Second Time Around Read Free

the padded chair before lifting the receiver.
    “McAllister.”
    “I hear you had a visitor tonight.”
    Quinn leaned his head back and closed his eyes, taking a sip of scotch before he answered his father. “I see Judith didn’t waste any time calling you.”
    “Why should she? You walked out and left her stranded. That’s no way to treat your fiancée.”
    “Drop the crap, Edward. We both know Judith would have gone home with one of her ‘friends’ whether I was there or not.”
    “Judith comes from an excellent background. Good family, good connections. If you treated her the way she deserved, maybe her attitude would improve.”
    “Sorry. Not interested. She was your idea, not mine.”
    There was a moment of silence from his father’s end of the line. “What did Lanie want that was important enough to make her come to Chicago? If it was money, she can forget it. She’s gotten everything from us she’s going to get.”
    “If you’d bothered to let me know she was here you might have found out sooner.
    Why wasn’t I told she’d been calling?”
    “Because I didn’t think it was important enough to disturb you. We have some big deals coming up and you need to focus on those, not the past.”
    “Well, this time you screwed up royally. It would appear the lawyer you hired to handle our divorce wasn’t really a lawyer after all. Lanie and I are still married. The good news is, that means I don’t have to marry Judith.”
    A shocked silence greeted his statement. When his father finally answered, his words sounded gritty, as though spoken through clenched jaws.
    “That’s impossible.”
    “No, it’s not. I’ve got the letter from the court to prove it. I’m going to fax it over to Franklin. You might want to do the same with the rest of the divorce papers. Give him a chance to look them over before tomorrow.”
    There was another pause from his father’s end of the line. “Is she still there?”
    “No, she left a few minutes ago. I got the impression she was in a big rush to get back to her fiancé. She’ll probably take the first plane out.”
    “This divorce business is all you talked about?”
    Quinn couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “What did you expect me to do?
    Reminisce about old times and then drag her to bed?”
    “Just don’t get any of your crazy ideas. We’ll get this mess straightened out as soon as possible and everything will get back to normal. You and Judith will have to move 1the wedding date but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll give Franklin a call and explain what’s going on. You just send him that letter.”
    Quinn dropped the phone back into its cradle, glad for once that his father was taking over. He was too tired to think about legal ramifications right now, and he could feel the first dull throb of what he knew would soon become a crippling headache.
    He levered himself out of the chair and put the letter in the fax before continuing down the hall. Stepping into the gym, he turned on the whirlpool and stripped, leaving the tux in a wrinkled heap on the floor.
    The jets of hot water massaged his thigh, bringing blessed relief from the bone-deep ache. The scar there was much wider than the one on his face, standing out in stark, ugly contrast from the bronze of the surrounding skin. After the accident, it had taken months of physical therapy and numerous operations before he could walk again. And even after that had been accomplished, there had been several more surgeries to make his leg as normal as possible. The final one had been just a few months ago. But he hadn’t complained. The hard, painful workouts had helped keep his mind off Lanie. All for nothing. They were still married. And she was in love with another man. The spurt of anger that hit him was hotter than the water in the tub.
    He was still trying to get his emotions under control when he heard the front door open and the sound of footsteps in the hall. Opening his eyes a slit, he