Page 111 of The Best of Friends

If she really loved him, she would change her life for him? Deal with Elizabeth? He knew his mother, and Jayne was right. Elizabeth wouldn’t accept the engagement graciously. She would do everything in her power to come between them. While he didn’t completely understand Jayne’s relationship with his mother, he knew it was complicated and difficult, and he understood that Jayne’s survival was at stake. She wouldn’t have uprooted her entire life otherwise.

The elevator stopped in the parking garage again. When the doors opened, Marjorie Danes stepped on, looked at him, and glanced toward the closing doors. As if wondering why he didn’t get out.

She was shorter than Elizabeth, and rounder. Not elegant, not expensively dressed. She looked close to her age—something remarkable when one was over forty in Beverly Hills. But there was a kindness in her eyes, and when she smiled, warmth filled the small space.

“Do you hate me?” she asked by way of greeting. “You probably do, and I suppose you should. But I’m hoping we can put a time limit on that. I’d like to get to know you. Blaine can’t stop talking about you. He’s just so proud.” She paused as the elevator began to move. “I never meant to be the other woman.”

She shrugged. “I’m not really other-woman material, you know. Blaine and I were friends for years. After my husband died, he helped me with my finances. Helped me to understand them, mostly. I liked him. He’s a good man. Funny, which was nice. It sort of evolved after that. Slowly. I knew I was in love with him, but he was married, and I was fine being in the background. Then one night he came to dinner and didn’t leave.”

David flinched.

She laughed. “Don’t worry. I promise not to discuss details. There are few things that can clear a room faster than talk of old-people sex.”

They reached the fourth floor. This time David followed her out. She touched his arm.

“I was happy with the affair. But one day Blaine said that he wanted more. That he wanted us to be together always. I’m not saying I don’t have responsibility. I do. I’ll take all of it. I’m saying we didn’t want to hurt anyone.” The smile faded. “Isn’t that what criminals always say? So that doesn’t work. I suppose I want you to know I’m sorry for the pain you and your family are going through. But I can’t be sorry I love Blaine. He’s a blessing, and at my age, you get pretty excited by blessings.”

She paused in the middle of the hallway. “Now I’ve been doing all the talking. Mostly because I’m nervous. Do you want to say anything? You can call me a bitch if that would help. I won’t like it, but I’ll understand why.”

Marjorie was earnest and sincere, David thought. Excluding Jayne, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d observed those two qualities in the same person. Looking at her slightly rumpled appearance, he understood Elizabeth’s rage and Rebecca’s confusion. But he also understood why Blaine had sought solace in her company. He could see exactly how friendship had blossomed into something more. He also believed that Marjorie would have accepted a long-term affair, but that his father could never treat the woman he loved that way.

Elizabeth was the true victim, he reminded himself. The abandoned wife. While he felt sympathy for her, there was also a part of him that knew she had earned her fate.

He bent down and kissed Marjorie’s cheek. “I look forward to getting to know you better.”

She bit her lower lip. “That’s it? You don’t want to take me up on my offer to call me a bitch?”

“Maybe later.”

She smiled again, and this time it was bright enough to light the whole building. She practically glowed with happiness. David ignored the stab of envy, the one that told him he wanted what his father had—a chance with the woman he loved.

Marjorie linked arms with him. “Blaine told me you’re dating Jayne Scott. She’s lovely. I’ve always enjoying talking to her. I go to the breast center where she works. A few years ago, I had a callback after a mammogram. Talk about frightening. I phoned Jayne, and she was so warm and helpful. She was there for my follow-up. She’s very professional, but kind. She made me feel better. It turned out to be nothing, but I’ve never forgotten how she reassured me.”

The sense of emptiness and loss returned. He wanted to go somewhere and lick his wounds in private. He didn’t want anyone to know what had happened, yet he found himself saying, “I asked her to marry me.”

Marjorie beamed at him. “How wonderful. Such babies you’ll have.”

“She refused.”

Marjorie stopped and faced him. “I find that hard to believe. I’ve seen her looking at you, David. There’s love in her eyes. She watches you like a woman who…” She blushed slightly. “Let’s just say I know the feeling.”

“She’s leaving Los Angeles. Mostly because of my family. I understand the reasons, but if she loves me…” Back to that again. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t change my mother.”

“Elizabeth would be a problem. Jayne isn’t at all the sort of daughter-in-law she had in mind. Now, one of Prince Andrew’s daughters might do for her, although they’re a little young for you.” Marjorie tilted her head. “Is Jayne’s largest objection Elizabeth? She doesn’t have any problems with you?”

“Not that she said. She told me that she loves me but couldn’t live in the shadow of my family.”

“Where is she going?”

“Dallas.”

“Texas,” Marjorie said with a sigh. “I have family there myself. Mostly in Houston, but a few cousins are in the Dallas area.”

“She has a new job, and she’s sold her condo here.”

“She sounds determined,” Marjorie said. “Someone who will stand up to you. You need that in a woman.”

“It doesn’t do me much good if she’s twelve hundred miles away,” he growled.

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