“How can you say that?” he inquired innocently.
“Because I need to concentrate on what I’m doing here, instead of wondering where that roving hand of yours is heading.”
“Don’t you worry about that. You go right on doing whatever you need to do.”
“If I have to come down off of this ladder,” Paula warned with mock ferocity, “you are going to be one sorry man. Go check on the plumbers or something.”
“It’s the or something I’m interested in.”
“Dave!”
“Okay, okay,” he finally said with weary resignation. He turned and caught sight of Lacey.
“The woman is a trial,” he grumbled. “Maybe you can explain to her that there are more important things than checking shingles or whatever she’s doing up there.”
Lacey laughed. “I doubt I’m the right person to be giving anyone advice on priorities.”
Paula peered down at her and immediately descended. “Good. You’re here.”
“Ready, willing and able,” Lacey confirmed. “What’s my assignment?”
“First things first. Come with me,” Paula steered her around the corner to an RV that served as a mobile office for the project. Inside, she held up a pot of coffee. “Want some?”
Lacey hesitated, sensing that Paula had more on her mind than deciding whether to hand her a paintbrush or a screwdriver.
“Sure, why not?” she said finally. She sat down on a corner of the office’s one cluttered desk.
“So what did Kevin think when you told him about our project?” Paula asked.
“He was very excited,” Lacey said honestly. “He wants to find a way to get Halloran Industries involved.”
“So why aren’t you whooping for joy? Did you expect him to turn up here first thing this morning with a tool kit?”
Lacey sighed and set the cup of coffee aside. “No, that’s not it.”
“What then? Are you two reconciling or not?”
“I don’t know.”
Paula shook her head. “I don’t get it. You love him. He loves you. What could be simpler than that?”
“He wants me to have my own interests.”
“Like this project?”
Lacey shrugged. “I suppose.”
“Come on, girl. Pick up the pace here. I’m getting lost. What do you want?”
“Let me see if I can figure out how to say this. The best thing about our relationship from the very beginning was that we always shared everything. Now he goes off to Halloran and I come here. I guess if anything, I’m envious of what you and Dave have. You share the same concerns. You work side by side.”
“Can I assume that Kevin does not want to come over here and hammer things?”
“He wants to write checks.”
“Hey, we need people like that, too. Don’t even think about complaining about that.”
Even as she and Paula talked, Lacey was struck by the first spark of an idea. Suddenly she felt her energy returning and her spirits mending. She grabbed Paula by the shoulders and hugged her.
“You are a genius,” she declared. “I’ve got to run.”
“Hey, I have you down for painting the entire living room today.”
Lacey opened her purse and took out the hundred-dollar bill Kevin had given her as a joke a few nights earlier. “Pay someone,” she said, handing it over. “I have a long drive ahead of me.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lacey didn’t waste a second before taking off for Cape Cod. Even though she was wearing paint-spattered jeans and an old blouse, she refused to go back to the apartment to change into something more presentable. What she had to say to Kevin was far more important than the way she looked. Half the time he didn’t notice what she was wearing, anyway. She did pull off the bandana she’d tied around her head and ran her fingers through her hair to get rid of the tangles. At least there was no paint in it.
As she drove she considered all the implications of her idea. She couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t had this brainstorm before. During all those lonely months when she’d had nothing to do but think, no solution to the real problems in her marriage had come to her—probably because she hadn’t even know exactly what those problems were. She’d focused too much on Kevin’s health and not on the reasons he might have had for driving himself so hard.
Now, after less than forty-eight miserable hours apart, she had recognized the perfect answer, one that had been staring her in the face all along.
Perhaps the reason it seemed so easy now was because of the time she and Kevin had spent together on Cape Cod. In all of that painful self-analysis, they had brought themselves right to the brink of discovery. They might not have reconciled, but they had certainly laid all of the groundwork.
She had to be right about this, she thought as she reversed the drive she’d made only two days before. This time she felt so much more hopeful, not just about fulfilling her own needs, but about finding common ground that she and Kevin could share again, about recapturing that sense of purpose that had made their relationship so special.
Excitement and anticipation spilled through her. She deliberately turned on the oldies station and sang along with all the nostalgic hits, laughing at the happy memories that came back to crowd out the sad.
Her mood lasted until she turned into the driveway and saw Brandon’s huge tank of a luxury car parked beside the house. Why was he back out here today? she wondered with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Why was he here when she so desperately needed to be alone with Kevin to see if they could finally fix their lives?
She drew in a deep breath and reminded herself that she was the one who’d said quite plainly that she wouldn’t be coming back this morning. She had no one to blame but herself if her father-in-law had taken that to mean that it was up to him to keep Kevin company.
Of course, it
