It Had to Be You by Georgia Clark (iphone ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Nico indicated the bar where the maître d’ and bartender were pretending not to be watching them; caught, they both waggled their fingers in greeting. “He’s one of the good ones.”

Sam groaned. “This might’ve been a mistake.”

But Liv didn’t think it was. She thought it was cute. They ordered a selection of small plates, and when the champagne was drained, two glasses of a New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Even though it had been a good few decades since she’d been on a date, she still recalled alcohol as a primary component.

Their conversation was fluid, intimate; interesting. Formative years: Liv’s on the Upper East Side, Sam’s in coastal Maine. College: NYU, Berkeley. Childhood dreams: actress, firefighter.

“Firefighter?” Liv forked a salted peewee potato in her mouth. “I always had a thing for firefighters.”

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Maybe I’ll have to ditch the cooking.”

It wasn’t until they were onto an ooey-gooey chocolatey dessert and glasses of exquisitely sweet port, the room emptying of patrons and Ella Fitzgerald crooning over the speakers, when the heavier stuff came up.

“We were married for fifteen years.” Sam’s eyes were soft and serious. Liv could tell this was a painful memory but not one he was going to burst into tears over. Eliot was a regular crier. Sam seemed like the once-a-year type.

Sam told her how they met at a friend’s potluck housewarming party when he was thirty-four and Claudia was twenty-five. He brought homemade pulled-pork sliders. She brought a bottle of prosecco and a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Claudia—spin class junkie, people person, lover of salty snacks—was already a rising star in the marketing department of a youthful makeup brand. Which is where, years later, she met Anton—fellow department head, bowling league teammate, diehard Lakers fan… and the man she had an affair with for three years.

“Three years.” Liv didn’t intend to underline it. “Sorry. That’s just so…”

“Long,” Sam finished. “I know.”

“I was going to say cruel. My husband was cheating on me for six months, and I thought that was an eternity. And then of course, there was the will.”

“Will?”

Liv found herself opening up to Sam, divulging the nature of the Savannah, Eliot, Liv triangle.

He put his dessert fork down, looking shocked. “I’m amazed.”

“Affairs are amazing. In the less positive sense of the word.”

“No,” he amended. “I’m amazed you had the strength to put it behind you and work with Savannah, day-to-day. That must be taking incredible inner strength.”

Liv flushed with the compliment. “But three years. That must’ve destroyed you.”

“Maimed. Tortured. Possibly lost a limb. But I’m still standing. And it’s nothing like”—Sam paused—“I was going to say ‘losing her,’ but what I really mean is her dying.”

There was no handbook for talking about death. But at least Sam could say the words. Eliot was dead. That was a fact.

“I’ve been wondering,” Liv said. “What would’ve been less worse: Eliot dying or us having to deal with the affair. Of course, I’d do anything to bring him back, even if we weren’t together. For Ben, mostly. But sometimes—and I can’t believe I’m admitting this—I feel… relief that it happened. Because that choice was taken out of my hands.”

If Eliot hadn’t died and they’d had to deal with the affair, Liv would only have had her preconceived notion of being a scorned woman, a cuckolded wife, to deal with his betrayal. A role as calcified as their marriage had become. But because things happened in the weird way that they did, she’d come to see the incompatible side of her husband with fresher eyes. She met Sam’s gaze. The color of butterscotch pudding, focused entirely on her.

“So, here I am.”

“Dating.”

Liv screwed up her face. “Don’t say it.”

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a blood sport. Most women don’t want to date a guy with a kid.”

Liv finished the last bite of dessert. “I think most women just don’t want to get treated like an idiot.” She thought for a second. “Or raped.”

Sam choked. “Did you just say rape on our first date?”

Liv pushed the empty plate aside. “Okay. Here’s what you should know about me. I don’t suffer fools. I work all the time. I love my kid, and I will murder anyone who touches so much as a hair on his head. I don’t like women who speak in baby voices or men who think their dicks are some sort of passport to power or respect. And because women have been treated like second-class citizens since the dawn of time, yes, I will acknowledge the existence of rape.” She sat back in her chair. “So. Are we done?”

Sam chuckled, unfazed. “On the contrary.” He flagged their server down and ordered another round of port. “We’re just getting started.”

40

Zach found Darlene on the far corner of the patio, facing the pool. The light from under the water patterned her pretty face in shifting silver. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her and never stop. “Oh my God! You were amazing back there.”

She let out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure your parents hate me right now.”

“What? No! That was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” He let himself gaze into those clever dark eyes that could see right through him. At that lovely mouth that just said all those lovely things. He’d always tried to be open-minded and kind, but no one had ever reflected it back to him. It felt like there was no one in his life who challenged him, admired him, or believed in him as much as Darlene. “Thank you, Darlene.”

She smiled at him. “You’re welcome, Zach.”

The need to touch her built to a fever pitch. Zach jammed his hands in his pockets to stop him mauling her like a hungry beast. “So was that all just part of the act? Or do you actually think that about me?”

Darlene ran her tongue lightly across her bottom lip. “I think both are true.”

Stunned, happy disbelief billowed in his chest, puffing him up