I’ll need to buy that I haven’t even thought about.”
“It will be so good to see you again, Tori.”
“I’m looking forward to it. Just give me the time and directions to your home.”
The sun streamed brightly over San Felipe Avenue the following evening as Tori found Nina’s house and turned into the driveway. A blue-and-tan truck was parked there already, and Tori recognized it as Jake’s.
Picking up the box on the seat beside her—she’d stopped at her favorite chocolatier this afternoon, hoping the assortment of candies would be something everyone would enjoy—she took a deep breath and readied herself to see Jake again.
However, as she rang the bell and waited on the pink concrete porch, she was unprepared for the astonishment on Jake’s face when he saw her.
Spying the box of candy in her hand, appraising her claret pants and top, he put two and two together. “Nina invited you to dinner?” His tone was neutral.
“Yes. I assumed she’d tell you. I—”
Shoving her brother aside none too gently, Nina appeared in jeans and a purple-checked blouse, spotted Tori and managed to tug her inside, hugging her at the same time. “It’s so good to see you.”
Nina was a petite version of her brother, feminine in every way he was masculine. Her black hair was still long and straight. Except for a facial line here and there, she didn’t look much different than she had at eighteen.
Pulling Tori into the small living room that seemed overcrowded with people, she reintroduced Tori to her mother, Rita Galeno, who had aged considerably. In her mid-fifties now, her hair had gone completely gray and she still wore it in an oblong bun pinned at the back of her head.
She smiled at Tori. “I remember you. You were the one who convinced Nina her eyes were too pretty to wear all that mascara and eyeshadow on them.”
A sandy-haired man with twinkling blue eyes who had moved closer to Nina after she’d hugged Tori, now circled Nina’s waist with his arm. “You used to wear all that goop?”
Nina laughed. “I was young, defiant and knew all I needed to know. Until Tori came along. Tori, this is my…friend, Charlie Nexley.”
“He’s not her friend,” a child of about five piped up. “He’s her boyfriend.”
“Ricky,” Nina warned the child, who was obviously the identical twin of the boy standing not far from his elbow.
“We saw them smooching,” his brother said with a solemn nod.
When Nina’s face flushed, Jake stepped in. Crouching down, he wrapped an arm around each boy’s shoulder. “Ricky, Ryan, this pretty lady is Ms. Phillips. Your mom and I knew her a long time ago.”
“When you were a kid?” Ryan asked innocently.
Jake chuckled. “Not quite that long ago. Now, why don’t we go out back and get out of everybody’s hair?” Without another look at Tori, Jake stood and ushered the boys to the back door.
Without Jake’s presence in the room, Tori felt a definite decrease in tension. She offered the box of candy to Nina. “Here’s something for everybody’s sweet tooth.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
Charlie accepted the box and said with a grin, “I’d better put this out of sight. At least until the boys have had their dinner.”
Nina gave him a grateful smile.
As Charlie moved into the kitchen, Rita pushed herself up from the recliner. “I’d better check on the soup.”
Nina winked at Tori. “Tomato and rice with lots of green chilies. She smothered the chicken in roasted hot peppers, too. I hope you’re up for it.”
“It sounds delicious.” Tori placed her purse on a small pine table just inside the door. “Nina, thanks for inviting me today. But…Jake acted as if he didn’t know I was coming.”
“He didn’t.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two women until Tori broke it. “Do you think that’s fair to him? He might not have wanted a stranger—”
“You’re no stranger. He probably thinks of Charlie as more of a stranger than you. If I had told him you were coming, he might not have come himself. There’s something in his voice when he talks about you that makes me think…” She grinned. “Maybe there are a few sparks?”
Tori wasn’t going to admit to anything. “Maybe your imagination is working overtime.”
Nina studied Tori for a moment, then shook her head. “Nope. I know what I see. The truth is, Tori, I asked you here because Jake needs help.”
Tori couldn’t imagine Jake Galeno needing anything from anyone. He’d always seemed so confident and self-contained. “What kind of help?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. He doesn’t, either. Something happened in Albuquerque that he can’t get over. It had to do with his work. He needs to talk about it, but he won’t. He needs to get past it, but he can’t. He needs to get on with his life, and he says he’s doing that, but he’s not. I just thought inviting you tonight might get him to open up a bit. He’s only his old self when he’s with the boys. Maybe you can remind him who he used to be.”
“Maybe I’ll only make things worse.”
“That won’t happen. C’mon. You can watch while I make the salad.”
While Nina worked and talked, Tori couldn’t help but glance out the window often. Jake didn’t look like a man who needed help. He was roughhousing with the twins, laughing with them, playing catch. Even when he was young, she’d sensed a deep control about him, an integrity that told everybody he knew who he was and what he could do. That was still the essence of his appearance. But what was going on inside? What had happened in Albuquerque?
She shouldn’t care. She wouldn’t care.
She’d learned when she was very young that men didn’t stay. She’d been nine when her father had walked out on her mother because he’d fallen in love with someone else. She’d seen her mother’s tears, pain and depression. She’d seen her father’s second marriage break apart, until she’d lost track of him and his second, third and fourth wives. When Tori had married after college, she decided her marriage would be different. It might have been if fate hadn’t intervened and changed the course of her life. Dave had walked out on her because she could no longer bear his children.
So much for vows. So much for putting faith and trust in a man. She would never do it again.
As Tori, Nina and her mother discussed their favorite recipes, Charlie went to the carport to check the pressure of Nina’s tires. He told her he thought one of them looked low.
Soon after, Nina went to the door and called for the boys to come in and wash up. As they bounded toward the bathroom, Jake entered the kitchen, heading for the sink.
Tori was standing
