“No. I can’t believe no one’s ever told you. I would have thought at least your wife—I mean ex-wife—would have mentioned it,” she said.
“Lisa? She had a tendency to be more wrapped up in herself,” he said.
“I’m curious. Where did you meet her?”
“I met Lisa in medical school at Tulane, a year before I was supposed to graduate,” he said. He rubbed the back of his neck again then turned toward Sarah to see her lips curve up into a smile. What was with the woman today?
“But you said she wasn’t clinical,” Sarah said.
“She was an art history major, with a couple minors I can’t remember now, but no she didn’t want anything to do with the medical field,” he said. “She was smart and pretty and before I knew it was happening we were moving in together.”
He remembered that first day when they’d moved into one of the small shotgun houses in the not-quite-respectable part of New Orleans. While not happy with the location, Lisa had been thrilled with the architectural details of the old house.
“It wasn’t till later that I realized I had given Lisa the wrong idea about my situation.” He’d never dreamed that she had assumed that he had a well-off family bankrolling him through college just because he drove a vintage sports car that he and his dad had fixed up. “It’s silly really. I should have seen the signs, but I guess no one wants to think that someone is only interested in their bank account. By the time she figured out that the only thing I was going to have when I finished school was several hundred thousand dollars of tuition debt, she was pregnant with Davey.”
“I’m sorry. You must have felt hurt,” Sarah said.
The sun had begun to set and the shadows were beginning to fill the car as they drove in silence for a few minutes.
“I don’t remember to be honest. I was so busy with school and getting my residency set up that I really didn’t have the time to feel much of anything. By the time Davey was born I was deep in my last year of medical school.” His whole life had revolved around his education until Davey.
“By the time we discovered that something was wrong with Davey, our marriage was already a mess. Lisa made it clear from the beginning that she wasn’t willing to wait around until I got established to have all the things she wanted. She had a certain lifestyle planned for herself and I don’t think me and Davey had a place in it. I came home one day to find her packing, with a woman I had never met in the house taking care of Davey. He’d had his first operation by then and we had him on a strict schedule with his medication. I couldn’t believe that she was just going to leave him. I mean what kind of mother does that?” He didn’t give Sarah a chance to respond. What was there really for her to say that he hadn’t already said himself?
“It seemed that while our son was recovering from cardiac surgery, his mother had been job hunting via the internet and had taken up an online relationship with a very well-off art gallery owner. So while I’d been at work, thinking that she was taking care of our son, she’d been planning a new life with a French guy named Marchard. He had the status and money that Lisa wanted and that was all that was important to her. A month later the divorce papers showed up. She didn’t even file for visitation rights with Davey.”
The car was quiet when he finished. Filled with his anger for the way Lisa had treated their son. It had been years since she had left them. How long was he going to let it affect him?
“I don’t want you to think that I resent raising Davey by myself,” he said. “I don’t.”
“I’d never think that. The way you’ve managed to care for Davey is amazing. It’s plain to see how much you love that little boy,” Sarah said. “What will you do if she comes back and wants Davey?” asked Sarah.
“I’ll never let that happen. I promised Davey when he was waiting for a heart that it would always be just the two of us together. I’d never let someone break us up.”
He had done all the talking and now Sarah knew all of his past. Maybe she would be ready to share some of her past with him. “What about you? Where did you meet your husband?” he asked.
“The rodeo community isn’t as large as you would think. It seems as if we had known each other forever. We started dating in high school and were married before we graduated from college,” she said. Only the interior lights lit the car now, but he could see that she hadn’t turned away from him as she had at other times when she’d discussed her family.
“So it was a good marriage?” he asked, surprised by the small tinge of jealousy that filled him.
“It was a very good marriage,” she said. “We both had goals for our careers and of course we both loved horses. By the time we were married we had become best friends.”
“I’m glad. I know you didn’t have a lot of time together, but at least it was good.” He knew he had gone too far when she moved farther to the other side of her seat and then she surprised him.
“Would you ever consider getting married again?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I really don’t think much about it. Right now my first priority is Davey. I have to put him before everything. What about you?”
“No,” Sarah answered as they arrived at the convention hotel. Somehow the answer didn’t surprise him. Sarah was willing to give everything of herself to the people she cared for but it seemed to
