Page 58 of The Best of Friends

Instead of grabbing the food, he moved close and put his hands on her hips. After lightly kissing her, he said, “Relax. Everything will be fine.”

She let herself get lost in his eyes because the alternative was to panic, and shrill was not her best look. “You don’t know that. What was I thinking? These are my friends. And you’re… not who they’re going to be expecting. There will be awkward questions and knowing looks.”

He kissed her again, lingering this time until she was close to whimpering. “I live for awkward. We’re going to talk jewelry. They’ll love it.”

“You’regoing to talk jewelry. There’s a difference.”

“They’ll adore me.”

“Are you sure you can manage the chip bowl? Because that ego looks kind of heavy.”

He chuckled and reached for the two bowls. While he went to put them on the coffee table, she transferred the taquitos to a plate, then pulled the guacamole from the refrigerator.

“They’re all nurses, too?” he asked when he returned and swiped a taquito. “At the breast center?”

“Katie and Charlotte are. Gigi works up front, in the office.”

He leaned against the counter. “Why do you work there and not a hospital?”

“My mother died of breast cancer.”

“I’m sorry.” He frowned. “You were still in high school, right? That’s when you moved in?”

She nodded. “My mom wasn’t diagnosed until she was stage four. She never went to the doctor, probably because of money. By the time we knew what was going on, it was too late. She only had a few weeks to live. The radiology nurses were my favorite. They would answer all my questions. They didn’t pretend everything was going to be okay. It was scary, but knowing the truth was better than wondering.”

He moved toward her, then stopped. “You didn’t have any other family?”

“None. Rebecca helped, but she was in high school, too. One of the nurses, Sylvia, took me out to dinner a couple of times and told me what was going to happen with my mom. What the last couple of weeks would be like. She prepared me. She also told me that the type of cancer she had was random rather than genetic. Which also helped. I wanted to be like Sylvia—making a difference.”

She pulled a bottle of white wine from the refrigerator and handed it to him, along with the opener. She collected glasses.

“The night my mother died, Elizabeth invited me to come stay. When I got close to high school graduation, she and Blaine offered to pay for college. Blaine already knew I wanted to be a nurse, and he was very supportive.”

“More so than my mother,” David said, pulling out the cork. “She would be more interested in how it looks than for paying it.”

Jayne agreed, but didn’t want to say that. “They were both there for me.”

“And you’ll always be grateful.” He reached for the bottle of red on the counter.

“Life is nothing if not complicated.” She drew in a breath. “But I can’t keep doing it,” she said slowly. “Acting as Elizabeth’s assistant. Paying back the never-ending debt.”

David set down the wine. “Elizabeth does feel she has a claim on you.”

Jayne swallowed and stared into his amazing blue eyes. “It’s not just her. I’m as much to blame. I’ve let this situation go on too long. And it’s time to fix things.”

He drew his eyebrows together. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like what you’re saying?”

“I don’t know. It’s not going to make any difference to you, that I can see.” She drew in a deep breath. “I’m moving to Dallas.”

David studied her. “Okay.”

She told him about the job she’d accepted. “I’m putting my condo up for sale and leaving in two months.”

“To get away from my family.” He wasn’t asking a question.

“To do a lot of things. It’s a great opportunity.”

“Sounds like it.”