Innocent Milf Ch. 21

The story so far: Eighteen-year-old Matt Baker and thirty-three-year-old Cary Woodley meet in in Arizona in 1993. The two form a bond over their love of history and art--Matt plays the mandolin and Cary is a professional painter. Together with Matt's best friend Jack, they are the 'Three Musketeers' who do everything from Bowie-knife fighting to bowling together. Matt realizes he is beginning to form a deeper connection with Cary when he rescues her from a compromising situation engineered by her manipulative husband at her birthday party.

Over the months as she arranges for divorce, Cary pretends to have an affair in order to make her soon-to-be-ex-husband jealous. Matt is her occasional co-conspirator in these pranks, and eventually confesses his feelings for her just before his graduation. Cary (now Bernham) follows her heart: she and Matt become a couple after Matt chases her drunken ex-husband away from his graduation party.

That night, the two of them go to an extravagant graduation party for Matt's rich friend. On the surface, it is a James Bond-themed party in which the guys are all tuxedoed agents, and the girls are all cocktail-dress-wearing femme fatales. However, Matt discovers that he has accidentally brought his brand-new girlfriend to a swingers' party. The new couple spends most of the evening navigating the border between harmless sexy fun and something more than might damage their fledgling relationship. In a final game of Truth or Dare, Cary wins an all-expenses paid vacation to Mexico. She and Matt finally spend their magical first night together, and then begin the process of figuring out how to tell friends and family about their unusual relationship--especially their mutual best friend Jack.

Chapter 21

We hung out a few more times before Cary took her kids to Mexico for the vacation she'd won at Ty's party playing sexy Truth-or-Dare. We were kissing pretty much every time we had a moment to spare when we weren't being watched. The risk of being caught made it more exciting, and we both had a near-permanent case of goofy grins and giggles in each other's presence.

Jack and Jenna met us along with Sascha and one of her friends--Alex, the cellist with whom she'd gone to Prom--for a game of laser tag at Photon Storm. Cary had never been, and she loved it. In fact, she wanted to stay for a second game so much that we all did another round. Jack clearly thought it was inferior to paintball, but we both enjoyed making Terminator jokes. He liked the pulsing techno beats.

As we settled down at a table just barely large enough to squeeze the six of us together, Jack nudged me. "Hey, so how was the rich-kid party? You never told me how things went after I left."

Cary blushed immediately, and I tried to look cool. "It was awesome. Ty sure knows how to throw a party. But I gotta say, the food at yours was better, and the music at mine was better, too."

Jack smiled with pleasure. He was proud of his family's food. "Can't beat a Hartnett family gathering for grub," he bragged. "Sounded like your party was really getting awesome when I left. Sorry we couldn't swing back by."

"You missed the best part," Cary said with a knowing look in my direction.

"Oh yeah?" Jack rolled his shoulders--stiff from hunching over to make himself a smaller target during the game. "Bowie knife free-for-all?"

Sascha smiled. "Better. Miss Bern--Cary's asshole ex-husband showed up, and Matt went out to tell him to go fuck himself. Chased him back into the hole he crawled out of."

The table went quiet. Alex--Sascha's presumptive date for the day--looked back and forth in confusion. "Husband? How old are you--ow!" He rubbed his arm where Sascha had punched him.

Cary was looking at me with admiration all over again. "Old enough to have an ex-husband that Matt told off," she said, without any hint of offense.

Jack sat up straight. "Dude, for real? Damn, I wish I could have been there too to give him a piece of my mind! We could have tag-teamed and suplexed that asshole. What the heck was he doing there?"

Even the memory of it made me angry on Cary's behalf. "The same thing he always wants to do. To be a buzzkill and to control Cary's life. So yeah, I told him to get off my parents' driveway and to piss off. And he did."

Jenna was looking at me strangely. I realized I was getting heated, so I made my voice calmer. I was getting better at that. Jack held up his hand for double high-fives, which Cary and I instantly indulged. Jack grinned. "Hell yeah. Don't mess with the Musketeers."

Cary bounced to her feet. "I've gotta stretch. I'll be back in a minute."

Sascha stood too. "I'll come with you. Jenna?" Jenna shook her head.

Alex sat back awkwardly, facial expression showing that he was acutely aware of being a fifth (or sixth) wheel. After a moment, he joked, "Why can't girls ever admit that they just need to pee?"

Jenna harrumphed in mock insult. "Girls don't ever 'have to pee.' We simply freshen up. Ladies' restrooms don't even have toilets." It was so like something Cary would have said, I laughed out loud in surprise. It was strangely validating to see that we Three Musketeers were having an effect on her, just as her fitness mania had an effect on Jack.

Jack leaned towards me conspiratorially after a glance towards the restroom to confirm Sascha and Cary weren't headed back. "Hey, man. What's with Aramis? She's, like, scary happy. I mean, I know she's been a lot happier and more chill since her divorce, but now she seems... I don't know..."

"In love," Jenna finished his sentence for him. "She's in love."

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "No way! Really?" He looked back and forth between Jenna and me. "Dude, do you know anything about this? Is it true? Who is it?"

I gaped, and cast about for an answer. As if in slow-motion, I tracked the change in Jenna's facial expressions as she put the pieces together. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch. As I took a breath--not knowing what was about to come out of my panic-stricken mouth--Jenna grabbed Jack by the face and kissed him.

He pulled away, grinning like an idiot--an expression I suddenly realized was probably on my face recently more often than not. Jenna tapped the tip of his nose with a manicured fingernail. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she just found a new gym and is feeling great." She shrugged. "Besides, why would it be anybody you know, silly? Probably some boring businessman in his thirties."

My expression curdled even imagining Cary with somebody else. Jack shook his head vehemently. "As if. Cary's got better taste now. She wouldn't waste her time on anybody who wasn't cool." He looked doubtful. "Nah, she'd have told us if she was seeing somebody, right?"

I felt like I'd been punched in the gut, and didn't answer. Jenna cast a glance between us, and then squeezed Jack's arm. "You and I are still going running tomorrow morning, right?"

Jack's face lit up. "Yeah. Running."

I almost spit out my Coke in laughter. Jack was so bad at keeping secrets it was comical. If he and Jenna were 'just running' tomorrow, then Cary and I had been 'just hiking' a few nights ago. Jack colored slightly as he realized what I was laughing at but held his head up and pretended not to notice.

Alex scratched the back of his head. "Ha. I thought you and she were a couple," he said to me. "I would have made a real ass of myself if I'd said anything."

Jenna's gaze was laser-intense on me as I pointedly said nothing--if it had been so obvious to a complete stranger, what hope did we have of keeping things under wraps for the next few weeks? Jack chuckled, the sound incongruous with my sudden frayed nerves.

"Rendezvous in a month," I said, desperate to change the topic. "Wanna come shoot my new Kentucky rifle with me this week?"

"You know it." Jack's brow furrowed in concentration. "I have a lot of work, though."

"Yeah, me too. Trying to get a lot of hours before we go to college. Still, gotta make this time count, right?" It never crossed my mind that Jack and I would stop being friends when we went to college. After all, we had a decade of history as best friends. Still, we both knew that the next few months would be the last time like this--things would be different after we went our separate ways.

Cary and Sascha came back, and took in the sudden bittersweet atmosphere. Cary sat beside me, and just barely caught herself from grabbing my arm and leaning against me as Jenna was doing with Jack. If Jack hadn't been staring into the distance, it would have been impossible to miss it. As it was Jenna's face registered confirmation, and she gave me a very slight, but knowing nod.

The rest of our time passed normally, but now I was on edge; Alex had noticed immediately, and Jenna had guessed. She seemed content to keep Jack distracted, but I knew it was only a matter of time. Sascha had promised to keep our secret until Cary's divorce was finalized, but she and Jenna talked, and it wasn't fair or realistic to expect her to lie. Cary and I needed to figure out how to tell him--and soon.

Cary and I met once more--the day before she was planning to leave. She invited me over to her apartment for the night. I told my parents I'd be out for a while and might not make it back until morning. They raised their eyebrows, but said nothing. I think they'd begun to suspect that I had a girlfriend based on my goofy happiness.

Of course, as soon as the door was closed behind me, Cary and I started peeling each other out of our clothing. We tried a couple of new things--Cary wanted to try lying her side with me behind her and lifting up her leg. Wherever she'd heard of it--whether from Cosmo or the Kama Sutra or her girlfriends--it seemed to get her what she wanted. Not only did she make a lot of appreciative sounds, but she orgasmed a little faster than previous times.

I sat cross-legged on the bed for the next round, and Cary sat on top of me, clamping her ankles behind my butt. It was a little awkward and my legs started to fall asleep, but it was worth it to be looking into each other's eyes and to be able to kiss and nibble her nipples while she bounced captivatingly on me. She was a little winded as we rolled into a spooning position afterwards. "I can see I'm going to need to go Curves a little more often," she said with a grin. "Now that I have somebody to be pretty and in-shape for."

I laughed. "You're already pretty. You're a total fox--how do you not know that? Remember, all the people at Ty's party thought you were gorgeous."

"I was trying that night," she answered. "I was so enchanted by the idea of going to a fancy party with you, I pulled out all the stops. I guess I'll be doing that more often, now."

As much as the thought of Cary being dolled up for me turned me on, I shook my head. "Only when you want to. I've seen you in everything from messy painting clothes to grubby sweats for fighting to stunning evening wear. And you look great to me in all of them. I fell in love with Cary, not with Barbie."

Cary nuzzled my neck and purred. "See, it's talk like that that makes me want to dress up for you more."

"Sounds like a win-win for me, then," I shrugged. My brow crinkled. "Hey, is there anything you like me to wear?" It had never really occurred to me before; as a teenage guy, clothes seemed mostly utilitarian to me except for special occasions or as a way to show what bands I liked. Or for Rendezvous, but that was different.

Cary thought, wriggling suggestively against me. "Of course I think you look great in your buckskin jacket and hat," she said. "And your blue suit at my gallery reception was nice." She trailed her hand across my chest. "I'll think about it. Anything that shows off your gorgeous arms is a plus."

I was suddenly starving. "Hey, what do you have to eat around here?" I asked. "We can cook something together."

A smile of pure happiness spread across Cary's face. "I'd like that. So, are we done for today?"

I smirked. "Not on your life. But until it's time to go to sleep, maybe we could take a break and have something to eat. And talk."

Cary languidly rolled to the edge of the bed and pulled socks and underwear on, as if reluctant. "I'm going to miss you in Mexico."

I grinned. "I'll miss you too. But you better believe that the instant you're free after you get back, I'm coming over. Or something." Getting back into my clothes seemed like a chore, even if it was just a T-shirt and shorts.

Given what Cary had in her kitchen and my level of culinary expertise (or lack thereof), pasta seemed like the best way to go. Cary leaned against me when she wasn't giving me directions on what to do next. "Hey," I asked, filling up a pot with water. "What was your favorite Atari game?"

Cary put her chin on a finger and thought. "Pitfall. You get to go exploring, it's still challenging, but it's not too crazy. I mean, I like playing arcade games with you and Jack, but newer video games seem a little complicated for my tastes. The kids have a Nintendo back at Eric's house, but I never really got into it. I liked some of the artwork in the little instruction books, though."

I stuck my tongue into her ear from behind just to hear her squeal and see her shoulders jerk up. "You're fun. I'm really lucky I found you." Cary turned and kissed me, guiding my hands down her hips to her butt. I lifted her onto the counter and kissed her back, letting my head dip down to her neck after the first kiss. I flicked my tongue over the hollow of her throat and traced my fingers up her sides under her shirt. She shivered and smiled.

Around the time I was thinking maybe we should go back to the bedroom after all--or at least to the couch in the corner--the water started to boil over and hiss. Cary shrieked in mock alarm and turned the heat down. "We should get this the rest of the way going, or you're going to be too hungry to be of any use later," she giggled.

"Mmm. All right, but this is only a delay," I promised.

We were halfway through making rigatoni with meat sauce and garlic bread when there was a knock at Cary's door. We looked at each other quizzically, until Eric's voice sounded from the other side. "Hey, I know he's in there!"

Cary's skin blanched, but she gritted her teeth and straightened her shoulders. My heart had started hammering, as if I were getting ready for a knife-match with one of the guys who was way better than me and I expected to have to give it my all. I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, and then forced my expression to neutrality despite the nerves.

Cary opened the door, and her face went from annoyance to shock to delight. Eric was standing there, but so were Patrick and Annie. They immediately rushed into the apartment, carrying their suitcases and giggling. Patrick saw me in the kitchen and shouted "Matt! Look, I got a new one!" A colorful red action figure was clutched in his hand.

"Dude, is that the Red Ranger?" I asked. I hadn't seen any of the new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show, but I'd heard enough about it from various younger siblings of friends that I could at least recognize the characters.

"Yeah, it's Morphin' time!" Patrick declared loudly, before dashing into his room making zooming noises.

Annie looked gravely between me and the in-progress pasta on the stove. "We already ate dinner. It was macaroni," she announced.

"Macaroni is good," I answered, not sure what sort of response was expected. "Your mom is helping me to practice cooking for my Mountain Man camping trip," I said, improvising. "It's rigatoni, which is a pasta like macaroni. Wanna try some and see how it stacks up when I'm done?"

Annie nodded seriously and then deposited her suitcase at my feet as if I were expected to pick it up like a porter. Meanwhile, I could hear Cary speaking in low tones to Eric--firm and clear, with no hint of fear. "I'm always happy to have the kids, but you should call first. I have a life, Eric. I could have been out with my friends, for all you knew."

Eric stared at me with poisonous intensity. "No, I knew he'd be here. Bad enough he's shacking up with you, but to do it in front of the kids--"

"That's enough," Cary said in a no-nonsense tone. "You brought them over to try to catch us in some sort of imagined tryst, and now you're angry that there's nothing to find. You're doing this to yourself, Eric. You could have spent a nice, quiet night with the kids, but you wanted to punish me or prove something. He's practicing cooking for the campout next month. If you think that's suspicious, I don't know what to tell you."

Glowering and still clearly distrustful, Eric gave me a look similar to the one he'd had when showing up drunk at my graduation party. "Bullshit. Something is up."

"Language. Think what you want," Cary said, voice level. "Thanks for dropping off the kids. I'll let you know when we're back from vacation." She closed the door gently but firmly, and locked it. The sound of departing footsteps did not come for nearly a full minute.

Cary was shaking when she returned to the kitchen. I glanced to make sure that her kids were in their bedrooms and then lightly touched her hand. "You handled that really well. I can't believe how calm and cool you can stay." She shook her head silently and grabbed my arm. Then she took a shuddering breath and stepped back.

"I've had a lot of practice. It's still tough, but I know what to expect from him. What actually bugs me is that I don't like lying--even to him." Her eyes were hard and distant. "I don't like that his suspicions are almost right, even if they're for the wrong reasons."

"I get it." My heart sank as I realized that we had already made love for the last time before she would go on vacation. I fought to keep the disappointment from my face. I'd told Liss that I'd live up to deserving Cary--this was a chance to start. What would a responsible adult say rather than a horny teenager? "Okay, well, we can finish making the rigatoni and then I can head back. No temptation, no making you feel more dishonest."

Her eyes shone with gratitude. "I'll make it up to you," she promised.

"There's no make it up," I answered, looking over my shoulder to make sure that Patrick and Annie were still absorbed with playing in their respective rooms. "I knew up front that you have kids. Your love for them makes you who you are, and I love that. And his ambush shouldn't make me..." I groped for the right word. "... petulant. You get a bonus night with your kids. And I get a chance to work extra on a surprise I have planned for you."

Cary's face lit up. "Oh! You always know what to do to cheer me up!"

My grin widened as I thought about it. A sudden thought occurred to me. "We need to tell Jack at the Rendezvous if we haven't told him by then. That was too close yesterday. Alex thought we were a couple, and Jenna noticed--I'm sure of it. She seemed to be working pretty hard to keep Jack distracted, but who knows how long that will last."

We finished the rigatoni and took a bite each to make sure it was good. Patrick and Annie, summoned by the smell of food, appeared and demanded some of it as well. Patrick scrambled to the cabinets and procured a plate which he immediately held out like Oliver Twist as Cary laughed. Annie chewed thoughtfully and nodded silently before waving a fairy wand over everybody and announcing that we had all just turned into lizards.

And then it was over--I took my backpack full of clothes for the next day and my toothbrush and walked towards the door. Cary touched my face longingly out of sight of the kids, and I held her hand in place for a moment. Then I stepped out of the apartment carrying rigatoni for two in Tupperware and started back towards my car, smiling. I would miss Cary, but I had ideas of what to do in the meantime.

I was so absorbed in my own world that when a hand slapped down on my shoulder, I was startled. So startled that I nearly dropped my pasta spinning around for a knife disarm that started with a smack upwards to clear the line. I found myself glaring into the face of Eric, who was cradling his wrist.

"Son of a bitch!" he snapped. "Goddamn it, I just want to talk."

My heart was racing again, but I made a show of getting out of fighting stance and relaxing. "Bad idea to go grabbing people," I said. "What do you want? Gonna stalk me back to my parents' house again? I have nothing to say to you."

Angry brown eyes fixed on me, evaluating from under sandy hair. At least he wasn't drunk this time. The antagonist of Cary's life for the past ten years sized me up, as if trying to see if he could take me down. I inspected the rigatoni-containing Tupperware with deliberate unconcern, but secretly ready to throw it in his face if he charged. Finally, he sighed. "You really are a pain in my ass, Baker."

"Look, if this is about threatening your friend--"

Eric's brow crinkled before understanding passed over his features. "Mike? No, who cares? He was an idiot."

Dumbstruck, I could only frown and wait. I shouldn't have expected any sort of 'honor among thieves' sort of loyalty between co-conspirators to rape, but it was still a surprise to hear Eric throw his friend--or perhaps just coworker--into the metaphorical trash like that.

"Where are they going on vacation?" he demanded.

I shook my head. "If you don't know, then I'm sure not gonna tell you."

"You keep hounding after her," Eric accused. "Always hanging out with her. Going on walks, buying each other lunch, playing games at the arcade together. What the hell are you doing? You think she's really interested in a punk kid like you who works at some damn music store? I just got a promotion. What can you give her?"

I felt myself flushing in anger. Beside the fact that he had obviously been keeping much closer track of Cary's movements--and mine--than I had anticipated, I was also disquieted to realize that I'd had similar thoughts about what I actually had to offer. But rather than give him anything to work with, I decided to focus on the former. "Man, you really seem like a creep when you say shit like that," I snapped. "How do you know where I work? It doesn't strike as at all weird that a grown man is stalking a recent high school graduate to see where he lives and works? Don't you have a job?"

Eric smiled nastily. "I have friends."

"You have all the loyalty of a snake," I retorted. "I can't imagine you keep your friends for very long if they're all as disposable as your accomplices at Cary's birthday. Boy, did they turn on you quickly. And I don't think you're nearly as clever as you think you are." I took a breath to steady myself and to remind myself that antagonizing him could only make things worse for Cary and her kids. I took a different approach. "Listen, if this isn't about your rapist friend, then I'm really not sure why you dislike me in particular."

"You stole my pictures. My proof." Eric's tone was venomous. "I want them back."

I almost laughed. "Your fake porn pictures? Stole them? How drunk were you? You threw them at me. I gave them to Cary. I assume she threw them away--of anybody you should know how much of a prude she is." It hurt me a little to say that last part, but it's what I would have said if I really were only her friend and didn't know the whole history.

That seemed to hit the mark. Eric sagged. "Fuck. And fuck you, you little bastard. Cooking pasta, my ass."

I theatrically opened the Tupperware and wafted some of the rigatoni smell towards him. "Thomas Jefferson helped to introduce pasta to America. It would have been a rare treat for somebody on the Oregon Trail. What did I do to make you so suspicious?"

"What's in your backpack?" He sneered. "You're hiding something. Nobody just hangs around a woman like my wife because they 'just like her company.'"

I went from flushed to cold. It was such a clear admission of what a manipulative, transactional piece of shit he was, I didn't even know how to address it at first. Finally, I just shook my head. "She's my friend, and she's super cool. Ever since the first time I saw you, you were pissed off that she was having fun without your approval. I can't believe you really think that nobody would hang out with her unless they were getting something in return."

"She's my wife!" I had never seen a grown man throw a tantrum before, but it looked like I was about to get a demonstration. "Mine!"

"You sound like a toddler. No wonder she left you." I put the lid back on my pasta. "Don't bother me again. I'm not sure how restraining orders work, but I'm sure I can find out. My pasta is getting cold, and I have better things to do. Whatever is going on with you, get it sorted. Leave Cary alone, and leave me alone, too."

"She didn't leave me. You drove us apart." It was almost a whisper, he muttered it so quietly. "You and your dumb grinning friend. It was all going fine until you clowns showed up."

I sighed, suddenly tired. Tired of this asshole's suspicion, his poisonous jealously, his selfish arrogance. "The fact that you think so is why you're getting divorced," I said. "She hates you. Maybe she didn't once, but she's said it a lot. She couldn't even stand to be around you at her birthday party without being drunk. And even after you lied to the bartender to get her hammered, you were busy fucking your mistress right under her nose instead of spending time with her."

"You don't have any proof--"

I laughed. "Proof? I saw you! I accidentally walked in on you two. Going to tell Cary that you were cheating was how I found your shitburger friend trying to force her. If you had just stuck with her on her birthday, for God's sake, you might have limped along a couple more months or years out of your failing marriage. Everything that happened was your fault. Yours, and nobody else's."

The look of shock on his face was so priceless, I almost wished Cary could see it.

"Look, the only thing Jack and I did was show up at the right place at the right time to show Cary how fun life could be when she wasn't constantly anxious and feeling trapped. If her making a couple of new friends was all it took to ruin your marriage, then it was already ruined." I started walking towards my car. "Now leave me alone. If I see you or your car anywhere near me or my house or my work, I'm calling the cops."

Eric's voice shook with anger. "You think you're so smart!"

Snarky with the arrogance of youth, I glanced back over my shoulder. "What I think is that Cary keeps making more and more friends who like weapons, and I think you should be really fucking careful about this psycho stalking behavior. I know more than one of her lady friends would love to make some holes in you if you step out of line. See a shrink, get a new girlfriend, and try to be a good dad. Maybe you'll make something useful out of your life. Either way, I never want to see you again."

My hands were shaking with the after-effects of an adrenaline dump as I got into my car and drove away. In the rearview mirror I could see his RX-7 peel out of the parking lot and drive in the opposite direction. Liss's worried, angry face floated into my mind's eye. She would have been pissed as hell that I had even stopped to talk to Eric rather than leaving immediately.

Rather than going straight home, I stopped at Video Update and picked up a copy of Clan of the Cave Bear. Daryl Hannah glared at me from under scraggly, unkempt blonde locks on the cover, hovering over a green hillside on which a line of migrating cavemen marched. I perused the shelves for a little while longer until my heart had slowed and my hands were steady. By the time the bored guy at the checkout counter tapped scanned the barcode on the back of the VHS box, I was breathing normally.

When I got home, both Liss and my parents were mildly surprised. I held up the pasta. "Cary taught me how to make rigatoni!" I exclaimed, before popping it in the microwave and helping myself. It was delicious--all the more so because I had faced down Eric again and come out feeling like I had given him a piece of my mind without saying anything that would make Cary feel like I had lied for her.

Liss knocked on my door after I went downstairs. I had just about decided to make some popcorn and watch the movie, but placed it on top of my TV. Liss's arms were crossed as I eased the door open. She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Her kids came over early. We made dinner and I came home." I shrugged. "Shorter than I expected, but nice."

"And her kids drove themselves over, huh?" Liss's expression was stormy.

"Don't miss a beat, do you? Of course their asshole dad brought them."

"And...?"

I took a swig of Pepsi. "And he accused me of breaking up their marriage in the parking lot as I left. I told him to leave me alone and to stop stalking me. I said that if he kept bothering me I'd get a restraining order."

Liss blew out a breath. "You didn't threaten to beat him up or shoot him?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Very restrained. Except I told him that his failed marriage was his fault, and that Cary hated him."

"Well that probably didn't endear you to him," Liss sighed.

Now that I'd started, it felt good to get some of this out. "Liss, you were right. He's such an unbelievable asshole. He's possessive and selfish and... I mean, he thinks of her as property. Like he owns her. And he thinks of his 'friends' like tools to be used." I shook my head. "Good thing he's such a chicken-shit. If he'd been more aggressive and less slimy, he'd have probably beaten her to death by now."

I found myself shaking suddenly as I thought of it. My fists were clenched and my heart was beating as hard as if I were still standing in front of him. "Man, I'd love to kick the shit out of him."

Liss shook her head. "There it is," she said. Silence filled the space between us for several moments until she scuffed her feet suddenly. "God dammit. You really do love her, don't you?"

"Of course." My voice was a little shaky. "Why?"

"No thought for your own situation," Liss grumbled. "Just worried about what he did to her. Or might do."

I took some deep breaths and forced myself to be calmer--or at least, I tried to. The thought of Cary in danger made me irrationally angry. "I didn't yell at him," I answered, "And for Cary's sake, I tried not to antagonize him. But God damn. What a bastard. I can't believe she ever thought he was worth her time."

"She probably just didn't know any better," Liss said. "She must have gotten married kind of young, and I bet he acted a lot nicer until after the wedding. People like him can be pretty charming when they want something."

"Hmmmm. That fits," I answered, thinking of his affairs. I stretched. "Well, I think he probably won't bother me anymore. And Cary's going to be gone for a week. So I'm going to watch movies, eat popcorn, and get ready for the Rendezvous."

"Want some company?" Liss asked.

I shrugged. "I was going to watch Clan of the Cave Bear. It's based on a book that I think is probably a favorite of Cary's. At least, her friends suggested that it was."

"Meh. Pass." Liss gave me a friendly shoulder punch. "Be careful, okay?"

I nodded and sat down with my bowl of popcorn, already thinking ahead to weeks from now after the Rendezvous. I glanced at the pile of scrap leather and rawhide that I had dug out to get started on the project. Cary was going to love my surprise.