Free Power Play: A Novel by Danielle Steel Page B

patients for years. I can’t believe the messes my male patients get themselves into, if they’re in the power game. They pull stunts no sane man should ever try, but a lot of them do, and then it blows up in their faces and everyone acts surprised. I no longer am. I wish there were a little more of that in your life,” she said, giving her younger sister a hug. She was a good woman and Jillian thought she deserved a good man. It had always been easier for Jillian to meet men, and she was more open to it than Fiona, who was more willing to give up on romance in her life, and be satisfied with just kids and work. “You need to make more effort to meet a guy,” she said gently, and Fiona looked surprised.
    “Why? I’m happy the way I am. Besides, I don’t have time for a relationship.”
    “Yes, you do. You just don’t want to make the effort, or risk getting hurt again.” Jillian always told it like it was.
    “Probably,” Fiona admitted. The last years of her marriage had been so bitter that she had been gun-shy about relationships eversince, and had put more effort into avoiding one than finding one now. And the kind of men who approached her or she got fixed up with were a good excuse.
    “There are some good men out there,” Jillian assured her. “You just need better luck next time. David was never right for you. It just got more apparent over time. He was always jealous of you and your career. He wanted to be you, he just didn’t want to put the time in to do it, and he wasn’t smart enough to pull it off so he beat you up for it instead. It’s a pretty typical tactic when a woman is more successful than her husband, but it’s a cheap shot.” He had accused and blamed Fiona for years, as they both knew.
    “I think it cured me from marriage forever,” Fiona said simply.
    “Hopefully not from relationships. I still keep hoping you’ll meet the right guy,” Jillian said honestly and Fiona shrugged.
    “Why? You don’t have one at the moment,” Fiona said.
    Although usually she did. She had taken a breather for the past few months, after her last lover had died suddenly of a heart attack at fifty-nine, and she had been sad about it. They had gotten along well for two years, which was about how long Jillian’s relationships lasted. She got bored with them after that and moved on.
    “We’re different. You’re better suited to long-term relationships than I am. I would have killed David after a year for his antiquated ideas and opinions.” And she knew that Fiona had endured untold amounts of emotional abuse from him, and still did, for her children’s sake. He always had something nasty to say about her, which Jillian thought was pathetic and Fiona agreed. But he was the father of her children so she had to see him from time to time, mostly at events that were important to them, like graduations. He was poisonous every time. It no longer hurt her, but it was petty andannoying, and upset the kids, who couldn’t get him to stop either, and they had tried. And even though he was happy with Jenny now supposedly, he was still miserable to Fiona, and resentful of the past. “You got great kids out of it, that’s something,” Jillian said as Fiona unlocked her car.
    “Next Saturday?” she asked Jillian hopefully. They always had a good time. “You can tell me more about your book about men and women and power. It sounds good to me.”
    “I don’t need to tell you. You’re living it. I should interview you officially one of these days.”
    “Anytime,” Fiona said, and hugged her, and then slid into her car.
    The two women went their separate ways, and Fiona was in a good mood all the way home, and even happier when she found Alyssa at the house when she got back. She was picking up clean clothes and doing a load of laundry while she waited for her mother. And she’d already helped herself to the skirt she wanted for that night. She had texted her mother and knew she was playing tennis with