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After more than the usual amount of hesitation, Harris slowly lowered his fork to his plate. Nothing else moved. “A date? Really?”
The breath had punched out of her but now it was back along with a full dose of rage.“What?”
“Is the idea of a woman agreeing to go out with me that shocking?” Josh said, clearly amused by the joint stunned reaction.
“Well, with the...” Harris shot her another quick glance before looking at Josh again. “It’s just a surprise.”
Screw that. This was not a time to verbally tiptoe, so Elisa didn’t. “You can’t.”
“Of course I can,” Josh said.
She tried to remain calm. Not blurt out accusations or question him. She didn’t have the evidence for that yet. But... come on. “Okay, but should you?”
“I know it seems sudden, but we’ve been going out for a while. I kept it quiet until I was sure the relationship was going somewhere. I’d like you to meet her now.” Josh leaned back in his chair. “I was thinking maybe this weekend.”
Elisa preferred never. “Not possible.”
She’d spent two days trying to wrap her mind around the idea the man she thought she knew, someone she viewed as family, who meant everything to Harris and Nathan, lacked a heart, a soul... a conscience. Now he was trying to shove her into the position of accepting his twisted life choices.
Josh frowned at her. “Is next week better?”
She was trying to hold it together, buthe had to be kidding.
“What’s going on?” Josh’s frown deepened. “Why are you both looking at me with such weird expressions?”
Elisa shoved her chair back, ignored the way the legs dragged against the hardwood floor, making that annoying screeching sound, and stood up. “We’re not meeting her.”
Harris reached toward her but didn’t actually touch her. “Elisa.”
“Why not?” Josh asked at the same time.
He had the nerve to sound surprised, as if this whole discussion wasn’t obscene. As if what he suggested wasn’t shocking and horrible. “You’ve been dating this person—”
“Rachel.”
Elisa didn’t want to know this new woman. Not even her name.
Before she could explain that—shout and scream it at Josh—Harris jumped in. “I think the point is the timing.”
No. Wrong. “Not just that, but it doesn’t help.”
Josh’s gaze traveled from Elisa to Harris, not showing one ounce of understanding. “What are you two talking about?”
She really wanted to punch him. “What about your missing fiancée?”
Chapter Three
Josh held up both hands in some sort of mock surrender. “Wait a second.”
Elisa was done with waiting. No more keeping quiet, thinking about it, trying to avoid it. They needed to hit this topic head-on. “You can’t possibly think this is okay.”
“Elisa, please.” Harris sighed the same way he did when Nathan asked the same question for the tenth time. “The situation is... delicate.”
Sounded like her usually brilliant husband was having trouble with simple words tonight. “‘Delicate’? Really?”
Stress pulled at the edges of Harris’s mouth. “Is ‘difficult’a better word?”
She sat down hard in her chair again. “Neither is big enough, but whatever. You explain it to him.”
