A Woman Betrayed by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General, Suspense, Fiction - Romance, Romance - Contemporary, Contemporary Women
ISBN: 9780061040344
Publisher: HarperTorch
Published: 2010-03-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Amanda didn't know that for the first night in a week she had slept in the arms of the person who meant the most to her. At some unconscious level she must have felt the comfort of his embrace; mentally, though, it didn't register. She was simply and completely exhausted, coming off hours of hearing sorrowful stories from students too young to be telling them, but the suicide of a friend opened a Pandora's box of guilt. One student confessed to having cheated on an exam, another to watching his mother and her lover, another to snorting coke--any one of the indiscretions seemed, in the perpetrator's eye, far worse a crime than coming to baseball practice drunk, for which Quinn Davis had been punished and subsequently died. Amanda did her best to separate the two, arguing time and again that Quinn's punishment had not forced his death. She sent a number of students to the religious advisors on her crisis team, but the weight of their stories stayed with her. Thus, burdened even in sleep, she awoke in Graham's arms thinking that he was in bed with her to ease his conscience, holding her out of guilt. That easily, she found herself thinking like her mother again. Struggling against it Sunday morning, she slipped out of bed while Graham still slept and made the trifle for his mother's party. She brewed a fresh pot of coffee and set the Sunday paper on the table, but by the time he woke up, she was heading for the shower, then back to school.

Watching her go, Graham wondered if there had been something subconscious in his sleeping late. Sleeping was better than dealing with the unease between them.

It was, of course, the coward's approach and not at all what he had planned after talking with Russ. Ashamed of himself, he vowed to be more proactive. It wasn't until afternoon, though, that he and Amanda were together long enough for any kind of serious talk, and then he couldn't get her going.

"The trifle looks good," he tried. "Thanks for making it." She smiled politely. "You're welcome." A while later, he said, "I thought about calling Mom this morning. But I decided against it. I figured I could wish her a happy birthday in person."

"I tried calling from school," Amanda said. "She was in the bath, so I left a message."

"You're a better daughter-in-law than I am a son."

"No. I'm just desperate."

"Desperate?"

Another polite smile. "To make her like me."

"She does like you."

Amanda gave him the kind of look that said he was lying and knew it. Page 107

Barbara Delinsky - The Woman Next Door

Not knowing what to say to that, he said nothing at all.

* * *

Arriving at an O'Leary affair was a physical thing. There were loud shouts and hugs, enthusiastic backslapping and boisterous greetings. Amanda had been included in the ritual since the first day she had come with Graham. He had warned her that first time, and still she had felt overwhelmed.

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