Once and Again. Brenda Harlen

just saying that…um…sex…isn’t the answer to every question.”

      He smiled, inordinately pleased by the realization that the usually unflappable Jessica Harding was obviously flapped by the topic. “Maybe not the whole answer,” he agreed. “But it’s a factor that shouldn’t be ignored.”

      “Yes, well, as…um…interesting as this conversation is, I should be getting back to the house.”

      He considered asking her to stay. And maybe she would have. But he wasn’t sure if either one of them was ready for any progress in their relationship beyond the fragile truce they seemed to have established.

      “I’ll walk with you,” he said.

      “I know the way.”

      He held his hand out to her. “I’ll walk with you, anyway.”

      After a brief hesitation, she laid her palm against his. He closed his fingers around hers, disturbed by how natural it felt to be touching her, how comfortable he felt with her.

      Even as she fell into step beside him, he cursed himself for being a fool. But he’d always been a fool where Jessica was concerned. He’d fallen in love with her when she was sixteen, proposed to her when she was seventeen. He’d been three years older, but still young enough and naive enough to believe they would be together forever.

      He’d honestly thought they would build a life together—until she’d chosen her career over everything else.

      Yeah, he might still want her, but he couldn’t ever forgive her.

      Jess stepped into the house, bolted the door behind her and exhaled a long, deep breath.

      It had been close there for a second. For just the briefest moment as they’d stood together under the moon and the stars, she’d thought he was going to kiss her. For that brief moment, as the heady masculine scent of him tantalized her senses and her hands ached to slide over the firm muscles of his chest and shoulders, she’d wondered what would happen if he did kiss her. Would she push him away? Or pull him closer?

      It had been a second of insanity. There and gone so quickly she wasn’t sure if it had existed anywhere outside of her mind. Except that her heart was still beating a little too fast.

      Which only proved to Jess how important it was to maintain a distance between herself and Nick, as she’d managed to do for the better part of eighteen years.

      Unfortunately, circumstances were different now. If she and Nick both wanted to be available to Kristin and Brian, to support them, their paths would inevitably cross. Then there was the promise she’d made to Kristin to help out in Nick’s office.