Free The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts Page B

the offer, you know how to reach me.”
    “I won’t. My best to your parents, and your wife.”
    “Montgomery,” he said with a nod, and walked to his Mercedes.
    Hope kept the smile on her face until he’d pulled out, driven away.
    “Oh God. Oh God.” She broke away, strode back into The Courtyard, circled around it. “Oh my God.”
    Ryder thought of Vesta—homey smells, happy kids, no problems, no drama. He cast his eyes at the sky and followed her into The Courtyard.

CHAPTER FIVE

    H E KNEW BETTER THAN TO TELL HER TO SIT DOWN OR calm down. No man really understood women, but he thought he had a reasonable handle on the species.
    So he sat, figuring it might take a while while she circled the pavers. Since she wore one of those thin summer dresses, he couldn’t fault the view.
    And he sat while his dog crawled under the table as if seeking cover from the fallout. But it was freaking hot, and added to it she had enough steam pumping off her to boil a bucket of lobsters.
    Might as well get her started on it, Ryder decided.
    “Okay, what’s the deal?”
    “The deal?”
    When she swung around, the skirt of the dress floated up and around long, bare legs.
    No, he couldn’t fault the view.
    “The deal?” she repeated, with those dark chocolate eyes of hers shooting out bullets of fury. “Oh, he wanted to make me a deal all right, the slimy bastard.”
    Ryder eyed the glasses of iced tea. He wouldn’t mind some, but he wasn’t sure whose glass was whose, and didn’t particularly want to drink after a slimy bastard.
    “That”—she waved a hand toward the parking lot—“was Jonathan.”
    “Yeah, we met.”
    “We used to be—” What? she wondered. Just what did it used to be?
    “I got that. You were hooked up, and he flipped on you for somebody else.” He shrugged when she stopped walking off the mad long enough to look at him. “Word gets around.”
    “The word’s inadequate.
I
was the other woman. I didn’t know I was the other woman until he told me he was engaged—a bomb he dropped shortly after we had sex. I thought we were in a relationship, an exclusive relationship, but he was
juggling
me. Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
    She had smoky looks, a smoky voice—and when she was seriously pissed, he thought, you caught the fire under the smoke.
    “Okay, he’s a slimy bastard and you were stupid. You got smart and kicked him to the curb. Is this glass yours?”
    “Yes, and of course I ended it. And I gave my notice. He actually assumed everything would go on the way it was. Me working for his family while he had me on the side.”
    “Then he was stupid.”
    “You’re damn right!” Fully appreciating the comment, Hope slapped Ryder’s shoulder as she started pacing and circling again. “He got married in May—a lavish event, naturally, at the Wickham with a three-week honeymoon in Europe.”
    “Keeping tabs?”
    She stopped. Her chin jutted out. “I read the Style section of the
Post
. And, all right, yes, I wanted to see—it’s human nature. You’d have done the same.”
    He considered, then shook his head. “Not so much. When something’s done, it’s done. What was he doing here, because visiting an old friend was bullshit.”
    “What was he doing here? I’ll tell you what he was doing here. He
said
he wanted to tell me he felt partially responsible for my relocation and so on—partially. He
said
he wanted to see the inn, and take me to lunch. He said I was missed, and his father designated him to make me a
generous offer
. Generous offer, my ass!”
    He’d never seen her seriously worked up, he realized. Irked, annoyed, somewhat pissed, but not full-throttle. It was probably wrong to sit there thinking it looked good on her.
    “Trying to poach our innkeeper.” He kept his voice mild in contrast to hers. “Not cool.”
    “Oh, that wasn’t all. Oh no, obviously I’m not suited for this job. According to him I can’t be happy and fulfilled unless I’m back in Georgetown,