Husband Under Construction by Karen Templeton Page A

wouldn’t,” she said, giving him a little smile, catching one from him in return that wreaked serious havoc with her tum-tum. “And in any case, I’m talking about his heart, not his money. That…that he’ll fall for her and then she’ll see something sparklier over there and dump him. And he’ll be devastated.”
    Not that she’d allow such a thing to happen to her, nope, havoc-wreaked tummies be damned.
    Exhausted, Roxie sat on a low stone wall in front of somebody’s house, ignoring the muffled yapping coming from behind a closed window. “As far as I know, Mae was Charley’s only love. They met, they fell in love, they got married. No drama, no second-guessing, that was it. He has no idea what heartbreak is. Not that kind anyway.”
    Noah lowered himself onto the wall beside her. “And to play devil’s advocate for a moment—”
    â€œAs if I haven’t done that a thousand times in my own head for the past week.”
    â€œI know, but it might help to hear it outside your head. So let’s see…from your standpoint, Charley’s a clueless,vulnerable widower who’s blinded by Eden’s…vibrant personality.”
    â€œAnd her boobs.”
    â€œI wasn’t gonna say that, but, okay, yeah. But what if we give him more credit than that? What if he knows exactly what he’s doing? What if he ’s playing her ?”
    Roxie’s head snapped around. “Holy schmoly,” she said, valiantly fighting not to be distracted by Noah’s lovely, firm mouth mere inches away. “I hadn’t even considered that.”
    â€œRight? I mean, sure, he’s not exactly a spring chicken, and maybe he’s inexperienced, but he’s still a man. Maybe this is just a fling that’ll burn itself out.”
    â€œNot that you’d know anything about that.”
    â€œMe? Nah.”
    Then, in the feeble glow from yapping mutt’s porch light, she caught the grin, and it was cocky and endearing and she felt things she had no business feeling from a friend in general and Noah in particular. Well, crap.
    As if on cue, her cell phone rang. Jeff. Of course. Because this night hadn’t been strange enough.
    â€œYou gonna get that?” Noah asked. Since, apparently, she was staring at the phone as if she’d never seen one of these newfangled things before.
    â€œIt’s my ex.”
    â€œThen you should definitely get that. Otherwise you’ll end up flinching every time the phone rings.”
    â€œWhich you know all too well.” He shrugged. “And if you answer and tell them to stop pestering you and they don’t?”
    â€œYou get a new number.”
    Not wanting to know how many numbers Noah had probably gone through, over the past ten or so years, Roxie thought I can do this, and answered the phone.
    Too late to catch the call, of course. Except this time, good ol’ Jeffrey had left a voice mail.
    Whoopee.
    Â 
    Noah discreetly stood again to give Roxie space while she listened to her ex’s message, trying not to let on that his ass was frozen solid. And that he was having some serious, not-exactly-friendly thoughts about kissing her, which weren’t doing a whole lot to bolster his self-esteem.
    Her phone shoved back into her pocket, she jumped to her feet and started speed-walking down the sidewalk. Noah scurried to catch up, almost missing the “He wants my address,” tossed over her shoulder.
    â€œTo…see you again?”
    â€œHave no idea.” She somehow sped up, which at least got the blood in Noah’s butt moving again. “Not that there’s a chance in hell of that.”
    â€œHe cheat on you?”
    â€œWhat? Oh. No. Well, not that I know of anyway.” She kept going, her breath puffing in front of her face.
    â€œThen—”
    â€œWhy did we break up? Because I got pregnant.”
    Noah stopped dead in his tracks.