and direct. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She opened the screen door in unspoken invitation, wishing she could stop the slight blush that heated her face. If he asked her if Eric had spent the night, she would tell him the truth. She was a terrible liar anyway, but she hoped he just wouldn’t ask.
It was clear she must be losing her mind and she was worried she would feel regret and embarrassment this morning spending a night with one man and with another the next but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced as she’d thought it would be.
She was genuinely in love with both of them.
“How did it go?”
He put his hand on the door so she could precede him. “Well enough. At least this morning my mother was over the crying. I know, I know, tears of joy and all that, but I guess I’m your typical male and I hate to see a woman cry.”
“I guess she called my mother. Cadence told me. I’m afraid my sister figured out pretty quickly that you’d already been to see me before we had lunch yesterday. I don’t think I was very successful in acting like everything was perfectly normal.”
He caught her wrist, stopping her in the foyer and tugging her around to face him. “Hey, babe, I’m sorry.” There was a hint of apology in his eyes. “I can only imagine what it would feel like to lose you.”
Wordlessly she gazed back.
His grin surfaced then, softening the moment. “Can I take you to lunch? Word of warning, you’ll have to provide the transportation. I need to go shopping for a vehicle here in the next few days but I have to arrange to be officially alive again before I can legally purchase something like a car.”
The change in subject was welcome enough. “Eric has my car, actually.”
“Let’s give him a call then and have him meet us at the restaurant. After lunch, you two can swap cars and I was hoping one of you would take me back to my folks’, which is kind of a hike, I know, but my dad is going to loan me his truck until I find what I want.”
It was clear he wasn’t going to ask about whether or not Eric had stayed over. He was even, apparently, inviting him to lunch.
“I…sure, okay.”
He caught the small stammer. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable, Nikki. When we had dinner together you seemed fine.”
Did it? If there was tension between him and Eric it would bother her, but there didn’t seem to be. Actually, lunch with two gorgeous guys sounded very nice. “I am not sure how to define how I feel, but you two together do not make me uncomfortable. Let’s just go somewhere where we aren’t likely to run into my mother, okay?”
He laughed. “I can see where you are not anxious to have that conversation. You should have heard my dad trying to talk around outright telling me you were seeing Eric. I finally took pity on him and told him I knew already.”
“And he said?”
“That my personal life was something he’d just let me handle. I agreed, and we played a game of pool and talked about something else.”
He was still holding her wrist but his fingers slipped down to hold her hand instead. He gave a small squeeze of reassurance.
“Yeah, well women are a bit less likely to let the subject go,” she muttered, but his attitude was reassuring anyway.
“So…lunch? How about that little pub in Broadripple we used to go to? I am not expecting to see your mother there on a Sunday afternoon.”
“Or ever.”
“Do you want to call Eric, or should I? I need his number anyway.”
He already had his phone out and Nicole asked curiously, “If you can’t even buy a car, how did you get a phone?”
“My superiors really want to be able to talk to me if they need to at a moment’s notice, so they took care of it.”
That was a sobering thought, one that cut right through her. This was Jack. Whether or not he would discuss it, she realized his occupation required a military-issued phone and the ability to be ready to vanish at all times.
Which meant she could lose him all over
“Hi.” She opened the screen door in unspoken invitation, wishing she could stop the slight blush that heated her face. If he asked her if Eric had spent the night, she would tell him the truth. She was a terrible liar anyway, but she hoped he just wouldn’t ask.
It was clear she must be losing her mind and she was worried she would feel regret and embarrassment this morning spending a night with one man and with another the next but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced as she’d thought it would be.
She was genuinely in love with both of them.
“How did it go?”
He put his hand on the door so she could precede him. “Well enough. At least this morning my mother was over the crying. I know, I know, tears of joy and all that, but I guess I’m your typical male and I hate to see a woman cry.”
“I guess she called my mother. Cadence told me. I’m afraid my sister figured out pretty quickly that you’d already been to see me before we had lunch yesterday. I don’t think I was very successful in acting like everything was perfectly normal.”
He caught her wrist, stopping her in the foyer and tugging her around to face him. “Hey, babe, I’m sorry.” There was a hint of apology in his eyes. “I can only imagine what it would feel like to lose you.”
Wordlessly she gazed back.
His grin surfaced then, softening the moment. “Can I take you to lunch? Word of warning, you’ll have to provide the transportation. I need to go shopping for a vehicle here in the next few days but I have to arrange to be officially alive again before I can legally purchase something like a car.”
The change in subject was welcome enough. “Eric has my car, actually.”
“Let’s give him a call then and have him meet us at the restaurant. After lunch, you two can swap cars and I was hoping one of you would take me back to my folks’, which is kind of a hike, I know, but my dad is going to loan me his truck until I find what I want.”
It was clear he wasn’t going to ask about whether or not Eric had stayed over. He was even, apparently, inviting him to lunch.
“I…sure, okay.”
He caught the small stammer. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable, Nikki. When we had dinner together you seemed fine.”
Did it? If there was tension between him and Eric it would bother her, but there didn’t seem to be. Actually, lunch with two gorgeous guys sounded very nice. “I am not sure how to define how I feel, but you two together do not make me uncomfortable. Let’s just go somewhere where we aren’t likely to run into my mother, okay?”
He laughed. “I can see where you are not anxious to have that conversation. You should have heard my dad trying to talk around outright telling me you were seeing Eric. I finally took pity on him and told him I knew already.”
“And he said?”
“That my personal life was something he’d just let me handle. I agreed, and we played a game of pool and talked about something else.”
He was still holding her wrist but his fingers slipped down to hold her hand instead. He gave a small squeeze of reassurance.
“Yeah, well women are a bit less likely to let the subject go,” she muttered, but his attitude was reassuring anyway.
“So…lunch? How about that little pub in Broadripple we used to go to? I am not expecting to see your mother there on a Sunday afternoon.”
“Or ever.”
“Do you want to call Eric, or should I? I need his number anyway.”
He already had his phone out and Nicole asked curiously, “If you can’t even buy a car, how did you get a phone?”
“My superiors really want to be able to talk to me if they need to at a moment’s notice, so they took care of it.”
That was a sobering thought, one that cut right through her. This was Jack. Whether or not he would discuss it, she realized his occupation required a military-issued phone and the ability to be ready to vanish at all times.
Which meant she could lose him all over
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