“You don’t seem at all right. I thought you’d be happy about this, especially since you’re the one who got her to give up her ridiculous ideas. Did you know that she’d arranged a job in...in... I don’t know where. Someplace I’d never heard of.”

“Tibet.”

“Yes! That’s it. If you ask me, you dodged a bullet on that. Who wants to go someplace no one has heard of before?”

“Vera does,” Miguel said softly. “It’s her dream. Her life.”

“Not anymore,” Nella said. “She’s given that up. Of course Kelly will be Vera’s maid of honor. Who will be your best man at your wedding?”

But Miguel didn’t answer. He was already out the door.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Vera went to the break room and poured herself a cup of coffee. Her hands were shaking so badly that she could hardly hold the cup.

I’m doing the right thing, she told herself. She couldn’t leave her mother alone. Kelly would go to Adam’s, so Nella would be alone.

Vera tried to calm herself. Everyone knew that love was the most important thing in the world.

And with Miguel she had that love. Deep love. She should be grateful. She should...

She took a breath. Should seemed to be the number one word in her life right now.

When she went back into her office, Hank said, “Some guy called and left a message for you. I don’t know why he called me. He—”

“Who was it?”

“Mike somebody.”

“Mike? You meant Miguel?”

“Yeah. That’s it. He said to meet him at three p.m. and that you’d know where.”

Vera looked at her watch. If she left now, she could be there at two thirty. She and Miguel really needed to talk. She’d tell him she was staying. Then he’d hold her and make her know she’d made the right decision.

By the time she got to the cellar, she was smiling. Her plan to travel the world had been a fantasy. She had romanticized it. The truth was that all she knew and loved was here and that’s where she should stay.

The door over the cellar was closed. She threw it open and ran down the stairs. What she saw was déjà vu, only from a different perspective.

On the big couch Miguel and Gabrielle were both naked. Having sex.

Miguel didn’t look up when Vera pounded down the stairs. But Gabby did. The look of triumph in her eyes was like a soldier who had just won the war. She smiled at Vera, then picked up Miguel’s hand and put it on her large breast.