Love Will Find a Way by Barri Bryan Page A

to give her. She clung to the one thing she had left, her pride. “We are not the first couple to fall out of love. We won't be the last."
    After a painful silence, she reached to turn on her ignition. “I have to go. Larry will start to worry."
    Robert made no effort to get out of the car. “How is Larry?"
    "He's okay.” Emily dropped her hand. “Looking forward to college, he leaves next week."
    "Does he? It seems like only yesterday that he was a toddler, walking around demanding that I carry him on my shoulders. Now he's ready to go off to college. Children grow up so fast."
    "Too fast sometimes, I think.” Emily's hands rested on the steering wheel. “Larry's off to college and Kevin is thinking of getting married. Our sons are adults now."
    "Kevin is getting married? I didn't know that.” Robert's gaze sharpened. “When did this happen? Who is the woman?"
    Emily had assumed he did know even though he and Kevin were no longer on speaking terms. “He's considering it. Didn't Larry tell you?"
    "Larry doesn't talk to me anymore.” There was resignation in Robert's voice and a touch of reproach, “Not about anything of importance anyway."
    "Well...” Happy to be on safe ground again, Emily began to explain. “It seems Kevin has met this woman, girl really. She's only eighteen. He says they're in love."
    The tension between them lessened as Robert asked, “You don't believe they are? In love, I mean."
    As she spoke, Emily realized that for the first time in a long time, she and Robert were communicating instead of firing words at each other. “I haven't met the girl. Her name is Stacy Morrison. She's a minister's daughter."
    "You haven't seen them together?” Robert seemed surprised. “How can you be so sure they aren't in love?"
    "She's young and apparently naive. You know how wild Kevin has always been and how fickle.” Emily thought that was a cruel assessment of her own flesh and blood. “After the newness wears off, he may find he acted hastily."
    "Are you going to try to dissuade him?"
    "That would only make matters worse.” If she had learned anything over the past few months it was that people did what they wanted to do, regardless of what anyone around them said or did. “I can only hope that Kevin doesn't do something he will be sorry for later."
    "Sometimes a man is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.” There was a note of sadness in Robert's voice. “I miss my sons very much. I miss being a part of their lives."
    "I know you must. I ... I'm sorry."
    "Are you, Emily?” he asked softly, doubtfully.
    "You know I am.” Robert's break with his sons was only one of the many things she had reason to regret.
    "Then maybe you would consider helping me win them back?"
    "I don't know what I could do.” Caution whispered in her ear, don't get involved.
    "Then maybe you can suggest something I can do."
    Emily hesitated. “You know the old adage, give advice and buy a foe."
    He slid his fingers through the sides of his hair. “Then you're refusing to help me?"
    Did he think she was that spiteful and unfeeling? She wasn't, at least she didn't want to be. “The first step would be getting them to accept Susan.” It took every ounce of control she had to speak so calmly about his affair with another woman. “After you and Susan are married maybe things will change."
    Moisture gathered in Robert's eyes. “I'm not going to marry Susan."
    That came as quite a shock. Emily wanted to ask why. She didn't. “A lengthy affair may be harder to justify, especially with Kevin."
    He closed his eyes. “My affair with Susan is over. She's out of my life for good."
    Robert must be devastated! Emily knew the man who sat next to her. He would not have divorced his wife, torn the fabric of his life to shreds and lost so much that he held dear, if he had not been deeply in love with Susan Barrett. And now she had left him. She whispered, “I'm so sorry."
    "You're sorry?” He opened his eyes and looked at