The Date Next Door. GINA WILKINS
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the mullets and tattoos one might expect in a small Southern town. Almost everyone wore red, an observation that made her realize abruptly that Joel wore a bright red long-sleeve polo shirt with khaki slacks.
“Let me guess,” she said. “Your team color was red.”
“Red and white.” He shrugged a bit sheepishly. “I suppose I forgot to mention it. It’s just habit for me to stick on a red shirt when I watch the Cardinals play.”
“The Danston Cardinals?”
He grinned. “The lifeblood of this town. Danston’s social and cultural life revolves around the school—athletics, music, drama, dances. And tonight’s game is against our archrival, another small town that feels exactly the same way about their team, the Penderville Pirates.”
Nic could certainly understand a heated rivalry. She enjoyed sports and she was a fierce competitor herself on the department softball team. For that matter, she had been known to execute some pretty impressive—and highly illegal—tackles during games of flag football. She might not be looking forward to the rest of this reunion, but she was always in the mood to watch a spirited football game, even between two high school teams.
“Joel! You made it.”
The squeal had issued from a woman with blond-highlighted hair sprayed into a stiff, too-cute spiky style. The right colors of makeup had been applied a bit too heavily. Cushiony cleavage spilled out of a scoop-neck red sweater, and ample hips were buttoned into stretchy jeans. Splashy jewelry dangled from her ears and wrists and glittered on red-manicured fingers. Yet the woman’s smile was warm and generous as she gazed up at Joel with unmistakable pleasure. “It’s so good to see you. You look wonderful.”
He bent his head to brush a light kiss against her cheek. “Thanks, Heidi. And you look radiant as always.”
Heidi blushed rosily. “You certainly inherited your daddy’s charm. Unlike your older brother, I might add.”
Joel chuckled. “Ethan was born grumpy. But he’s a good guy.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t. He just doesn’t often bother with the little pleasantries.” She turned then toward Nic, her round face alight with visible curiosity. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“Of course.” Joel reached out to pull Nic a bit closer, resting one hand lightly at the small of her back. “Heidi Rosenbaum, this is my friend from Arkansas, Nicole Sawyer.”
Heidi’s manicured hand was impossibly soft when she placed it in Nic’s unpolished, slightly more callused hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Nicole. You’re from Arkansas? So I assume you didn’t attend Penderville High.”
A bit confused, Nic shook her head. “I went to school in Cabot, where I still live, next door to Joel. Why?”
Heidi motioned toward Nic’s sweater. “Purple and black are the colors of the Penderville Pirates. The team we’re playing tonight.”
Suppressing a groan, Nic managed a wry smile. “I didn’t know. But I promise I’ll cheer like crazy for the Cardinals.”
Heidi giggled. “Good. They’re going to need all the support they can get.”
“Heidi!” someone called from another part of the room. “Come tell Jessica who was Student Council secretary our senior year. I think it was Janet, but she thinks it was Kelly.”
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Of course it was Kelly,” she called back. “And if she wasn’t having a baby in Birmingham even as we speak, she would take a piece out of your hide for forgetting that.”
Turning back to Nic, she confided, “Kelly was very proud of being elected that year. She’d run and lost three times before.”
“Oh.” Exactly what was Nic expected to say in response to that tidbit?
“Anyway, you wouldn’t be interested in that. Would you like a glass of wine? The house white isn’t too bad here.”
“Actually, I’d rather have a beer,” Nic replied, eying a tray full of invitingly frosty mugs.
“Oh.” Heidi blinked once or twice, as if surprised by Nic’s answer, but then she smiled at Joel. “Your friend knows what she likes, doesn’t she?”
Nic’s left eyebrow rose quizzically. Just what was that supposed to mean?
Another shout came from the group sharing memories on the other side of the room. “Heidi—who was historian?”
With a dramatic groan and a shake of her head, Heidi murmured an excuse to Joel and Nic and left to join her other old friends.
“Heidi knows everything there is to know about this class. Past, present—and probably future,” Joel murmured into Nic’s ear.
“You know what I said about her sounding a little scary when you told me about her? Turns out I was right.”
Joel laughed and nudged her toward the bar. “Let’s get you that beer. Then I’ll introduce you to some really scary people.”
Nic couldn’t remember ever wanting a drink more.
Chapter Four
Nic could almost feel the eyes trained on them as she and Joel crossed the room to the bar, Joel returning greetings along the way. There was open curiosity in those eyes, combined with speculation about her role in Joel’s life. She knew she looked much different than the stunning redhead they remembered with him. And while she rarely fretted about her appearance, taking for granted that she looked okay, she was well aware that she wasn’t the beauty Heather had been.
Not that it mattered, of course. She’d resigned herself years ago to descriptions like “cute” and “pleasant.” She’d even learned to be satisfied with that image, though cuteness wasn’t exactly an advantage in her job. And since she wasn’t competing with the memory of a tall, gorgeous redhead for Joel’s romantic interest, there was no reason for her to mind the comparisons.
Two beefy, eerily identical men with shaved heads and goofy smiles approached them a few minutes later, simultaneously slapping Joel on the back hard enough to slosh the beer in his just-filled mug. “Joel Brannon,” they bellowed in perfect unison. “It’s good to see you, man.”
Somehow, through some process Nic couldn’t imagine, Joel correctly identified each twin as he greeted them. “Hey, Ernie. Hey, Earl. How’ve you both been?”
Ernie answered, “We’re doing great. Me and Kay have three kids now. Earl and Cassie have two. Hellions, the lot of ’em.”
Laughing at the affectionate summary, Joel introduced Nic. The Watson twins greeted her much the way Heidi had—warmly but with open curiosity about her relationship to their old friend.
Introductions out of the way, Joel asked, “Are you guys still working in your dad’s heat-and-air business?”
“Running it now,” Earl corrected. “Dad retired last year.”
“Yeah? How’s he doing?”
“He’s loving the leisurely life,” Ernie said. “Fishing, hunting, playing dominoes over at the VFW. Driving Mom crazy.”
Joel laughed. “Good for him.”
“Hey, you remember the Penderville game our senior year? When you threw that sixty-yard pass to Gonzalez?”
Groaning, Joel took a sip of his beer before answering, “We lost—35 to 14.”
“Yeah, but that was one hell of a pass.”
“Sure impressed the cheerleaders,” Ernie said with a waggle of his heavy eyebrows. “’ Specially the captain of the squad.”
Earl cleared his throat and punched his brother in the ribs. He might have tried to be subtle about it, but he couldn’t have been