Loving Leah. Nikki Benjamin

wife had been the one to file for divorce and the one who had talked of reconciliation almost a year later. Before that, Leah had hoped her relationship with him might eventually end in marriage. She had liked him quite a lot and had thought that love would come as they worked toward building a future together. She had gotten to know his children, and they had seemed to enjoy her company as much as she’d enjoyed theirs.

      But once she’d found out that Kyle hadn’t rejected out of hand his wife’s offer to reconcile, Leah had begun letting go of those hopes and dreams, much as she had done with John when his feelings for Caro had become apparent. Only, she hadn’t cared for Kyle nearly as much as she had for John, she acknowledged now. While the end of her relationship with Kyle had saddened her, she had also been somewhat relieved to finally admit that much as she had wished he could be the love of her life, he would never be.

      “I realize now that I should have given it more thought,” Kyle said. “She’s changed and so have I. We talked about it and agreed we might as well stay together for the boys’ sake, but she also told me that she doesn’t mind if I…see someone else.”

      Stunned by what he was proposing, Leah couldn’t speak for several seconds. Then with an utter sense of calm, she crossed to where the base of the telephone hung on the wall.

      “I don’t mind, either, Kyle, but that someone isn’t going to be me,” she said very quietly, then carefully cradled the receiver.

      Taking a deep breath, Leah tried to quell the anger building up inside her. Had he really thought she would scurry back to Chicago after a call from him and take on the role of the other woman? Did he honestly believe she valued herself that little?

      She hadn’t wanted to have only an affair with Kyle O’Connor. She would have never started seeing him in the first place if she hadn’t believed that he fully intended to go through with his divorce. Encouraging him to return to his wife hadn’t been easy, but she had been convinced that it was best for all concerned at the time. She was even surer of it now.

      “Who was that?” Gracie asked from her perch by the kitchen sink.

      Wondering how much the little girl had overheard, Leah smiled and shrugged with feigned nonchalance.

      “Just a friend of mine calling from Chicago. He wanted to know how I was getting along here in the wilds of Montana, and I told him I was getting along just fine.”

      “You sounded kind of growly when you were talking to him. Are you mad at him?”