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"The first time to prove to myself that I could."
"Could what?"
"Forget you. The second divorce proved I couldn't."
She held his gaze for a long moment, then got up quickly and crossed the room to the sink, where she turned on the faucet, then immediately turned it off. "Stop saying things like that."
"Sue me."
She spun around, anger flashing in her eyes. "Don't be cute, Dodge. You can't flip off this crisis with one of your catchphrases. This situation--"
"Sucks," he said, coming to his feet and advancing on her. "That's what this situation does. Are you ashamed?"
"Ashamed?"
"Why haven't you told Berry who I am?"
"Why haven't you?"
That stopped him in his tracks. For the life of him, he couldn't think of a comeback. "Shit."
A long, taut silence stretched between them. Eventually she said quietly, "I shouldn't have called you. You should never have sent me your phone number."
Several years ago, on a night when he was particularly drunk, lonely, remorseful, and maudlin, he'd written his cell phone number on a postcard along with two words. Sue me. His catchphrase, she'd called it. He supposed it was, because he'd known that, when she read those two words, she would know immediately whose phone number it was. The postcard had a picture of Margaret Mitchell's house on it, so she would also know that it had come from Atlanta.
It did his old, thudding heart good to know that she hadn't fed the postcard into the office shredder, or torn it into tiny bits and flung them to the four winds. "Nobody forced you to keep my phone number, Caroline. I didn't even know that you'd received it until you called last night. When I mailed you the card, I didn't know if you still worked at that company. I addressed it to Caroline King, but I didn't know if you went by your name or his."
"I kept mine."
"Why?"
"Professional reasons."
"What did he think about that?"
"He didn't object."
Dodge's heart felt like it was in a goddamn vise, but he had to ask, had to know. "Why'd you marry him?"
"Dodge--"
"Tell me. Why?"
"Because I wanted to!"
"To spite me?"
"Don't flatter yourself."
"Did you love him?"
"Yes."
"You loved him."
"Yes."
"After me, after us, was it that easy--"
