Only Forever by Linda Lael Miller Read Free Book Online

the moment Vanessa and Nick had entered the house. She had just tossed her jeans, sweater and underwear into the utility room when someone began pounding at the front door.
    Thinking Nick had come back, she hurried through the house, worked the lock and pulled the door open wide.
    Parker was standing on the step, looking apoplectic.“Do you realize how many messages I’ve left for you since last night?” he demanded furiously.
    Not wanting the neighbors to witness a domestic drama of the sort they’d learned to expect and relish during the last days of the marriage, Vanessa grasped Parker by the arm and pulled him inside the house.
    “I’ve been busy,” she hissed, annoyed. She started off toward the kitchen again, leaving Parker to follow. “What did you want, anyway?” she demanded, reaching into a cupboard for two mugs and marching over to the sink.
    “I’m going to be on a talk show day after tomorrow,” her ex-husband answered in grudging tones, hurling himself into a chair at the table. He named a very famous host. “She wants you to appear, too, since you’re in the book.”
    So that was it. Vanessa’s feelings of being cherished was displaced by a sensation of weariness. She wondered who, besides Parker, would have had the gall to suggest such a thing.
    “No way, slugger,” she breathed, setting the mugs full of water in the microwave and getting out a jar of instant coffee.
    “It will mean more sales, Van,” Parker whined, “and more sales means more money!”
    Vanessa was standing by the counter, her arms folded, waiting for the water to heat. “You live in a fantasy world, don’t you, Parker? A place where nobody ever says no to anything you want. Well, listen to this—I’m not going to help you promote that book, I’m going to sue you for writing it!”
    The bell on the microwave chimed, and Vanessa took the mugs out and made coffee by rote. She set one in front of Parker with a thump and sat down on the opposite side of the table from him.
    He was staring at the corduroy jumpsuit in baffled distaste. “Good grief, Vanessa,” he said, “don’t you make enough money to dress decently? Whatever that thing is, it’s a size too big.”
    Vanessa sighed. Some things never changed. “I knew you were coming over and I dressed for the occasion,” she said sweetly, taking a sip from her mug. Sari made a furry pass around her ankles, as if to lend reassurance.
    Parker was a master of the quicksilver technique, and he sat back in his chair and smiled warmly at Vanessa. “I hope I didn’t make you feel inadequate,” he said.
    He’d made a specialty of it in the past, butVanessa had no desire to hash over the bad old days. She thought of the hours she’d spent in Nick DeAngelo’s company and smiled back. “That’s about the last thing I’m feeling right now,” she answered.
    Parker looked disappointed. “Oh.”
    Vanessa laughed at his frank bewilderment. “Listen,” she said after recovering herself, “our marriage has been over for a long time. We don’t have to do battle anymore.”
    He sat up straight. “The things I’m asking for are very simple, Vanessa,” he said, sounding almost prim.
    “And they’re also impossible. I’m not going on any talk show to promote a book I’d like to see fade into obscurity.”
    His expression turned smug. “Suing me will only make sales soar,” he said.
    “I know,” Vanessa confessed with a sigh. “Just tell me one thing, Parker—why did you describe me that way? Was that the kind of wife you wish I’d been?”
    Parker averted his eyes, then pulled back the sleeve of his expensive Irish woolen sweater to glance at his Rolex. “What would I have to do to get you back?” he asked without even looking at her.
    Vanessa was thunderstruck. Not once in her wildest imaginings had it ever occurred to her that Parker had been harassing her in a sort of schoolboy attempt to get her attention. She put her hands to her cheeks, unable for the