Shakedown

Chapter Eighteen

I hadn’t told Wendy that I’d invited Kate to join us for dinner because I didn’t know how. Though Wendy accepted that our marriage was over, she was loyal to her mother and protective enough of me that she’d welcome a new person in my life with the same open arms she would extend to a carrier of the avian?u.

Joy had told Wendy that I was having an affair with Kate well before we separated. Wendy confronted me and I told her it wasn’t so, explaining that ours was strictly a professional relationship. Wendy pushed harder, educating me about emotional affairs that stopped short of sexual intimacy but were equally destructive of marriages.

I had more trouble denying that because I fit the profile, remembering again how I’d reacted to Kate when I first saw her in the courtroom and how the word intimate so accurately described the lunches, conversations, and thoughts we’d shared since then. I fell back on a strict interpretation of my marital vows, telling Wendy that whatever our marriage was, it was still a marriage. When Joy finally left me, I realized how weak my defense had been. Joy was the one who’d been honest and courageous enough to walk away.

Watching Wendy and Colby embrace on the sidewalk, I knew I had to tell her that Kate was joining us. She wouldn’t need to read my micro expressions to know that I was lying if I told her that Kate’s presence was a coincidence.

“Honey, can I talk to you for a minute before we go inside?” She looked at me, then at Colby, raising her eyebrows. “Alone. It will only take a minute.”

Colby nodded and went inside.

“What’s up, Dad?”

“I’m really glad we’re having dinner together.”

“Me too, but I don’t think you have to keep that a secret from Colby.”

My mouth felt dry and my gut started to quiver. Wendy hadn’t seen me shake. I didn’t want to frighten her, but I couldn’t shut the tremors down.

“Listen, I should have told you sooner,” I began, my voice turning to gargles, my chest, shoulders, and arms wobbling.

“Dad, what’s the matter? Is this what Colby was talking about?”

She hugged me, easy at first, then fiercely as if she were doing battle with my demons. The shaking passed and she let go.

“It’s okay, really. I’ve got an appointment with a specialist at KU Hospital.”

“When?”

She made it a demand, not a question.

“Couple of months. That’s as soon as they could get me in unless they get a cancellation.”

“Well, that is bullshit!”

“Bullshit it may be, but it’s all they were serving.”

“Thanks for telling me. I’m going with you to see the doctor.”

“You don’t have to do that, honey.”

“Yes, I do. You stood by me all these years when I stepped in one bucket after another. You may not need me to go to the doctor with you, but I need me to go with you.”

I couldn’t help but smile. There comes a time in the lives of parents and children when their roles reverse, when the child becomes the parent. We had a long way to go before that happened. For now, we would take care of one another.

“I’d like that. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.”

She folded her arms, took a step back, her mouth tight. “Is it about you and Mom?”

I shook my head. “No. Relax. It’s nothing so dramatic. I invited a friend of mine to join us for dinner. I should have told you sooner but it was kind of last minute. I just didn’t want you to be surprised.”

She brightened, smiling and grabbing my wrists. “That’s okay. Who is it?”

The door to the restaurant opened. A familiar voice said, “There you are. I’ve been waiting inside. I was afraid I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Kate stood five feet away. Colby was a step behind, looking over her shoulder. The bell had rung and I couldn’t stop the chime. I held Wendy’s arm, not certain whether she’d attack, retreat, or fall down.

“Sweetheart, say hello to Kate Scranton,” I said.

Wendy stared at Kate, then at me, her mouth changing shapes as she searched for the words she wanted to use. Her eyes filled. She blinked, turning her head away from Kate, looking at me with wide and pained eyes.

“What world are you living in, Dad? How could you do this to Mom and me?”

Before I could answer, she was gone, speed walking to her car without looking back. Colby followed, stopping long enough to ask what had happened.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked.

“I invited Kate Scranton to dinner without telling Wendy in advance.”

“So?”

“So, Wendy’s mother told her that Kate and I are having an affair.”

Colby looked at Kate. “Her? I just met her inside. No wonder she was cross-examining me. You’d have thought she was the mother of the bride, not the stepmother.”

His multiple wedding references threw me. Was it possible that in one sentence he had said not only were he and Wendy getting married but that he believed that Kate and I were also getting married? If so, I had the answer to Wendy’s question. I was living in the Twilight Zone.

“And,” Colby continued, “somehow you thought it would be a good idea to make an ambush introduction of your girlfriend to your daughter before your divorce is final? Man, your brain must be shaking worse than your body. Like I said, you’re not right. Stay out of our case and stay away from Wendy.”

Colby thumped my chest with his index finger to make the point. On another day, I might have grabbed his hand and broken his finger. Instead, I watched both of them leave, not moving until I felt Kate alongside me.

“When I was a kid,” I said, “my buddies and I were convinced that we could cause a train wreck by leaving a penny on the rail, like that was enough to make the whole train jump the tracks. We were so certain it would work we didn’t have the nerve to try. Now I know what it feels like to cause a train wreck.”

Kate put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s not that bad.”

“You’re right. A real train wreck would have been better.”

“C’mon. You made a mistake. You should have told her that you had invited me, but you didn’t. If I was her, I’d be angry, too. Wendy’ll calm down and when she does, you’ll apologize.”

“She’ll never believe we weren’t having an affair.”

“Maybe not. She’ll have to reconcile herself to the past, whatever she believes about it. Then, she’ll have to get used to the future.”

“You think that will be any easier?”

“Depends on how she feels about us having an affair,” she said, kissing me softly.

Her kiss was filled with promise. I made her one of my own.

“By the way,” I said, “Colby says that you were you cross-examining him like the stepmother of the bride. What was that all about?”

Kate gave me a sly smile. “Well, I didn’t think he’d talk to me if he saw me only as a jury consultant, which is how I assumed you would introduce me. I had to put him at ease as quickly as I could. I knew he wouldn’t discuss the murders, but I thought I’d be on safe ground talking about buying a house.”

“And?”

“And I recognized him from your description and introduced myself. I told him I was a friend of yours, that you had invited me to join the three of you for dinner, and that Wendy had mentioned to you that he was considering buying a house out here. He couldn’t wait to tell me about the woman who had turned in her husband and how she was making him such a good deal.”

“That’s what he told me. He thought the whole story was very funny.”

“Really. For such a funny story, he’s a pretty worried secret agent.”

“Undercover agent.”

“Undercover agents are all about secrets. I caught a?ash of his hidden face in between his grins. I don’t know if it’s buying this house, but he’s losing sleep over something.”