Never Too Late by Robyn Carr Page B

look at me.”
    He looked totally shocked. “Me? No! No! I thought it was the other way around, that you hated me.”
    â€œOh, no, I never did, Pete. In fact, you don’t know how many times I thought if that hadn’t happened between us, we might have been so much help to each other when Mike died. As it was, we avoided each other like the plague.”
    â€œWell, I doubt I’d have been much good to you…or anyone. I was pretty useless for a few years there. Later,though, when I got myself straightened out a little, I thought about you a lot, and how I never did anything to help you get through it. I hated myself for that, too. But honest to God, I thought if I even approached you, you’d freak out and snap. You…you seemed so hurt. So damaged by it. I knew I had to give you time. Space. And then—”
    She waited for him to finish and when he didn’t, she prodded. “And then?”
    â€œYou got married.” He shrugged. “It made sense for me to keep my distance.”
    â€œI’m getting a divorce now,” she said, and looked down as if she was ashamed of that, too.
    â€œOh damn, I’m so sorry! I went through that a few years ago. Me and Vickie—it was terrible.” He put his foot on the bleachers’ floor and hoisted himself up, leaping over the rail. Then he leaned back on it, facing her. “That’s tough, Clare.”
    â€œWell, so it goes. This is for the best. So—you and Vickie now?”
    â€œShe remarried almost right away.” Then he laughed. “Seemed like it to me, anyway, but I guess it was over a year later. Okay,” he said, laughing again. “Two. Two years later. We do fine now. In fact, we’re better with the girls than we were when we were married. And get this—I actually sort of like the guy. But don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to seem soft.” And to that he added a large grin.
    â€œThat’s good to know. So there’s hope.”
    â€œCan I ask you something personal?”
    â€œSure, why not? I can always blush and run.”
    â€œYou were never the blush-and-run type. It’s just…Is there…Do you…Well, do you have someone else in your life?”
    â€œLike a man?” she asked, astonished.
    â€œYeah, because that would mean you’re leaving one relationship for another one and if you’re doing that—”
    She cut him off with her laughter. Suddenly it seemed so funny, after all the years of Roger fooling around, the very idea that anyone would come along and lure her away from her vows seemed ludicrous. What was even stranger was that she hadn’t had an affair. Why hadn’t she? “No,” she finally said. “No, there was never anyone else for me. He had all the someone elses. So I left him.” And then there was that little thing about how she’d been unfaithful once and that was so awful, she wasn’t about to do it again.
    â€œOh,” Pete said, somewhat taken aback. “I hadn’t expected you to say that.”
    â€œWhy not? It’s not like it doesn’t happen.”
    â€œYeah, I know—but it shouldn’t happen to you. He must be nuts.”
    â€œThanks. I think.”
    He just looked at her for a long moment, a sentimental smile on his face. Finally he said, “I guess if we’re both teaching here and you aren’t in a relationship, it wouldn’t be inappropriate for us to be friends.”
    â€œNo, I guess it wouldn’t.” We used to be such good friends, she thought. Way back when they had classes together, when he was on the football team and she was a cheerleader, when they hung with the same crowd during her last two years of high school while Mike was in college. And though she hadn’t seen much of Pete after moving to Reno, she still thought of him as a friend. It hadn’t occurred to her until now just how much she missed that.