must be growing too comfortable with him. Usually she kept her guard up better. It was tiring, but necessary. One of the first lessons she’d learned as a lawyer was never to show her hand in a courtroom. She’d adopted the same unrevealing mask in her personal life, as well.
Until now.
“Is mind reading one of your talents?” she inquired more irritably than the observation merited.
“It doesn’t take much talent when an expression is as easy to interpret as yours was. What were you thinking about?”
“Independence.”
“The city or the state of mind?”
“Very funny.”
He didn’t react visibly to the trace of sarcasm, but his tone was definitely more sober when he asked, “Okay, what exactly were you thinking about independence?”
Kate hesitated to say it aloud. It would sound too much as if she were dissatisfied with her life, and she wasn’t. Not really. She was just in a mood, an oddly disturbing mood that she couldn’t seem to shake.
“Kate?” he prodded.
She saw that he wasn’t going to let the topic drop. “I suppose I was thinking that independence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes it’s very taxing.”
He regarded her quizzically, obviously waiting for more.
“Actually, I suppose I was envying you,” she confessed, surprising herself with the honesty of the admission. It was the sort of revealing comment she normally would have avoided at all costs.
Astonishment filled his eyes. “Me? Why?”
“You have a career you obviously love. You have your son.”
As if he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the rare confession, David glanced at Davey. “A son who is asleep on his feet.”
“Am not,” Davey said sleepily, his eyelids drooping even as he uttered the denial.
“Maybe we should get the check,” David suggested, snagging the last bite of his son’s cake. His gaze caught hers. “We can finish this discussion at home.”
Home, she thought with raw yearning that hit her like a bolt out of the blue. Until David had used the word, she’d never imbued it with so much meaning. Now she saw that the house she loved so much was just that, a house. It wasn’t until just tonight that she’d realized that for the past twenty-four hours it had felt more like a home. Laughter and contentment and warmth had spilled into the rooms.
She sighed heavily. Would she ever feel quite the same way about it, now that they had been there to show her what having a marriage and a family could be like? Or would this odd dissatisfaction and emptiness only be magnified?
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Kate said, desperately wanting to put an end to the topic before yet another layer of her defenses could be stripped away. As mid-life crises went, it appeared she was plunging headfirst into a real doozy.
* * *
David was up at the crack of dawn on Sunday. He made a pot of Kate’s fancy coffee, then took a mug out onto the deck and tried to analyze Kate’s retreat the previous night.
She had begun pleading exhaustion the minute they hit the house. Given the shadows in her eyes, he might have believed her if he hadn’t seen her light burning and heard her restless pacing long after she’d supposedly gone to bed. He’d guessed then that she desperately wanted to avoid completing the conversation she herself had begun at the restaurant.
She was a real study in contradictions. There had been times this weekend when he’d felt the barriers between them—his and hers—beginning to slip away. He’d enjoyed watching her with Davey, seeing the genuine enjoyment she seemed to get from probing his lively mind. She obviously liked his son. She treated him like a person, rather than a child, and Davey responded to that respect as any kid would.
Davey had wanted Kate to tuck him in before she fled to her own room. And Kate had figured prominently in Davey’s prayers, joining his father, his mother and Mrs. Larsen for special mention. Though she had rapidly blinked them away,
Until now.
“Is mind reading one of your talents?” she inquired more irritably than the observation merited.
“It doesn’t take much talent when an expression is as easy to interpret as yours was. What were you thinking about?”
“Independence.”
“The city or the state of mind?”
“Very funny.”
He didn’t react visibly to the trace of sarcasm, but his tone was definitely more sober when he asked, “Okay, what exactly were you thinking about independence?”
Kate hesitated to say it aloud. It would sound too much as if she were dissatisfied with her life, and she wasn’t. Not really. She was just in a mood, an oddly disturbing mood that she couldn’t seem to shake.
“Kate?” he prodded.
She saw that he wasn’t going to let the topic drop. “I suppose I was thinking that independence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes it’s very taxing.”
He regarded her quizzically, obviously waiting for more.
“Actually, I suppose I was envying you,” she confessed, surprising herself with the honesty of the admission. It was the sort of revealing comment she normally would have avoided at all costs.
Astonishment filled his eyes. “Me? Why?”
“You have a career you obviously love. You have your son.”
As if he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the rare confession, David glanced at Davey. “A son who is asleep on his feet.”
“Am not,” Davey said sleepily, his eyelids drooping even as he uttered the denial.
“Maybe we should get the check,” David suggested, snagging the last bite of his son’s cake. His gaze caught hers. “We can finish this discussion at home.”
Home, she thought with raw yearning that hit her like a bolt out of the blue. Until David had used the word, she’d never imbued it with so much meaning. Now she saw that the house she loved so much was just that, a house. It wasn’t until just tonight that she’d realized that for the past twenty-four hours it had felt more like a home. Laughter and contentment and warmth had spilled into the rooms.
She sighed heavily. Would she ever feel quite the same way about it, now that they had been there to show her what having a marriage and a family could be like? Or would this odd dissatisfaction and emptiness only be magnified?
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Kate said, desperately wanting to put an end to the topic before yet another layer of her defenses could be stripped away. As mid-life crises went, it appeared she was plunging headfirst into a real doozy.
* * *
David was up at the crack of dawn on Sunday. He made a pot of Kate’s fancy coffee, then took a mug out onto the deck and tried to analyze Kate’s retreat the previous night.
She had begun pleading exhaustion the minute they hit the house. Given the shadows in her eyes, he might have believed her if he hadn’t seen her light burning and heard her restless pacing long after she’d supposedly gone to bed. He’d guessed then that she desperately wanted to avoid completing the conversation she herself had begun at the restaurant.
She was a real study in contradictions. There had been times this weekend when he’d felt the barriers between them—his and hers—beginning to slip away. He’d enjoyed watching her with Davey, seeing the genuine enjoyment she seemed to get from probing his lively mind. She obviously liked his son. She treated him like a person, rather than a child, and Davey responded to that respect as any kid would.
Davey had wanted Kate to tuck him in before she fled to her own room. And Kate had figured prominently in Davey’s prayers, joining his father, his mother and Mrs. Larsen for special mention. Though she had rapidly blinked them away,
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