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out of the valley and didn't have enough gumption to do it on her own. When you got your master's degree in criminology, she thought, like half the county, that you'd take off like a shot and get a position with some big city police department. Must have broken her calculating heart when she found outthat you were perfectly happy to stay right where you were.”
    Jeb looked uncomfortable. His marriage to Ingrid he could, on a good day, put down to youthful indiscretion, but with Sharon Foley.…With Sharon, he'd been certain he'd found a soul mate. They were both valley born and raised. They had a shared history and seemed to like a lot of the same things.
    He hadn't known that Sharon wanted out of Oak Valley. Oh, she might have loved him at first, but she'd had her eye on a future
away
from Oak Valley and that idea never occurred to Jeb. He came home one night to find a note on the kitchen table from his wife explaining that she was running away with the guy who owned a tree-trimming business in Santa Rosa. Jeb had been devastated. He hadn't had a clue and discovered that while Sharon was cute as a button, she was also as sly as a snake.
    A wounded look in his eyes, his gaze dropped to the table. He had loved Sharon. He'd believed that she'd been happy, that they shared the same goals. If he'd known, he thought bitterly, that Sharon had had her eyes on a life somewhere else, he'd never have married her. He had been certain she felt about the valley the same way he did. He'd pictured them growing old together, their children gathered around them; his grandchildren romping on his lap. But Sharon had other dreams. Dreams he hadn't shared. Dreams he hadn't even known about. He smiled painfully. He hadn't known about a lot of things. Certainly he hadn't had any idea she'd been seeing another man, but he had known she was unhappy in the valley. Desperate to make her happy, during those last months together, he'd arranged weekends away in the wine country, the coast, even several nights in San Francisco. But it wasn't enough. When she'd begun to pressure him to apply for a job in San Francisco, he'd dug in his heels, telling her that this was home, this was where he wanted to be. He still remembered the look on her face. Hands on her hips she'd faced him. “You know,” she'd said evenly, “not everyone wants to be buried alive in a dull place like this. Some of us would like memories of something more exciting than the FFA Field Day Parade or the Labor Day Rodeo.” The next evening he'd found the note.
    In his bleakest moments he wondered if there was something inherently wrong with him. Not one but two wives had left him. And each time, he realized now, the final straw had been his desire to remain in the valley. He'd tried to look at it from all different angles but it always came up the same: he'd wanted to stay, they'd wanted to leave. Had he been wrong? Had he been too stubborn? Had there been a compromise that he'd overlooked?
    After Sharon's defection, he'd been full of self-doubts, wondering where he'd gone wrong, wondering what was wrong with
him
that two women hadn't wanted to remain married to him. He'd hurt for a long time, brooded and suffered in silence for a while and eventually came to the conclusion that marriage justwasn't for him. It appeared he wasn't very good at it and he wasn't about to try again. Nope. Not for him. Love 'em and leave 'em had been his motto for the past twelve years and he saw no reason to change it.
    Jeb took a swallow of his beer and looked at his brother. “Leave it alone.”
“I would if I thought you weren't still beating yourself up over something that wasn't your fault.” “
    I'm not. I'm fine.”
    Aware of the warning note in Jeb's voice, Mingo let the subject drop and after finishing his sandwich said good-bye and left. Jeb sat there at the kitchen table, staring off at nothing. Maybe he did still beat himself up about the two divorces. So what? He
had
failed. Two