Date Next Door

Not that she expected it to fool Joel for a minute. The most she could hope was that he looked a bit ragged himself this morning.

If only they didn’t have to attend this farewell breakfast. A few of the former classmates had mentioned that they were skipping this part at the party last night. Jimmy, for example, had said he would be leaving quite early this morning.

But Heidi had insisted on one last gathering to see everyone off, especially since so many were staying at the resort and would be wanting breakfast before they left anyway. Joel hadn’t seemed to know how to bow out gracefully—a real weakness of his.

She could handle another hour or so, Nic promised herself. She could keep smiling and nodding and pretending there was nothing on her mind but socializing with Joel and his friends. And when she returned home, she would stay very busy with work, giving herself—and Joel—time to decide if they had been swept up in a moment, carried away by feelings that couldn’t last.

Joel was dressed before Nic. He could hear her moving around in her room as he passed by, but he didn’t stop to knock. She would come out when she was ready and she didn’t need him to escort her downstairs.

He walked through his mother’s hallway photo gallery, somberly studying the images as he passed them. He hadn’t actually realized until now how many photos of Heather his mother had on display. Nor had he given a thought to how a new woman in his life might feel about walking through this shrine to his late wife.

It hadn’t been necessary to think along those lines before. Nic was the first woman he’d brought to his parents’ home since Heather died.

Though he hadn’t intended to, he paused in front of a huge framed photograph of himself and Heather on their wedding day. She had been so beautiful, and he had looked so happy. And though they had waited longer than some young couples to marry, preferring to finish their career training first, they had both looked so damned young.

Just over five years had passed since that photo was taken, but he felt so much older. So different. Maybe that was why he found himself falling now for a very different type of woman.

He had known Heather better than he’d ever known anyone, including his family. He had watched her grow from a giggly girl to a polished, professional woman. They had shared everything with each other, their dreams, their fears, their joys and disappointments. And yet he couldn’t say with any certainty now how Heather would have felt about Nic. What she would think about his growing feelings for Nic.

Like most couples, they’d had a talk soon after they married in which they’d discussed the unlikely event that one of them would die an untimely death, leaving the other widowed at an early age. Smug in their confidence that nothing like that could ever happen to them, the golden couple of Danston High, they had earnestly made each other promise that they would never be lonely and miserable, no matter what.

“I would want you to fall in love again,” Heather had assured him. “You’re the type of man who thrives in a steady, supportive relationship. I would never want you to be alone.”

“And I would want you to remarry,” Joel had assured her in return, knowing even then that he was lying through his teeth.

Yeah, he’d wanted her to be happy—but he couldn’t imagine her with anyone but him. Couldn’t bear to think about it. Had Heather felt the same way despite her unselfish words?

“Joel?”

He hadn’t heard Nic’s door open. Hearing her voice right behind him made him turn away from the wedding portrait with a start that felt unjustifiably guilty. “Oh. Good morning.”

She glanced from him to the photograph and back again, but her smile was bright and unrevealing when she replied, “Good morning. Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes,” he said smoothly. “You’re right on time.”

The breakfast was the usual end-of-the-weekend gathering. Everyone looked a little tired, ready to get back to their usual routines.

The caterers were running a bit behind, and the breakfast tables weren’t open yet, so groups gathered around the room and on the lanai to sip coffee and rehash the weekend. It was a smaller group than the one from last night, so the noise level was considerably lower, though there was still plenty of conversation and laughter. Nic heard several people say they were looking forward to the next reunion in five more years.

She wouldn’t be around for that one, of course, but for Heidi’s sake, she was glad this event had gone so well that everyone seemed to be looking forward to the next one. It seemed to mean so much to Heidi.

And speaking of Heidi…

Taking advantage of Joel being across the room, reliving a high school football game with some of his old teammates, Heidi pigeonholed Nic at the pastries table and all but dragged her out onto the lanai. “So, Nicole, did you have a nice time at our reunion?”

“Yes, I had a great time. Thanks.”

“We certainly enjoyed having you here with us. It was so nice to meet one of Joel’s friends from Arkansas. We all worry about him, you know. It makes us feel better to know he has people to hang out with there.”

Brushing her breeze-tossed hair out of her face, Nic found herself analyzing Heidi’s words, trying to read the subtext. “Joel has lots of friends,” she said noncommittally.

“Oh, I’m sure he does. He always has had a way of making people love him. That’s why we fret about him being happy, I suppose.”

“It seems to me that everyone worries too much about Joel. He’s pretty much the most self-sufficient guy I know. And one of the most content, for that matter.”

Heidi patted her arm in a rather patronizing manner that set her teeth on edge. “Yes, well, you didn’t see him at the last reunion or you would understand our concerns. He was in terrible shape then. Frankly I was afraid for his well-being, both emotionally and physically.”

Not only did this feel entirely too much like gossip for Nic’s peace of mind, but she knew how much Joel would hate having Heidi portray him as an object of pity and concern by his former classmates. “You can put your mind at ease. He’s fine.”