Sparks Fly

even close,” his ex-wife said smoothly, as she slid neatly onto the couch and crossed her legs.
    “Why are you here?”
    “I have spent the past twenty-four hours fielding angry phone calls from the wives of your board members who are worried that they aren’t going to be able to make the payments on their vacation homes anymore.”
    “Oh,” Will said, his voice flat.
    “Do you mind telling me why you walked out of the most important meeting of your career? I swear,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air, “I had no idea what to tell these women. You’ve always been so incredibly responsible. ”
    Will was trying to figure out what the hell he should say, when she spotted the engagement ring lying on the carpet next to the fireplace.
    Susan picked up the ring and examined it with a knowledgeable eye. “Wow. What an incredible ring.”
    Will stared blankly at it.
    Susan plopped herself in an uncharacteristically sloppy heap next to him on the carpet. “You bought this for Angelina, didn’t you?”
    Will snapped out of his drunken stupor in an instant. “How could you possibly have guessed that?”
    “I would have had to be completely blind, deaf, and dumb to have missed the sparks flying between you and Angelina that night at the restaurant. You probably realized pretty quickly that I sent her to work with you because I wanted to try and get back together. But once I saw the kind of chemistry the two of you had, I knew I needed to give you up for good. You never once looked at me the way you were devouring her.”
    “Susan, I need to apologize to you for being such a jerk for so long,” he began awkwardly. “I can’t believe I never took the time to find out who you really are on the inside. I was so selfish from the start.”
    Susan’s eyes glistened slightly. “We tried our best to make things work, but we were never right for each other, were we?” Seeming to catch herself before she got all mushy on him, she cleared her throat and held up the ring. “So, now that we’ve got all of that cleared up, why don’t you tell me why this ring was lying within chucking distance?” When he didn’t answer right away, she added, “I know I wasn’t much of a wife, but I hope I can be your friend.”
    Will felt tears well up in his eyes, but he couldn’t chalk it up to being drunk. For all he’d drunk the night before, he was now stone cold sober. He reached out for Susan’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Thanks, Suze.”
    His ex gave him a small smile and waited patiently for him to talk.
    “Angelina doesn’t love me,” he said, feeling like a pathetic, wet, shivering dog. “I thought she did, but she doesn’t.”
    “What could she have done to make you believe that?”
    “I left those stupid negotiations to go and propose to her, and when I got to her house it was empty. She left me.”
    He had opened himself up to Angelina, and she had left with his heart and given no forwarding address.
    “Like your father?” Susan asked softly.
    His head whipped up. “Excuse me?”
    “Will,” Susan began, “you’ve been living your whole life with a wall around your heart because of what your father did to you when he left. You’ve been carrying around this misguided sense of responsibility for so long that you haven’t even noticed how it’s wrecked your life.” Before Will could say one single thing in his own defense, Susan hammered him with, “Has it even occurred to you for one single second that there may be another reason why Angelina left that has nothing to do with her not loving you?”
    When he didn’t say anything, she said sternly, “Maybe you should stop wallowing in your own self-pity long enough to give it some thought.”
    “Don’t bother mincing words. It’s just my entire life we’re talking about here.”
    “I know that. And that’s why I’m trying to help you get things straight.” She stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of her linen slacks. “You know what you need to do now, don’t you?”
    “Find Angelina.”
    “And?” Susan prompted.
    “And love her forever.”
    His ex-wife leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Although I’d suggest you take a quick shower first. You wouldn’t want her to run away screaming when she smells you from across the room.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    “What took you so long?” Krista said when Will barged into her Banks & Bidley law office in downtown Palo Alto.
    “I take it you’re not