Free Racing Against Time by Marie Ferrarella Page A

were rumors.”
    Yes, he damn well figured there would have been. Not because he was a judge, but because he was a Montgomery. “What kind of rumors?”
    She blunted the edge. And gave it her own spin. Not just to be kind, but because it was what she believed. It was one of those nonsecret secrets that Brent Montgomery’s wife had been unfaithful to him. “That your ex-wife didn’t know what she had. That she didn’t belong in your circle.”
    One minute the woman before him was coming across tough as nails, the next minute she was soft. Brent couldn’t exactly read her. But he knew what she was doing now.
    “You’re making that up to spare my feelings. I know what they said. That I couldn’t keep Jennifer satisfied. That she found me boring.” The latter had been an accusation she’d hurled at him when he’d confronted her with the name of her lover.
    Jennifer Montgomery needed her head examined and her eyes checked. And an MRI to find her missing heart wouldn’t have been out of the question, either, Callie thought.
    Knowing that this had to make him feel uncomfortable, she took it out of the realm of personal. “I read somewhere that Taylor Madison’s first wife said the same thing about him.” She shrugged, mentioning the latest Hollywood heartthrob to grace the fantasies of women everywhere. “Go figure. Me, I think that he’s one of the nicest men in the world.”
    Brent raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised. “You know him?”
    Callie shook her head “Just what I read.” She didn’t want to sound like some mindless fan. It was her instincts that came into play here, just as they did with him. “Sometimes you don’t have to know a person inside and out to have an educated opinion.”
    Suddenly she realized they were standing so close there wasn’t enough room for a whisper between them now. Another moment, and—
    What the hell was she doing, her brain thundered, finally ushering in the hovering headache full force. This was the parent of a kidnapping victim, not her latest date she was talking to.
    Maybe that was the problem. She didn’t have a latest date. Hadn’t had any date at all, not since Kyle was killed. Her family had been urging her for the past six months to set her grief aside and begin going out again, but she just couldn’t get herself to do it. Couldn’t gather up the will, the courage, to get back on a horse that could possibly throw her again. Or maybe even get stuck at the starting gate.
    And yet…
    And yet she was a normal woman with hormones that reacted to a good-looking man. Like the man standing right before her. But one didn’t live by hormones alone, she argued fiercely.
    Her temples throbbing, her pulse inexplicably scrambling, Callie pulled back, stumbling inwardly as she retreated. Her eyes never left his face even though she wanted to look away. “It’s getting late. Neither one of us is thinking clearly.”
    Was she talking about his daughter’s case, or what had almost happened here? Because if she hadn’t had the sense to pull back, Brent knew he would have kissed her. Kissed her because he needed the comfort of a human touch, of compassion turned his way.
    Of he didn’t know what.
    He’d always been the strong one, no matter the situation. The one who, though not overtly an optimist, had always held things together by sheer grit. Because he had to. It was a matter of honor. He hadn’t allowed himself to get swept away by his family’s name or his family’s wealth, the way his cousin Hamilton had. At thirty-eight, Hamilton had yet to grow up, yet to become a responsible adult. Brent had always been determined to make something of himself even if he didn’t have to. Not for the family name, certainly not for his distant parents, who only required from him a lack of scandal, but for himself.
    And, for a time, for Jennifer.
    But now the focus of his world was Rachel. And she had been stolen from him.
    “No,” he agreed slowly, “we’re not.”
    He