Wife in Disguise

He smiled faintly. “I can’t picture you looking any other way.”

That was good news, she thought.

“What else changed?” he asked.

“My voice is a little lower and huskier. There was some damage to the vocal chords. Obviously the most injury was done to my legs. I’ve been through several surgeries, and I still have a couple more to go. My goal is to be able to walk without a cane.”

“Will you get there?”

She liked that he didn’t offer platitudes, promising that she would be fine when he didn’t know the details of her situation. She thought about the question.

“If nothing else, I’m pretty stubborn, so I would say there’s a good chance.”

“I’m glad.”

He was sitting very close. She hadn’t noticed him moving, but suddenly he was in her personal space. Her chest tightened and her mouth got dry. She didn’t know what to say or do. Her hands fluttered on her lap before she laced her fingers together to keep herself still.

She wanted him to kiss her.

The thought came from nowhere, but once it appeared, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. She wanted him to pull her into his arms and kiss her. She wanted to feel his mouth on hers, to taste him again and be filled with the heat of desire.

At the same time, she wanted him to know the truth about her. She wanted him to be this close, this open and friendly and know that she was Josie Scott, his ex-wife. An impossible fantasy, she told herself.

He reached out to touch her face again. In that second she knew he was going to kiss her. Then, suddenly, he pulled back, shifting to his side of the sofa and reaching for his beer.

Disappointment filled her. She’d been so sure. What had happened to change his mind? Had the thought of all her injuries, surgeries and scars repulsed him? Was he concerned about getting involved with a client? Or was it something else? Make that someone else. She knew he was single, but there was a lot of material between not living with someone or being engaged and not being involved at all.

“I’m sure when you were first in the accident it was hard to imagine being where you are now,” he said. “This house is a little like that. Right now it’s a mess, but in a few weeks you’re not going to recognize it.”

“I agree. It has a lot of potential.”

They were changing the subject. Josie decided that she didn’t mind. Maybe a few minutes of chatting about the impersonal would allow her to catch her breath.

Del looked around the main room. “I’ve always had a thing for this place.” He grinned. “Would it shock you to know I almost bought the house with my ex-wife?”

Josie was startled-not by the information but by the fact that he would admit it. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “Some of it was money. When we were first married we didn’t have enough to afford a place like this. Later, when we could have swung the loan, we couldn’t seem to agree on what needed to be done.” He swallowed the last of his beer. “Actually those plans I showed you are the same ones I’d had drawn up about three and a half years ago. I’d done them for Josie and me. I’m glad you liked them.”

Hearing him speak her real name felt strange. As was his appreciation that she’d been in favor of his work.

“From all I’ve heard, you’re doing so well now you could afford to buy the house on your own.”

“Sure, but I guess I never made the time.” He looked at her. “This place suits you. I’m glad you bought it.”

“Me, too.” She took in a deep breath. A question hovered on the tip of her tongue but she wasn’t sure she had the courage to ask it. Or the courage to hear the answer. But it might give her the lead-in she needed to confess her identity. She squared her shoulders and plunged in with both feet. “At the risk of intruding where I’m not welcome, what went wrong in your marriage?”

Del took his time responding to the inquiry. He wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about Josie. Not with a woman like Rose sitting next to him. He would rather discuss why someone as interesting and obviously intelligent as Rose wasn’t married or even involved. He would rather go on at length about how attractive he found her, especially with the light catching the waves in her long, blond hair. He wanted to stare deeply into her eyes and go back to touching her pretty face. He’d come damn close to kissing her a few minutes ago. He wanted to slide next to her and this time give in to the hot need building inside of him.

But getting involved with a client wasn’t smart. So he’d stopped himself before, and he would distract himself now. Even if that meant talking about Josie.

“You’re nothing like her,” he said by way of an answer.

Rose smiled. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

“It’s good. You’re a comfortable person to be around. Quiet, thoughtful. I feel relaxed. Josie was always going a hundred miles an hour. Sometimes I wanted to just sit and be.” He grimaced. “That wasn’t her style.”

Rose touched her left leg. “She probably had a choice in the matter. I don’t.”

“I think you would be restful, regardless.”

He found his thoughts drifting to what life had been like with his ex-wife. To what had gone wrong. For the first time, he found himself willing to pick at the past and discuss it. Maybe because Josie had been on his mind for the past couple of weeks. A phenomenon he still couldn’t explain. Or maybe it was because of Rose. He respected her. With all she’d been through during her recovery from the accident, she could have been a bitter, closed person. But she wasn’t. She was a fighter. He respected that. Josie would have been throwing things and complaining about the unfairness of it all. He doubted she would have had the character to tough it out for any length of time.

Rose was feminine and delicate-something Josie could never be. Even if she’d known how, she would rather have eaten glass than given in to him. But that wasn’t something he could share with the woman sitting next to him. Nor did it answer the question about what had gone wrong in his marriage.

“I met Josie when she was nineteen,” he said slowly. “She was going to college and wanted a part-time job to give her spending money. The rest of her schooling was covered by a full athletic scholarship. Josie was all things physical.”

Rose didn’t say anything, but he felt her stiffen slightly. Only then did he understand his remark was a little insensitive. “Sorry,” he said quickly.

“No, don’t be. I asked because I’m curious. So she was an athlete?”

Del wasn’t sure if he should keep talking or not, but when Rose nodded encouragingly, he continued.

“She was more than that. Josie was movement. She couldn’t sit still, couldn’t imagine a world without exercise and sports. In a weird way, her athletic prowess got in the way of her being a woman. I’m not saying she wasn’t pretty,” he added hastily. “She was very attractive. But never feminine. She hated dresses and makeup and sexy lingerie. I guess a lot of it comes from her background. She was raised in Texas, on a ranch.”

“More barrel racer than queen of the rodeo?” Rose asked.

“That’s her. Some of the problem was her dad. He’s a real difficult man-stubborn, opinionated. He raised Josie to believe that emotions were a weakness and that the only thing that mattered was winning-be it a race, a game or an argument.”

Rose gave him a slightly shaky smile. “Not exactly good background material for a successful marriage. No one can win all the time.”

“Tell me about it. But Josie was determined to try. I knew that, even before I married her, but we were both pretty young and I was in love with her. I thought we could work things out.” He paused. “I don’t know what she thought about it all.”

“She was in love with you,” Rose told him. “It’s why most women marry.”

“Maybe. But I never thought Josie was comfortable wanting to love anyone. She didn’t like showing any kind of weakness. Loving means being vulnerable.”

“So she kept that side of herself from you?”

“If she even had it.” He shifted so that he was facing Rose and stretched out one arm along the back of the sofa. “A lot of the blame for the marriage failing is mine. I wanted a traditional wife, and that wasn’t Josie. I knew what she was when I married her and still I tried to change her.”

“So you were looking for June Cleaver?”

“Or someone like my mom,” he admitted. “Pretty dumb. In the end, I didn’t get her. Josie wasn’t about to change for anyone-certainly not for me. She wouldn’t compromise, either. She got stubborn about some things. Like