. “Are you okay on this?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Madison said.
“Good. I’ve got to return all these messages,” Hellman said, picking up his stack of slips. “I’ll call you later.”
Madison left Hellman’s office. Alone in the elevator, he pulled out his phone and called up a photo of Leeza and the kids he had taken at Marine World before his life began to fall apart. A vivid reminder of what he had waiting for him, of what he had to lose. He rested his head against the elevator wall and took a deep breath.
“It’s time,” he whispered. “Come home.”
CHAPTER 34
It was raining, 10:30 at night with a steady wind swirling around and rapping against the side of his house. Madison had spoken with Chandler a couple of hours ago and learned that his investigator was going to be returning to Sacramento in five days.
Madison had started a fire and was sitting in front of it, reminiscing about the first time he and Leeza had lit the fireplace after the house had been built. There were no kids and they had the evening to themselves. George Winston’s gentle piano solos tinkled from the CD player.
As they sipped Chardonnay, he remembered feeling the drawing heat of the fire warming the skin on his neck. They made love right there, on the carpet in front of the fireplace, Leeza’s moans drowning out the crackles and pops of the burning pine cones.
As he lay there now, sipping Chardonnay and reliving that night, he marveled at how easy life had been. Few worries. And a bright future lay ahead of them, two beautiful children merely one detail in the grand plan of plans.
A knock at the door broke his daydream; he shook his head and shuffled his mind back to reality. As he started toward the door, he thought his prayers had been answered: Leeza.
His heart beating faster than he could walk, he opened the door and saw, dripping wet in the rain, Catherine. Catherine the vamp. He could hear Jeffrey’s voice loud and clear in his head. It must have shown on his face.
He stood there, the door open; she stood there, rain beating against her red hair.
“I thought you’d be glad to see me,” she said.
“I…didn’t expect you to be at the door.”
“Were you expecting someone else?” she asked.
He hesitated, looked down at his tom jeans and old flannel shirt. “No.”
She shivered. “Can I come in? It’s freezing out here.”
“Oh. Sure,” he said, wishing he could instead tell her to get back in her car and leave, to stay the hell away from him.
“I had a good time last night.” Catherine said as she walked into the marble entryway. She hung her coat on
