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ever.
    â€œThat’s all right, I’ll dress when the boys get up. You could call them…?”
    â€œNot yet,” he replied. “I want to talk to you.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    He motioned her into a chair and then sat down across from her, his big, lean hands dangling between his knees as he studied her. “About what you said lastnight. I’ve been thinking about it. Did Adell tell you that it was loving Randy, not hating me, that broke up our marriage?”
    Melody clasped her hands in her lap and stared at them. “She said that she married you because you were kind and gentle and obviously cared about her so much,” she told him, because only honesty would do. “When she met Randy, at the service station where she had her car worked on and bought gas, she tried to pretend it wasn’t happening, that she wasn’t falling in love. But she was too weak to stop it. I’m not excusing what she did, Emmett,” she said when he looked haunted. “There should have been a kinder way. And I should have said no when Randy asked me to help them get away. But nothing will change what happened. She really does love him. There’s no way to get around that.”
    â€œI see.”
    He looked grim. She hated the wounded expression on his lean face.
    â€œEmmett,” she said gently, “you have to believe it wasn’t because of you personally. She fell in love, really in love. The biggest mistake she made was marrying you when she didn’t love you properly.”
    â€œDo you know what that is?” he asked with a bitter smile. “Loving ‘properly’?”
    â€œWell, not really,” she said. “I haven’t ever been in love.” That was true enough. She’d had crushes on movie stars, and once she’d had a crush on a boy back in San Antonio. But that had been a very lukewarm relationship and the boy had gone crazy over a cheerleader who was more willing in the backseat of his car than Melody had been.
    â€œWhy?” he asked curiously.
    She sighed. “You must have noticed that I’m oversized and not very attractive,” she said with a wistful smile.
    He frowned. “Aren’t you? Who says?”
    Color came and went in her cheeks. “Well, no one, but I…”
    It disturbed him that he’d said such a thing to her, when she’d been the enemy since Randy had spirited Adell away. “Have the kids given you any trouble?”
    â€œJust Guy,” she replied after a minute. “He doesn’t like me.”
    â€œHe doesn’t like anybody except me,” he said easily. “He’s the most insecure of the three.”
    She nodded. “Amy and Polk are very sweet.”
    â€œAdell spoiled them. She favored Guy, although he took it the best of the three when she left. I think he loved her, but he never talks about her.”
    â€œHe’s a very private person, isn’t he? Divorce must be hard on everyone,” she replied. “My parents loved each other for thirty years—until they died. There was never any question of them getting a divorce or separating. They were happy. So were we. It was a blow when we lost them. Randy wound up being part brother and part parent to me. I was still in school.”
    â€œThat explains why you were so close, I suppose.” He cocked his head and studied her. “How did they die?”
    â€œIn a freak accident,” she said sadly. “My mother was in very bad health—a semi-invalid. She had what Dad thought was a light heart attack. He got her into the car and was speeding, trying to get her to the hospital. He lost control in a curve and wrecked the car. They both died.” She averted her eyes. “There was an oil slick on the road that he didn’t see, and a light rain…just enough to bring the oil to the surface. Randy and I blamed ourselves for not insisting thatDad call an ambulance instead of