“Pardon me!” She jerked the bangles from one wrist and threw them to the bed, knowing that rage was a safer emotion to express than grief. “Let’s get to it, then.” She kicked off her shoes, sending them flying across the room. “Hurry up, Coach. You’ve still got your pants on.”

He closed the distance between them and caught her by the shoulders, his fingers digging into her flesh. “Stop it! I don’t believe this. What’s wrong with you?”

She had broken her resolution to get through this confrontation with dignity, and she grew still in his arms. Taking a shaky breath, she spoke quietly. “I’m not going to sleep with you anymore, Dan. It was a mistake, and I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

He drew back so they were no longer touching. Although his voice lost its belligerent edge, there was a dangerous wariness in his eyes. “I know you care for me. You wouldn’t have slept with me if you hadn’t.”

“I met Sharon at the Bills game.” The guilty look that flashed across his face told her everything. “She’s very nice. You have good taste.”

“Sharon doesn’t have anything to do with the two of us. If you’re thinking I was sleeping with both of you at the same time, you’re wrong.”

“That’s what I understand. You had the best of both worlds, didn’t you?” Her voice caught. “You could get your rocks off with the bimbo while you kept your future wife pristine.”

Instead of being apologetic, he looked furious. “Is that the kind of man you think I am?”

“It’s hard to think anything else.”

She could see him struggling to hold on to his temper. “I’d made arrangements for Sharon to come to the Bills game weeks ago, and I couldn’t call it off at the last minute. But I’m not seeing her any longer. I thought she was what I wanted in a woman, but then, after you and I were together last time, I knew I was kidding myself.”

The knowledge that he and Sharon had separated should have made her happy, but it didn’t. She needed to hear him say that he wanted more from her than sex, that he wanted love, and until he spoke the words, nothing could be right between them. Her voice was soft and unsteady. “Did you stop seeing her because she wasn’t hot enough for you?”

The muscles in his throat worked as he swallowed hard. “Don’t do this, Phoebe. Don’t start saying all kinds of things that can’t be taken back. I told you how screwed-up my own family was. For a long time I’ve been wanting to settle down to a real marriage—not just an ongoing orgy like I had with Valerie. I want kids.”

“So you held auditions for your future children’s mother, and Sharon won the baby ribbon.”

“It’s not hard to figure out why she appealed to me. I wanted somebody who liked kids, who wasn’t going to be slapping them around whenever my back was turned.”