“Would you believe me if I said no?”
“No. At Case’s party I could have cut the tension between you two with a butter knife, and I get the feeling you’ve been sidestepping me ever since. You know I’m dying to hear details. Come on,” Eliza coaxed, leaning forward in her chair again. “Spill.”
As usual, Eliza was right. Diana had been avoiding her friend’s curiosity and now she wished she hadn’t been such a coward. After this morning’s altercation with Max, today had to be the worst possible time for the explanation she owed her best friend. But she did owe Eliza the details she begged, so she might as well get it over and done.
“We met at a party in Australia,” she began, jumping into the deep end. “On the trip I took after we graduated from Wellesley.”
Eliza digested this for a moment, shock evident in her blue eyes. “I gave you the contact number for my Aussie relations. You met them and you didn’t say a word?”
“I’m sorry, Eliza, truly I am. I didn’t meet any of your family except Max, and I didn’t mean to keep him a secret. I just didn’t know how to tell you I was having a hot and heavy affair with your cousin. I knew you’d want details and I couldn’t talk about something I didn’t understand. I don’t even know that I can explain what happened between us now! Then I came home and married David…”
“And your life fell to pieces,” Eliza finished softly after Diana’s attempted explanation trailed off.
Their gazes met for a second, remembering the anguish of those years after her forced marriage, when Diana had cut herself off from all her friends. Yet Eliza, her roommate at Wellesley, had continued to send Christmas gifts and birthday cards, and when she’d read about David’s death in a newspaper, she’d flown out to California for the funeral.
After the service she’d learned the whole sorry story of Diana’s marriage. She met David’s sons, too, and when their attempts to prevent Diana taking anything from her marriage grew vindictive, she’d invited Diana to visit her in Sioux Falls. Diana had only returned to California to pack her things. Her move to Sioux Falls and all the good, confidence-building, independence-gaining things that ensued were all due to Eliza’s friendship.
“I’m sorry.” Diana’s second apology vibrated with regret and the threat of tears. “I should have told you about Max.”
“That the hound dog hit on you at a party? Perhaps it’s better you didn’t!”
Diana managed to smile at Eliza’s teasing remark despite the ache in her chest. That was the thing about her friend—she had a gift of measuring the mood and choosing the perfect moment to lighten the tone. “I think it’s fair to say that the hitting-on was a mutual thing. Remember when we studied French? Remember how we mocked the drama of the coup de foudre?”
“The stroke of lightning,” Eliza murmured. “Love at first sight.”
“I know it’s a romantic cliché, but when I met Max I actually experienced that lightning strike. The ground shifted. Time stood still then raced through six and a half weeks. I didn’t know how to explain that to anyone, Eliza, and I had this self-centered desire to hug it to myself.”
“Do I gather it ended badly?” Eliza asked.
“However did you guess?”
“The day Max arrived, he was so laidback and charming. I knew you had to meet him, which is why I called and made sure you were coming to the party. I had a notion you two would get along. But then I introduced you and he couldn’t raise a smile. It was so unlike him.” Eliza’s reached across the table and put her hand over Diana’s, perhaps because she’d noticed the wobble in her composure. “You know I was only teasing about spilling details. You don’t have to tell me anything that’s too upsetting.”
“I have no reason to be upset,” Diana replied quickly. “Except seeing him again has me all churned up with the bad part of the memories more than the good.” But after taking a deep breath, she wanted to share, to ease the angst that had been building ever since he’d walked away from her that morning in the barn. “I had extended my holiday once and Father was making noises about needing me at home. I didn’t know what was going on and selfishly I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to leave Australia—I didn’t want to leave Max—and so I pushed him for a reason to stay.”
“He didn’t want you to stay?”
“Let’s just say he didn’t appreciate me pressuring him for commitment or acting shrewish over the number of ex-girlfriends who called. I should have read the signs right there, but I didn’t.”
Eliza winced in sympathy. “No one wants to be one of many.”
“I suppose not and with Max there was quite the backlist. Apparently he’d been sized up as marriage material once too often and I made the same mistake. So we quarreled and he left on a business trip and while he was away everything hit the fan with my sister. I had to catch a flight home that day and I didn’t even know where Max had gone. I left a note and a message on his service and I called again from New York.”
Her shrug said the rest and Eliza’s clasp on her hand tightened. “He didn’t return your calls?”
“I ended up contacting his neighbor, who I’d met in passing. He told me Max had gone to this big outback race-meeting that lasted all week—not work, but a party! Oh, and he knew because Max had taken his sister, Eva.” Diana smiled gamely but the bitter ache of that discovery, of that whole horrendous week, squeezed like a fisted hand around her heart. “Can you believe I expected we had more from a holiday fling? Can you believe I was that naive?”
“Coup de foudre.”
“Oh, I thought so at the time, but who believes in love at first sight?”
“It happens,” Eliza surprised her by saying. Her expression had turned somber, and Diana had the feeling she was thinking of something else. Or someone else. But a moment later she shed that introspective look and smiled brightly. “You know, I think this discussion needs uplifting with something decadent.”
“Crème brûlée?”
“Cheesecake.”
Diana wasn’t convinced she could force even dessert past the tightness in her throat and chest, but she pretended to study the menu while that morning’s conversation with Max replayed through her mind. “You know what is upsetting me?” she asked after several minutes of stewing. “This morning he accused me of playing around with him while I was engaged to David.”
Eliza put down her menu. “Why on earth would he think that?”
“Because I married so quickly.”
“Did you tell him why?”
Diana shook her head. “I couldn’t see any point. He was so rude and presumptive. He assumed the wedding was all set before I went to Australia.”
After a moment’s contemplation, Eliza asked, “How did he know when you actually married David? If he never contacted you after you returned home….”
“I suppose he must have read about the wedding—it was in a lot of magazines. David made sure of that. Not that it matters how Max knew. I just don’t understand why he’s so antagonistic. Especially after so much time.”
“Perhaps he’s suffering from dog-in-manger syndrome. He didn’t want to marry you himself, but that didn’t mean he wanted someone else to.”
“That’s crazy!”
“That’s men.” Eliza gave a rueful shrug. “I grew up with three brothers. Believe me, the competitiveness extends into all kinds of craziness.”
The waiter returned to take their orders and Diana laid her menu on the table. “I’m going to pass,” she said. “I