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“Did you want to work?”
“Well, at first, I thought it was kind of nice. He had a great job, and we had a beautiful house on the edge of a lake. Since I hadn’t finished college, I thought about returning, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study. Wade let me do anything I wanted to the house, keeping me busy most of the time.”
“But you went out and had lunch with friends and stuff like that, right?”
He asked before he took a massive bite of his burger.
“Um, not really. I mean, once in a while, I did. Most of my friends worked, so I didn’t see them during the day, but sometimes they’d come over for dinner with their husbands. Wade enjoyed hosting, so we always had company when he wasn’t traveling.”
“He traveled?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Did you ever go with him?”
I shook my head, wanting to laugh out loud. “No. He liked his time alone while he traveled.” I frowned. “Of course, I later learned that he liked to travel alone so he could do what he wanted while he was away from home.”
He stared at me in mid-chew, then swallowed. “What the hell does that mean?”
I shrugged a shoulder, wishing I hadn’t brought this up. If I told Smoke what was on my mind, it would just reinforce how terrible of a wife I was by not being able to keep my husband happy.
“Lilly?” He asked after a moment of me staring at my plate. “You know you can talk to me, right? Whatever is on your mind, just say it.”
I sighed heavily, and then the words rushed out of my mouth. “He had quite a few mistresses while we were married.”
“He was cheating on you? You?”
I laughed. “You say that like it’s hard to believe.”
“It is!” He growled, then set his burger down and wiped his hands on his napkin. He laid his arms on the table on either side of his plate and studied me. “I don’t know anything about this man you were married to, but if he was cheating on you, he’s a piece of shit. It’s no wonder you divorced him.”
“He divorced me.”
“His infidelity led him to another woman, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“His loss, my gain.” He said with a shoulder lift and then returned his attention to his food.
“What do you mean, his loss, your gain?”
“It means you aren’t with him anymore. Now you can be with me.”
“Smoke, I work for your company. That means that there cannot be anything between us.”
He chewed slowly for a moment, staring back at me, and I saw the wheels inside his mind turning. “Okay, then I’ll fire you.”
I jerked back in my seat, shocked at his words. “What? No! Please, don’t do that. I need this job!”
He chuckled. “Relax, Lillian, I’m not going to fire you. If I did, Lydia would probably take my head off. She likes you, and she knows you will do a great job. I’ll just have to figure something else out.”
“What is there to figure out? I’m an employee. Besides, I’m nothing special. I am sure you could have any woman that you wanted.”
“It’s not any woman that I want.” I stared at him after he paused. “It’s you.”
“Why do you want me?”
“There is something about you. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I feel it every time I look at you. When I am near you, I want to be closer.”
