barely know each other. We don’t have differences. ” Jack discounted the disagreement they’d had in the car, which had been pretty tame. Beside him, Callie’s fingers twitched.
Sam nodded. “Okay, you’re waiving mediation. Next, you need to consider that under Tennessee law, the default position is an equitable division of the matrimonial property.”
Callie perked up. “Do neurosurgeons earn more than florists?” she asked brightly. “I mean, I know they’re a lot more important.”
Jack shot her a look, one that worked well to crush know-it-all medical residents. She was entirely uncrushed. Her blue eyes sparked the way they had the day he’d arrived in town. Ignore her.
“We’ve agreed we’ll each take out of the marriage what we brought into it,” he told the lawyer.
Sam raised his eyebrows at Callie, who sighed theatrically, then nodded. The lawyer pursed his lips, and Jack was pretty sure the man was stifling a smile.
So much for their truce. Jack gritted his teeth. He’d gone easy on Callie in the car when she’d hassled him about his parents. Big mistake. Now she thought she could mess him around. He shouldn’t have given in to that unexpected sense of guilt that he might have exploited her desperate situation all those years ago.
“I’ll prepare the paperwork you’ll both need to sign in order to waive your share of your spouse’s assets,” Sam said. “Now, have a look at this.” He held out a sheet of paper, which Callie took before Jack could. “It’s a list of the permissible grounds for divorce in Tennessee. You’ll need to choose one.”
Jack refused to crane his neck to see over Callie’s shoulder. He could wait.
She made a show of tapping her chin with a finger, apparently deep in contemplation, then pointed to an item high on the list. “I like this first one. ‘Either party is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation.’” She jerked her head in Jack’s direction and gave Sam a significant look.
Jack clenched his teeth, but by superhuman effort refrained from declaring to Sam that he was not impotent. Because on that subject, there was such a thing as protesting too much. Still, he couldn’t hold back a growl.
Callie patted his knee. “Sweetie, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
A muffled sound came from Sam.
Okay, Jack was going to throttle her. Not here in the lawyer’s house; that would be stupid. He’d do it after they left, somewhere near the airport, where he could jump on the next plane before they found her body. The prospect of such utter abandonment of his Hippocratic oath cheered him.
“You know,” Callie reflected, “I’m thinking ‘willful or malicious desertion or absence without a reasonable cause’ might be more appropriate.”
He looked down his nose at her. “I don’t think any judge will consider my commitment to saving children’s lives unreasonable.”
“Touché,” she said sadly, and read on. “‘Cruel and inhuman treatment,’” she murmured with interest. “Oh, wait, I guess they mean toward me, not your parents.”
Jack snatched the list from her and began reading. “Here we go,” he said, triumphant. “All I have to do is make an attempt on your life, ‘by poison or any other means—’ and we have guaranteed grounds for divorce.”
She put a hand to her throat, as if she’d sensed the modus operandi of her imminent demise. “Go ahead. Your parents will see more of you when you’re in jail than they do now.”
She was driving him nuts. Jack turned away, so he wouldn’t be tempted to respond. “Do we need to decide the grounds now?” he asked Sam. “What’s the time line on this thing? I know we have to wait until I’ve been here thirty days before we can file.”
Oh, heck. Callie dragged air into her suddenly constricted lungs. She’d known her lie would come out, but she’d rather it wasn’t right after she’d been goading Jack. Was there any chance Sam wouldn’t expose her?
The lawyer’s shaggy eyebrows shot up. She was dead in the water.
“That’s not right,” Sam said. “As long as you have grounds, which it seems you do on several counts, and as long as one of you has been resident in Marquette County the past six months—” he looked at Callie, who reluctantly nodded “—and you’ve lived apart for a continuous period of two or more years without cohabiting as man and wife during that period…” He took a breath as he finished the spiel, then sealed Callie’s fate. “You can file the papers tomorrow.” He spread his hands. “Your divorce will be through in sixty days.”
“You mean,” Jack said slowly. “I have to stay for sixty days from when we file?”
Sam shook his head. “You don’t need to stay—in fact, you don’t have to be here at all. Callie can file for the divorce.”
Callie sucked in her cheeks and tried to appear surprised.
But Dr. Megabrain, who more often than not talked to her as if she had a whole bunch of screws missing, didn’t consider for one second that she might have misunderstood the Tennessee Code.
He twisted on the couch. Anger darkened his eyes to gunmetal, and he aimed an accusing finger at her jugular. “You lied to me.”
Chapter Four
“YOU’D ALREADY DECIDED to come home.” Callie tried out the smooth, crazy-patient voice and was delighted to see it riled him every bit as much as it did her. “I just exaggerated the length of time you’d need to be here.”
Sam tutted.
Jack snapped his teeth shut. “I came back because I wanted to make sure you were okay, like I promised your mom. You had no right to turn this into your agenda.”
But Callie was done feeling guilty. She wasn’t the one neglecting the two most wonderful parents in the world. She jabbed a finger right back at him. “If I hadn’t said you needed to be here a month, you’d have flown in, checked up on me, spent two days with your parents, then left again.”
The flicker in his eyes told her she was right. But her satisfaction was short-lived, shriveling in the heat of his rising fury.
“What will it take for you to understand that I’m not in England because I think it’s more fun than Parkvale? There are people, patients—kids—whose lives depend on me.” He jerked to his feet as if he could no longer bear to share the expanse of leather with her. “Okay, so sometimes that means I have less time available for my family. But other families—my patients’ families—would say it’s a sacrifice worth making. Who gave you the right to interfere?”
She couldn’t believe he hadn’t figured that out yet. “You gave me the right, you pompous, egotistical…neurosurgeon! You left me here to take your place, comforting your parents after Lucy died—don’t you dare deny it,” she ordered, as he opened his mouth.
Of course he ignored her. “You’re twisting the truth,” he barked. “I didn’t want my mom and dad to lose you so soon after Lucy.”
“You were worried your mom would pressure you not to go to Oxford. If I was there in your place, you could leave the country and forget Dan and Brenda.”
“I knew Mom would be happier about me leaving if you—”
“You used me so you could quit your family when your parents needed you most,” she retorted. “Don’t try and tell me your years in England have been any kind of sacrifice. You wanted out, and you got it.”
“That’s not true,” he roared down at her.
She slapped the arm of the couch in frustration, then stood in a futile attempt to level the playing field.