“Some things came up when I was in L.A. Changed my plans. I like to be fair with a woman I’ve slept with, so I figured I should let you know I’m moving down there next week.”

“You’re moving to L.A.? But your house—”

“Never meant a damn to me.” He jerked his shoulder. “Just a place. One’s the same as the other.”

One’s the same as the other, she thought dully. One house. One woman. “Why did you come back at all?”

“I left my horses.” He forced his lips into a grin.

“You went to Ali’s recital. You brought her flowers.”

“I told the kid I’d go. I don’t make many promises, so I don’t break the ones I do make.” In this at least, he didn’t have to improvise. “You’ve got terrific kids, Laura. I’ve liked getting to know them. And I wouldn’t have let her down last night.”

“If you go, they’ll be devastated. They’ll—”

“Get over it,” he said, his voice roughening. “I’m just a guy who passed through.”

“You can’t believe that.” She stepped toward him. “You can’t believe you mean so little to them. They love you, Michael. I—”

“I’m not their father. Don’t lay that guilt trip on me. I’ve got my own life to worry about.”

“And that’s it.” She drew in another breath, but it wasn’t slow, it wasn’t easy. “ ‘See you around, it’s been fun?’ We meant nothing to you.”

“Sure you did. Look, sugar, life’s long. A lot of people walk through it. Both of us gave each other what we were looking for at the time.”

“Just sex.”

“Great sex.” He smiled again. Then, because his reflexes were good, dodged by inches the bottle she picked up and heaved at him. Before he could recover from the shock of that, she was using her hands. Both of them shoved hard enough against his chest to knock him back two full steps. “Hey.”

“How dare you! How dare you lower what we have, what I felt, to some animal urge? You son of a bitch, you think you can brush me off like an inconvenient speck of lint, then walk away?”

A lamp went next, and he could only watch, speechless, and duck, fast, when she threw whatever came to her hand at his head.

“You didn’t think I’d cause a scene, did you?” She picked up an end table, toppled it. “Wrong. Finished with me, are you? Just like that.” She snapped her fingers under his nose. “And I’m supposed to meekly walk away, sob into my pillow and say nothing?”