Page 29 of Casualties of War
Chapter Six
The first time Adán saw Parris after she and Stuart divorced was also the last time he had seen her. As she had the first time, she turned up on his doorstep unannounced.
Adán stepped back from the front door, his heart jolting. Jeans, long legs, a simple top and flat shoes. Her hair flowed over her shoulders and her face was unchanged. Parris Graves.
“You let your hair grow,”Adán said. It was the first coherent thought to occur to him.
She lifted a brow, her green eyes sober. “And hello to you, too.” Then she shifted and waved behind her. “The guards just let me through. I’m really on your list of free passes?”
“You always have been.” He glanced over her shoulder. None of the paparazzi who lingered around the gate had taken any notice.
Yet.
He stepped even fartherback. “Come in.”
Parris moved into the house, her hands pushed into her back pockets. “Still gorgeous in here,” she said, peeking in at the formal rooms as she passed them.
Adán moved through to the big combo room at the back of the house, where he spent most of his time. She followed.
“I just made coffee,” he said. “Want one?”
“Vistarian?” she asked, with a hopeful note.
“Ordinary.”
Shegrimaced. “Maybe later.” She turned on one foot, taking in the room. “How long has it been since I was here? I’ve been trying to work it out.”
“Six years and four months,” Adán said.
Parris finished her circuit and pinned him with a direct stare. “Been keeping count?”
He shook his head. “Putting Stuart back together again after the divorce has stayed with me.”
Her jaw rippled. “That’s whyyou haven’t called? You think I’m the bad guy?”
Adán picked up his coffee cup from the round table where he had been reading scripts, to give his hands something to do. “I don’t think either of you can be blamed, Parris.”
She threw her hands out. “Thenwhy didn’t you call me?”
“That’s why you’re here? To find out why I didn’t pick up the phone? It’s been over five years. Why now?”
“You’regetting angry. You do blame me.”
“No, Ido not.” She was right, goddamn it. His angerwasuncurling and stirring to life.
“You think Stuart was right, though.” Parris added.
“I didn’t say that.”
She was all the way across the room, yet it felt like she was right there in front of him. Confronting him. Her green eyes were large, steady and cool. “He said it was cruel and unusual punishment,being married to me.”
Adán swallowed. “That’s between you and him.”
“He would have told you, though. I know he did. Stuart likes you at lot.”
“We’re friends.”
“Arewefriends, Adán?”
