Her Heart's Divide by Kathleen Dienne Page A

loved the way the oil and the orange hand cleaner combined with his own smell. He was a little shorter than Jack but much more muscular thanks to all the heavy lifting he did during the day. His pectoral muscles were rock hard, and his biceps were as big around as my thigh. Well, the lower part of my thigh, anyway. With thick black hair and deep brown eyes that were always sparkling with humor and fun, he was every woman’s dream and my reality.
    At the sight of us, Jack’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I thought maybe this was some kind of joke. I’m not laughing, though.”
    “Let’s back up,” Ryan said. “I just got here, so start from the beginning.”
    “I left the dealership early after fighting with shipping manifests all day,” Jack began. “I must have fallen asleep at the wheel, because one minute I was driving home the back way on the old Coller Road, and the next minute there was a loud banging noise that scared the hell out of me. I went off the road and barely got control of the truck. Had to pull over a minute, but I shook it off. I pulled into the driveway, and I saw Lila…” He trailed off.
    Ryan glanced from Jack’s odd expression to my fiery red face and began to smile. “Lila was washing her car, eh?”
    Jack looked up. “How’d you know?”
    Ryan grinned. “I saw the hose and the bucket. She’s a terrific woman who knows how to cheer a man up after a long day at work.”
    “Ryan, listen, I thought she was my wife,” Jack stammered.
    “I’m standing right here,” I said.
    Both men looked at me for a moment.
    I started to babble. “So, Jack greeted me with enthusiasm, I shoved him off, I changed clothes and let him come inside after he promised not to come near me again. He swore he knew his way around this house but the furniture was wrong, and that’s basically where you came in, honey.”
    Ryan turned to Jack. “You’ve been here often enough, man. You should know your way around the house.”
    “The master bathroom’s toilet doesn’t flush very well, so we never let people use it during parties. There’s a slow drip from the hot-water tap out in the laundry-room sink. The left shutter on the east window of the dining room bangs when it’s storming outside. And something in the garbage disposal squeaks,” Jack said.
    We stared at him. “You could have known that stuff from me or Ryan complaining,” I said slowly.
    Jack sighed and looked at me. “Your nickname as a child was Boodle Boo, and you hate it. You have a tiny Libra symbol tattooed on your hip. You got it when you turned twenty-one, and you put it in a place that would be hidden by a swimsuit so no one would know. And your favorite thing is to be bent over a desk and taken from behind when there’s a chance someone might walk in at any moment.”

Chapter Two
    The silence that followed that speech was a thick, tangible thing. Jack looked at us and mumbled, “I’m going to go sit by the river for a few minutes. Y’all mind if I snag a beer from the fridge in the garage?”
    Ryan waved his hand and Jack left.
    “Well, honey, I knew about the nickname and the tattoo, but that last one is news to me,” my husband said.
    “It hadn’t occurred to me. You don’t have a desk,” I muttered.
    The sliding glass doors to our deck gave us a beautiful view of our property all the way down to the river. We stood with our arms around each other, watching our friend, business partner and employer pick his way down to our dock. He kept looking back at the house, but if he could see us with the afternoon sunlight reflecting against the glass, he didn’t show it.
    “What do you think?” said Ryan.
    “I think he’s gone crazy. You?”
    “I think I’m positive that you married me, not him. What I can’t figure is where he’s coming from. He’s too freaked out to be lying.”
    “He knew all that stuff, except for the parts he could have guessed. He’s over here fishing, or cooking