But somewhere along the line, something had become real. She had convinced herself that even football heroes needed to be loved and to give love in return. And it had seemed that he had loved her.
Things had started going badly with Sue's death. Joe had resented the time she spent with her brother, although he tolerated it. Football season rolled around again, and Joe went back to work. In December he called to tell her that he had one night in which he could fly in.
But she was due at Jeff's that night. He was a pilot, and Bryn had assured him that she would stay with the children.
Joe was livid. She asked him to come to Jeff's house, but he didn't want to play baby-sitter, he wanted to be alone. Bryn entreated him, trying to make him understand...
He hung up on her.
But the next week he was on the phone again, pretending that nothing had happened.
She traveled with him for a while. But then the telegram had come from Tahoe. Jeff had been killed while fooling around with a hang glider.
Joe had been comforting, but also aloof. He hadn't come back with her to bury her brother, nor had he seen the faces of the three little boys who had lost both parents and were now lost and alone and frightened....
Bryn couldn't pay the mortgage on Jeff's big house, so she moved the kids into the town house.
When Joe returned the first time, things went fairly smoothly. She hired a baby-sitter, stayed at Joe's hotel room until2:00 a.m.,then rushed home to be there if the kids woke up with nightmares.
There had been a fight when she wasn't ready to go back out on the road. But again he called her in a few days, behaving as if nothing had happened.
Except that something had happened. Bryn had watched his team on TVAnd in the shots of the victorious players in the aftermath of their glory, she had seen Joe--and he hadn't been alone. He had been in the company of a very young, very beautiful and very sleek redhead.
Joe had sensed Bryn's withdrawal during their phone conversation, and he had arrived in Tahoe the next Wednesday. Even with the children up andawaiting dinner, he had pursued her for answers. When she had accused him of infidelity, he had thundered in rage, "I'm a normal, vital, healthy male! You know how it is with football players. There are always women hanging around."
Bryn had looked anxiously about the kitchen, but the kids were all in the living room watching TV She dropped her voice to a low whisper. "Oh, so you didn't sleep with her?"
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"If I did, what difference would it make? She meant nothing to me. She was just there--and willing.
Which you weren't at the time. You were too busy playing little homemaker. And I warn you, Bryn, no man is going to play a waiting game while you want to be Mother Goose. Not when he has a Sleeping Beauty on his arm."
Somehow she had refrained from throwing a pan of boiling peas in his face. She had emptied them into a serving dish and headed past the counter for the dining-room table. "Dinner's ready, Joe." She could still remember her icy pronunciation of the words. "And call me Mother Goose if you like, but I don't intend to discuss any of this in front of the kids. Understand?"
He had nodded and taken his place at the table while she called the boys. But Brian must have heard part of the argument. He had been silently hostile when Joe had tried to talk to him. And then, when Joe had sworn silently beneath his breath, Brian had dipped his spoon into his peas and sent them flying across the table and into Joe's face.
It had been the last straw, Joe told her later. Sure, she had to be responsible for the kids. But she'd damn well better hire a housekeeper to stay with them. Then she could travel with him, and he wouldn't have to fall for the groupies who awaited the players.
He had proved himself unfaithful, and scarcely charitable. Knowing he had been with another woman had been painful, and then numbing. And it had hurt all over again when she answered him.
"Forget it, Joe. Just forget the whole thing."
"What?"
"I mean it. I don't want to marry you. It would be a disaster from start to finish."
"You're crazy! Do you know what you're giving up?" "Yes, a man who feels it's his right to cheat if 'his woman' isn't available to fall into bed on his terms, at his times." There had been more.A lot more. But in the end it had all been more of the same, and the engagement had definitely been over.
"Aunt Bryn? There's nothing but squiggly stuff on the TV" Bryn started back to the present. "So there is, Brian. And there won't be anything but squiggly stuff in your mind tomorrow if you don't get some sleep!
Bedtime, guys!"
They grumbled but obeyed. Bryn checked Adam's finger and saw that the swelling was down, and that only a small red area remained to show where the "boo-boo" was. And Adam was half asleep before he hit the pillow, so she knew he was well on his way to recovery.