The Sweetheart Secret Read Free Page B

expected to find out he was still married to her when he asked his lawyer to unearth a copy of the divorce decree.
A mistake in the filing,
his lawyer had said, and sent a new set of divorce papers off to Daisy.
A quick, easy process,
his lawyer had promised.
    Apparently his lawyer had never met Daisy Barton.
    â€œDaisy, we haven’t been together in fourteen years—”
    â€œWhat was that back in June?”
    â€œAn . . . aberration.”
    She snorted. “Is that what you call it?”
    â€œWe had one night,”—one crazy, hot, turn-a-man-inside-out night—“and that was it. It was wrong and when I realized that our divorce was never final, I sent you the papers. I don’t understand the problem, Daisy. We both wanted that divorce. Besides, we never had a real marriage to begin with.”
    â€œWell we do now, my dear husband. All legal and everything. In fact, next month is our fifteenth anniversary. Maybe we should think of doing something.” The ice in her voice chilled the warm Florida air.
    Was she insane? There was no way he was going to celebrate their anniversary or anything of the sort. He thrust the envelope of divorce papers at her, but she ignored them. “Just sign, and we can be done with this insanity. I’m dating someone else.” Well, technically, he wasn’t dating anyone, but Daisy didn’t need to know that.
    â€œSo sorry to put a crimp in your social life with our marriage.” She turned away from him, facing the windshield, her features cold and stony.
    â€œA marriage that has been over since we were nineteen. A marriage that only lasted three weeks. A marriage we ended by mutual agreement years ago.”
    â€œMutual agreement? You walked out and never returned. I’d call that a one-sided decision on your part.”
    He wasn’t about to retread all that again. He’d had his reasons for leaving, reasons she didn’t need to know. Telling Daisy wouldn’t change a thing. “Just sign, Daisy. We’ll be rid of each other once and for all. Isn’t that what you want, too?”
    She bit her lip, and the gesture sent a fire roaring through him that nearly made him groan. Damn. This was why he didn’t want to be with Daisy. Because every time he got close to her, his brain turned into a pile of useless goo. “No, I don’t,” she said. “Not yet.”
    â€œWhat do you mean—
not yet
?”
    She blew her bangs out of her face and stared straight ahead, her hands resting on the steering wheel, key in the ignition. A tiny pair of bright pink plastic dice dangled from the ring, tick-tocking back and forth against the metal keys. “It’s complicated.”
    He’d said the same thing to Greta. He laid his palms on the roof of the car and bit back a gust of frustration. “That’s the understatement of the year. Everything about you is complicated.”
    She jerked her attention toward him, fire sparking in the set of her mouth. “There used to be a time when you liked that.”
    â€œThere used to be a time when we both liked each other’s faults.”
    â€œYeah, well we were young and stupid then. We were different people then.” She shook her head, then fiddled with the dice again, her keys jangling softly together. Her shoulders sagged a little and her voice dropped into a softer range. “Do you remember when we bought these?”
    Remember? Hell, it was one of those memories that lingered in the back of a man’s mind like taffy. He started to lie, then let out a sigh and said, “Yeah, I do.”
    â€œWe were walking down the street in New Orleans, with what, ten dollars between us?”
    They’d been too broke to even consider themselves poor, but hadn’t cared at all. They’d both been infatuated and naïve enough to think the world would work out just because they wanted it to. “Back then neither of us