Slow Hands

wife front when your father doesn’t want to touch me?”
    “You’re crazy,” Tabby said.
    “It’s true,” Deborah told her. “The last time we had sex, he called me by another woman’s name. And because I had the foolish, soft heartedness to be hurt by it, he’s decided we shouldn’t even bother trying to have that kind of marriage.”
    “He loves you,” Maddy whispered.
    “No, dear , he doesn’t.” Now there was no mistaking the dislike coming from the woman’s mouth. Again, directed at Maddy rather than Tabitha, who’d just called her a nutcase. “He said he did, but wanting to be in love with someone is not the same as loving them. Your father has nothing in his heart for me beyond affection. He wants only companionship and an occasional dance partner.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “I thought it would be enough, a friendly but loveless marriage.” Sighing deeply, she added, “Hell, maybe I thought I could change him, even though no other woman has been able to.”
    Maddy’s eyes, already wet from previously shed tears, blinked rapidly. As if unaware she was doing it, she slid her fingers from his, clenching her hands in her lap.
    He took no offense. Sex talk about a parent was bad enough. Hearing that parent might actually be so cold, loveless—well, he didn’t even want to think what it might be like. For Maddy or for her sister.
    “So don’t go judging me,” Deborah continued. He glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing that she was again talking to Tabitha. “Not when you’re about to do the same thing.”
    “I don’t know you’re talking about.”
    “Of course you do, dear. Please don’t pretend I’m wrong. I know what a couple pretending to be in love looks like. You and Bradley don’t love each other. At least, in my marriage, one of us is in love.”
    “Tabby?” Madeline whispered, this time turning all the way around in her seat. She looked as though she’d been hit—again—for the dozenth time in an hour. The heartbreak he saw in her eyes hit him again, too. “That’s not true. You love him. You do, don’t you?”
    Silence. When Jake cast a look back, he saw Tabitha staring stonily at her sister, tears still on her cheeks—ones she had shed for her father. Not any fresh ones for herself and the future she had apparently chosen.
    “You told me…”
    “I thought I loved him,” the older Turner sister replied. “I wanted to. Mainly because I thought he loved me and I’d be crazy not to feel the same way.” She glanced out the window. “His family business isn’t doing well and he needs money. He told me two days ago—said it wasn’t honorable for him to marry me without telling me about his financial situation.”
    Maddy didn’t appear ready to concede the point. “Okay. He should have come clean sooner, but he did tell you. So he does love you, and wants you to be together on open, honest terms.”
    Her sister laughed softly. So, from the sound of it, did her stepmother. As if the two of them knew something basic, something undeniable, something Maddy hadn’t yet figured out.
    Goddamn it, if he had his way, she’d never figure it out. Or at least never believe it. Not what he sensed they were trying to tell her.
    “No, he was just afraid I’d find out after the wedding and divorce him. He called me into a meeting with his parents where they all informed me it would be a wonderful match, that they found me eminently suitable, despite my, how did his mother call it? My high-spiritedness.” She sniffed and Jake didn’t have to look in the mirror again to see her tears.
    “That witch,” Maddy snapped. “And Bradley—he’s a coward.”
    “Just a man,” Deborah murmured. “Like any other man.”
    Oh, by all means, ignore me. I’m not here .
    “I wasn’t happy about the dishonesty.”
    “Can’t imagine why not,” the older woman murmured. “Who wouldn’t want a relationship based on lies?”
    “Shut up,” Tabby snarled.
    Maddy interceded again. “Why didn’t you end things? Do you really love him?”
    “No. But I conceded the point. I obviously can’t trust my own emotions. And a logical, well-thought-out marriage sounded like a very good proposition to me. It still does.”
    “It’s not,” Deborah interjected.
    “I’m talking to my sister .”
    Oh, how he hoped the claws didn’t come out again.
    Maddy shook her head. “Oh, no, Tabby you can’t. Tell me you’re not going through with this.”
    Before she could