And yet Aggie had been a good girl. She had fought against the temptation of asking Nick to spend the night and instead after dinner, a movie, and some kissing on her couch, she had sent him home, taken a shower, acoldshower, and climbed into bed. Summer would be proud of her.
Every second she spent with Nick, she grew to like him more and more. She wasn't even going to pretend anymore that she wasn't already in love with him. And in love with him with no qualifiers like almost, or probably, or falling in.
Her heart broke for him, for what he had endured as a little boy. To losebothhis parents, and then a foster father, and then a foster brother, it was beyond tragic. She couldn’t imagine the pain he had endured. She had suffered enough just losing her mother.
Growing up without a mom had been hard. Especially when her father was more interested in finding a new wife than in being a parent to her. Her friends and their mothers had been her life savers once she hit her teenage years, providing the support, wisdom, and guidance that her own mother would have.
The loss of their parents connected her and Nick in a way that not many people could understand. Such a loss at such a young age changed you, shaped you, and affected how you saw the world. She felt so much closer to him now. So much more love for him than she had ever felt for another human being.
He felt it too, she knew he did.
But he was holding something back. She wasn't sure what, but whenever they were together she sensed it. That was okay, it didn’t bother her. She was comfortable with her emotions, even if they sometimes led her down the wrong path, but a lot of people weren’t as at ease with feelings as she was. He’d come around, maybe this was the first time he’d fallen in love, maybe he didn’t know how amazing it was. And for her, this time was going to be even more amazing than all the other times she’d thought she was in love because this time it was real. This time it wasn't one-sided.
He even wanted to meet her family. She hadneverhad a boyfriend who had willingly met with her father, particularly so early on in the relationship. She thought it was so sweet that he wanted to get to know her dad, to build a relationship with him as he was building one with her. His insistence had caught her by surprise, but once she learned about the loss of his family it all made much more sense.
Snuggling under her covers, she started to drift off, imagining it was Nick’s arms that she was wrapped up in, that his lips were brushing against her. He’d called her honey, she remembered sleepily, usually Aggie didn’t like generic terms of endearment, but this one had felt real. Like she was special to him.
With sleep came dreams full of Nick.
Pleasant dreams.
Happy dreams.
Beautiful dreams.
But then they grew dark. Filled with shadows and evil. She was in the parking lot. The man was there. Nick too. Only this time the man had a gun. He fired it. The bullet plowed into Nick. Into his chest. Blood blossomed. She screamed. Nick fell. The thud of his body hitting the concrete echoed in her head.
Aggie woke with a start.
She was drenched in sweat and freezing cold.
Just a dream, she soothed herself, it was only a dream. Nick wasn't really dead, he’d never been shot, he’d saved her from the man in the parking lot.
Something went thud.
Aggie jerked upright. Was that real or had she imagined it? Maybe she was still half-asleep and stuck in dreamland.
Her ears strained in the deafening silence. Her eyes searched her dark bedroom. She contemplated grabbing her cell and calling the cops. Aggie wished she had agreed to let Summer spend the night. Or Nick.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting for another clunk to come, she forced herself to relax. She took long, slow, deep breaths and lay back down, deliberately pulling the covers up to her chin and closing her eyes. There was nothing here. She was just on edge. And after being attacked and nearly raped or murdered, she was surely entitled to have a little case of the jumps.
She was just starting to doze back off when she heard it again.
This time she knew it wasn't a dream. Something really had gone thud.
Something inside her apartment.
Springing from her bed, clutching her cell phone in one hand, and wishing that she kept a weapon in her bedroom, she crept across her room. As she creaked open her bedroom door, Aggie debated calling the cops immediately or checking things out on her own first. She didn’t want to come across as some sort of paranoid victim, and occasionally her neighbor’s cat somehow managed to get in here. That was probably all it was—the cat.
This notion soothed her a little as she padded in her bare feet down the short hallway to the kitchen. Her hand hovered on the doorknob. What if it wasn't the cat? What if it was the man who had attacked her? He was still out there. Detective Dion said they might never find him.
Preparing herself, in one smooth motion she swung open the door.
The kitchen was empty.
Relaxing now, she was sure she was being silly, just worked up over her attack and still skittish. It was to be expected. She just had to wait it out, soon these jitters would fade, and her life would go back to normal.
Then she heard what sounded like the swoosh and following clunk of her front door closing.