Rick grabbed the microphone out of her hand while Chief Ellis walked up to Lisa.
“Sorry, Rick,” the chief said through a mouthful of food. “I was in the kitchen sampling Izzy’s petit fours or I’d have been here sooner. This lady invited?”
“Hell, no,” Rick muttered.
“Trespassing, disturbing the peace . . .” Chief Ellis rattled off a list of violations and along with Rick, they propelled Lisa to the door.
Meanwhile Kendall’s mind whirled with words she couldn’t assign a meaning to.
Anniversary. Pregnant. Baby. She’d wanted insight into Rick’s mind, his past. She’d just been handed that information in spades. And she’d rather have heard it from him.
Kendall’s stomach twisted as she tried to process what being left by a pregnant wife would do to a man like Rick. A man with a strong honor code. A man who’d been willing to marry a pregnant friend. She rubbed her aching temples with her hand. No wonder he steered clear of relationships. No wonder he was wary of women. And no wonder he was probably even more wary of Kendall, because she’d told him from the beginning she was leaving.
“Okay, folks, show’s over.” Chase clapped his hands and murmurs of assent rose from the crowd. Then he turned to Rick. “You sure do know how to throw a party.”
“If you’ll recall, I’m the guest of honor. If it was my choice there wouldn’t have been a party.” He rubbed the muscles in the back of his neck that had grown tenser by the minute.
“And I now know why that is.” Kendall came up beside them. “Why you never mentioned your birthday . . . or your anniversary.”
Chase cleared his throat. “Do I see a lovers’ quarrel coming on?”
“None of your business,” Kendall and Rick replied at the same time.
Chase laughed. “Just like an old married couple. I can remember when Mom used to finish Dad’s thoughts.”
“We’re out of here,” Rick said, grabbing Kendall’s hand.
“I’m only leaving if you promise to talk to me,” she whispered in his ear.
“I’ll talk if you’ll listen,” Rick promised.
Kendall took his words as a challenge. After all she’d heard tonight, she had no doubt listening to him retell his past would be as difficult for her to hear as it had been for him to live.
Rick wasn’t much of a talker. For all his joking ways, for all the people he befriended, serious discussion about his life was something he avoided. He’d never realized that particular piece of information about himself before now. But as he led Kendall into his apartment, a sense of claustrophobia overtook him and he broke into a sweat.
He tossed his keys on the counter and inspiration struck. “Come with me.”
“Where?” Kendall asked. “I thought we were already here.” She gestured around the apartment. “Four walls and the bedroom, which I refuse to enter by the way until we’re talked out.”
Rick walked to the set of windows leading to the large fire escape and lifted one high enough for even a tall person to bend and get through. He waved his hand outside. “Come join me on the terrace.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope. When Charlotte rented this place, she used the fire escape as a deck of sorts. It’s secluded and it seats two.” He ducked and stepped outside, then held his hand out to help Kendall do the same.
He waited until she’d settled as comfortably as possible on the hard iron surface and sat, knees bent beside her. “It’s not paradise, but it’ll do.”
“Actually it’s pretty close.” She lifted her face toward the direction of the warm breeze and let out a contented sigh. “I take it you were feeling claustrophobic inside?”
He stiffened. “What makes you say that?” Mind reading wasn’t a game he was familiar with and they’d been in synch twice already tonight. After Chase’s married couple crack, it was enough to make him damn uncomfortable.
She met his gaze. “Because I asked you to talk. To open up. And you’ve gone so far out of your way not to do that, I figured you must be feeling cornered now.”
“And you’d know all about feeling cornered?” He hazarded an accurate guess, knowing she’d spent her life running from whatever it was that prevented her from settling in one place.
“Would you stop doing that?” She smacked her hand against the floor in obvious frustration. “Ouch. Dammit.” She shook her hand out in front of her.
He lifted her palm and pressed a kiss against her stinging flesh.
She yanked her hand back. “Don’t try and distract me. You’re too good at turning the tables on me. I’ll ask you a question and seconds later I’m spilling my guts instead of you.”
He grinned. “What can I say? I’m trained in interrogation tactics.”
“Trained in avoidance tactics is more like it,” she muttered. “You’re the one who’s feeling cornered right now, not me.”
Rick glanced up at the dark night sky. The time had come to either reveal his innermost pain or walk away from Kendall for good, before she walked away from him. Which she’d probably do anyway. He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “Jillian and I knew each other since she moved to town. I was a few years older than her but we became good friends and stayed that way all through high school.”
“Just friends?” Kendall asked.
“Yeah, just friends.”
“But you wanted more.”
He shrugged. “I was a guy. She was a pretty girl. Of course I wanted more.” Rick wanted to get through this telling as easily as possible, no emotion or theatrics involved. “I graduated high school and commuted to Albany for college, trained and joined the police force. Jillian was doing the commuting thing too and had finished her third year of college when she came home that summer.”
“Pregnant.” Kendall lay a hand on his arm and he covered it with his own.
“Four months.”
Kendall sighed.
Even if she had forced the story out of him, her presence and support meant a lot to him now. There was no one else he’d rather share his past with than Kendall. No one he’d rather share his future with either. The thought hit with greater impact and force than a bullet and he sucked in a startled breath.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Yeah right.
“So finish the story,” she gently prompted.