San Antonio's Finest Eligibles

by Tee, Marian

“Mama, tell me honestly,” Harry said finally when Mary Beth returned to their table from her fifth visit to the powder room. “Do you have a secret boyfriend that you don’t want me to know about?”

  Mary Beth gasped. “Hush, what are you saying?” She tried not to be obvious as she looked around them, checking if any of the other guests at the annual gala hosted by the Nicholas Sutherland Sr. Foundation had heard Hilary’s words. “I may be a big flirt, but that’s all there is to it.”

  She looked at her mother-in-law doubtfully. “It’s like you’re having a rendezvous—-”

  Mary Beth gave Hilary an exasperated look. “I told you, I’m not. I’m just a little bit restless because...” The truth was at the tip of her tongue. She was restless because she had been calling Devon nonstop, and he hadn’t been answering. But of course she couldn’t say that, and so she ended up grumbling, “Oh, fine, you guessed right. I have a secret boyfriend.”

  Just saying the words made Mary Beth want to throw up. Boyfriend. How utterly quaint. A woman like her did not have boyfriends. Not counting the fact that she remained loyal to her beloved Desmond, she was a mature and sophisticated woman with unbelievable wealth at her disposal, thanks to Devon’s generosity. Only someone like a prince or a sheikh could have the privilege of even being considered her lover.

  Harry grinned at her mother-in-law’s admission. “I knew it!” She patted Mary Beth’s hand comfortingly. Over the days they had been together, she and the older woman had become very close and Harry really did think of Mary Beth as her mother now. “I don’t hold any kind of sway at all over...your son—-” Even now, Harry couldn’t make herself say her husband’s name. After what she had learned, she felt like she had no right to say it at all. “—-so I can’t do anything that might convince him to accept your decision. But if it’s any consolation, Mama, I think you have the right to love again if you want to. Whatever you do, I will always support you.”

  “Oh, Hilary.” Mary Beth hurriedly blinked back tears, not wanting anyone to see her in an emotional state. “You shouldn’t be so sweet. It’s dangerous.” She was about to say something else when she finally caught sight of Devon making his way towards them—-

  Mary Beth’s eyes widened. No. How could he?

  “Mama, what is it?”

  “No, it’s nothing.” Mary Beth tried to keep Hilary from turning around, but it was too late, and she could feel her own heart break as she watched her daughter-in-law’s face drain of color.

  Harry couldn’t breathe.

  Devon was here.

  Her chest squeezed.

  Devon, her husband, looking more heartbreakingly handsome than she remembered him –

  And he was with someone else.

  He was with someone else.

  Devon knew the moment his wife had seen him. It was like a bad tingling sensation at the back of his nape, an ominous feeling that he had only experienced one other time. He had been twenty years old, and a deer had come suddenly running in front of his truck. He had thought to swerve, but when he saw that there was a child about to cross the road, he had been forced to run the deer over.

  He had never forgotten the sound of its body shattering under the wheels of his truck – and for whatever reason...that sound –

  That sound was all he could hear as his gaze collided with his wife’s.

  Hilary was a beautiful vision in blue, the sparkling gown showing off her pale shoulders and exposing more than a generous hint of her cleavage. There were no men around her, but he supposed she had sent them away on silly errands, just like what Mary Beth used to do during the times she had wanted other men to prove their love to her.

  Devon did not stop walking even as he saw Hilary’s gaze slowly move towards his date. That should teach her, Devon thought savagely. If she thought to make a fool out of him, he could more than easily do the same to her.

  Hilary wondered if tonight would be the first time she’d faint in her entire life. Her husband appeared to feel no remorse at all for showing up at what was supposed to be one of San Antonio’s most famous parties with another woman, and the whispers coming from the crowd only made her head feel even fainter.

  “Isn’t he SAFE?”

  “Safe? I don’t get it.”

  “San Antonio’s Finest Eligibles, silly. Four guys make up SAFE and they’re all total hunks. That one’s Devon Montgomery, and he’s married to that girl.”

  “Oh my God, he’s married and he’s come here with another woman?”

  Her face crumpling, Harry choked out an incoherent excuse and ran towards the exit. She could feel all eyes on her, and shame engulfed her at the thought that they all knew now she and Devon had an unhappy marriage. She just didn’t understand him anymore. And she was so tired of trying to understand him.

  Mary Beth was torn between running after Hilary and shouting at her son for being so asinine. The latter won, simply because Devon had reached her, his hussy in tow.

  Mary Beth looked at Devon’s companion with dislike. “Mary Abigail Ryans, didn’t your mother teach you not to date a married man? Go away before I have everyone treat you like a pariah!”

  Mary Abigail gasped in outrage. She looked at Devon for support, found none, and with a distressed cry, she lifted the skirt of her ball gown up and ran away.

  “Good evening, Mama.”

  She said feelingly, “You fool.” When he simply raised a brow at her, Mary Beth had a strong desire to slap him. “You’ve always been my smartest child, Devon, but now you have just proven to me you can also be the dumbest.”

  Before he could answer, his phone rang, and he answered it right away, knowing that only an emergency would have caused George to call him at this time. “What is it?”

  “I’ve got a call from your driver, boss.”

  Devon frowned. “And?”

  George cleared his throat. “It’s Mrs. Montgomery—-”

  “Not one word more, George. You damn well know I don’t want to hear a single thing about her.”

  George’s voice became desperate. “But—-”

  “What was it about?” Mary Beth demanded at the way her son seemed to tersely end the call.

  “Nothing of import,” he answered brusquely. He looked around them. “Who’s the lucky man who was chosen to be my wife’s date?”

  “You.”

  He jerked.

  “I lied to you, Devon. You’re my son, and whether you like it or not, because I’m your mother and I love you, I know you better than you give me credit for. I knew that you would never have thought of confirming my words – you would have thought it was the truth, and jealousy would have made you come here.”

  Mary Beth paused, and this time her guilt made her tone weary. “But I never thought you could be so cruel as to show up in public with another woman. Even I, at my most foolish, had never shamed your father like that.”

  Devon could not speak as Mary Beth’s words fell on him like acid.

  Hilary had not betrayed him.

  And now, he had hurt her for nothing.

  His phone beeped, indicating an incoming message. It was again from George, and this time, he read it –

  Mary Beth saw her son whiten. “What is it?” she demanded anxiously.

  “It’s Hilary,” he whispered.

  Mary Beth grew cold. “Devon—-”

  Her son’s blue eyes were blank with shock. “She was hit by a car.”

  LARRY HAD BEEN ABOUT to park the limo when he saw Mrs. Montgomery running, George had told him. He also saw the van before she did. He tried to warn her, but it was too late.

  Devon’s hands kept tightening around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned completely white. His foreman’s words echoed in his brain like a death knell.

  It was too late.

  Terror consumed him, and he slammed his foot on the gas, uncaring of how many laws he would break as long as he got to her in time.

  It was too late.

  His heart threatened to stop brea
thing when he finally made it to the operating room where his wife was fighting for her life.

  It was too late.

  He watched the E.R. staff frantically work on her unmoving body, and all his fears turned into ashes, the truth breaking free from the barriers of his past –

  Oh God.

  Once, he had tried to hurt Hilary by making her think theirs was not a normal marriage, and the words in the letters Charlotte wrote for him were not true.

  But now Devon knew that he had lied.

  He had always been lying.

  He loved Hilary.

  He had loved Hilary the first time he saw her picture, loved her the first time he read her letter, loved her the first time they met, and she had told him that she would stick by him, with or without air-conditioning.

  “We’re losing her,” the doctor inside the emergency room shouted. “Dammit, someone check her pulse!”

  Devon whitened at the words. “No.”

  Please God, no. Please, don’t take her away from me. Please. Please. I love her. I love her, please, don’t take her away from me.

  As the medical team inside the room rushed to save Hilary’s life, the monitor connected to her body let out a warning signal, indicating a huge drop of her vital signs.

  Devon fell to his knees. “No. Please. No.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “That smells so good, Harry.”

  “I thought that would wake you up,” Harry said with a grin as she started scraping the bacon strips from the frying pan and onto a serving plate.

  Elsie let out a yawn as she took a seat. “You really don’t have to do this, though.”

  “It’s the least I can do, and you know it.”

  Elsie watched her friend move around her tiny kitchen with graceful efficiency, her movements quick but precise as she retrieved the toast out of the oven and started serving sunny side-ups on their plates. It had been two months since Harry had come knocking her door in the middle of the night with red-rimmed eyes and luggage-less, asking if Elsie would let her crash on her couch for just a night, and in those two months she hadn’t been able to get more than a few words out of her friend about the time she spent in Texas.

  All Harry had said was that she had made a mistake, and Elsie, having seen the pain that haunted Harry’s brown eyes when she spoke of the past, had chosen not to press her further. Then, she had thought that was the right thing to do. But now –

  After taking her seat and saying grace, Harry noted uneasily that her friend still kept darting looks at her. “What is it?” she asked finally.

  “How honest do you want me to be?” Elsie hedged.

  “That bad?” she asked with a grimace.

  “It’s just...I’m seriously worried about you, Harry. You’ve lost so much weight since you came here, and you know, the only reason why I never made you talk about what happened was because I thought it would help you get over the past. But that’s not how things are working, so—-” She sighed. “Do you want to try talking about it?”

  Harry’s face felt stiff as she pasted a smile on her lips. “I’d rather not if that's okay with you.”

  “But—-”

  “It’s still too fresh,” Harry admitted jerkily. She wished it wasn’t so, but it was. She had thought she would be over Devon Montgomery now, but she wasn’t – and she was secretly terrified that she never would. Every night, she still ended up crying herself to sleep like she was no better than a little girl who missed her favorite teddy bear.

  I made a really good decision when I asked you to be my bride, Hilary White.

  I’m glad you’ll be mine, darling.

  You’re adorable.

  Oh, how beautiful those words were, and yet they were all lies. He had been lying to her from the very start, so why dear God – why did her stupid heart seem to yearn for him still?

  The haunted look on Harry’s face made Elsie regret bringing up the topic. Oh, her and her big mouth! Eager to bring things back to a semblance of normal, she said brightly, “I’ve good news for you, by the way. I saw a couple of vacancy ads on the bulletin board last night. Maybe you’d like to go to work with me today and see if any of them would fit you?”

  One hour later, and Harry did exactly that, and she waved goodbye just before Elsie headed up to the 11th floor where the new agency she was working for had its office.

  Squaring her shoulders, Harry made a beeline for the bulletin board. It was time to move on, to start again, and she would do so now right this very moment.

  Although Mary Beth had insisted on giving her a huge amount of cash on the day she left, Harry had only used it to pay for her plane ticket and had wired everything back to Devon’s mother. Since then, she had been freelancing as a cleaner and only taking on jobs that didn’t leave any paper trail. She might not be the smartest or most worldly person on the block, but she knew just enough to avoid doing things that might allow Devon find her whereabouts. Then again, she also knew she was doing all of these based on the assumption that he was looking for her – but if she really thought about it, was there any reason for Devon to do so?

  Ours is not a normal marriage.

  Get real, Hilary. You have only known me for a week, and now you’re telling me you love me?”

  I wasn’t the one who wrote those letters. I asked someone else to write whatever you’re likely to want to hear.

  Harry’s eyes became so blurry she had to blink back several times before her vision cleared and she could take a proper look at the ads posted on the board. But even as she started writing down details of the postings she was qualified for, her heart still felt empty.

  Two months...

  It had been two months already, so why was she still not over the man who had done nothing but break her heart?

  Turning away as soon as she was done, she walked towards one of the lounge areas in the lobby and lowered herself to one of the vacant chairs.

  It’s time to move on, Harry told herself severely. It was ludicrous for her to continue basing all of her decisions on how it would or wouldn’t help Devon find her more easily. It was time to put everything in the past where it belonged –

  “Hilary?” The voice had a distinctly Texan drawl, and her heart leapt at the sound. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

  A familiar voice, she thought numbly, but it was not Devon’s.

  Harry reluctantly rose to her feet. A part of her already expected it to be one of Devon’s friends – they were the only Texan men other than Devon who called her by her name; the rest were ranch hands who preferred to addressed her as either the ‘missus’ or ‘ma’am – but she still ended up feeling overwhelmed when she lifted her gaze and found three pairs of eyes looking back at her.

  “H-Hello,” she said faintly.

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Sean’s smile was pure charm, and his tone warm. None of it revealed his quiet shock, which he was certain his other friends shared. Hilary appeared alarmingly thin, and she looked like she was about to faint any second.

  “We’ve come to check our newly acquired office space on the 54th floor,” Logan shared conversationally while pressing the speed-dial button for Devon’s number. “Is this where you’re working, too?”

  “Oh no, not at all.” Harry was very careful not to divulge anything.

  Nicholas eyed her with friendly curiosity. “Visiting a friend or former colleague then?” Maloney Towers was a purely commercial building, without even a single café to offer.

  Instead of answering the question, she said with a strained smile, “It’s been nice bumping into all of you, but I’m afraid I’m already late for, umm, an appointment.” She hated how rude she was acting, but they were Devon’s friends first and foremost, and she couldn’t let herself forget that.

  Harry tried to leave then, but Logan suddenly blocked her way. “If you’re worried we’ll tell Devon about this meeting, please don’t be.” Because he had already done that, he thought wryly. “But that said, I won’t l
ie to you – finding you suddenly gone devastated him.”

  “I’m sure that’s an exaggeration,” Harry said tonelessly.

  “No, it’s not, ma’am.” If anything, it was an understatement. Devon had nearly been catatonic with grief. It was as if his world had lost all meaning the moment he learned of his wife’s disappearance.

  Sean and Nicholas exchanged looks. They had known each other for decades, and Logan was never this open or talkative without a motive. Perhaps he had managed to contact Devon and let their friend know about Hilary’s whereabouts?

  The two men immediately focused their attention back on their friend’s wife. If there were a slightest possibility for that, then they, too, would do their best to keep Hilary from leaving until her estranged husband arrived.

  Harry dug her nails hard into her palms. “I wish I could believe you, but you just don’t know...”

  When her voice trailed off, Sean said gently, “We know about the circumstances surrounding your marriage, Harry. We know Devon had someone write you letters, and this hurt you terribly.” At her wide-eyed look, he added quietly, “I know Devon showing up at Nick’s party with another woman has also hurt you—-”

  “If you’re here to tell me he did that because Mama made him think I was...I was flirting with other men—-” A smile that didn’t reach Harry’s eyes touched her lips. “I already know that. Mama confessed everything to me almost as soon as I regained consciousness at the hospital.”

  Nicholas frowned. “Then surely you understand—-”

  “What I understand is that his past has made him unable to trust any woman,” she cut him off tremulously. “I can’t blame him for it – and truly, I don’t. But I also can’t—-” Harry’s voice broke as she suddenly found herself fighting back tears, and she hastily averted her gaze from Devon’s friends.

  Hoping for some distraction while she struggled to regain control of herself, Harry looked around and belatedly noticed the way the men were drawing so much attention from the opposite sex. Shock and consternation were written all over their faces. It was clear they couldn’t understand how someone like her could hold court over three incredibly handsome men.