She's Got the Look

He shook his head, still not used to answering the phone and hearing Johnny’s voice on the other end. Damn, it’d been a long ten years without his one-year-older brother in his life. “Hey, Mr. Hotshot D.A. Does the town council know you’re making personal calls from the office?”

“Does the chief of police know you had breakfast with a strange woman yesterday?” his brother replied.

“Now, if we were both in Joyful, I wouldn’t even have to ask how you knew that.”

“Dex told me. I called you at your desk two minutes ago.”

Shaking his head as he buckled his seat belt, Nick said, “Knowing my partner is not a gossipy old woman, I gotta wonder what exactly you said to get that information out of his mouth.”

Johnny chuckled. “I asked him if you had any kind of social life whatsoever, since I suspect you haven’t been laid since making detective. You work too hard, little brother.”

Nick wasn’t going to argue that one. Because damned if Johnny wasn’t right.

Johnny had the courtesy not to rub it in. “So who was the woman?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admitted, knowing it was true. He didn’t know for sure who Melody was. “She’s a puzzle.”

Johnny understood. “Have fun figuring it out.”

No doubt about it. He was going to enjoy every minute of figuring what made her tick. “So what’s going on?”

“I promised Emma Jean I’d call and remind you about getting measured for your tux.”

Emma Jean was Johnny’s fiancée, the infamous woman who’d landed the former most eligible bachelor of Joyful. One more reason he’d never move back home…he sure didn’t want to inherit that title. “I have to wear an undertaker suit?”

“Undertakers don’t wear cummerbunds.”

“What the hell is a cummerbund?”

“Don’t worry. Your job is to show up, wear what you’re told to wear and not lose the ring.”

“I don’t suppose you’d consider eloping to Vegas?”

“I suggested it, but she didn’t bite,” Johnny said with a sigh. “And as best man, you have to suffer with me.”

Best man. It still boggled the mind. Even though his brother had thought the worst of him, along with everyone else in Joyful, Johnny had been among the first to listen—and to hear—the truth when Nick had finally gone home a few months ago to set things right…with his brother, with their mother. With his ex-wife, Daneen. Even with Daneen’s ten-year-old son, Jack.

The boy Nick had once prayed would be his.

“Emma wants an old-fashioned wedding, so we’re both stuck with the penguin suits.” Johnny didn’t really sound upset, which wasn’t surprising. His brother was totally gone on his fiancée.

Funny, thinking of Emma Jean as his brother’s bride…considering Nick had once asked her to marry him. Of course, that was years ago, before he’d walked out on her on prom night so he could run away and marry Daneen, who’d named him as the father of her unborn baby. One lie among many.

Things sure had worked out, because Johnny had always been the one Em had wanted. Nick had figured that out long ago. “Jack sounds pretty excited to be an usher.”

His brother was silent for a moment. “I didn’t realize you’ve been talking to Jack.”

“He e-mailed me in July. Seems he has no problem with me not being his father, but he still wants me to be his friend. We’ve talked a few times,” Nick said, still surprised himself.

“I told you that kid was something special.” Johnny had doted on Jack for years, so he’d been the one who’d taken Nick to meet the boy for the first time in June. Somehow, Johnny had known—as no one else did—that Nick was still raw when it came to Daneen’s son…the child who should have been his.

They could never have predicted how Jack would react. He’d been incredibly mature, admitting he’d known since age six that his mother had lied about his paternity. He’d overheard the truth but had kept silent, not wanting to embarrass Daneen or upset his Grandma. He’d also thanked Nick for helping them out financially over the years…something no one else knew about.

Some kid, that one. Made Nick wonder how things might have turned out if he’d reacted differently. If instead of lashing out in anger at Daneen and joining the marines, he’d stuck around to be some kind of father to the boy.

Too late. Much too late.

“You are coming back for the engagement party, right?”

“Will that get me out of wearing the cumbersome thing?”

“Cummerbund,” Johnny said with a chuckle. “And no.”

Nick gave an exaggerated sigh. “I suppose I’ll come anyway.”

“Good. Gotta go,” Johnny said. “I have an hour with the courthouse secretary before she has to go on dog-tag duty.”

Ahh, Joyful. Some things never changed.

Disconnecting, and starting the car, Nick couldn’t help thinking about how different his life was from three months ago. He had a family again…a connection to Joyful, of all places. Things he’d never expected. So maybe the idea of finding a special woman wasn’t so ridiculous. Hell…maybe he already had.

Emma Jean would crow about that. His future sister-in-law had been urging him to believe he could meet someone, have something better in his future than he’d had in his past. Frankly, though he’d never admit something so sappy, having a relationship with his family again had given him a better future. And the other relationships from his old life seemed to be resolved now, too. Like the one with his ex-wife.

No, he was never going to forget that Daneen had lied to him—giving him the expectation of being a father, then yanking it away a month after their marriage. Or that she’d gone back home after their divorce and made him out as a villain who’d abandoned her and their child.

But he’d somehow been able to finally let go of his anger and come to an understanding with Daneen. She’d been as much a kid as him—just a couple of teenagers trying to escape from their shitty lives. And God knows she’d gone through hell lately. He pitied her, really, because at some point, he’d forgiven her.

A year ago, forgiveness hadn’t even been in his vocabulary. Now he had a more than passing acquaintance with the word.

So, yeah, maybe Em was right. Maybe things could be different. Nick had certainly changed, in more ways than one.

What had happened yesterday was a prime example. Because he sure couldn’t remember ever being as fascinated by a woman as he was with the sassy, ponytailed redhead who’d flipped him off.

The woman who, he realized as he cruised down Habersham Street, was almost directly in front of him. He’d recognize that bouncy reddish ponytail anywhere, not to mention the camera stuck in front of her face as she photographed a carriage driver and his horse. Then she waved at the guy and started walking down the street.