The Woman He Married (2 page)

Josie looked up to see a handsome gentleman greeting them with a warm smile.

“Y’all planning to show up for work today?”

Leaning an elbow on the gym’s juice bar, Brian McAlister absently rubbed the cleft in his chin with his forefinger while the gaze from his bright eyes danced toward Josie and Gina. Pushing his six-foot, robust frame away from the bar, he dragged a hand through the brown wavy hair curling playfully about his ears and along the back of his neck.

“Brian, you know I’m going to be in late today,” Gina said. “We have the third-grade dress rehearsal this morning.” She gestured to both herself and Josie.

A paralegal, Gina had joined Brian a few years ago when he’d moved his law practice from northern California to Alabama after his second marriage failed in a record six weeks. Gina did the legal research and divorce mediation for the business, while Brian handled the litigating, some civil, but mostly criminal. Josie had been working with them a couple of mornings a week for the past six months or so.

Josie started to apologize for missing work as well, but stopped when she unexpectedly heard her husband’s voice echoing from the surround sound speakers. She looked up.

On the screen behind the bar, John smiled amicably from the television as he spoke to a group of seniors. Then his voice was muted and someone else spoke: “He will protect the rights of aging Americans,” the narrator’s voice asserted. The ad shifted to a scene with John reading a book to elementary school children. “John Bearden is committed to keeping
Alabama
safe for your children,” the narration continued. The image cut to John standing behind a podium with his campaign staff, all men with the exception of a very attractive woman, positioned behind him, looking official.

“As your circuit court judge, I promise to be hard on crime and relentless in my pursuit of justice, not only to keep your family safe, but for my own.” John was speaking with what looked like incredible conviction, while sounding surprisingly genuine at the same time.

A flash to a picture of John casually playing on the lawn with
their
 
kids
rounded out the ad. It ended as a narrator possessing what could have been mistaken for the voice of God, boomed, “A vote for John Bearden is a vote for justice and security in an insecure world.”

All three of them stood silent, eyes agog as a college-aged girl at the juice bar turned to her friend and stated in a not-so-subtle voice, “John Bearden… He is one fine-
lookin
’ man—he can have my ‘vote’ any time of the day
or
night.”

Josie felt her mouth drop open while Gina rolled her lips together, her eyes amused under raised brows.

Brian said, “Going with the strategy of making people afraid
not
to vote for him, I see…very popular with republican candidates these days.”

Gina added, “How did
Trisha
McSlutty
-pants
get her mug in the clip and not you?”

Josie knew she should say something, but at the moment, there just weren’t words—none she could use in mixed company anyway—to describe why Trisha had been placed front and center while Josie was nowhere to be seen. She’d known that with the financial support from the owner of Southern Steel, Philander Montgomery, John was making a commercial, but she hadn’t seen it, and didn’t realize it was already airing. Heat rose on the back of her neck.
Shower glass or no shower glass, John and I are definitely going to have a conversation about this!

Brian tried again. “So…that’s what
buddying
-up to big steel will buy a candidate these days?”

“I guess so,” Josie finally muttered as she pushed past them and headed for the parking lot.

Once outside, she paid little mind to the hastily intersecting traffic, determined to put some much-needed distance between herself and more questions she obviously didn’t have the answers to.

Brian caught up with her. “Have…you given any more thought to my offer?”

With Brian’s encouragement Josie had finally taken the bar exam after ten years, and passed it the previous summer. Since then, he’d been hinting that he wanted her to work full-time, and he had officially offered her a position a couple of weeks ago.

“Yeah, about that,” she said, glancing briefly in Brian’s direction. “I don’t think this is a good time…with the campaign and all.”

“That’s code for, ‘I’m afraid to ask my husband because he’s a selfish Neanderthal who wants me at his beck and call twenty-four seven,’” Gina chimed in.

Josie turned and gave Gina her best
stay-out-of-it
look before addressing Brian again. “It’s just not a good time, that’s all,” she said simply. After Gina’s comment she couldn’t exactly admit that she hadn’t even broached the subject with John. He’d barely agreed to the part-time position, and his approval had been conditional at best. Not having anything left to bargain with, Josie knew that working full-time would be out of the question.

With Gina still trailing a few paces behind, Brian walked Josie to her van where he reiterated, “We really could use someone like you. You’re a very talented lawyer, you know.”

“Thanks, but you know how busy I am right now. I mean today alone is going to be crazy,” Josie said, barely acknowledging the compliment. The sting of being so publicly reminded of just how disconnected she and John had become was trumping any other sentiment at the moment.

“Right—that dinner tonight,” Brian said with a shake of his head. “First it was a minivan…” He whistled through his teeth. “And now the former environmental activist, AKA Josie McClain, is sitting down to eat with a toxic polluter.”

Josie bit her lip to hide her embarrassment. Up to this point she had successfully managed to avoid this subject with Brian. “I know you must think I’m a traitor. There seems to be no limits to the irony that’s become my life,” she admitted, and then attempted to change the subject. “And besides, everyone knows the first unofficial rule of motherhood…” she motioned to the van. “…is that all mothers must drive a car that seats more than five, looks appropriately like a box, and consequently sucks any remaining amount of sexiness permanently from its driver.”

Brian made a quick appraisal of Josie’s fitted yoga pants. “I’m not sure I would agree with that last part,” he said, and then he fell silent, staring at her with those brown eyes.

The same eyes she’d known so well, so long ago. The eyes that had always been able to look right through her and know exactly what she was feeling. Then Brian’s lips parted into a crooked grin, the same adoring smile that had always made his eyes
twinkle
just a little. Josie swallowed hard, pushing down her desire to return the affection, reminding herself that she was a married woman.

After holding her gaze a moment longer, he said, “Just so long as you don’t start
paintin
’ your face orange while
yellin
’ ‘War Eagle’.”

“You know I would never.” Josie gave her nose a repugnant wrinkle. “The Judge raised me better than that,” she said, knowing that this was one Southern tradition she
did
 
understand
. After all, every resident of the State of
Alabama
knew they were duty bound to swear an oath of allegiance to either the
University
of
Alabama
or
Auburn
University
. The blood “rolling” through her veins was now, and always would be,
Alabama
Crimson
.

With a chuckle and a “See y’all later,” Brian turned and headed for his car.

Josie watched him go, enjoying the view.
Sure, I’m married, but I’m not dead.

“He’s still got it
so
bad for you, girl,” Gina said with a knowing smile.
“And after all this time.”

“Oh please.” Josie waved Gina off. “We have to get going. We have to be at the school in forty-five minutes.”

After climbing into her van, Josie turned the key, and hesitated, giving herself a moment to think.
Could Brian still be in love with
me after all these years? How would
my life be different if
I’d stayed with him?
 
Mulling the subject a minute longer, she knew one thing for sure: she wouldn’t be sleeping alone every night even though there was a man lying next to her in the same bed. But she hadn’t chosen Brian—she’d chosen John. Some days it was hard to remember why.

Closing her eyes, she could almost smell the damp, stale air blowing from the air-conditioner in John’s cheap apartment and feel the brush of his breath across her face. Leaning her head back, she let her mind drift to that day. She was lying on her back in a pair of John’s boxer shorts and a tank top. Next to her, he was lying on his side in some house pants, his bare chest glistening softly from the humidity.

John’s head was propped up on one elbow as he quietly watched her. With his other arm reaching across Josie’s body, their hands moved together randomly,
fingers
engaged in a graceful dance. Contented just to
lie
next to him, she inhaled, breathing in the masculine scent of his skin. To her father, a judge on the State Court of Civil Appeals, John was a valued and trusted law clerk. To Josie, he was the most charismatic and exciting man she’d ever met. Politically, they couldn’t have been more different, but when they made love, sparks of a more ardent nature flew. Yet Josie knew that soon the summer would end, and she’d return to
California
, law school, and…Brian.

In the tranquil silence, John said, “Marry me.”

Josie giggled, thinking she’d heard him wrong. “What?”

“Marry me,” he repeated. John’s expression never wavered; his gaze locked with hers, waiting for a response.

“You’re crazy. I hardly know you.” She laughed more timidly this time, watching John more closely, trying to read his expression.

“Oh, I think you know me just fine,” he said with a wry smile.

Josie felt her cheeks grow hot. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant,” John said, his fingers leaving hers to glide up her arm. “If you don’t marry me, I’m almost certain the Judge will personally see to my untimely demise.” His eyes showed a glint of folly.

“A small price to pay,” Josie said flippantly.

His fingers continued to dance over her chest and down between her breasts, leaving a trail of heat that penetrated her very soul. “And, I can’t imagine ever wanting another woman more than I want
you
right now.”

Josie’s heart started to pound. “You’re…serious.”

“I’m asking you to be my wife, Jocelyn,” he said, sliding his body on top of hers. His emerald eyes beckoned her to answer. “Will you? Will you…be my wife?”

Never in her life until then, or since, had she felt so wholly drawn to another person.

“I loved him…I’ll always love him,” she whispered.

The memory held only a moment longer until the sound of impatient honking caused Josie’s eyes to snap open. Someone wanted her spot. Sighing, she knew she shouldn’t look back but forward, focusing on today and the reality of what lay ahead. Releasing the emergency brake, she had little choice but to aim the van down the road stretching before her.

* * * *

Still in her workout clothes, Josie rushed off to the dry cleaners to pick up John’s dress shirt for the dinner that night.

Although located in the heart of
Birmingham
, the community where they lived was homey with tree-lined streets and quaint little shops. Just to the right of the cleaners sat the local jewelry shop—home to the most beautiful bracelet Josie had ever seen.

It was a tennis bracelet with pear-shaped gemstones accented with delicate princess cut diamonds. Love at first sight. She’d been subtly hinting to John, since before Christmas, that she wanted it by leaving advertisements lying around in places where he would see them and making random comments about its beauty.