Fatal Affair: 1 (Courthouse Connections) Read Free Page B

your own benefit and made up all the pretty lies about how we fell in love
at first sight? Think about it.” While she could still resist the temptation to
attack Bert with the nearest heavy object, Lanie shut her mouth and walked out
on him and Wayne.
    The pleasure she’d held close to her heart
on the trip back from the Keys and the anticipation of meeting JD casually at
Bennie’s Place gave way to despair as she locked herself in her bedroom,
undressed and choked back the warring emotions that were tearing her apart.
    * * * * *
    As soon as he got out of court the
following Thursday, JD stepped through the heavy oak doors at Bennie’s Place,
looking around for the third straight day in the hope of finding Lanie there.
He’d called her office and tried her cell phone several times each day without
managing to connect, and he’d begun to wonder if he’d imagined the two amazing
days they’d shared the weekend before.
    When he saw her return his smile and wave,
his doubts disappeared. It hadn’t been his imagination. Trying not to appear in
too much of a hurry, he made his way back to the booth where she was sitting
and slid onto the seat opposite her.
    If she’d tried, she couldn’t have found a
place where she’d be more difficult to spot. That annoyed him at first, because
it stuck in his craw that she wanted to keep their relationship under wraps.
But then he got close enough to see her features and he could tell she was
distraught. Barely acknowledging his presence, she sat and played with an
uneaten bread bowl that had apparently held her lunch.
    “What’s wrong?” He assumed she’d lost a
case or come upon some unexpected snag with a potential witness. “You look as
though you’ve just lost your best friend.”
    “Getting a divorce, even when there are no
kids involved, is proving to be much more complicated than the professor in my
family law class led me to believe.” She smiled at him but the smile didn’t
reach her beautiful dark-blue eyes. “At any rate, this divorce is.”
    “Are you representing yourself?”
    “Yes. I know what you’re thinking, and
several people have already reminded me that a lawyer who represents herself
has a fool for a client. Wayne insisted that we handle this ourselves.”
    “If you’re already looking down and out
because it’s not going well, I think you ought to take that sage advice.” He
hated to see Lanie upset, and someone or something had obviously placed
obstacles in her way. “I’ve never worked in the family law arena, but
Winston-Roe has a whole division full of attorneys who could take that burden
off your hands. I’d be glad to introduce you to one of my partners if the
senator’s giving you a hard time about the division of assets.”
    “If only…” Her words trailed off. “I don’t
want anything from Wayne except my freedom. He can keep the house, his money
and whatever else he owns. I just want to walk away in peace.”
    She looked around as though afraid someone
would overhear what she’d just said. When JD reached across the table to take
her hand she jerked it away. “We can’t…”
    This wasn’t the same beautiful young woman
who’d spent the better part of the weekend before in his arms, looking forward
to being free from a marriage that obviously hadn’t been working for a long
time. “Have you changed your mind?”
    It would kill him if she’d suddenly decided
she wanted to stay in what she’d described as an empty shell of a relationship.
As he watched her fiddle with the bread bowl he realized just how far his
feelings for her had grown over such a short time span. When she looked across
the table and met his questioning gaze, he realized he’d been holding his
breath.
    “No. I haven’t changed my mind but I’ve
realized there’s more to ending my marriage than simply walking away.” She
glanced around the room again as though she expected someone to come up and
confront them. “I can’t talk about it here.