Page 80 of Heart Like a Cowboy

He kept shaking his head. “I don’t think you’ll get all of that from her.”

“Probably not,” Alana agreed. “But I’d still like to talk to her. Can you get her in here so that can happen?”

Oh, the debate came, and she could see every bit of the battle playing out in his eyes. She must have had enough resolve, though, in her own eyes to make him finally nod. After he cursed some more, that is.

“I’ll go get her,” he griped, and he turned and started for the door.

“By the way, what’s her name? I’d rather use her name than call her skanky husband screwer.”

Egan’s breath came out like a sigh. “It’s Melinda Gorman. Major Melinda Gorman,” he clarified. “But if you go with skanky husband screwer, I’ll back you up.”

She nodded, and they shared a brief dry smile before he left to go fetch the woman who had given Alana plenty of sleepless nights, elevated blood pressure and mega jolts of anger over the past three years.

Alana cursed herself when she took out the cosmetics bag from her desk and touched up her makeup. This wasn’t a “who’s prettier” competition. But in a way, it felt like one. After all, her husband had been attracted enough to this woman to ditch his vows and land in bed with her.

It only took a couple of minutes before there was a single knock at her door, and after she managed a “Come in,” Egan did just that. His expression seemed to ask if she still wanted to go through with this so Alana nodded. That caused Egan to step out of the doorway so that Melinda could enter.

Even though Alana had gotten a good look at the woman when she’d been in Egan’s truck, she took an even more thorough one now. Definitely beautiful, but it was more than that. Alana suspected that when Melinda wasn’t in the groveling mode, which she clearly was at the moment, she exuded a boatload of confidence and charisma.

“I want to stay,” Egan immediately said.

Alana wasn’t surprised. However, she wished she’d better thought this through. She was all for hearing the truth, but what would hurt her could also hurt Egan. If things turned in that direction, Alana would put an end to this visit. Or maybe she could do that even sooner.

“You’re here to take your dad home,” Alana reminded him.

He checked the time. “I have about a half hour, and Blue is with him.”

Apparently, that was Melinda’s cue to start talking. “If you want to hear any apologies from me, then I’m sorry,” she said, looking straight at Alana. “I’m so sorry that you were hurt. Sorry that Jack got hurt as well.”

“There weren’t many winners in this,” Alana conceded, still studying Melinda and hating that it felt as if she were sizing up the competition. “So, other than an apology, what do you want to tell me?”

Melinda lifted her shoulder. “I’ll tell you anything you want to hear. Anything. Damn the torpedoes,” Melinda muttered. “Full speed ahead.”

All righty, then. If the woman was going to offer up one of Jack’s favorite sayings, then Alana would take her up on it.

“Did Jack come onto you or did you come onto him?” Alana asked.

“I came onto him,” Melinda insisted without even a moment of hesitation and while looking straight at Alana.

Alana studied the woman’s eyes, which she supposed some would call sparkling blue. “Liar,” Alana concluded.

Some of that sparkle vanished. “All right. It was mutual, I guess. Jack and I were in ROTC together so we were old friends. Also, Taylor had just been killed, and Jack and I were dealing with that. We ended up together at the memorial service. And then afterward, too.”

“Taylor?” Alana repeated, and she thumbed back through her memory. “A CRO buddy of Jack’s who died during a rescue?” She recalled Jack mentioning him in their next to last phone call.

Melinda nodded. “Taylor was also my kid brother. Jack was his supervisor and insisted on going with the notification team to tell me. I was stationed at a base in England then, and Taylor’s girlfriend was from London. She’s the one who arranged a memorial service that Jack and I both attended. We were sort of grieving together...and I’m sure you don’t want to hear this.”

“You’re right,” Alana verified. “I don’t want to hear it, but I also don’t want to spend another minute trying to figure out why I wasn’t enough for my husband.” Egan groaned and would have no doubt gone to her for his special brand of Top Gun TLC, but Alana waved him off. “I just want to know what was going on in Jack’s head. I want to know why.”

She could tell Egan still didn’t care much for this line of questioning, but he nodded, letting her know that he understood. Of course, he did. It hadn’t taken this meeting with the other woman for Alana to know that Egan understood so very much of her life. And so very much about her.

“I could say the affair wasn’t about you,” Melinda answered, “but that sounds insulting. It’s the truth, but it’s still insulting.”

“Then, what was it about?” Alana demanded, already guessing where Melinda would go with this. Guessing, too, that it would be the truth.

“The affair was about the grief,” she said. “We were just trying to get through a really bad time.”

“Then, Jack should have come home to me to help him get through thatreally bad time.”

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