Strike Out by Cheryl Douglas Read Free Book Online Page B

did,” she said, her eyes bright with excitement. “Nathan surprised me with tickets to see him and Elton John a few years ago for my birthday. It was amazing.”
    Her husband’s name hit him like a fist between the eyes. He’d allowed himself to pretend it was just the two of them again. The reminder that it would never be that way again caught him off guard. “Yeah, I saw them too. They were great.”
    “I seem to recall you were more of an Aerosmith guy. Bob Segar, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, that was my kind of music. What made you go see them?”
    “You.” He stared at her, their past scrolling in front of his eyes: their first kiss, the first time they made love, the night he proposed, the wedding that never was… “His music makes me think of you. I was going through a rough time. I guess I wanted to feel closer to you.” He shrugged.
    Rennie stared at him, obviously at a loss for words. She looked at her watch. “Oh wow, it’s getting late. I really should go. So you think the home game on the 14 th of next month will work for Jake’s visit?”
    They’d talked about it earlier, when he was still pretending Jake’s visit was the only reason he’d asked her to lunch. It wasn’t. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being so close, yet still out of his reach. But he wouldn’t try to wreak havoc in her marriage, no matter how much he still loved her. “I think so. Just let me talk to the powers that be, and I’ll get back to you.”
    “Sounds good.” She got to her feet. Reaching for her purse, she hesitated to smile at him. “Thanks for lunch, Zach. It was nice.”
    “Yeah, it was.” Nice didn’t begin to describe it, but he would only make her uncomfortable if he tried to make more of it. “I’d really like to come to your son’s game. It seemed like it would mean a lot to him, and I’d hate to disappoint him.”
    “You can’t,” she said quickly, the color draining from her face.
    “Why not?” Realization dawned when she failed to respond. “I don’t want your husband to think I’m trying to—”
    “It’s not that,” she said, looking panicked. “You just can’t come. I’m sorry. I really have to go.”

 
     
Chapter Four
     
    Rennie sat at her desk several hours later, staring at her son’s photo and wondering how her orderly life had spun out of control in a matter of days. Zach was working his way into her life slowly but surely. He would be at Sheldon’s fundraiser next Thursday, and he’d agreed to meet Jake next month. She could handle all that. It was his desire to meet her son, their son, she couldn’t handle.
    “Hey,” Terri said, looking up from her computer. “I forgot to ask how your lunch with Zach Foster went.”
    “It was fine.” When Rennie realized her voice matched her melancholy mood, she tried to infuse a little more enthusiasm into her words. “It was good. Great, in fact. He and his partners offered to let us have Sheldon’s fundraiser at High Rollers.”
    “Shut up!” Terri’s mouth hung open, and for once, she seemed speechless. The silence only lasted half a second. “That’s amazing, but why?”
    Rennie knew the time had come to tell Terri the truth. She was her friend, and she may be the only person who could act as a buffer between Rennie and Zach. “I, uh, knew him a long time ago.”
    “You did not!”
    Rennie couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s reaction. “I did. We went to high school together.” She would have to break the whole truth to Terri gently, since she didn’t have a paper bag to hand over when she started hyperventilating.
    “So why didn’t you tell me you knew him when I showed you Jake’s letter?” Terri slipped her pen between her teeth as she narrowed her eyes at her boss. “What are you hiding, lady?”
    “It’s complicated.” That didn’t even begin to describe it. She should have told Terri the story over cocktails. Maybe then she would have been able to get the words out without a