Free This Matter Of Marriage by Debbie Macomber Page A

door. On her way home that evening, Hallie stopped off at the bank for cash. Her ATM card remained in her bottom dresser drawer, along with her credit cards—safe from temptation.
    Wanting to put the task of repaying her neighbor behind her, Hallie headed directly for his condo after she parked her car. His lights were on and she assumed he was home, but it was Meagan who answered the door. “Hi, Hallie!”
    â€œHi, Meagan. Is your dad there?”
    â€œYeah. He’s in the shower. You can wait, can’t you?”
    â€œI don’t actually need to talk to him.” She pulled the twenty-dollar bill out of her purse. “Would you give this to him?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œGive me what?” Steve strolled barefoot into the hallway, wearing jeans and an unbuttoned plaid shirt. A damp towel was draped around his neck, and his dark hair glistened with water. “Oh, hi, Hallie.”
    â€œHi.” She smiled weakly, embarrassed about their last meeting.
    â€œHey, Dad,” Kenny shouted, leaping off the sofa. “Hallie brought you twenty bucks. Let’s go out for pizza, okay?”
    â€œUh…” Steve hesitated.
    Meagan’s eyes were as bright as her brother’s. “Can Hallie come, too?”
    â€œI…can’t. Really.” Hallie looked over her shoulder at her empty condo, tempted to suggest she had places to go, people to meet. It would have been a lie. “I just wanted to repay the loan and thank you for coming to my rescue. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t answered the door.” Well, she would have managed—she would’ve retrieved her bank card from the bottom drawer and…But Steve had saved her time and spared her inconvenience. She’d been in no shape to go driving around with a seriously annoyed cabbie, looking for a bank machine.
    â€œ Can we go out for pizza, Dad?” Kenny asked again, his hands folded in prayerlike fashion. “Please, please, please?”
    â€œI don’t see why not,” Steve relented, grinning. He turned to Hallie. “You’re welcome to come along. Actually, I wish you would. The kids will desert me for the video games the minute we arrive and I’ll be stuck sitting there with no one to talk to.”
    She wavered. Even if she didn’t have any plans, she didn’t want to intrude.
    â€œPlease come!” Meagan urged.
    â€œSure,” Hallie said before she could change her mind. Although it wasn’t the thought of her empty condo or equally empty refrigerator that persuaded her. It wasn’t even Meagan’s invitation. It was the pizza. Pizza, loaded down with cheese, spicy sausage and olives. After nearly two months of exercise, after week upon week of eating lettuce and vegetables, skinless chicken and Dover sole, she deserved pizza. She’d walk an extra mile on her treadmill, but heaven help her, she wanted that pizza.
    â€œI’m glad you decided to come,” Meagan told her when they arrived at the local pizza parlor, a five-minute drive away. To Hallie’s relief, Steve had taken his car—not his truck, which he’d left at work.
    The place was filled with Friday-night family business, the noise roughly equal to that of a rock concert. While Steve stood in line at the counter to order their dinner, Hallie steered the kids toward one of the few empty tables.
    Steve returned five minutes later with two soft drinks, a couple of beers and a pile of quarters. Kenny’s eyes lit up like the video games he loved and he reached forward to grab the coins. “Twelve quarters each,” Steve said, gazing sternly at his offspring. “And they have to last you all night. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Got it?”
    â€œGot it.”
    The quarters disappeared along with Meagan and Kenny.
    Steve sat down across the picnic-style table from Hallie. She spread one of the red-checkered napkins on her