Page 33 of Love and Other Lost Things

“Emergency?” she whispered, and he knew he wasn’t imagining that tiny hitch in her voice.

Eighteen years ago, Nik’s dad’s heart had stopped when he was working at his job at an insurance agency over in Westbrook. His colleagues had called 911, but nobody in the small office of insurance salesmen had known enough about cardiac arrest to administer CPR. By the time the ambulance had arrived from across town, his dad was already gone.

It had been the worst day of Nik’s life. He’d been ten at the time, and for a dark couple of months, he’d wished he could die, too. Jane had come over every day after school to sit with him on the porch swing until his mom got home from her new job cleaning houses. They didn’t always talk—sometimes they’d listened to music, sometimes they’d just sat in silence—but she’d been there, through it all.

When he’d decided that he wanted to become an ER doctor so he could keep what had happened to his dad from happening to someone else, Jane had helped him research what he needed to do to get into medical school. And she’d been the one to grab the flyer about the EMT training from the police station bulletin board and encourage him to sign up.

She knew better than anyone how much this meant to him.

“You really did it.” Her blue eyes shone with happiness. “Nik, that’s amazing.”

“Thanks,” Nik said, with a sudden urge to tell her more. “This past year, I started a community outreach program that goes out to local schools and offices to teach them CPR.” He felt his lips curve upward. “I just found out this week that I landed a grant to provide free AEDs—defibrillators—for groups that agree to do the training.”

“You’re going to save so many lives.”

“I hope so.”

Jane’s smile slowly faded, overtaken by an emotion he couldn’t quite read. “I’m so glad it all worked out exactly the way it was supposed to,” she said, breathlessly. “The scholarship to Cornell. And now this.”

Nik hesitated before answering. It was true that his volunteer work as an EMT back in high school had landed him a college scholarship from the Linden Falls town council. A full ride to Cornell. But it hadn’t exactly worked out the way it was supposed to.

In fact, it spectacularly fell apart.

But if Jane wanted to keep secrets, then he could keep them, too. “Yep. It all worked out exactly the way it was supposed to,” he repeated.

“Nik, I’m so proud of you.” She bit her lip. “Maybe I have no right to say that, but…” She took a shaky breath. “I really am.”

And damn it, here she was, stirring up all these emotions again. “I really love it,” he confided in a low voice. “It feels like I’m doing exactly what I’m meant to, you know?” Maybe his life hadn’t followed the flight path he’d mapped out a decade ago, but at least this part had landed in the right place.

To his surprise, Jane’s eyes filled.

Nik cocked his head. “Hey,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

Jane swiped at the moisture in her eyes. “I’m not crying.”

“You definitely are. What’s going on?”

She shook her head. “I’m just… I’m so relieved you’re happy.”

Nik blinked. Relieved? Had she worried that he wouldn’t be happy? He hated not knowing what she was thinking—that, somehow, he’d lost the right and had no idea why. He hated this distance between them.

A tear trickled from her eye and, before he could stop himself, Nik reached out to gently wipe it from Jane’s cheek. He half expected her to pull away, but instead, she leaned into him, turning her face into his palm.

And that’s when he knew. Just a few minutes ago, when she’d implied that maybe he’d gotten their relationship wrong all those years ago… that he’d gotten that night at the overlook wrong…

She was lying.

The connection between them had always been as natural as pulling air into their lungs. That hadn’t changed, and it wasn’t in the past. Since she’d taken off without a word, it was like they’d been holding their breath. And he realized, as their eyes connected, that for the first time in a decade, they could finally exhale.

FOURTEEN

The minute Nik’s thumb gently brushed her cheek, Jane knew that she should back away. She should get up and leave this café and never look back. Nothing good could come of his hand against her skin, the heat in his eyes, the gravitational force between them.

Instead she leaned in. And Oh God, it felt right—more than just about anything in her life had for so long. But then?—

“Jane McCaffrey, is that you?”

Jane tore her eyes away from Nik’s to find a tall, middle-aged man in a plaid apron framed in the doorway leading to the café’s kitchen.

---