"You're no fool."

"Can you imagine him making love to me and thinking of her?"

"He may not have done that."

UEightyears. How could I have missed it?"

"If you didn't catch it in the beginning, it would have been nearly impossible to see later on. Over eight years' time, whatever he was doing would have become the norm. There wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary for you to see."

Angie shot her a dry look. "The New England Journal of Medicine hasn't written this one up. I'm out of my element."

Paige smiled. "So how did you leave it with him?"

Taking a long, slightly uneven breath, Angie settled against the edge of the table, seeming, to Paige s relief, calmer. "I didn't kick him out, though I'm sure Mara would have told me to do that. Sue him,' she would have said. Take him for everything he's worth. If he likes Nora Eaton so much, let her wash his socks." Mara adored Ben, but she hated Paige smiled again. Angie's analysis of Mara was right on the mark.

For all the softness Mara may have had inside, she had her militant moments "But that doesn't take into consideration the fact that you love him."

"I do," Angie breathed.

"Did he say what he wanted?" She couldn't quite get herself to use the word separation, much less divorce.

"He left the house after we argued. He came back later, but we didn't talk. He stayed in bed when I got up this morning." She pressed a shaky hand to her upper lip, then wrapped her arms tightly around her middle and looked at Paige beseechingly. "What should I do?" she whispered.

"Talk to him. Go home now and do it." Angie shook her head. "There's too much to do here." She pushed away from the table and blotted her eyes in the reflection on the microwave door. "My patients are waiting."

"So are mine, but don't you think this takes precedence? This is your husband, Angie."

"I know. But I need time."

"Time is a luxury. We ran out with Mara. Ten times a day I wish I could turn back the clock and talk with her. Talk with Ben, Angie."

Angie paused with her hand on the doorknob and her back to Paige. "I don't know what to say. Do you know how disconcerting I find that?

I'm rarely at a lossbut never in a million years did I expect something like this from Ben. I thought he loved meI still do"she shook her head_"I just don't understand. Maybe he's right. Maybe I haven't been giving him what he needs."

"Are you justifying it?"

"No, but I have to take part of the responsibility. You said it to Peterit takes two to tango. If one of a pair isn't listening to the music, the other one may want a different partner."

"Angie, nothing condones infidelity." "I know. But this is Ben. I need time to decide how to handle it."

Paige let her go and, soon after, started seeing her own patients, but Angie's dilemma was with her for the rest of the day. She felt it personallythe shaking of something that had been a rock. Angie's marriage had always been a paragon, a shining l example of the way things should be. During those times when Paige wondered what it might be like to be married, she dreamed of a setup like Angie's that allowed both for work and family. At the hub of such a life was a husband, and though a different type of man from Ben turned her on, he was steadfast in the very same way.

Ben's infidelity crushed an ideal. It left an ache inside her, much as thinking of Mara still did, which was why she stopped home before going to Mount Court that afternoon.

She told herself that she was checking up on Jill, but the fact was that seeing Sami eased the ache. It didn't matter that Sami wasn't biologically Mara's, that the two had never even met, but Sami seemed to be the little piece of herself that Mara had left to Paige.

Needing to feel the connection, she sent Jill off to see friends and took Sami with her to Mount Court The team manager was happy enough to baby-sit while Paige ran with the team, then Paige held Sami while the girls did multiple sets of sprints. When practice was over, she strapped Sami into the stroller and, intent on taking advantage of a sunny September afternoon, started to walk.

She wound along the campus road, passing classroom buildings, the art building, and the library. She passed the administration building, walking at a leisurely pace, chatting with students, pausing to kneel by Sami's side and point out the sights. By the time she reached the dorms, a bulldozer could be heard. She followed the sound.

The girls had told her of the new Head's construction project, but telling was nothing like seeing. The setting was a wooded one beyond the last of the dorms and would have been beautiful had it not been for the widening hole the dozer was gouging in its midst.

Students of both sexes, wearing jeans and shiny hard hats, were standing around watching with the same kind of helplessness Paige felt.

Just beyond, looking not helpless at allindeed, intent on the work if the set of his jaw and the focus of his mirrored sunglasses went for anythingwas Noah Perrine.

He wore jeans and a hard hat, too, though his hat was less new. He also wore a faded T-shirt. The way it seemed perfectly at home on his body surprised Paige. Likewise the way he was gesturing to the operator of the bulldozer. He seemed to know what he was doing, seemed at ease in the role of construction foreman. He looked taller and more rugged than he had the Friday before and less than ever like Head of the School.

Sami started to whimper. Paige lifted her out of the stroller and held her close. "It's okay, sweetie. Don't let the noise bother you.

They're building a house. A new house. It's an incredible thing to do with the kids, I have to admit. For a prig, he's hit on something smart."

She watched Noah. He alternately gestured and stood with his hands on his hips. At one point, when the dozer stopped, he turned to the students and began to talk. In lieu of hearing, which the idle of the machine precluded, Paige tried to make out his expression, but the mirrored glasses stood in the way.

At his sign, the bulldozer started up again and kept at it for another little while until the driver cut the engine and climbed from the cab.

Noah said more to the group, but even with the machine silent, Paige was too far away to catch his words. Then the students dispersed.

Several stopped to talk with hergrumblings, which she passed off with an indulgent smilebut they were soon gone.

She should have returned Sami to the stroller and headed back to the car, but something kept her rooted to the spot as Noah approached. He stopped directly before her.

"Were you waiting for me?" he asked. The voice was as quietly steely as before, the sunglasses vaguely intimidating.

"Not on your life," she answered, willing her heartbeat to slow. "But it's an interesting project."

He took off the hard hat and the glasses, wiped his forehead with his arm, put the glasses back in place. "I thought it was. To hear it from these kids it's an embarrassment.

They think it's beneath them."

That was the gist of the grumbling Paige had heard. "They're spoiled."

"Among other things." He glanced toward the dorms. "We caught a couple in the woods last night."

"Doing what?"

"Don't ask."

"Drugs, alcohol, or sexwhich was it?"

"Does it matter?"

"Sure does. Drugs and alcohol are illegal.

Sex is simply unwiseat their age, at least."

Her heartbeat sped when Noah shot her a look.