Sweet Fortune

really don't want to talk about this any more.”
    “Neither do I. But you brought it up, so I'll finish it. To make a long story short, we were very happy together for about four years. I had a good position in a fast-moving company. Our future was all mapped out. I thought it was time to talk about having kids. She thought we should wait a little longer. Then a couple of things happened at once.”
    “What things?”
    “The company I was working for was the object of a hostile takeover. When the bloodletting was over, I was out of a job along with most of management. Not unusual in a takeover situation. Olivia took the news badly, though. We were almost back to square one as far as she was concerned.”
    “And she had a hard time dealing with that?”
    “Let's just say she was not particularly interested in starting over from scratch, and I couldn't blame her. I wasn't real thrilled with the idea, myself, but I had confidence that I could do it. I believed in myself, but she didn't. We quarreled a lot. She blamed me for the mess. And then she died in a car accident.”
    Jessie could feel tears burning in her eyes. “Hatch, I'm so sorry.”
    “It was rough. I was pretty well out of it for a while after the funeral. Which probably explains why it took me so long to find the note she had left before she got into the car for the last time.”
    Jessie's insides clenched as she suddenly realized where all this might be leading. “What was in the note?”
    “She told me she couldn't tie herself to a loser. She had her future to consider and she was filing for divorce. She planned to marry a friend of mine. Someone I had worked with at the company, someone I had trusted. He had landed on his feet after the takeover. Gone to work as a vice-president for the new owner.”
    “Oh, Hatch.”
    “Apparently he and Olivia had been having an affair for six months prior to the accident. The day she was killed, she was leaving to meet him. Olivia said in her note she hoped I understood.”
    “My God.” Jessie had not felt this thoroughly miserable for a long time. “I'm sorry,” she said again, unable to think of anything else. “I'm so sorry, Hatch.”
    “I figured out a lot of things after I read that damned note. I understood at last why she had been so reluctant to talk about babies. She hadn't wanted to get pregnant until she had decided whether or not she would be leaving me.”
    Jessie could feel his fingers biting into her arms through the fabric of her jacket. She lifted her hand and touched his cheek. “Please, Hatch. Don't say anything more about it. I should never have asked about her.”
    His mouth tightened. “You're getting wet. It's damn stupid for us to be standing around out here in the rain.”
    “Yes.”
    He took her arm again and started walking. “Anything else you want to know about me? I'd rather get the question-and-answer phase over as fast as possible.”
    She had a thousand questions but she could not bring herself to ask a single one of them at that moment. “I guess I'm not very good at this sort of thing.”
    “You might not be good.” His mouth quirked wryly. “But something tells me you'll be persistent. Are you sure you don't have any more questions?”
    “I'm sure.” She reached up to pull the lapels of her jacket closed. “Feels like it's getting colder, doesn't it?”
    “Not particularly. You're probably just getting wetter.”
    “No, it's more than that. It is colder. Or something.” A small ripple of awareness went down her spine. Instinctively she glanced behind her. There was nothing to see but the dark, rain-washed street. A car's headlights briefly speared the night behind them and then vanished.
    “Something wrong, Jessie?”
    “No. For a minute I thought there was someone else around.”
    Hatch glanced back. “I don't see anyone. Even if there were, it wouldn't be anything to worry about. This isn't exactly downtown Seattle.”
    “True.” She shook off her uneasiness. “What did you think about our tour this afternoon? You haven't even mentioned it since we got back.”
    “I don't know what to think yet. I want to take a closer look at something I picked up at the mansion first,” Hatch said. “Maybe have someone else look at it too.”
    Jessie glanced up quizzically. “What on earth did you pick up? I didn't see you carrying anything.”
    “I'll show you when we get back to the room.”
    “Do you think there's any chance DEL is for