Free The Saint's Wife by Lauren Gallagher Page A

better than the bitter sniping they’d done when they’d first split up. Especially since Tiffany was getting old enough to notice these things, and they owed her better than that.
    He cleared his throat. “So, um. Has she been to the zoo recently?”
    Alexandra shook her head.
    “There’s a new exhibit,” he said. “They just added a couple of…some new cat.” Nodding toward Tiffany, he added, “I thought I’d take her to see it.”
    Alexandra smiled a little, which was nice to see once in a while. “She’ll enjoy that.”
    “That’s what I’m hoping.” He paused, hesitating. “Listen, uh, before I go…”
    Alexandra shifted impatiently. “I have to take off, David. I can’t—”
    “Just a quick question.” He swallowed. “What do you make of Joanna?”
    His ex-wife jumped. “What…what do you mean?”
    “I mean…” He sighed. “The thing is, ever since she came back from Oregon, she’s just seemed…off.”
    “She’s always seemed off,” Alexandra said, an oddly bitter edge to her voice. “I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to bitch slap her on Chris’s behalf.”
    David’s eyes widened. That was so not like Alexandra. “Really?”
    “Well, yeah.” Alexandra folded her arms loosely. “But, I mean, I can kind of see where she’s coming from.”
    “How so?”
    She studied him, her eyebrow arching slightly. “Do you pay attention to anything?”
    He bristled. “Humor me.”
    She didn’t speak right away, and he was about to suggest letting it go, but then she took a deep breath. “When was the last time you saw Joanna with a friend? And I don’t mean the wife of one of Chris’s colleagues. I mean someone she spends time with on her own.”
    “I don’t…I don’t really watch her that closely.”
    “Well, I’ll give you a hint.” Alexandra shifted, tightening her arms across her chest. “She doesn’t have any. And the reason for that is Chris.”
    “What? How do you figure?”
    His ex-wife rolled her eyes. “Chris suffocates her. I mean, I thought she was just antisocial or way too clingy to him. But, I mean, watch them when they’re together. He’s the one with the death grip on her, not the other way around.”
    David gnawed the inside of his cheek and avoided her gaze, instead watching Tiffany hunt for one of her shoes.
    “And she’s…” Alexandra hesitated.
    He turned to her. “What?”
    “Look, I know you and Chris are close, and you and I…aren’t.”
    David winced. Three years, and that still hurt.
    “I don’t want to sit here and rip on your best friend and my ex-boss.”
    “It’s okay,” he said. “To be honest, I’m concerned about her.”
    Her eyebrows climbed her forehead. “You’re concerned? About her ? That’s a first.”
    He glared at her.
    “Okay, okay.” She exhaled. “Look, Chris told me…a lot of things. I mean, you spend that much time with someone…” Her cheeks colored slightly, and she stared at the carpet between them.
    “Go on.”
    She lifted her gaze, and her eyes flicked toward Tiffany. Shifting uncomfortably, she turned toward David. “One of the biggest things that’s driven them apart is they blame each other because they never had children.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “The thing is, I think it really was Chris’s fault.”
    “Why? Because of the treatment for—”
    “No, no. This happened before he got sick the first time. When she was in the hospital.” She lifted her eyebrows slightly, as if to ask, Remember that?
    Oh, David remembered. Chris had been alternately worried sick and absolutely livid during that time, and that was in between making sure that the public believed she was being treated for pneumonia or something. He would not stand for the media catching wind of his wife’s admission to a psychiatric hospital.
    David hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “I’m assuming there’s more to the story than I heard.”
    “Oh yeah. The thing is, her eating disorder fucked up her system.