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were out of sight as the tension in her body eased. Max took her hand.
    “Eve?”
    With difficulty, she drew her thoughts back to Max, having listened to only half of his conversation. She laughed when she thought the timing fit and responded with, hopefully, appropriate comments.
    “Eve. Will you please tell me what the hell is going on?”
    Evidently she hadn’t been successful. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”
    Max tossed his napkin on the table. “Oh, come on, Eve. I’m not blind. There was so much tension in the air I’m surprised the waiters weren’t walking into it and knocking themselves out.”
    She didn’t answer, but stared at her plate of untouched food.
    “Eve, I’d like to think I’m your friend, so talk to me.”
    The look of compassion on his face surprised her. Would he offer only friendship or something more?
    “Please.” Max leaned back in his chair and toyed with his wineglass. “I hoped you understood I’ve wanted more than friendship with you.”
    Eve leaned across the table and stopped his hand. “Max, I’m sorry.”
    He moved his hand away from hers. “After seeing your reaction to Denton tonight, I now know he’s the reason. Talk to me.”
    “Ah, Max,” Eve said sadly. “It’s an old story, one I hate to delve into.”
    Max played with his glass again. “Even an old story can cause a lot of pain. Talking may help you find closure and we can move on as a couple.”
    Her mouth curved. “As friends, Max? I need you as a friend. Right now, nothing more.”
    “Okay, if that’s what you need.”
    Heart heavy, Eve relayed the events from ten years ago and her mood improved as she unburdened herself. Her parents never cared to listen to her problems, and even though Rose became a friend, by unspoken agreement, the subject never came up.
    Throughout the narration, Max watched her twist the pearl ring around and around. He thought if he took it off and set it on the table, the ring would spin in circles trying to unwind. Eve’s eyes welled with tears. At the end of the tale, he wanted to beat Denton up for hurting her.
    “Is he the one who gave you the ring?”
    Eve nodded.
    “You’ve worn it all these years?”
    “Yes.”
    “Eve, have you ever heard his side?”
    “No. He never called or wrote or anything. Just up and moved to California. Until the other day, I haven’t seen hide or hair of the man.”
    Max reached across the table and tipped her chin up. “Seems like you’ve been living in emotional limbo for too long.” For the second time in a week someone said, “Well, my dear, maybe it’s time you find out his side of the story and get on with your life.”
    Even while telling her to find out the truth from Denton, Max hoped Eve wouldn’t get beyond her anger and take up with the man again. In more ways than one, he needed Eve, and he intended to get her.

Chapter 4
    A week later, Eve threw her pencil across the massive oak desk sitting in the middle of her main-floor office, bouncing it off a ledger piled haphazardly on a stack of unpaid bills. Lord, she hated bookwork. She’d rather muck out every one of the ten horse stalls with a garden trowel than sit for hours entering deposits and checks into her accounts book. Even Tom, who thought a computer chip was some newfangled way of playing cards, kept trying to get her to computerize, which said something about the state of her books.
    She slid the pile of bills out from under the ledger and methodically slipped her letter opener through the top of each one, removing the bills and placing them in a neat pile. She glared at the stack, and her black, up-to-date, state-of-the art, top-notched computer system now sitting on the corner of her desk gathering dust.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to use one. She simply hated the darn thing. It seemed she managed to mess things up the second her fingers hit the keys. Her brain wanted one thing and her fingers another. If she wanted to indent, she got paragraph