Love and Country by Christina Adam

Author:Christina Adam [ADAM, CHRISTINA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316028622
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Roddy left the cot to make coffee and stoke up the fire in the woodstove. When he returned, they sat up together on the cot, wrapped in blankets.

“I have to go,” Lenna said.

Though it was nearly dark, Roddy didn’t want her to go.

“Kenny thinks I’m at work. The office thinks I’m looking at the ranch.”

“You wish you hadn’t come?”

“No. But you don’t know how lonely it is to be the divorcée, how ugly people can get.”

He could tell it took some struggle for her to admit it when she said, “I’m scared.

“Roddy,” she said, narrowing her eyes as if she could force him to understand just by the heat of her feelings, “I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never felt like this before.”

“Felt like what?”

“I don’t know. Sad. And wrong. Guilty somehow. Ken was such a bully—so right all the time. But when I had to file for divorce he acted like a little kid. He was so hurt. That’s how I think of him now. Waiting for a rescue plane—just a boy out there in the water by himself.”

“You might be wrong,” Roddy said. “It might have been different. He was trained for that, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Well, think of something terrible he did.”

“I do that, too. I hate him. I really hate him. I think of things he said—and I can’t sleep at night. He lied. He saw other women. He spent all the money. I’d go to town to buy something, and they wouldn’t take Ken’s checks. Once, I was standing at the checkout stand with a cart filled with groceries. I felt I should have put them all back, but I couldn’t . . .”

She stopped and looked at Roddy. “I don’t want to tell those things. I never wanted anyone to know. At the end, he told me he’d bet his co-pilot two hundred dollars that I couldn’t get a job. Couldn’t raise a boy.”

“Didn’t he send money?”

“Child support. Not much and never on time.”

“Won’t you get insurance money?”

“No. He signed it over to his new wife.”

“Jesus,” Roddy said. “No wonder you’re mad.” He kissed her on the edge of her mouth so softly they nearly lay down again. She pulled away.

“I have to get home.”

“Not right now.”

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