âLove is complicated. When it ends, itâs even more so.â
Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut, as if looking in instead of out.
She was a soft touch. Hers was a goodness that didnât come and go, but remained when the going got tough. She was no holiday Christian. It was his guess that she had a big, forgiving heart.
When she opened her eyes, she gave another shoulder shrug. âMy sisters tell me thatâs part of healing and moving on. But this love thing is painful.â
âIt can be,â Chad answered. âSo, this guy, heâs the one you were hoping to marry?â
âNot exactly. I was just hoping, is all. And now Iâm on a path I didnât expect.â
âMaybe itâs a better one.â
âMaybe.â She smiled at him, truly smiled.
Just like that his heart clicked, and he was in like with her. How about that?
The phone was ringing inside her apartment, but Rebecca McKaslin stepped out into the late-summer evening anyway. Thank goodness for caller ID. Why was Chris calling? He knew she wouldnât talk to him ever againâmostly because sheâd told him so. How many times would she have to let it ring before he got a clue?
Exasperated, she yanked the door shut and the lock gave a metallic click. See, this was the reason sheâd adopted her newly instated No Man policy. Men, they didnât call when you wanted them to, but when you didnât want them to call ever, then, voilà , the phone rang off the hook.
Well, she was a free and independent woman these days and she wasnât even going to let the thought of her ex-boyfriend bug her. It was too bad that he had regrets, because she didnât, thank you very much. She went to hike her purse strap higher on her shoulderâ
Wait. No purse strap.
No purse. How had she forgotten it? It was right there by the door on the little hallway table where the phone had been ringing with Chrisâs number flashing away.
No biggie, she told herself and lifted her hand to sort through her keys.
Wait. No keys. She stared at her empty hand. Had she left her key ring inside, too? Oh, probably. Talk about being an airhead, Rebecca. If she wasnât careful, she was going to turn into her sister Ava who, as adorable as she was, forgot everything.
Okay, this was a major problem. How was she going to drive the car? Pick up the pizza? Get to her sisterâs house in time to babysit?
Good going, Rebecca. Way to start off the evening. She folded a stray lock of brown hair out of her eyes. She tried the doorknob just in case it wasnât really locked and that click had been a figment of her imagination.
Nope. The knob didnât turn. Wasnât that just her luck? If she had her purse, she would have her cell phone and so a quick call to someone in her family would fix this in a jiffy. If it wasnât after five oâclock on a Friday, she could bother her neighbor Ephraim, but he was off at a church function.
So who did that leave? Asking a neighbor she didnât know to borrow a phone? She hadnât lived in this complex long. She didnât know her neighbors, other than Ephraim, but she was going to have to start knocking on doors. As she was shy, that was not something she was looking forward to. Although judging by the quiet stillness of the complex, most of them probably wouldnât be home.
On a brighter note, the phone inside her apartment had stopped ringing. Was Chris finally giving up? Getting a hint? Finding a clue?
A girl could always hope. Because she was done with dudes for goodâor at least the next decade. Prince Charming could come walking around the corner and she would be Fort Knox. Her affections impenetrable. Her No Man policy was unshakable.
âYou need any help?â A manâs voice came out of nowhere right behind her.
Her heart jumped hard enough to make it to the moon and back. She turned around and clutched the porch rail to steady herself. There was a drop-dead handsome guy standing on her walkwayâand not just everyday ordinary handsome, either. But twenty on a scale of ten. Really wow. She had to be dreaming, right? She blinked, but nope, the gorgeous guy was still standing there as real as could be.
He was a big athletic-looking guyânot heavily muscled, but not lanky, either. He was tall with blond hair and a wholesome, guy-next-door grin. He wore a loose sport T-shirt and basketball shorts. Friendly looking.
âI saw you lock yourself out.â He had a wholesome smile, too, one that brought out a dimple in his right cheek and an honest sparkle in his dark eyes. He was also carrying a cardboard box in the crook of his arm. âI wasnât peeping or anything. I was unloading my truck and I couldnât help noticing. Iâm moving in next door.â