He shook his head. “No, you’re right. Let’s discuss this offer. I want a reconciliation because of personal reasons that have nothing to do with you.”
The statement stung. “I think it has something to do with me,” she responded. “My lawyer explained to me that any reconciliation attempt we made, beyond a certain length of time, may delay my ability to obtain a divorce.”
He was frowning. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Lila gestured to the chair across from her. “Why don’t you explain it? I have to admit that I’m curious.”
He sat down and leaned his long arms across the table, fixing her with a piercing stare.
“It’s a woman.”
She laughed. “Isn’t it always?”
The strong talented hands folded into loose fists.
“Her name is Victoria Brantford and her father’s a big shot in the States. The family owns a chain of department stores along with a partial share of the Chicago franchise and Victoria’s used to getting what she wants.”
“And you’re what she wants this time?” Lila asked the question.
Cahal grimaced. “She’s not my type but I made the mistake of accepting her invitation to some society affair involving the owners of the team and I took her out to dinner a few times afterwards. I thought coming to Toronto that she would get the idea. No luck. She followed me from Chicago.”
Lila’s throat tightened. She didn’t doubt his version of events for a moment. Women always followed him; that was the curse of his looks and talent.
“The daughter of an owner of your team must be hard to shake.”
He reached for a clean glass and filled it. “It’s even harder when everyone knows you’re separated from your wife.”
“So you don’t want to be separated any longer,” Lila concluded. “I get it. You want me to pretend that we’ve reconciled so you can stop running from this woman. You know, she didn’t seem scary.”
His head snapped up. “You’ve met Victoria?”
“Last week.” She explained about the meeting at Cathy Monahan’s home.
“And Victoria described herself as my girlfriend?”
Lila nodded. “She was very convincing and didn’t seem at all dangerous.”
“I didn’t say she was dangerous,” he said. “Only determined.”
“That kind of determination can be dangerous.”
He stood up with a movement that reminded her vividly of his profession. It amazed her that she could have forgotten. For seven years, she’d unsuccessfully tried to ignore what her husband did at work, trying to pretend that he went to an office instead of a hockey arena, that he rubbed elbows with middle managers instead of admiring reporters and fervent fans.
“I’m not threatened by Victoria, just annoyed.” Cahal’s eyes touched her but didn’t remain. “This is not the first time I’ve been in this kind of situation. Every athlete goes through the same kind of thing. This time it’s different.”
He would know; he’d had every kind of stalker over the years, since he was just a young man coming up in the junior leagues. They ranged from crazed super-fans, usually male and middle-aged, to obsessed teenaged girls who treated him like a rock star and who were willing to offer anything for a moment of his time. Alone on the road, some athletes succumbed to the lure of relentless adoration and their spouses were forced to be understanding or seek divorces. Lila had sought revenge.
“How is Victoria different? She seemed quite ordinary to me.” Beautiful and far from mentally unsound. The other woman wasn’t a teenager to fall for a celebrity who also happened to be close at hand nor did she seem to be a rabid fan of the sport.
Cahal ran his hands through his fair hair, a sign of distress in a man who always followed the team’s rules about public appearances and was well-dressed and well-groomed at all times.
“For one thing, Victoria has a background in public relations. She used to plan parties and host charity events for a living. She volunteered for a young senator’s campaign last year and was cited as a major influence in his election.”
“So she’s multi-talented. You should be flattered.”
Cahal narrowed his gray eyes. “I am flattered. And if Victoria had left things as they were, perhaps we would be dating by now. She didn’t.”
Drumming her fingers over the tabletop, Lila asked, “What was it she did, exactly? Boil your bunny? Write you love letters in her own blood?”
His swift frown told her he didn’t find the questions funny.
“I told you, she’s not dangerous, just determined.” He looked past her. “What she did was launch a publicity campaign. Using pictures of our few public appearances together, she put out a story that we were involved and spread it throughout the Chicago tabloids. Within a month, I was being asked when the wedding was everywhere I went. I tried talking to her. She wouldn’t listen. I tried avoiding her. It didn’t work. Her father got the owners to give me a lecture about my attitude. They told me that I was starting to act like a superstar instead of playing like one.”
“Oh, Cahal.”
Lila knew how much that must have hurt when Cahal prided himself on his leadership role on whatever team he played for. His teammates respected and admired him and he never acted like a prima donna. The accusation must have stung and, coming from the owners of his team, there would have been little he could say in return.
She asked, “Is that why you came to Toronto?”
His large frame stiffened. “I didn’t ask to be traded, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
Lila spread her hands out wide. “I wasn’t insinuating anything. I know how disruptive disputes between management and players can be and they often end in staffing changes.”
“I didn’t ask to be traded,” he repeated in a voice that was only slightly less disgruntled. “The opportunity presented itself and according to my agent, I would have been a fool to pass up the chance to play in a city more attuned to the hockey culture.”
“As well as a city that pays their hockey players quite a bit more money,” Lila couldn’t resist putting in.
His glance was humorous. “I thought you weren’t interested in a financial settlement.”
“Ha ha.” With a thought to the limited time, she asked, “Where do I come in?”
It was an unnecessary question. Anyone could see where he was leading.
“I need to launch my own publicity campaign,” Cahal told her, “with the major story being my sudden reconciliation with my childhood sweetheart.”
Lila stared. “It sounds like a fairy tale.”
“It will have to,” he replied, “to counter some of the stories Victoria’s been weaving. This latest incursion on the Wives and Girlfriends here in Toronto is troubling. She tried the same trick in Chicago with terrible results. I didn’t think she would attempt the same thing here when she must have known there was a chance of running into you.”
The other woman’s surprise at their meeting a few days ago appeared genuine but now Lila had doubts.
Cahal went on. “To pull it off, you will have to live with me again and we’ll have to spend nearly all of our time together.”
“This plan of yours is sounding better and better,” she muttered.
“Can you suggest a better one?”
It took her a minute to find the right answer. “It’s not my problem.”
An ugly smile twisted his handsome face. “It can easily become your problem.”
The words were mildly threatening but she was skeptical. “How?”
Bracing his hands against the tabletop, he diminished his height while bringing his face close to hers.
“You gave me the impression that you were anxious to finalize our divorce so you can get engaged to your third-rate defenseman.” The unprovoked insult surprised her more than the menacing tone. “Should you fail to help me out, let us say that this divorce could take a much longer time.”
Lila looked up. “What have you got up your sleeve?”
His mouth quirked. “Try me.”
The price of calling his bluff was more than she could afford to pay.
Lila slumped over the table cradling her face in icy cold hands. “Find someone else, Cahal. A look-alike. An actress. After all this time I can’t imagine anyone remembers my face.”
“You underestimate yourself.”
The comment sounded snide and she shifted a hand to cover one ear. They could clash words all day, they were both very good at it, but at this point simple honesty was her best weapon.
“I can’t live under that microscope again.”
He leaned across. “Not even on a temporary basis?”
The concealing fingers fell, leaving her uncomfortably bare. “I wouldn’t go through that kind of publicity whirlwind for anyone, not even Jack. You’re not the man I loved.” She paused to let the past tense sink in. “We’re not even friends. It’s unfair to expect me to do you favors.”
“I never stopped being the man you loved.”
The intensity of his expression made her wary. They’d gone over this a hundred times and they couldn’t agree to save their marriage, what made him think he could convince her now?
She stood. “Time’s up. I’m leaving.”
The restraining hand he locked around her arm turned into a steadying grip as the door flew open. Her lawyer apologized, his eyes on her husband.
“All ready?” he asked after Cahal glared down the rest of his apologies.
“Yes,” said Lila.
“Not quite,” said her husband.
Adam Billings looked at his watch. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have, Mr. Wallace. Perhaps another meeting can be — ”
Cahal cut in. “I can’t waste another day on this. I want it resolved today. Right now.”
Lila’s lawyer regarded him with a patient stare she knew well. “What exactly is it that we can resolve today? Discussions with your legal counsel have made it clear that we’ve reached an impasse on the financial issues. At this point the divorce itself is simply a matter of a rubber stamp.”
The blonde man smiled; it was the grimace he made behind his mask during particularly grueling matches.
“What about adultery?”
“What of it?” The lawyer knew Lila’s accusations and he had counseled her to abandon that ground of divorce, opting instead for the simple basis of having lived separate and apart for the requisite year.
Cahal resumed his leaning pose, completely at ease. “My lawyer tells me that it might delay the divorce if we went down that path, citing adultery as the reason for the separation rather than an unspecified breakdown of the relationship.”
Lila held her breath. He wouldn’t dare.
Her lawyer made a dismissive motion. “That wouldn’t work. Not in this case.”
“Why not?”
“Well, first of all you can’t rely on your own malfeasance to ground a claim.”
Cahal was still smiling. “Meaning?”
The lawyer drew himself up so stiffly that Lila had to hide a grin. “Meaning that your cheating on your wife doesn’t allow you to turn around and divorce her.”
The smile disappeared although Lila could see that he was expecting that answer. His tall frame was too relaxed for her comfort.
“I don’t want to divorce my wife.” He shifted his silver eyes to her face. “And I was never unfaithful to her, in body or mind.”
Lila rolled her own eyes. She knew just how much faith to put in a pair of gray eyes.
The lawyer shook his head. “Then why bring up the subject?”
“I just thought I’d warn you that I intend to introduce the issue of adultery, which I understand will delay the divorce proceedings significantly.” Cahal laughed at the confusion on the other man’s face. “Didn’t your client tell you? She was unfaithful to me. I have her lover’s statement to prove it.”
• • •
Back in the boardroom Cahal’s lawyer was as glum as ever. He came prepared with the papers ready for signing, deposited on the tabletop before the two lawyers by another anonymous assistant.
Lila tried to break the silence as the lawyers read from their respective sheets. “Are there really a set of rules for reconciliation?”
Her lawyer frowned at her over the top of the draft contract and she could hear echoes of the lecture he meant to dole out once they were alone.
“There are rules for everything, Mrs. Wallace,” the other lawyer intoned.
“Including marriage,” her husband added.
“Oh, shut up.”
Cahal shook his fair head in mock remonstrance. Unlike his counsel, his smile was very much in evidence. Its sheer intensity was giving her a headache.
His examination complete, her lawyer pronounced the contract equitable and he proceeded to read out highlights to which Lila paid no attention. She was caught and she knew it. Now her only concern was what she would tell Jack. Already her cell phone had twice alerted her to messages he had left while was sitting through the interminable meeting.
“Where do I sign?”
Shaking fingers made her typically neat signature nearly illegible. Cahal’s scrawl accompanied her name on a half dozen copies, followed by the lawyers’ tidier script.
Tossing the pen onto the table, Lila asked, “Can I go now?”
Her husband interjected as her lawyer nodded. “Not so fast, darling. We have some things to get straight.”
“I can’t. Not right now. Jack — ”
“Jarrett’s not a party to this contract. You are.” He flashed false front teeth in another grin. “I’m sure that if you had let him, your counsel would have been happy to explain the consequences of breaking any of the terms.”
She ignored her lawyer’s grimace. “Jack’s as much a part of this as either of us. I’m doing this because of him.”
“I’m sure your boyfriend will understand why you have to start living with your husband again. He strikes me as a very understanding guy.”
Cahal’s exaggerated soothing tones grated as they were obviously meant to do.
“It’s none of your business what Jack understands or fails to understand,” Lila retorted.
“You’re right,” her husband told her, his voice suddenly brisk. “If you want your divorce in a few months rather than in a few years, then it makes sense for you to read what you just signed and get used to what’s required of you.”
Her lawyer repeated the admonishment in more drawn-out terms but the bottom line was the same. In exchange for attempting a reconciliation with her current husband, he would allow her to continue with the divorce proceedings she had launched without challenging the basis for the divorce on the grounds that she was an adulteress. The reconciliation he was proposing was to be for two months, an entire month less than the time set out by the law to nullify the entire separation. According to the country’s divorce laws, if they reconciled for more than ninety days, they would have to start the whole process all over again — and wait another year for the divorce to finalize.