Dana Sue nodded. “Thank goodness Maddie turned him down. She’s been happier with Cal than she ever was with Bill.”
Ronnie searched the room till his gaze landed on Maddie. “She’s glowing, isn’t she? Marriage and being a new mom suit her. With the other kids, she just looked tired, probably because Bill expected her to deal with everything at home while he concentrated totally on his career. I doubt that man ever changed a diaper or stayed up with a sick kid, despite being a pediatrician.”
When Ronnie turned back to Dana Sue, his expression softened. “You were beautiful when you were carrying Annie. You positively glowed.”
She regarded him doubtfully. “That must have been during the five seconds a day when I wasn’t throwing up.”
He stroked her cheek. “Don’t do that, Dana Sue.”
“Do what?”
“Put yourself down. You’re a gorgeous woman. Pregnancy only added to it.”
Dana Sue impulsively touched her rounded hips. “Now I have the extra pounds, but there won’t be any baby to show for them.”
Ronnie frowned at her. “I like the way you look.”
“Sure,” she scoffed. “Every man dreams of his wife gaining weight.”
He regarded her with obvious dismay. “I don’t get where this is coming from. Did you expect to be some tiny size your entire life, especially with your height? You look like a woman, Dana Sue. A healthy, attractive one who happens to have curves. If you ask me, that’s the way a woman ought to be.”
She wanted to believe him, wanted to see herself through his eyes, but all she could think about were the extra pounds she saw every time she stepped on the scale. There had been three more this morning. Having Ronnie back and getting under her skin had driven her to comfort food a little too often.
“You can’t mean that,” she protested.
Heat flared in his eyes and he stepped closer. Dana Sue instinctively backed up. He kept pace with her until her back hit the wall. There was no place left to go, and the determined glint in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine.
“You’re still the most desirable woman I’ve ever known,” he said quietly, his mouth hovering just over hers. “And I still want you.”
Dana Sue swallowed hard at the sincerity in his voice, which was accompanied by the darkening of his eyes. She knew that smoldering look, knew exactly where it usually led. But they had a houseful of people right now. Surely he wouldn’t...
With his hands on the wall on either side of her, trapping her in place, he leaned forward. Her mouth turned dry. When she opened it to utter a protest, his covered it. The shock of the kiss was familiar, the sensations ricocheting through her dangerous. Weak-kneed, she reached for him and held on for dear life as his tongue plundered and sent her head spinning.
It couldn’t still be like this between them, she thought, with one last attempt to cling to sanity. It was wrong to want him this badly, to want his hands to make good on the promises being made by his kisses, to want him inside her, bringing every part of her to life again.
But it felt so damn right, she admitted, as his body pressed against hers, surrounding her with heat and undeniable evidence that his desire was as powerful as hers.
Long before she was ready, he dragged himself away, looking as dazed as she felt.
“Remember that the next time you question how any man—how I—could want you,” he said, his voice a low rumble next to her ear.
“Uh-huh,” she said, her thoughts so scrambled she couldn’t come up with anything more.
Then he was gone, leaving her to sink onto the nearest chair and reach for a bottle of water chilling in a cooler filled with ice. If there hadn’t been a dozen people around, she would have poured it right over her head without a thought to the damage it would do to her hardwood floors. Instead, she settled for taking a long, slow swallow that did nothing to cool the heat still simmering inside her.
“Quite a performance,” Maddie commented, pulling up a chair and sitting beside her. “Those steamy kisses are getting to be a habit. I was afraid for a minute I was going to have to dump this ice over the two of you.”
“Why didn’t you?” Dana Sue asked, a plaintive note in her voice. “It might have snapped me back to my senses.”
“Doubtful,” Maddie said. “It’s going to take more than ice to put a chill on what’s going on between you two.”
“Don’t say that,” Dana Sue pleaded.
“It’s true. Why not accept it and run with it? You know you haven’t been happy without him.”
“And I was miserable because of him,” Dana Sue retorted.
“He made one terrible error in judgment,” Maddie said. “He learned his lesson.”
“How can I be sure of that?”
Maddie started to respond, then shrugged. “Maybe you can never be sure of anything, sweetie.” She glanced around until her gaze fell on Cal, who was chatting with Erik, Katie half-asleep in his lap. “Maybe you just have to grab on to what makes you happy now and then work like crazy to hold on to it.”
“I thought that’s what I was doing when we were married,” she said. “And he still slept with another woman.”
“Have you asked him why?” Maddie asked.
Dana Sue shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to know. What difference would it make, anyway?”
“It might reassure you that it had nothing to do with you,” Maddie said.
“He was my husband. I’d say it had a lot to do with me,” Dana Sue said, her tone sarcastic.
“I meant that it might not have been about you at all. Sometimes men just lose their heads for a minute and do something incredibly stupid.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“Of course not. But do you give up on your marriage because of it any more than you would give up on your marriage because one of you wrecked the car?”
Dana Sue
