“Ah, Julie,” he said softly, his voice low and gravelly.

“I’m okay now,” she hurried to say. “But at the time, I was shocked, incredulous, and devastated all at once.”

Julie expected Blackie to offer the usual platitudes, something like, I’m so sorry that happened to you. Instead he kicked down his footrest to sit forward on his chair, his beer precariously balanced in one hand as he rested his bent arms on his knees. “The son of a bitch!” He gestured with his free hand. “If you still have feelings for the asshole, I apologize, but any man who’ll do that to a woman is a self-serving jackass. What he did was inexcusable, and you’re lucky that you walked in on them that day. Otherwise you might have remained in the marriage and there could have been kids in the picture when it finally imploded.”

Julie felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest. While it was true that she would never trust easily again, there was something so genuine about Blackie that it reassured her. “I’m glad of it now, for sure. When I was yearning for a baby, I wasn’t angling to be a single parent. Some people pull that off, but I worked long hours. I would have needed a full-time father on board to help me. Plus, how much worse would it have been to have had a child with him before I learned the truth?

“I felt stupid enough as it was. My family was awesome and very supportive, but even though they never judged me, my sisters did ask how I could have been with him—well, you know, that way—without realizing the truth. And I had no answers for them.”

Blackie remained on the edge of his chair. “None of us on the receiving end of marital treachery ever have a reasonable explanation. When we fall in love, we wear blinders, I think, and when something happens to open our eyes, we squeeze them closed again rather than face a truth we don’t want to accept.”

She released a taut breath. “That’s exactly what I did. Like the fancy dinners and music? It occurred to me once that it was as if he set a stage and then played a role. But I immediately clamped a lid down on those thoughts, and even if I hadn’t, I would have believed he’d fallen for another woman, not some guy. That possibility never even entered my mind.”

He took a slow sip of his drink. “What he did—hiding who he really was to keep up appearances to please his family—well, it tells me that he’s a self-serving person who thought only of himself and never once about what his deceit might do to you. But it isn’t only men who can be treacherous. I’m living proof of that.”

Julie had only ever known Blackie as a happy bachelor. He’d mentioned once that he was divorced, but she’d never wondered overmuch about the particulars of his marriage. “What happened to you?”