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But Davee was his oldest friend, and he was sick of lies and lying. He lowered himself to the edge of the chaise and clasped his hands between his spread knees. His shoulders slumped forward slightly.
“Jesus,” she said as she picked up her drink. “Is it as bad as all that?”
“She’s not an armpiece. About the other, whether or not she could be special, I don’t know.”
“Too soon to tell?”
“Too complicated.”
“She’s married?”
“No.”
“Then why is it complicated?”
“More than complicated. Impossible.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I can’t talk about it, Davee.” He spoke more sharply than he had intended, but his tone must have alerted her to how sensitive the subject was.
In any case, she backed down. “Okay. But if you need a friend…”
“Thanks.” He reached for her hand, pushed back the bangles, and kissed the inside of her wrist. Then, as his finger absently traced the pattern etched into one of the bracelets, he asked, “What gave me away?”
“The way you’re acting.”
He dropped her hand. “How am I acting?”
“Like there’s a line for mandatory castration and you’re next.” She moved to the cart across the room and mixed a fresh drink. “The minute I saw you at the funeral yesterday I knew something was wrong. Career-wise—thanks in part to me—things are going great for you. So I figured you were suffering from a heart problem.”
“It bothers me that I’m so transparent.”
“Relax. Probably no one else has noticed. Besides knowing you so well, I recognize the symptoms. That particular brand of misery can only spell l-o-v-e.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t believe it.”
“Hmm.”
“You never told me.”
“It ended badly. I was just coming off of it that summer we were in the wedding together. A wedding,” she snorted. “Just the environment I needed to make me thoroughly miserable. That’s why I acted like such a royal bitch at all the prenuptial parties. That’s also why I needed a friend that night. A very intimate friend,” she said with a soft smile, which he returned. “Our little escapade in the swimming pool restored my self-confidence.”
“Glad to have been of service.”
“You’re damn right you were.”
Gradually Hammond’s smile receded. “I never would have guessed, Davee. You covered it well. What happened?”
“We met at the university. He was a preacher’s kid. Can you believe it? Me with a preacher’s kid. He was a real gentleman. Smart. Sensitive. Didn’t treat me like a tramp, and, hard as you may find this to believe, I didn’t act like one with him.”
She finished her drink and poured another. “But I had, of course. By the time I met him, I had whored my way across campus, through one dormitory, up one side of fraternity row and down the other. I’d even had a fling with one of my instructors.
“Miraculously he was blissfully unaware of my reputation. Some of my former partners thought it would be a great joke to tell him.” She moved to the window and stared through the louvers of the shutters.
“He was an excellent student. Dean’s list. Very straight. He didn’t party much. For all those reasons, he wasn’t well liked. The guys enjoyed humiliating him, figured it was his comeuppance for being so superior. They didn’t spare a single detail. They even had some pictures from a party where I was one of the favors.
“When he confronted me with all they’d told him, I was devastated that he knew the truth about me. I pleaded with him to forgive me. To try and understand. To believe that I had changed when I met him. But he refused even to listen.” She leaned forward, resting her forehead on the shutter. “That same night, to spite me, he slept with another girl. And she got pregnant.”
