Free Fool for Love by Marie Force Page B

which
apparently pained him. Tears flooded his eyes, but Janey wasn't naive enough to
think they were for her. Not anymore. "You saw me? Where?"
    Janey felt like she was floating above
herself, looking down at someone who looked like her and sounded like her but
wasn't her at all. "In bed."
    "You're talking in riddles," he
said, exasperated. "When did you see me in bed?"
    "I came to your apartment on our
anniversary to surprise you, but the surprise was on me. You should really lock
your doors when you're 'entertaining.'"
    All the remaining color drained from his
face when he finally got what she was telling him. "You don't
understand."
    "You're goddamned right I
don't." Janey gave herself credit for keeping her voice down when she
really wanted to shriek and rail and punch him until he hurt as much as she
did. "And guess what? I really don't want to understand."
    "Wait. Janey, listen—"
    "There's nothing you can say and
nothing you can ever do to get the image of you having sex with another
woman out of my head."
    "It's not what you think."
    Janey laughed when she wanted to cry.
"You're probably going to tell me you were conducting medical research or
some other lame story that you'll expect me to believe."
    "It only happened once."
    "I don't believe you."
    "I swear to God!"
    "Don't swear to God and then lie to
my face. You'll go to hell."
    He touched his wounded face and winced.
"Already there."
    "You don't know hell!"
She no longer cared about keeping her voice down. "You didn't have to see
me writhing around in bed with another guy!"
    "You don't get it, Janey. Work is so
stressful, I miss you so much, and there's this other thing going on… I just
needed to take the edge off."
    She stared at him, incredulous. "I
offered to move to Boston so I could 'take the edge off' anytime you wanted, but
you said I should stay on the island. At least now I know why you were so
anxious to keep me tucked away where I couldn't 'surprise' you anytime I needed to take the edge off."
    "Janey—"
    "You've made a fool of me and a
mockery of all the years I spent waiting for you. I was always faithful
to you."
    "She means nothing to me. You're the
one I love. I've always loved you, and you know that."
    Images of Joe making sweet love to her
chose that moment to pop into her overworked brain. "If you really loved
me, you wouldn't have 'taken the edge off' with other women while you were
engaged to me." Deciding she wanted nothing to remind her of all the years
she'd spent so foolishly devoted to him, Janey dug the ring out of her bag.
    She dropped it on the bed and took one
last long look at the man she'd loved all her life. "Don't get any ideas
about pressing charges against Joe. You're lucky he only broke your
nose. He and Mac were quite prepared to kill you after they heard what you'd
done. I told them you weren't worth the trouble. Turns out I was right about
that. Have a nice life."
    Turning, she battled her way through the
curtain to the hallway, where Maddie leaned against the wall looking
embarrassed to have overheard the exchange.
    "Janey!" David called.
"Wait!"
    "Get me out of here," she
muttered to Maddie. Her legs suddenly felt like spaghetti, and Janey wasn't
sure they'd support her weight for much longer. "Please just get me out of
here."
    "I've got you." As Maddie put an
arm around her and hustled her through the waiting room, Janey felt every eye
in the place on her. She and David hadn't been quiet. News of their broken
engagement was probably already burning up the island phone lines.
    "Oh, God, my parents," Janey
whispered. "They should hear this from me, not the gossips."
    "I'll take you to them. Just hang in
there. The worst part is over."
    "How'd I do?"
    "Better than I would have. You held
yourself together and got through it with your dignity intact."
    That might be true, Janey thought, but
hearing him casually confess to being unfaithful had broken what was left of
her heart.

Chapter 9
     
    Maddie called ahead to let