Free Wicked Obsessions by Marilyn Campbell Page A

that his reference to Selena didn't sound as if he was captivated by her sensational appearance, as most men were. "It's just that there are times when she seems to want more from me than I'm willing or able to give."
    Drew raised one eyebrow, but held his tongue.
    "No, no. Not like that. I think I could tell if she, um, wanted something physical from me. No, it's more like she wants the lion's share of my time and attention. If I'm not mistaken, I think I'm her only friend and she wants me to be the same with her. As far as I can tell, she works for no one else. Most of the time I don't mind, but occasionally—"
    "You feel smothered?"
    Teri nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I think that describes it. Could just be because I've had that same feeling from Rico for years."
    "Like Brenda."
    "Oh?" Teri didn't want to pry but he had never revealed any personal information beyond where he was from. She wanted to hear more. When he didn't expound, she could not resist prying a little. "Would you care to explain that?"
    He hesitated for a moment then gave a dry laugh. "Brenda's my ex-wife, and, as a matter of fact, I came up with explanations for her behavior for about ten years. I gave it up the last three before the divorce and let her try to explain mine instead."
    Teri quickly added up thirteen years of marriage, but that still didn't tell her how long ago they'd divorced, or why, or how old he was, nor could she follow the cryptic remarks he did make. She opted for what she thought was the least offensive inquiry. "Do you have children?" She saw the sadness she had noticed before and half expected him to say no, that like her, he'd never experienced that joy, but that wasn't the case.
    "Yes. Two. Drew, Jr. and Jennifer. She's ten and his twelfth birthday is coming up soon. They live with Brenda in Fort Worth." He looked at his plate, at the clock on the wall, out the window, everywhere but at Teri.
    "They're great kids, but we had them for the wrong reasons. Brenda was several years younger than me when we got married, so I figured she still needed some time to grow up. But she wasn't interested in growin' up. Instead, she grew more dependent on me. She didn't want to do anything on her own, not even a hobby. If she could have gone to work with me every day, that would have tickled her pink. I thought havin' kids would give her someone to dote on other than me. Dumb idea, huh?"
    "Well, I suppose it made sense to you at the time. You're not the first person who thought children could heal an ailing marriage. I know."
    "But you never tried that."
    She smirked. "Oh, we tried. It just didn't produce results. I guess it turned out for the best after all."
    Drew moved the conversation to more neutral ground, but Teri was pleased to have extracted at least a few personal tidbits from him. After lunch, at Drew's strong recommendation, they went back up to the studio to work. Teri returned Selena's call before she got involved in her painting again.
    "Hi, Selena. It's Teri."
    "Did you plug in your extension phone?"
    Teri laughed. "Yes, but I'll never get to where I wanted to be today if I don't keep at it. Did you need something?" Teri listened to Selena take a breath before speaking.
    "Actually, I can't explain it. I had this strong urge to talk to you and make sure you were okay. You know?"
    Teri almost told her she was not okay, but that Drew was with her, except her intuition told her neither bit of information would please Selena.
    "Yes, I know. But everything's fine. I really need to get back to work now."
    "Well-l-l. All right. Promise you'll call if you need me... for anything."
    "I promise. But while I have you on the phone, don't worry about getting here tomorrow. In fact, I'm not going to be ready to pick up our work again until next week. So if you have something else to do, you've got the rest of the week. Maybe you should get out of town, take a vacation. I'll just plan on seeing you Monday." As she hung up the phone, she thought