Married By Mistake

of having to see her the rest of the week,” he explained.
    But it seemed to Casey the way her husband treated Eloise and her companions went beyond routine courtesy. He made considerable effort to charm the three women he called the Merry Widows, as they sat at the best table in the house. The Peabody staff had greeted Casey and Adam like long-lost friends.
    Casey sipped on her mint julep tea, ordered at Eloise’s urging and served in a tall frosted glass. The refreshing combination of bourbon, mint and tea should have helped her relax. But Eloise had introduced her to the other ladies as “my dear daughter-in-law,” and Casey found herself the center of the conversation. She felt like a fraud.
    When Adam waved at someone, she was ready to welcome any distraction. Even Sam Magill, the lawyer, who’d arrived with another group. Sam caught Adam’s signal and excused himself from his friends.
    “What is that man doing here?” Eloise creased the fine linen napkin between her fingers as she watched him approach. How did he do this, turn up wherever she went? She couldn’t so much as take Adam a tray of his favorite cornbread at the office without Sam popping up to ask if she’d taken her blood pressure medication, or to remind her it was time to pay her federal taxes, or to warn her a prowler had been sighted in her area. Now he was fiddling with his tie, which was already perfectly knotted, and in his distraction he bumped an elderly woman’s chair on his way over.
    Sam stopped to check if the old lady was all right, then at last reached their table.
    “Eloise.” He greeted her with a half bow, just as James used to. When James did it, she’d thought it charming.
    “Hello, Sam.”
    Sam knocked her purse, which she’d hung over the back of her chair. He apologized, red in the face. Feeling sorry for him, Eloise smiled. Hope leaped into his eyes. Oh, dear. Sam could interpret even ordinary courtesy as something more when he wanted to badly enough.
    That visit she’d paid to his house had revealed he cared for her more deeply than she’d suspected. It wasn’t fair to let it continue. Somewhere out there was a woman who would return his feelings.
    Eloise bit her lip. Though it went against her upbringing, though her mama would have a fainting fit if she were alive to witness it, maybe Eloise should be...less polite to Sam.
    For both their sakes.
    She turned her back on him to speak to Celeste, making the exclusion deliberate.
    Sam’s voice was gruff when he said to Adam, “I planned to call you at home this afternoon.”
    It was rare for Sam to phone on the weekend. Adam figured it couldn’t be good news. He reached around to the empty table behind him and pulled a chair over for Sam. “What’s the problem?”
    The attorney directed an anxious glance at Eloise as he sat down, but she wasn’t paying him any attention. “I heard a rumor from the offices of your aunt’s lawyer. Your marriage—” he nodded to Casey, sitting next to Adam “—has Anna May worried you’ve met the conditions of the will and put Henry out of contention.”
    “That figures,” Adam said.
    “So she’s claiming,” the lawyer said, “your father was out of his mind when he wrote that will.”
    Adam gripped the edge of the table. If Anna May and Henry were here, he’d knock their stupid heads together. This time, they’d gone too far.
    “My father was not crazy.” His anger erupted at the worst possible moment. The waiter had arrived with their food, and the women had stopped talking. Everyone at Adam’s table heard his declaration. And judging by the curious glances directed their way, everyone at neighboring tables, too.
    “Adam?” Eloise said uncertainly.
    This news would hurt his stepmother. He wished he didn’t care, but... Casey reached over to prize his fingers from the table edge. She curled her hand around his and squeezed gently.
    Adam felt the tension seep out of him. Whatever Anna May was up to, they would get past it.
    “It’s Anna May’s latest tactic,” he told his stepmother. “She’s claiming Dad wasn’t of sound mind when he wrote his will.”
    He was about to add that his aunt wouldn’t get anywhere with such a preposterous claim, when Sam blurted, “She has evidence.”
    Eloise uttered a word Adam didn’t know she knew, not quite under her breath. Sam coughed into his handkerchief.
    “Are you still smoking, Mr. Magill?” Eloise gave the lawyer a chilly look that cleared his