Some Enchanted Season by Marilyn Pappano Read Free Book Online

are.”
    She snorted, a coarse sound coming from such a delicate woman. “You’ll do what you’ve done the fifteen—excuse me, sixteen—years we’ve been married. You’ll work hundred-hour weeks, buy new companies, expand your old companies into every conceivable market in the world, make millions more, and impress the hell out of everyone with your business acumen.”
    Her prediction was on target, but its limited scope—strictly business, as if he would have no personal life—left him feeling prickly. “Maybe I’ll get married again too.”
    “Maybe. But why bother when you can get everything you want—someone to plan your parties, to accompany you to business functions, to put in appearances on your behalf, and to satisfy your occasional need for sex—simply by contracting with the appropriate businesses on a need-by-need basis? It’s much more cost effective that way, and there’s never a need for a divorce.”
    “You have complaints about the sex?”
    “What sex?” she asked with the innocence of a child. “I can’t even remember the last time we had sex.”
    He smiled cynically. “That’s right. You can’t. Trust me though. You weren’t complaining.” Then he deliberately, coolly, added, “It was a pleasant change.”
    For a long time she simply looked at him, her expression calm. For the first minute, he endured, then he began getting edgy again. Suspicion that he was somehow being manipulated made him uneasy, then annoyed, then guilty for insulting her.
    “I thought we might get through the next few months as polite acquaintances, if not friends,” she said softly. “Let’s at least make the effort. I don’t want to fight with you. We’ve done enough of that to last a lifetime, and frankly, I’m just not up to it. I’m sorry I suggested you should buy a companion. I’m sorry I brought sex into the conversation at all. And I’m sorry that my being pleasant was a rare occurrence in our marriage.”
    He’d been manipulated, all right, but he wasn’t sure if it had been Maggie pulling the strings, or his ownconscience. “It wasn’t so rare,” he admitted grudgingly. “Under the circumstances, I can’t blame you.”
    “Of course you can. There’s plenty of blame to go around.” She smiled sadly. “I—I think I’ll go to my room now.”
    “I’ll walk up with you.”
    “It’s not—All right.”
    He accompanied her to the top of the stairs, waited there until she closed the bedroom door behind her, then returned to the kitchen. After cleaning up, he made his way to the front of the house again.
    For a moment he paused in the office doorway. Less than twelve hours had passed since he’d officially turned everything over to Tom—less than twelve hours free of business responsibility. The computer tempted him, invited him in, reminded him of all the work he could accomplish in the next few hours. It offered to keep his mind occupied, to leave him not even one moment to think about Maggie, or their marriage, or their divorce.
    But he had promised Maggie and himself no work for the next few months. Besides, work wouldn’t make him forget the reminder he’d just gotten that no divorce, no matter how eagerly anticipated, was painless. Even though they both wanted to be free, they still had the ability to wound egos and hurt feelings.
    And why shouldn’t they? They had loved each other more than anyone else in their lives had ever loved them. Though the love was long gone, there was still so much left—so many intimacies, so many disappointments, so many regrets. Those things hurt, and thesimple fact of saying “In two months we’ll file for divorce” couldn’t change that. Only time could.
    Instead of giving in to the urge to use work to hide from life, he closed the pocket doors, shut off the hall lights, and headed up the stairs. Maybe if he’d set limits on work years before instead of on Maggie, they wouldn’t be where they were now.
    But they were there, and the