Only Forever by Linda Lael Miller

would be selling the next day and braced herself for the worst.
    A soft rain was falling as Parker and Vanessa hurried across the employee parking lot to her car. Parker had arrived in a cab, which said a lot about his confidence in his powers of persuasion.
    Unable to stand it any longer, Vanessa looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she snapped her seat belt into place. “You’re going to tell me something about Nick, aren’t you? Something awful.”
    Parker’s expression was one of regretful gallantry. “This thing between you and him is getting serious, and I can’t let it go any further.”
    “What?” Vanessa cried, frustrated beyond all bearing. “What’s so terrible about Nick?”
    Parker sighed. “All I’m going to say for right now is that he’s not husband material. DeAngelo is ten times the bastard I ever was.”
    Vanessa offered no comment on that, and as she drove out of the studio compound, she gnawed nervously at her lower lip. Normally she wouldn’t have given Parker’s words any credence—he was, after all, a lying, manipulative cheat. But she had a spooky, gut-level feeling that this time he had something valid to say.
    “Where do you want to go for lunch?” she asked even though every trace of her appetite was gone.
    He named a nearby bar and grill, and Vanessa drove toward it.
    They were settled in a booth with cushioned leather seats and roast beef sandwiches and glasses of beer in front of them, when Parker grinned at her and said, “Just like old times, huh, Van?”
    Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Stop it, Parker. Too much has happened for us to be sitting here pretending to have fond memories.”
    Parker looked hurt. “You don’t have any happy memories of us? Not even one?”
    Vanessa thought of the early part of their marriage when she’d adored Parker, when everything he said had made her either laugh or cry. She’d lived on an emotional seesaw in those days, believing herself to be happy. In retrospect,she knew she had suffered. “Don’t push, okay?” she said, averting her eyes. She hadn’t been able to touch her sandwich, but she reached for the glass of beer with a trembling hand.
    “You’re really nervous, aren’t you?” Parker’s features darkened, indicating an approaching storm. “Are you that crazy about De-Angelo?”
    Vanessa saw no point in lying. “Yes,” she said straight out. “I am.”
    “Why?” Parker demanded, and some of the shaved beef slid out of his sandwich because he was squeezing it so hard.
    Vanessa shrugged, trying to look nonchalant even though her stomach was roiling and her throat was closed tight. It wasn’t fair of her to try to convict the man she loved on whatever it was Parker was going to say, especially when Nick wasn’t there to defend himself.
    “This is a mistake,” she blurted, sliding across the bench to stand and shrug into her coat. “I shouldn’t have come here—”
    “Vanessa, sit down,” Parker said, and something in his tone made her meet his gaze.
    Her courage failed at what she saw there, and she dropped back into the seat, covering her face with both hands for a moment and sighing.
    “Tell me, Parker. Stop playing games and say it.”
    “He’s using you to repay me for something that happened a couple of years ago.”
    The statement sounded so preposterous that Vanessa almost laughed out loud. Almost. “Like what?”
    Parker sighed heavily and, for just a second or so, he looked honestly reluctant. “Did he mention Jenna—his ex-wife?”
    Vanessa nodded. “Yes.”
    The expression in Parker’s blue eyes was distant and vaguely arrogant. “What did he tell you about the divorce?”
    Powerful forces battled within Vanessa, one faction wanting to stay and hear Parker out, the other clamoring for escape. “He said she had a problem with trusting him, and that she didn’t want to have children.”
    Parker shook his head, as though marveling at some tacky wonder. Then, without further ado, he