"What?"
"Never say never."
Leeanne Callaway pulled the belt of her raincoat tighter as she paused inside the front door of the First American Bank. She felt a delicious thrill of antic.i.p.ation. Jimmy would be surprised to see her. Especially when he found out what she was bringing him for lunch. Leeanne walked into the bank, nodding and smiling at the loan officers and tellers on the main floor. Then she walked down the hall to the president"s office. Jimmy"s secretary, Shirley, whose desk was right outside Jimmy"s door, was pulling her purse out of her desk.
"h.e.l.lo, Leeanne," Shirley said, one eyebrow raised in surprise. "I didn"t know you and Jimmy were having lunch together. He told me to get him a sandwich."
"Oh, we"re not having lunch. I just stopped by to speak to him for a minute."
Shirley sent Leeanne"s trench coat a curious look. "Is it raining outside? It was sunny when I came in this morning."
"You know April weather. It"s so unpredictable." Shirley didn"t appear convinced, but like any good secretary, she knew when to keep her mouth shut. "Would you like me to get you a sandwich, too?"
"No, I"m fine, thanks."
"Well, tell Jimmy I"ll be back in about fifteen minutes. I have to drop off a shirt at the cleaners."
"I"ll tell him," Leeanne said, her antic.i.p.ation growing keener with the thought of Shirley"s return in fifteen minutes. If they didn"t do it fast, if they were caught... Oh, she felt so wicked, as if she were seventeen again, sneaking out the window at night, crawling down the trellis into Jimmy"s old Chrysler.
She didn"t bother to knock on Jimmy"s office door. She simply walked in.
Jimmy didn"t look up. "Tuna on white, Shirley, like always."
G.o.d, he was so predictable.
"Would you like some spicy mustard with that?" Leeanne said, her fingers drifting to the knot of her belt.
"Leeanne." Jimmy took off his reading gla.s.ses and rubbed his tired eyes. "What are you doing here?"
Jimmy had been better-looking when they"d married, losing half his blond hair to age and most of his tan to long days in the bank. But his eyes were still a clear hazel, his hands big, his fingers long. Leeanne"s body tingled at the thought of those hands. She knew exactly what he would do if they were at home, in bed, in the dark. But today, in his office, under the bright fluorescent lights ... she could only imagine. She should have done this years ago. But Jimmy was always so uptight about being disturbed at work that she"d never tried anything so daring.
But disturbed be d.a.m.ned. She was disturbed-disturbed at their lack of a s.e.x life. Afraid she was going to grow old without a lover to take care of her. Terrified the man she"d married no longer wanted her the way he once had.
"I didn"t know you were coming into town today," Jimmy said.
"I thought I"d surprise you." She walked over to the desk and leaned forward to kiss him on the mouth.
His mouth was cool and he pulled away far too quickly. "Leeanne, this isn"t the place for that."
"Can"t a wife kiss her husband h.e.l.lo?" Her fingers tugged at the knot of her raincoat"s belt.
"Shirley will be back any minute with my sandwich. And I"ve got work to do." He looked down at the ledger in front of him and began pressing numbers on his calculator.
Leeanne frowned as a minute ticked by. "Jimmy. Aren"t you going to talk to me?"
"I"m still off by twenty-seven dollars and fifty-two cents. It doesn"t make sense."
"What"s twenty bucks?"
"It"s wrong. That"s what it is," he replied without looking up.
She sighed. Any red-blooded American male should be happy to see his wife on his lunch hour. But she had to be married to the only man in the world who probably liked money more than s.e.x. She felt intensely lonely-again.
Now that the children were gone, she wanted to focus in on her relationship with Jimmy. She wanted them to be the way they"d once been before work and children and mortgage payments had gotten in the way. But Jimmy wasn"t helping. In fact, he didn"t seem to notice there was anything wrong with their love life.
Squaring her shoulders, she decided it was time for a wake-up call. She walked around the desk, grabbed the arm of his chair, and spun the chair around so he was facing her. It wasn"t an easy task, because he was a big man, but determination gave her added strength.
Jimmy looked at her with annoyance. "Leeanne, I"m busy."
She dropped her hand to his belt. "I"m sure you can find a few minutes."
He looked horrified and pushed her hand away. "No!"
"Oh, come on."
"Absolutely not. What"s gotten into you? Have you been watching those talk shows again?"
"Nothing"s gotten into me-yet."
He turned a bright beet red. "Leeanne!"
She untied the knot holding her coat in place. She opened up the edges, slowly, with tantalizing, teasing fingers, allowing him a peek at her naked body.
"Good Lord! You"re not wearing a st.i.tch." He darted a quick, panicked look at the closed door.
"I want to be wearing you." Leeanne shrugged out of the coat and let it drop to the floor. She was proud of her body, proud of the sleek muscles that she honed to perfection each day at the gym. She might be nearing fifty, but she didn"t look it.
Jimmy didn"t seem at all interested. In fact, he bent over and grabbed her coat off the floor. He stood up and tried to pull it around her. "Are you crazy? I work here. Shirley will be back any minute."
Leeanne took the coat out of his hands and tossed it across the desk. "That"s why we have to hurry." She pressed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest. "Tell me you don"t want me." She felt him through the crotch of his finely pressed trousers and was pleased by the response. "See, you can"t lie."
"We"ll do this tonight, at home," he said firmly, setting her aside.
"Come on, Jimmy. Let me loosen your pants. It will just take a few minutes. You know that," she added with a touch of irony.
"No. Forget it." He pushed her away from him with more force than he"d ever used on her. "I"m the president of this bank. I can"t do this. I won"t do it. And your father would have a heart attack if he knew you"d come into town dressed like that. Imagine what people are saying."
She was too hurt to imagine anything, too pained to care. She felt rejected and alone and angry that she"d tied herself to the most boring man on the planet.
"Don"t you ever have a fantasy?" she asked with despair ringing through her voice. "Don"t you ever want to do it somewhere different, somewhere exciting? Don"t you ever want it to be so pa.s.sionate you feel like you could die?"
He walked around the desk and grabbed her coat off the floor. "There"s a time for everything. This isn"t it."
"It"s not illegal to make love to your wife at work."
"It should be. Get dressed."
She took the coat from his hand, but didn"t put it on. "Don"t you want me?"
His expression softened slightly. "You know I do. But this isn"t me, Leeanne. I can"t do it here. Someone could walk in." He glanced back at the door. "I don"t even have a lock."
"That makes it more exciting."
"I"ve never understood your need for so much excitement," he said with a bewildered expression in his eyes.
"And I"ve never understood why you don"t want any excitement. At least not anymore. My big brother, Tom, used to say you were the wildest kid in his cla.s.s. But you changed when you got older. When you graduated from college and came back, you were different. Something happened there, didn"t it?"
He threw up his hands in amazement. "What are you talking about? College was a hundred years ago."
"Did some girl break your heart, Jimmy?" She searched his face for the answer. It was a question that had teased her for twenty something years, because there"d always been a part of Jimmy that she couldn"t quite get to. "Do you still think about her?"
"There is no "her." For G.o.d"s sake, Leeanne, you and I have been married for twenty-six years. Why on earth would you bring up some girl from college now?"
"Because I keep wondering why you don"t want me. Why we"ve grown apart. You don"t talk to me, Jimmy. I don"t have a clue what"s going on in your head. And you never discuss anything personal. Looking back, I think I always did the talking. Maybe now I should listen-"
"Yes, you should listen. Go home, Leeanne. Stop imagining problems where there aren"t any."
"Did you ever love anyone before me?"
"No."
"You answered too quickly."
"There"s no pleasing you. What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to say something, anything, dammit. I feel like I"m hitting my head against a brick wall, and it"s driving me crazy."
A knock came at the door.
"Oh, s.h.i.t." Jimmy looked frantically from the door to her. "Get dressed, Leeanne." He reached for the doork.n.o.b so no one could turn it. "I"ll be right with you," he called out. "I knew this was going to happen," he hissed under his breath as Leeanne slipped her arms into her coat and covered herself.
"Mr. Callaway?" a female voice said as the knock came again.
"Just a minute." He waited until Leeanne had tied the belt on her coat, then opened the door.
Leeanne was surprised to see a young, beautiful blonde standing in the hallway, a woman she"d never seen before.
"Mr. Callaway?" the woman said tentatively, her gaze drifting from Jimmy to Leeanne. "May I speak to you for a moment? I hope this isn"t a bad time."
"No, it"s fine. It"s perfect," Jimmy said hastily. He took in a deep breath, then let it out. "Do you have a problem I can help you with? Or perhaps one of our tellers."
"It"s not a banking problem."
Leeanne felt a catch in her stomach. There was something familiar about the girl, but she couldn"t decide what. Nor could she understand what this young woman wanted with her husband or why her husband suddenly looked so uncomfortable.
"Oh, well, come in," he said.
"Thank you."
Leeanne stepped aside so the blonde could enter Jimmy"s office. Her eyes narrowed as Jimmy tugged nervously at his tie. Why on earth was he so fidgety?
"Go home," Jimmy murmured to her. "We"ll talk later."
"All right." Leeanne left the office, strolled a few feet down the hallway, then looked back. Jimmy hadn"t shut the door. She took a quick glance to make sure she was alone, then tiptoed back down the hall toward his office.
"I hope I"m not intruding, and you"ll probably think this is a crazy question," the blonde said. "But I saw a photograph of you and a young woman at Golden"s, taken a long time ago. I"m hoping you might remember who she was."
Golden"s? A photo? Leeanne knew there wasn"t any photo of Jimmy taken with her on Golden"s Wall of Fame, because Jimmy hated to have his picture taken.
"I"m not sure what you"re referring to," Jimmy said. "What was your name again?"
"I"m sorry. Katherine Whitfield."
Katherine Whitfield? The woman J.T. had thrown his bourbon at? Mary Jo had been whining about the incident all morning. What on earth could Katherine Whitfield possibly want from Jimmy?
"Could you tell me more about this photo?" Jimmy asked.
"Well, the picture is in black and white. You and a young woman are sitting at a table. She has long dark hair, parted in the middle. I couldn"t see her face. She looks thin, young, maybe nineteen or twenty. The bartender thought her name was Evie. He said you"d know for sure."
Leeanne caught her breath at Katherine"s question. Evie? She"d never heard him talk about an Evie.
"I don"t know anyone by that name," Jimmy said firmly. "In fact, I don"t think I"m in any of the photos. You must be mistaken."
"Really? Both Zach and Justin seemed quite sure the man was you."
"Sometimes pictures can be deceiving. If that"s all, Miss Whitfield, I have an appointment."
He"s nervous, hiding something. Leeanne shivered at the edge in Jimmy"s voice. Her boring, bland husband had a secret. An old lover perhaps? She could hardly imagine. And while one part of her angrily wondered if he"d been unfaithful, another part of her was somewhat t.i.tillated by the idea of Jimmy having a secret life.
"What about an Evelyn Jones?" Katherine persisted, obviously unwilling to let Jimmy go yet. "Do you remember a woman by that name?"
Leeanne crept closer to the door, determined to catch every word.
"I don"t remember anyone with that name," Jimmy said. "Why are you asking?"
Katherine paused so long, Leeanne wondered if she was going to answer the question.
"I think the woman in the photo might be my mother," Katherine said slowly.
"You"re trying to find your mother?" Jimmy asked.
"No. I"m-well, actually I"m looking for my father."
Leeanne bit back a gasp at the implication. She"d never have expected this in a million years.
"I"m not your father," Jimmy said hastily. "If you have any such notion..."