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“What did she want?” Then it hit him. “She talked to you about Steve.”
Faith nodded, a loose strand of her hair caressing her face as she did so. “About him cheating on her, yes.”
Women. Steve loved Sharon with all his heart, was devastated at her reaction to his confession, yet Sharon now refused to speak to her new husband.
“It was a long time ago during a time when they had broken up. She needs to quit acting like a spoiled child and go home to her husband.”
“Excuse me?” Faith’s brow arched upward. “During her honeymoon, she found out the man she loves cheated on her. I think she’s entitled to be emotional right now.”
“Sharon’s being more than a little emotional. She’s threatening to file for divorce,” he said, knowing his cousin was acting rashly, rather than with logic. Steve loved her.
Faith just nodded and the way she didn’t quite meet his eyes said she knew more than she was letting on.
“Don’t tell me you encouraged her to continue with this nonsense?” When she didn’t answer, Vale let out an exasperated sigh. “How dare you give her advice on marriage, or anything else? You know nothing of what our life is like. The media will be all over her and Steve. Everything either of them has ever done will be plastered in the gossip rags.”
Faith placed her fingertip against the bridge of her glasses, thrust them up her pert nose. “It’s not my place or yours to decide what’s best for Sharon.”
“She needs to stop this nonsense before she destroys her marriage. She needs to see reason.”
Faith’s eyes narrowed. “Reason being to take back a man who cheated on her?”
He placed both palms down on the deep-burgundy, high-back chair across from her desk, dug his fingers into the soft leather. “Don’t pretend to be an expert in things you know nothing about.”
“I know what she told me. Her husband cheated on her, destroyed her trust in him, and she wants a divorce.”
“She acts as if he slept around after they were married. He didn’t. They’d broken up at the time of his indiscretion.”
Faith’s mouth dropped open, then her eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that just like a man, to focus on a technicality? If he loved her, whether or not they were having an off time shouldn’t have mattered. According to Sharon, they broke up quite frequently, but always got back together. She never slept with anyone else and feels he shouldn’t have either.”
Gritting his teeth, Vale squeezed the top of the chair. Was Faith purposely trying to antagonize him? Because of what had happened between them? “Steve didn’t deserve her abandoning him in Rio during their honeymoon.”
Faith’s brow quirked. “Perhaps he should have thought about that prior to telling her during their honeymoon that he’d had sex with another woman, but no worries because she didn’t mean anything to him and he and Sharon had broken up at the time so it didn’t really count.”
Vale wouldn’t argue that Steve’s timing had been lacking, but the man had thought he was doing the right thing, had wanted to clear his conscience, because he truly did love Sharon.
“I know my cousin. She’s confused.” He met Faith’s gaze. “Don’t you have enough problems with your own family’s marital issues? Stay out of mine.”
She sucked in air loudly, looked at him with shattered eyes, making him wish he could take back his words. But he couldn’t and maybe he didn’t even really want to.
Regardless, he’d had enough.
Faith stared at Vale’s retreating back. Had he really just ordered her to stay out of his family’s marital issues? Hadn’t he been the one to drag her into his family’s marital issues to begin with by insisting she be his “date” for his cousin’s wedding to save him from his family’s matchmaking?
Weeks of frustration at the change in their relationship, at his cold shoulder, rose to the surface, blowing her top like a champagne cork. Her anger spewed out in messy, foamy white bursts.
“Don’t you order me around like you own me and then walk out of my office all sanctimonious and holier than thou,” she retaliated, jumping up from her desk to chase after him.
Surprised by her outburst and probably more so by her gripping of his jacket and tugging him round to face her, Vale’s gaze cut into her. She rushed on before he could stop her.
“If Sharon wants me as her friend, I’ll see her any time she wants and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“We’re talking about my cousin,” he reminded her, angry pink stains flushing his cheeks.
“Which doesn’t mean you own her. Sharon is a grown woman and, yes, she may be confused right now, but that doesn’t mean she needs some man telling her what she should and shouldn’t be doing right now.”
“Some man?” he growled. “Oh, you were just waiting to get that dig in, weren’t you? This just reinforces all your hang-ups about relationships and marriage, doesn’t it?”
“Marriage is an outdated sentiment. Disposable in today’s society, just promises made that are only meant to be kept until the man grows bored and moves on. I want no part of it.” Faith stood on tiptoe, nose to nose with him, hating that even in anger her body had taken notice of his proximity, of his spicy aftershave, of the sexuality radiating from his every pore.
