But Paul wasn’t laughing. “Did you see my friend Joe? The guy is in pain. He’s dying. He had one night with a woman who obviously fulfilled every wish buried in his subconscious. She put a hex on him, then rejected him. Did you see him?”
She took a deep breath. “Paul, his timing was bad. We can’t help that…”
“So was hers. I’ve known the man for fifteen years. He might be smooth, but he’s not disreputable. He wouldn’t take a woman to bed if she didn’t want to go. If Nikki had expressed the least hesitation, he wouldn’t have touched her. I know him. I know him as well as I knew Matt.”
“So? She made a mistake. What are you getting at?”
“She shouldn’t make a bigger one,” he said. “They just don’t come any better than Joe. There must have been some reason she said yes that night.”
“I’ve sent the little notes from him. She hasn’t changed her mind. You want me to talk to her?”
“No, honey. I’m going to talk to her.”
“I don’t know if you should do that,” she said nervously.
“But I’m going to. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’m calling her. Right now. You want to listen in or go put your head under the pillow?”
She sucked in a breath. “I’ll listen,” she said. “But please, don’t let on I’m here. I feel really strange about this.”
“I want you to trust me,” he said, picking up the phone. He dialed the number. “I have to do this.”
Nikki could no doubt see the number on the caller ID because she picked up. She answered, “Hi, sweetie.”
“It’s not sweetie,” Paul said. “It’s Paul.”
“Oh. Hi.”
“I have to talk to you. About Joe.”
“I thought we settled that,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty much settled for you,” Paul said. “Not quite settled for me. Just for my peace of mind, Nikki, I have to ask you something. See, I’ve known Joe a long time now and I’ve trusted him with my life. Literally. I went to war with the guy. I’ve seen him with women, and this guy—he’s always been a classy guy. I’ve never known him to treat a woman badly…”
“He didn’t treat me badly, Paul,” she said softly.
Paul let out a breath. “Well, thank God. That’s a relief. I was afraid, I don’t know… Afraid I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did. I mean, you were really upset—and then I found Joe to be just as upset to hear you left here in tears. He wouldn’t tell me what went on between you two, but he insisted he hadn’t done anything to hurt you.”
“It’s okay, Paul. You can let this go.”
“Good. Because I just couldn’t stand to think he’d treat a woman wrong. He’s not that kind of guy. You’ll be glad to know, finally he seems to be putting this whole thing behind him. It was killing him for a while there, but I think he’s getting better.”
“Better?”
“Yeah, a little bit. Trying to get over it. Over you. He was up here this weekend. There were architectural plans he had to bring me—I’m going to build three of his houses. Vanni told me he was writing notes, leaving messages. I guess he had it pretty bad, but it’s not like Joe to bother a woman who doesn’t want to be bothered. You’ll probably be shed of him pretty soon. Maybe you already are.”
“Oh,” she said quietly. “Good. Then.”
“I don’t exactly know what has him so jammed up. I’m sure he gets the message by now. That you don’t want anything to do with him. Ever. Again.”
“Maybe he wanted to apologize. It’s not necessary,” she said.
Paul hmmed. “No, I don’t think so. I suggested he might get some points with Vanni if he said he was sorry. He said he couldn’t do that—he wasn’t sorry. Just disappointed by how it turned out.”
“I thought it was best,” she said. “After all, it was brief…”
“Yeah. God forbid something like that should ever happen again…”
“Paul, I gave a man five years and he was lying to me the whole time. He kept saying he needed more time before making a commitment and then finally admitted he’d never get married, never have a family. It was like I didn’t know him at all.”
“I know, Nikki. That was bad, I’m sorry. My friend Joe? He’s not that kind of guy. A lie would turn into acid in his mouth. If he wasn’t going the distance, he’d say so.”