Richard took the beer and stood in front of the fireplace with the air of a man not expecting to stay long. ‘You’ve asked me here for a reason, Kate,’ he said without preamble. ‘Will you tell me what it is?’
‘It seemed better to talk to you face to face.’ She drank some of her tonic. ‘Firstly, I really am going out on Saturday night.’ At least she hoped so.
‘Firstly means a secondly coming up,’ he said dryly.
She nodded. ‘I have a question to ask. You don’t have to answer it, of course.’
He looked at her with steady blue eyes. ‘Ask away.’
‘Are you still in love with your wife?’
Richard blinked, startled, as though this was the last thing he’d expected. He was silent for a long time, his face like a mask, then shrugged, his eyes hard. ‘Yes,’ he said bitterly. ‘I am.’
Kate nodded. ‘I thought so.’
‘Because you’re still in love with Logan?’ he said, startling her in turn.
‘I used to be, once,’ she admitted.
‘Is he taking you out on Saturday?’
‘Not exactly. He’s asked me to a dinner party at his house—with other guests,’ she added.
Richard drank some of his beer, eyeing her over the rim of his glass. ‘I’ve heard that entertaining at home isn’t the Logan style.’
‘So have I.’
Richard put the glass down on the table, and looked Kate in the eye. ‘It’s now established that you have a prior engagement on Saturday, but why, exactly, did you ask about my wife?’
‘Look, Richard,’ said Kate, taking the bull by the horns, ‘I don’t think casual dating is your kind of thing. If I’ve got a colossal nerve to think you’d want something less casual with me, I apologise, humbly. But I thought it best to say, face to face—’
‘That a relationship of any kind between us is out of the question?’
‘Yes, Richard. And not because I don’t like you, because I do, very much. B
ut my gut feeling tells me that the only relationship you really want is with your wife.’
For a moment Kate thought he would make a furious denial, but after a fraught silence Richard nodded grimly. ‘Your instinct is right. I do want her back, for all the good it will do me.’
‘Is she involved with someone else?’
‘Not as far as I know. Caroline’s a journalist and her sole passion is her job.’
‘She might be finding it isn’t enough by now. Have you asked her?’
‘No.’ His eyes hardened again. ‘I refuse to go crawling. It’s up to her to make the first move.’
Kate shook her head impatiently. ‘Oh, come on! Forget all that macho nonsense. If you want her, make the first move yourself.’
Richard’s jaw clenched, and for a moment Kate was afraid he was going to tell her to shut up and mind her own business. But even tually a wry smile dawned in his eyes and she breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Maybe you’re right, Kate, ’he said at last. ‘I’ll go down to the flat on Sunday.’
‘Why leave it until then? Go tomorrow.’
‘She works on Saturdays.’ His mouth twisted. ‘The sky would fall in if Caroline knocked off before her beloved newspaper’s ready for Sunday breakfast tables.’
‘Insist that she does.’
‘Carry her out over my shoulder?’ he said, laughing, suddenly a different man from the wary lawyer of minutes earlier.