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Maxie barked just as the front door opened.
Joy took a big frustrated breath and blew it out fast, releasing her disappointment that there wasn’t time now to press him for a response.
Nick’s gaze locked with hers. “No, I didn’t meet any woman I wanted to spend more than one night with or even a single night with.”
“Oh,” Joy managed to say, before her mother appeared in the kitchen, followed by Diana and Kevin. All three looked as surprised to see Nick as Joy had been.
“Nick…” Emily Mackey gushed. She was an attractively unfussy woman on the cusp of turning fifty. Short brown hair framed her lively round face. “It’s wonderful to see you again. We couldn’t imagine whose car was in the driveway.”
“It’s wonderful to see you,” Nick said, returning the smile. He was on his feet, enthusiastically ready to receive a hug, bending to accommodate Emily, who was inches shorter than both her daughters.
Kevin approached to shake his hand, then thump him on the back, getting a thump in return from Nick as males will do in place of an embrace.
“Son of a gun,” Kevin said with a grin almost identical to the grin he was getting from Nick. “I thought you still had pictures to take.”
“I couldn’t think of any picture I wanted to take more than one of you getting hog-tied.” Nick raised his eyebrows, relieved to see that Kevin appeared really happy he’d arrived.
Then it was Nick and Diana facing each other as Kevin drew Diana to his side.
“Hi, Nick,” Diana said slowly.
“Diana,” Nick replied without a grin. He hoped she was truly in love with Kevin. She was going to have him to answer to if his brother got hurt.
Joy caught the lingering look between Nick and Diana and glanced quickly at Kevin to check for his take on the situation. Kevin’s brown eyes gazed affectionately—and naively—at Diana. Joy resisted an impulse to punch Kevin in the head.
“Joy, did you put on coffee?” Emily Mackey asked, taking off her coat, adding it to the leather jacket and navy pea coat already on hooks.
“No, but I will,” she replied. Joy watched Diana and Nick break their regard of each other, and she walked over to the counter where the coffee maker was.
Filling the pot with water, Joy observed as Kevin assisted Diana with her coat. Joy already knew what Diana was wearing underneath her coat. A short, straight black skirt, a white cashmere sweater, black tights and sexy black high-heeled boots.
Joy craned her neck to see if Nick was appraising her sister. When she saw that Diana did indeed have his attention—Joy let the water spill out over the top of the glass coffeepot. Embarrassed she quickly turned off the faucet.
Kevin said to his brother, “I know you gave up your lease. You’ll stay with me.”
“Thanks, Kev,” Nick replied. “But I figured on finding a place here in Greenport.”
Water sluiced over the sides of the coffee maker as Joy poured from the pot. Of course he wanted to stay in Greenport! All the better to see Diana.
“There’s no need for you to look for someplace to stay. There’s certainly plenty of room here,” Emily Mackey announced. “The downstairs is a mess with all the painting going on, but the bedrooms are all fine.”
“That would be great, but are you sure I won’t be in the way?”
Joy gnawed her bottom lip as she mopped up water from the counter with a sponge. Didn’t anyone else realize what was going on here? Was she the only one that wasn’t naive?
“Not another word about it,” Emily Mackey insisted. “Joy, I’ll finish making the coffee. Would you two girls go up and get a room ready? Nick, please finish your sandwich. I’ve got cherry pie for you. I baked just this morning.”
Joy and Diana left the kitchen. Kevin walked out behind them to hang his coat and Diana’s in the front hall closet. The three maneuvered around furniture that had been covered with heavy drop cloths and pushed into the middle of the living room. The front entryway was the only completed section on the first floor.
“Hurry up you two,” Kevin said as Diana and Joy started up the stairs to the landing. “I can’t stay too late. I’ve got briefs to go over tonight.”
“You’d better not be thinking of bringing any briefs on our honeymoon,” Diana replied over her shoulder.
“I’m not figuring on bringing any briefs at all,” Kevin called back up to Diana.
Diana smiled to Joy showing her amusement with Kevin’s retort.
She wasn’t in a smiling mood, but Joy gave it her all to smile back as they reached the second floor. “Did you ever think of not waiting any longer and just eloping?”
“Don’t be silly,” Diana answered with indignation. “I want a church wedding with all the trimmings. And I want my reception here, where no one else has had their reception. It’s going to be just perfect having it here once everything’s all together. Don’t you think so?”
Joy wistfully nodded her head as she opened the door to the linen closet in the hallway. If she were getting married she’d want it to be just the way Diana had it planned.
“Which bedroom do you think we should put Nick in?” Diana asked her.
“How about the attic bedroom?” Joy suggested, gathering together a set of sheets.
“I think Mom would rather have us all on the same floor. Let’s put him in the bedroom between yours and mine.”
Joy scowled.
“What?” Diana asked.
“Nothing.”
Diana wouldn’t let it go. “Was it obvious to you, too?”
“Was what obvious?” Joy asked innocently.
“Nick. He’s still in love with me. Did you see the look in his eyes when we said hello to each other?”
“I saw it.”
“Poor Nick.” Diana released a deep breath. “I really feel badly about it.”
Joy didn’t think Diana felt half as bad as she did—not that Joy imagined Nick could ever be interested in her, even if Diana was out of the picture.
Chapter Two (#ulink_eca02222-ef2d-532f-b299-06c874070c45)
Nick couldn’t sleep. He turned the lamp on next to his bed and reached for his watch. Seeing that it was nearing midnight, he realized he’d been tossing around for close to an hour. Could it have something to do with the pizza he’d shared with Joy at ten o’clock? They’d been the only two interested in food, so Nick had gone out and brought a pizza back. However, Nick decided his inability to sleep had less to do with the food he’d eaten and more to do with the company he’d shared it with.
Nick grinned and thought about Joy fast asleep and curled up in her bed. He wondered if she slept on her stomach. Or flat on her back the way she’d.been on the pile of leaves. Flat on her back brought a red-hot image to his mind.
Slow it down, Tremain! How long ago was itfleeting though it may have been—that you thought you were in love with Diana?
Knowing these thoughts would not help him sleep, he decided to go downstairs. He used the miniature pocket flashlight hanging from his key chain to find his way to the kitchen. Once in the cozy room he poured himself a glass of soda. His flashlight began blinking and he turned it off to conserve the battery. He drank his soda in the dark, something he’d often done out of occupational necessity.
Suddenly the kitchen was flooded with light. A surprised Nick was confronted with a bleary-eyed Joy, dressed in colorful flannel pajamas.
“What are you doing?” Joy asked as soon as she got over being startled at finding a very bare-chested man in her kitchen.
“I was thirsty.” Nick held out his glass of soda. “What brought you downstairs?”
“Thirsty…very thirsty.” She wasn’t making any move to do anything about it. The muscles of his chest and forearms had her mesmerized.
“Must have been the pizza.” Nick grinned.
“Uh-huh.” Uh-huh, she thought…uh-huh? Is that all you can think to say? Uh-huh! You’re a writer! You’re supposed to be good with words.
“How about some cola?” Nick asked.
“Okay,” Joy answered.
Nick put his glass on the counter and poured her drink. He held out the glass, and Joy felt as if she were walking in a dream as she came up to him. The coldness of the glass in her hand came as something of a shock. She wasn’t conscious of having even accepted it.
“Love your pajamas.” He gave her a full-wattage grin as she held the glass to her lips.
Joy gulped and sputtered. She looked down at herself after wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She would hardly have picked to wear what she was wearing if she was conjuring this up as a dream.
“They were a present.” Joy ran the tip of her tongue across her lips.
Nick dragged his eyes off her mouth and studied the array of small iridescent red hearts against the background of cream-colored flannel. “Did some guy give them to you?”
He knew she wasn’t seriously involved with anyone. He knew because he’d asked Kevin. Indirectly, of course.
Joy shook her head. “A friend from work ga?? them to me for my birthday.”
He liked that answer. “And when was your birthday?”
“February fourteenth, Valentine’s Day.”
“Cupid’s baby, huh?” Nick grinned.
Joy nodded. Looking at his bare chest was causing her heart to flutter.
His eyes moved over her face. “Your chin looks a little sticky.”
“Cola,” Joy said.
Nick took hold of the hand she started to raise and kept it down at her side. He brought his free hand up and touched the damp spot on her chin.
Joy’s lips parted. She was breathing haltingly through her mouth as his hand lifted her chin higher.
And then the kitchen door swung open.
“What are the two of you doing?” Diana asked, clothed in one of her seductive nightgowns. The thin, pink silk just missed being see-through.
“Drinking,” Nick muttered, bringing his hand back down.
“We were both thirsty,” Joy added. “And I had cola on my chin.”
Diana proceeded to the refrigerator for the platter of cold chicken. “It isn’t any wonder that you’d be thirsty. How the two of you can eat the food you eat is beyond me. Don’t either of you have any concern for your bodies?”
Nick groaned to himself. He had a very definite interest in one of the bodies in the room. It wasn’t his. Nor was it Diana’s.
“Well,” Joy said awkwardly. “I guess I’ve had enough. See you both in the morning.”
“I’ve had enough, too,” Nick said. “I’ll walk up with you.”
She looked over at him just once, as they walked toward the stairs. Had he been about to kiss her when Diana had walked in on them? No, Joy answered herself. So what had he been doing?
“Are you tired?” Nick asked as they reached Joy’s bedroom door.
“Uh-huh,” Joy answered, then moaned under her breath. “Aren’t you?”
“Not really. But I guess since you’re tired I won’t try to persuade you to stay up with me a little longer.”
Joy took a deep breath. Persuade! She was like putty in his hands.
“Well, see you tomorrow,” Nick said with a smile.
“Tomorrow is a workday for me.” Joy made herself open her bedroom door. “I leave early.”
“I’m a pretty early riser myself.”
“Even without much sleep?”
“Even without much sleep.”
“Good night,” she said.
“Good night,” he answered.
Joy took a resolute step into her bedroom. Not looking back, she closed the door.
Nick stood in the hallway a second longer, wondering again what position she slept in.
Her mother was flipping pancakes as Joy came into the kitchen the next morning. After noting that no one else was in the room, Joy marched straight for the coffee that was already brewed.
Emily slipped a pancake onto a plate. “How many will you have? Two or three?”
“I don’t have time for more than a swallow of coffee,” Joy said to her mother. “I’ve overslept as it is.” She hadn’t fallen asleep until the wee hours of the morning. “Put them in the oven for Diana and Nick.”
“If Diana eats half a pancake that will be a lot, and Nick has already eaten and left.”
Joy put down the cup of coffee that she hadn’t yet taken a swallow from. “Nick ate and left already? Where did he go?”
“He didn’t say, dear.” Emily looked at her youngest child thoughtfully. “I must say he didn’t appear any less tired than you do this morning.”
