Date Next Door

Elaine shook her head in disapproval. “I don’t know how her mother deals with the worry. It must be so difficult for her.”

“I don’t know. I’ve only met her mother once, soon after I moved in next door. But she seemed to have come to terms with Nic’s job.”

Nic had told him that her mother had initially been resistant to the idea of her daughter joining the police force, but she’d come around because she wanted Nic to pursue a career she loved and in which she could make a difference. He wondered why Nic’s family hadn’t tried harder to convince her that there were many other jobs that could provide her with that same satisfaction.

Elaine slipped a puzzle piece into place. “I have a little confession to make,” she said without looking up. “I worried for a while that you and Nicole were romantically involved.”

“We aren’t,” Joel said shortly, still trying to find a match for the piece he held.

“Good. She’s a very nice young woman, but I just don’t think she’s right for you.”

He glanced up at her from across the game table, trying to think of a response to that. And then he looked back down at the puzzle, unable to quite meet his mother’s eyes. “Maybe it’s the other way around, Mom. Maybe I

’m not right for her.”

Elaine shook her head, sounding confused when she said, “I don’t really see the difference.”

“I know you don’t. But I do.”

For some reason, he was able at that moment to fit the puzzle piece he held into its position. He snapped it into place with more force than was absolutely necessary.

And then he drew a deep breath and looked back up at his mother. “I think we need to talk about your photo gallery upstairs.”

Nic was tired. She didn’t know why she was so weary. She’d slept well enough the night before, and nothing particularly eventful had occurred that day. She was well aware that the exhaustion was more emotional than physical.

Maybe it was because the days were getting so very short, and it seemed to be dark more than it was light these days. But even as that thought crossed her mind, she knew it wasn’t the real reason. This wasn’t general seasonal depression. It had a very specific cause.

She would get past this, she promised herself. She’d been hurt, true, but her heart would heal, just as her body had done after her fall. Maybe it would take a little longer this time. Maybe it would take a lot longer. But she’d be okay. She always was.

She opened her refrigerator. She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she would eat. She wasn’t going to be one of those scorned women who sat around moping and wasting away, letting her health deteriorate. She wouldn’t let anyone do that to her, not even the only man she’d ever allowed to steal her heart.

When she heard Joel’s tap on the back door, her first, uncharacteristically cowardly instinct was to pretend she wasn’t home. It was pride more than the knowledge that he surely knew she was there that made her draw a deep breath, square her shoulders and open the door.

He looked like hell. Matt Damon after a weeklong bender maybe, she thought irrelevantly—even if Aislinn didn’t see the resemblance.

Maybe she had been sleeping okay, but Joel obviously had not. And even as her heart clenched, she knew she couldn’t allow herself to be influenced by his obvious misery—not if it meant she had to sacrifice who she was in order to try and make him happy again.

“What do you want, Joel?” she asked, keeping her voice toneless to hide the emotions that had welled in her at the sight of him.

“There’s something I need to say to you.”

She hoped he hadn’t come to ask if they could still be friends. As much as she missed the easy friendship they’d had before their disastrous attempt at being more, she really didn’t think they could get it back now. It would be too painful—at least for her. She wished it could be different, but she knew herself too well to believe she could pretend he hadn’t broken her heart.

“What is it?”

“May I come in?”

She hesitated only a moment before stepping out of the doorway. Looking faintly relieved, Joel entered the kitchen and closed the door behind him.

Nic shoved her hands into the pockets of the flannel dorm pants she’d changed into along with a long-sleeve fleece top after arriving home from work half an hour earlier. She didn’t offer him anything to drink, didn’t even offer him a seat. She wanted this to be over quickly.

“Well?” she prodded when he didn’t immediately speak but stood silently in front of her, one hand squeezing the back of his neck.

Joel sighed. “I’m not sure how to start. First, I want to apologize. I hurt you, and that was never my intention.”

“Apology accepted. Thanks for coming by.” She reached for the door.

He shook his head, looking almost amused. “You really don’t believe in making things easier, do you? I’m not leaving yet. Not until I’ve had my say.”