Line of Scrimmage (26 page)

“Hello?”

“Susannah?”

Her heart sank and her stomach clenched. “What do you want, Henry?”

“I was just checking to make sure you’re all right.”

“I’m wonderful. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Her reply seemed to throw him. “But,” he stammered.

“Last night, you were so upset . . . ”

“Oh, that,” she said with a light chuckle. “That was just a silly misunderstanding. Ryan explained everything, and we had
a good laugh over it.” She squealed into the phone. “Ryan,
quit
that!”

“I wonder if that’s what Betsy says, too,” Henry said sharply.

Susannah saw red but kept her tone light and chatty.

“Since we both know she can’t come within a thousand feet of Ryan, I doubt she says much of anything to him.

I really appreciate your oh-so-concerned phone call, Henry, but my husband and I are still in bed. It really is
much
too early to be calling here. We don’t get up until we absolutely have to.”

“You’re a bitch, Susannah,” he fumed. “I’m glad I realized that before I shackled myself to you for a lifetime.”

“And you’re a manipulative weasel. Thanks for showing me once again that going back to my husband was the smartest thing I’ve
ever done. Don’t call me again.” She turned off the phone and returned it to the cradle on the table. When she looked over
at Ryan and found him watching her with amusement in his eyes, her heart lifted with hope.

“An Academy Award-winning performance,” he said.

“He deserved nothing less.”

Ryan extended his hand to her.

Her hand met his halfway across the big bed, and he laced his fingers through hers.

They lay there looking at each other for a long moment.

Giving her hand a little tug, he brought her closer to him. “What exactly was I doing while you were on the phone?”

With a coy shrug, she said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you were kissing me right here?” She pointed to her neck.

He replaced her finger with his lips. “Here?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “Right there.”

He caressed her breast through the silky fabric of her nightgown.

“Ry—”

“Don’t say anything.”

“But I want you to know—”

He stopped her with a deep, soulful kiss.

Tearing her lips free, she said, “That I love you.”

“And I love you,” he said as he rolled her under him and eased her nightgown up to her waist.

Her final thought before she ceased to think at all?

Thank you so much for calling, Henry.

Chapter 27

HAND-IN-HAND, SUSANNAH AND RYAN SCRAMBLED UP THE courthouse stairs.

“We’re going to be late, and he’s going to let us have it,” she said.

“I tried to tell you that when you wouldn’t get your butt out of bed.”

“You wouldn’t
let me
out!”

“We’ve got thirty seconds.”

“Move it!”

Breathless, they arrived at the judge’s outer office at exactly eleven o’clock.

“His Honor and your attorneys are waiting for you in chambers, Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson,” the judge’s clerk said with a dour
frown. “Go on in.”

Ryan ushered Susannah in ahead of him.

“Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson,” Judge Prescott Tohler said.

“How nice of you to join us.”

“Your Honor,” Ryan said with a nod for his attorney.

“You two have given me more gray hairs than anyone has in a long time.”

Ryan held a chair for Susannah as they exchanged perplexed glances.

“First, you get me all excited with this.” The judge referred to the newspaper coverage of Ryan’s retirement. He read, “‘At
the press conference, Sanderson also announced the couple recently reconciled.’ Oh, that did my old heart good! To think maybe
the six months I’d given you had made a difference . . . ” He shook his head with satisfaction, but his smile quickly faded.
“And then, today when I’m looking forward to hearing
all
about how right I was, I almost choked on my Honey Nut Cheerios when I saw this.” He held up the morning’s society page featuring
a huge picture of Ryan hauling a furious Susannah out of the Black and White ball.

Susannah gasped. “Oh, no . . . ”

“Oh, yes, Mrs. Sanderson. Oh, yes.” With a deep sigh he sat back in his chair. “You two disappoint me.”

Ryan got busy brushing some imaginary lint from his suit pants.

“Do you have any idea how many kids in this city look up to you as some sort of hero, Mr. Sanderson?”

“Yes,” Ryan said through gritted teeth. “I’m acutely aware of it.”

“Then how can you justify fighting with your wife in public like this?”

“Your Honor,” Susannah said. “It wasn’t his fault. It was mine. I totally overreacted to something.” She glanced at Ryan who
was fixated on the window behind the judge. His face was flushed with anger, which sent a burst of nervous energy through
her.

“Ryan was just trying to get me out of there before I made it worse.”

“And you’ve gotten to the bottom of this misunderstanding?” the judge asked.

Susannah reached for Ryan’s hand. “Yes, we have.”

Ryan nodded in agreement.

The judged rested his elbows on his desk and leaned forward. “Are you at all curious as to why I’ve handled your divorce somewhat
unconventionally?”

At that, both attorneys perked up.

“We have something in common, you and I,” the judge said.

“We do?” Susannah asked, glancing at Ryan.

The judge nodded. “I, too, lost a son.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “My son was sixteen years old when he was hit by a
car crossing a street he’d crossed a hundred times before. And as devastating as it was to lose him so suddenly, I can’t imagine
how much worse it would’ve been to never have known him at all.”

When she was swamped with tears, Susannah looked down at her lap.

Ryan squeezed her hand.

“We lost our boy nineteen years ago,” the judge continued. “And for a very long time afterward, I thought I was going to lose
my wife, too. We just couldn’t seem to get back on track. It took years—
years
—for us to laugh together again.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Susannah said in a whisper.

“And I’m sorry for yours.” He shifted his eyes to focus on Ryan. “I’ve followed your career, Mr. Sanderson, from the time
you and your pretty young wife landed here in Denver, and I’ve admired your grace under pressure. You two always seemed to
be so happy together—at least that was what you showed the public. So I was saddened to hear of your loss a few years back
and even sadder to find your names on my docket a short time after that. Because I know better than most what you’d been through
and how long it can take to get a marriage back on track after a loss like the one you’d suffered, I couldn’t help but wonder
if you were acting in haste. That’s why I insisted on the six-month waiting period, among other things.”

“You were right, your Honor,” Susannah said. “I acted too hastily.”

“Mr. Sanderson, do you feel the same way?”

Ryan’s expression was impassive when he said, “Yes, I do.”

“Are you sure?” the judge asked him. “I need to be certain. My bag of tricks is empty. I’d already decided if you two came
in here today and told me you still wanted the divorce, I was going to grant it.”

“I don’t want a divorce,” Ryan said.

“Neither do I,” Susannah said.

The judge studied them for a long moment before he said, “All right then. The petition is hereby withdrawn. I hope I won’t
see your names on my docket again.”

“You won’t,” Susannah assured him.

The judge shook hands with both of them. “Good luck to you.”

“Thank you,” Susannah said. “You stopped us from making a huge mistake.”

“I just had a feeling about you two,” he said. His clerk called him into court a minute later.

While Susannah received a hug from Diane, she watched Ryan shake hands and exchange a few quiet words with his attorney.

“Are you sure everything’s all right, Susannah?”

Diane asked.

“I’m positive. I know I made quite a scene last night—”

“Oh, please. That was the most excitement we’ve had in this town in years. I wanted to stand up and cheer when you shoved
that rotten bitch Betsy James.”

“I’m still mortified that I acted that way.”

“If that woman had had her hands on
my
husband, I would’ve done the same thing. Most of the women there would agree with me. So don’t worry about it.”

With another hesitant glance at Ryan, Susannah added, “I’m hoping we can put the whole thing behind us.”

“I’ll be wishing for all good things for you both, Susannah. You deserve it.”

“Thank you for that and for everything else over the last year.” Susannah took a deep breath. “So how’d we do last night?
My abrupt departure caused me to miss the best part—the grand total.”

“$2.1 million.”

“Wow,” Susannah gasped. “That’s two hundred thousand better than we’ve ever done.”

“Ryan’s ball put us right over the top. We got two hundred ten thousand for it—by far the most we’ve ever gotten for a silent
auction item.”

“Oh, boy,” Susannah said with a chuckle. “That’ll go right to his head.”

Diane smiled. “In this case, it’s warranted.”

“Susannah, are you ready?” Ryan asked.

With one last quick hug for Diane, Susannah left with Ryan.

In the parking lot, he held the car door for her.

Before she got in, she asked, “Where do we go from here, Ry?”

“Um, home?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I don’t know, Susie. I guess we’ll just do the best we can.”

“I want more than that. I want what we had before I lost my mind last night. I want to go back to before my father cut in
on us.”

Ryan looped a hand over the top of the car door and dropped his head. “I do, too.”

Susannah cradled his head against her chest. “I just wish I knew what to do,” she said. “I want to fix this, but I don’t know
how.” During the course of their meeting with the judge she’d realized the closeness they had shared that morning wasn’t going
to be enough on its own to undo the damage she had done to their fragile union.

He brought his eyes up to meet hers. “Let’s just take it one step at a time. First, we go home.”

“What’s second?”

He shrugged. “Since I missed my big chance to unload you in there, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“Not unloading me. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”

“Nah, I’m stuck with you. One way or the other, we’ll get through this, darlin’. The way I see it, we’ve been through worse,
right?”

“We certainly have. But I hurt you, Ry. I hurt
us.

”

“Yeah, you did, but I’m a big boy, and I’ll get over it. Eventually.”

“Then I’ll just wait.”

“Fair enough.”

Susannah moved the curtain aside to watch the snow and was startled by how fast it was accumulating. A streetlight illuminated
the blustery sheets of snow as her stomach knotted with worry.
Where is he? Just a
few days ago, he was driving me nuts with his
hovering. Now, I have no idea where he is or when
he’ll be home.

She sighed and turned to once again inspect the table she had set for them. Dinner was ready, and she had spent the last hour
resisting the overwhelming urge to call him. She didn’t want him to think she was checking up on him.
God, I hate this. Everything is so stilted and
weird between us.

The lights flickered as she wandered into the den to toss another log onto the fire, wanting to keep it going in case they
lost power. She turned on the T.V., figuring if he’d been in an accident it would make the news. Thirty minutes and no mention
of him later, she heard the garage door open and breathed a deep sigh of relief. She went into the kitchen and was tending
to the asparagus when he came in from the garage, bringing a blast of cold air with him.

“Hey.” He took off his boots, Stetson, and leather coat in the mudroom. “The roads are a mess. Sorry I’m so late.”

“It’s okay.”

“Did you try to call?”

“No.”

“Oh, good. I was afraid you were worried. My phone is dead. I just took it off the charger this morning, so it must need a
new battery.”

“I’ll get you one tomorrow if you want.”

“If you have time.” His nose was cold when he kissed her cheek. “Something smells amazing. What’d you make?”

“Lamb.”

“Mmmm, my favorite.”

“I know.”

“Want me to set the table?”

“Already did it,” she said, gesturing toward the dining room.

He peeked into the room. “Wow, Grandma Sally’s china and everything. What’s the occasion?”

She shrugged. “No occasion.”

After Susannah had lit the candles on the table and poured him a glass of wine, they sat down to eat. “How is it?” she asked.

“Fabulous. Your cooking was number two on the list of things I missed the most about you when we were separated.”

Amused, she took a sip of her ice water. “Do I need to ask what number one was?”

He shot her a withering look that made her laugh. “I feel bad drinking wine in front of you.”

“Go right ahead. It doesn’t appeal to me at the moment.”

He looked at her with concern. “Are you feeling sick?”

“Kind of queasy today,” she said, pushing the food around on her plate. She wasn’t sure if it was the pregnancy or the tension
between them that was causing it.

“Did you call Pam?”

She shook her head. “It’s normal.”

“You didn’t have it before, with Justin.”

“I think I got lucky.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Touched by his genuine concern, she squeezed his arm. “I’m fine. What were you up to today?”

His expression changed to one of distaste. “I had a meeting at the T.V. station.”

“I gather it didn’t go well?”

He shrugged. “I hate going in there. They treat me like I’m an idiot.”

“What do you mean?”

“They kind of talk down to me like I’m too dumb to understand the business side of the station. It’s irritating.”

“You
own
the place. Shouldn’t they be sucking up to you?”

“You would think.”

“That makes me mad.”

He chuckled. “Me, too. I think I’m going to find an asshole who wants to buy a T.V. station.”

Susannah laughed. “That would serve them right.

Don’t forget—you’re Ryan Sanderson. You can do—or
not
do—anything you want. Let your management people run the station, and don’t bother yourself with it.”

“Good point. I was just trying to show some interest.

Anyway, how was your day?”

“Kind of quiet.” She didn’t think he needed to hear she had spent most of the day on the phone canceling what was left of
her wedding to Henry. “But I got a few more calls from people who were thrilled I gave Betsy James the what-for at the ball.
You’ll also be glad to know they loved the way you picked me up and took me out of there. They found it very sexy.”

His dimpled grin lit up his face.

“That went straight to your fat head, didn’t it?”

“Of course it did. I guess all this approval means we can safely show our faces in polite society again.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I still say we lay low until someone else causes a bigger scandal than I did.”

“Good plan.”

“I talked to my mother today, too. She actually asked about you.”

“
Get out of here,
” he said, shocked.

“I’m not kidding,” she said, appreciating his reaction.

She was desperate to do anything she could to please him. “She really did.”

“Well, it’s
something.
I’ll take it.”

The lights flickered again.

“We might be in for another night in front of the fire,”

she said.

“That’d be fine with me.”

Her smile was small and sad as she remembered the night they had slept by the fire at the cabin—and most likely conceived
the child she was carrying.

He brushed his thumb over her hand. “Why so sad, baby? We’re doing all right, aren’t we?”

She shrugged. “I guess. But I feel like we’re trying too hard. Even when we’re doing what we always did,
it
is in the room with us.”

“At least we’re trying.”

“I wish I had something to blackmail you with,” she said.

He laughed. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when you were in my shoes—groveling to right some terrible wrongs—you had my wedding with Henry to hold over my head.
You had a way to force me to deal with you. I don’t have anything like that.”