Date Next Door

She nodded and stepped past him. “Good night.”

One hand on Nic’s doorknob, Joel turned. “Aislinn—”

She looked over her shoulder. “What?”

He didn’t quite know how to ask. “Is there a problem?”

Her expression didn’t change. “I don’t know. Is there?”

“Are you annoyed with me?”

“Not yet.”

He sighed. “Are you trying to send me a message? Because if you are, I’m not getting it.”

She made a gesture that expressed the same sort of frustration he was feeling. “I’m not trying to send you any messages, Joel. I don’t have any messages for you. I certainly don’t have all the answers. I just…don’t want Nic to be hurt any more.”

“Neither do I.”

She shrugged. “Then we’re agreed. Good night.”

He watched her open her car door. “It was your idea for me to take her with me, you know,” he couldn’t resist calling out.

With one foot already in the car, she looked at him. “Was it?”

Wincing, he realized that he was the one who had actually suggested Nic go with him. “Well…you didn’t talk her out of it,” he muttered, feeling stupid even as the words left him.

Apparently deciding that wasn’t worth a response, Aislinn climbed into her car and slammed the door.

“Joel?”

In response to Nic’s voice, he turned again, hearing Aislinn drive away behind him. Drawing a deep breath, he pushed the door open and walked inside.

She was standing in the living room, looking as though she’d just risen from the couch, maybe to find out what was taking him so long to come inside. “Hi. Were you talking to Aislinn?”

“Yeah. I’m not exactly her favorite person right now.”

“I didn’t tell her what happened between us,” Nic assured him quickly, a bit defensively.

While he was relieved to hear that, it didn’t convince him that Aislinn hadn’t put two and two together. She seemed to have already decided that Joel was going to break Nic’s heart. Ironically enough, Joel was more concerned that it was going to end up the other way around.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Nic shrugged. “Fine. My head isn’t even hurting now.”

She didn’t look fine with the gauze taped to her chin and the bruises on her cheek and arms, but she still looked entirely too appealing to him. Clearing his throat, he asked, “Did you eat?”

“Yes. Aislinn brought dinner for me. There are leftovers in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

“No, thanks. I grabbed a sandwich earlier. Oh, I brought you this.”

Looking curious, she accepted the brown paper bag from him. He should have thought to make a nicer presentation, he realized belatedly. A bow or some ribbon or something. Just because Nic had been his friend for so long didn’t mean she didn’t deserve some of the little niceties of courtship now that their relationship had changed.

The smile she gave him after looking inside the bag told him she liked the gift despite the stark presentation. “Chocolate-dipped dried fruits. You remembered I love these.”

“You might have mentioned it once or twice.”

“Thank you, Joel. I’ll enjoy these. They’ll help me pass the time until I can go back to work.”