“Clive, you shouldn’t leave Mimi alone.”
“You’re right. I’m going.” He gave her a deep look. “But I’ll be back.”
A vehicle shrieked, laying rubber right in front of her house. She turned.
She saw Nash’s red pickup truck tearing away from her house as if Nash had slammed the gas pedal to the floor.
“Nash!” she called.
She didn’t know how long he’d been parked there. Not long, she was sure, she hadn’t seen his truck when they walked over from Clive’s.
But long enough to see their kiss.
“Clive, I’ve got to go in now.” She unlocked her front door and hurried inside, reaching for her cellphone as she went.
19
Darcy punched Nash’s button on her direct dial. It went to voicemail.
“Nash, I need to talk to you. Please come back. I’ll be here all evening. Nash, I—please call me.”
Muffler strolled into the room, waving his beautiful tail.
Darcy paced the floor. “Damn! This is crazy!” Snatching up her phone, she hit Jordan’s number. The moment Jordan answered, Darcy cried, “Jordan! Nash saw Clive kissing me at my front door!”
“Clive kissed you?” Jordan repeated.
“It was only a kind of thank-you kiss because I’d just helped Mimi, who has a cold, and then he walked me home—”
“You live next door and he walked you home?” Before Darcy could respond, Jordan said, “Hold her. Play with her. Watch TV with her. I’ve got to talk to Darcy.” Shuffling noises and a few baby squawks reached Darcy’s ears, then Jordan added, “Sorry, Darcy. Had to give Kiks to her daddy.”
Darcy heard Jordan’s breath change and she knew Jordan was climbing the stairs to the privacy of her bedroom. This was calming, unambiguous. Jordan was there for her. Darcy sank into a corner of her sofa.
A door slammed. “Now. Start over,” Jordan demanded.
“I stopped by to see Mimi, because I wanted her advice about…” Good grief, was it only this afternoon she’d been worrying about Willow knowing about her mother and Otto? What was happening to this neighborhood? Had she been beamed up to an alien triangle of triangles? “Wait. Let me start over.” Darcy tried to regain her composure. “I stopped by to see Mimi. She’s quite ill with a summer cold. Clive was doing his best, but I helped her clean up a little, I changed the sheets, and I made her scrambled eggs—”
“Enough about Mimi! What do you mean about kissing Clive?”
“I’m trying to tell you. Mimi fell asleep and I was in the kitchen washing up and Clive came in, and I made him eggs and we talked about Mimi, and I told him about Penny, and we’re both so worried about Mimi, but of course Clive is more worried, he’s so close to her, like I was with Penny. It was a nice moment, friendly, warm. I’m not surprised he tried to kiss me. He’s in an emotional tsunami with his grandmother’s health. She could die, and naturally that’s frightening to him. So he kissed me. But I pulled away. Okay, I didn’t pull away for a moment, but then I did. I told him no, I told him I was with Nash, and I started to leave the house. He said he wanted to walk me home—he wanted to be a gentleman.”
“Okay,” Jordan said slowly. “So when did Nash see you?”
“At my front door. Clive was thanking me, and then he kissed me goodbye. It was a long kiss, it was complicated…Clive wanted more, and I was pushing him away but I guess it could have looked sexual. Anyway, right then, Nash drove up in front of my house, saw Clive kissing me, and roared off like an angry gorilla!”
“Wow. This is a lot to process, Darcy. Let me think.” Jordan was silent for a few moments. “Okay, now back up. The kiss with Clive—was it nice?”
Darcy closed her eyes. “No, not nice. Passionate, but in a bad way. Clive is handsome and sexy, but this almost wasn’t about sex.”
“Right,” Jordan snorted.
“No, really. I think it was about power. He was surprised, I think, and confused, that I wasn’t all over him. I mean, he is handsome. He is sexy. But honestly, in my heart of hearts, Clive might as well have been a piece of macaroni. It kills me that Nash saw us kissing on my doorstep.”
“Sounds like it didn’t make Nash very happy, either.”
“I know. And he won’t answer his phone!”
“Are you in love with Nash?”
Darcy sighed. “I am. I haven’t told him that yet. He’s still so reserved. And now this.”
“Okay, look, it’s only natural for him to take off when he sees you kissing another man. What would you expect him to do, get out of the truck and shake Clive’s hand?”