The Man Next Door

by Gina Wilkins

  “I haven’t seen much of Dani since I got back,” she complained. “She’s been so busy. Have you seen her?”

  “Only in passing a couple of times. She’s swamped with classes and lessons right now, I guess.” He had actually wondered if Dani was avoiding him for some reason. She hadn’t seemed at all annoyed that he’d had to stand her up for the New Year’s Eve party, but she certainly had been scarce around here since.

  He could still remember so clearly how she had looked standing in her doorway in her sparkly party clothes, her eyes alight with anticipation of the evening out. It had taken all the willpower he had to walk away from her, allowing himself only one kiss.

  The image of her standing there had haunted his dreams—waking and sleeping—ever since.

  “I understand you and Dani spent quite a bit of time together while I was away,” Mrs. Parsons said, giving him an impish look. “You went home for Thanksgiving with her, didn’t you?”

  “I did,” he agreed, “but there was a reason for that.”

  “Yes, Hannah told me. I have to admit I’m glad I wasn’t here.” She put a hand over her heart. “Just the thought of seeing you bloody and beaten makes me ill. I’m so glad you’ve recovered well. I hope you’re being more careful now.”

  “Trying to be.”

  “Good. So, about you and Dani—”

  “We’re still just friends, Mrs. Parsons,” he said gently. “After what we just talked about, you should understand why I’d have reservations about getting into a relationship with anyone, considering the demands of my job.”

  “You’re telling me there aren’t any married FBI agents?” she demanded, placing her gnarled hands on her hips.

  “Well, yeah, there are a few,” he admitted. “It’s tough on them, though.”

  “Well, of course it is. Who ever said marriage was easy—for anyone? My late husband was an accountant. I didn’t see him from January 1 until April 16. Let me tell you, I got tired of spending our March thirtieth wedding anniversaries watching him run figures after dinner. Caused us some problems through the years, but we learned to work around his schedule.”

  Teague shook his head and handed her his empty dessert plate. “Why are we discussing marriage, anyway? I’m certainly in no hurry to get married. And if you’re thinking about Dani, I don’t think she is, either. She considers herself a very independent and self-sufficient woman who doesn’t want to tie herself down to anyone while she’s getting her career established.”

  “Of course she does. I was an independent and self-sufficient woman, myself. I had a career, you know. I retired as a branch manager of a local bank. I had a lot of responsibility and worked some fairly long hours, but that didn’t stop me from keeping my family together.”

  “I never knew you were in banking,” he said.

  She nodded vigorously. “There weren’t a lot of women managers when I was promoted, but I never let that hold me back. Once I set my mind to something I wanted, I usually got it.”

  He couldn’t imagine why that statement made him a little bit nervous.

  Maybe it was the lack of sunshine, the lousy, cold, wet weather, the knowledge that spring was still so far away. Or maybe it was her own inner conflicts, but Dani grew increasingly tense as January slipped away and February began. It seemed that romance was everywhere she looked, in decorations and ads, TV programs and movies. And every time she saw a string of red hearts or heard a sappy love song, she found herself thinking of Teague. And that just annoyed her.

  She was avoiding him, no question. She figured he knew it, since he looked at her so quizzically when their paths did cross. But this was the only way she knew to handle her tangled feelings for him. All she needed was a little distance, she assured herself. Just to get past all these sappy holidays and back to her comfortable routines.

  Still, though she deliberately stayed too busy to spend much time with him, she discreetly kept tabs on him. She knew when he worked extralong hours, when his schedule was lighter, when he was gone on what she assumed—hoped?—were overnight assignments. He left town only once during those weeks, for a couple of days, and he let her know in passing beforehand that he would be gone. Just so she wouldn’t worry, he had added, watching her closely as if to see if there was a chance that she would worry about him.

  So when he suddenly disappeared during the first week of February, she did worry. She had seen him leave that afternoon, and he’d stopped to chat with her for a few minutes. He hadn’t said a word about going out of town. He hadn’t been carrying a bag, and he hadn’t indicated that he was involved in a particularly time-consuming case.

  By the third day she was practically stalking his apartment, waiting for some sign of him. She couldn’t help remembering how he had looked when he’d collapsed into her arms that week of Thanksgiving, so badly injured and so determined to keep going. What if he was hurt again? What if he’d been injured—or worse—in the course of a case?

  What if he was lying in a hospital room somewhere? No one would think to notify his neighbors, most likely. Why would they? It wasn’t as if he had her listed as someone to call in case of an emergency. He could actually be dead, and she wouldn’t know it unless she heard it on the news or found out by accident when someone came to clean out his apartment, she realized sickly.

  Mrs. Parsons kept telling her that Teague was probably fine, that they surely would have heard if anything was wrong, but Dani could tell that the older woman was worried about him, too. She heard Mrs. Parsons’s door open regularly, as if she were checking for signs of Teague almost as often as Dani was.

  By the fourth day, Dani was ready to start making calls. She had to know something, she thought desperately. She wasn’t going to sleep soundly until she was sure he was all right.

  The problem was, she didn’t know who to call. He had never told her his stepmother’s name, or where in Florida she lived. She didn’t know any of his friends or co-workers, having missed the party. So, should she just look up FBI in the phone book? Ask whoever answered if an agent named Teague McCauley happened to be lying in a hospital somewhere?

  She was pacing her living room when she heard someone out in the hallway. Somehow recognizing Teague’s steps, she threw open the door. “Where the hell have you been?”

  Teague was tired. All-the-way-to-the-bone tired. So exhausted that he couldn’t even make himself stand up straight when Dani stormed out of her apartment like a madwoman.

  “I’ve been working,” he said, hearing his words slur a little as they emerged. “Got caught up in a case that took me out of the state for a few days.”

  He needed a shower, a shave, a hot meal and a good night’s sleep. Not necessarily in that order. And, as lovely as she always was, Dani was standing squarely between him and his door, behind which he could find all of those things.

  Her hands were planted—fisted, really—on her hips as she glared at him. Her eyes were narrowed, darkened almost to navy, her mouth turned downward in displeasure. He’d still like to kiss that fabulous mouth, frown or no, but first he had to get some rest. It would be incredibly embarrassing to fall asleep right in the middle of a kiss.

  Realizing she was speaking again in a low, tight voice, he tried to pay attention. “In all of that time, you couldn’t find two minutes to call me and tell me you were all right?” she asked.

  “No, I really couldn’t,” he replied with a faint shrug. “I figured you would know I was working.”

  “How was I to know that? For all I knew, you were off on a pleasure trip. Or lying in a hospital bed somewhere. Or…or something else.”

  “As you can see, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern, but now I…”

  “Thanks for my concern?” she repeated in disbelief. “That’s it?”

  The strain of the past few days was fast catching up with him. He really wasn’t in any shape to be having this conversation. “Look, Dani, what do you want? I said I’m sorry you were worried. But for all I knew, you never even no
ticed I was gone.”

  “Wouldn’t you have noticed if I had just disappeared for days at a time?”

  “I’d notice,” he snapped back. “I would just figure it was none of my business where you were.”

  He realized that hadn’t come out quite right when she gasped and stiffened. “You’re right,” she said flatly. “It is absolutely none of my business where you go or why.”

  Gripping the back of his neck with one hand, he grimaced. “That’s not what I meant. You’re the one who’s made it clear you want to keep everything all casual and undefined between us. I never know from one day to the next whether you’ll even deign to talk to me again, much less…well, anything else. Either we’re a couple or we’re not, but I’ll be damned if I’ll be one of your pathetically eager puppies, hanging around hoping for a crumb of attention from you.”

  Okay, that hadn’t been his smoothest speech, either. And judging from her expression, it had not been at all well received.

  “Fine,” she said. “You want a tidy, one-word definition? Try this one. Over.”

  “Dani—”

  She was already storming back through her open door. She slammed it closed before he could say anything else.

  “Damn it,” he growled, only then noticing that Mrs. Parsons’s door was also ajar.

  The older woman gave him a look of sympathy. “Get some rest, dear,” she advised quietly. “You both need to cool down before you talk again.”

  “Something tells me Dani won’t be cooling off that much for the next decade or so,” he muttered, his shoulders sagging. “You heard her. Whatever we had, it’s over. And maybe that’s for the best.”

  “Get some rest,” his neighbor said again. “I’m sure everything will look different tomorrow.”

  But Teague didn’t think so. It seemed to him that Dani had been looking for a reason to end it between them from the beginning, even before anything had really gotten started. She’d tried to control him, and when that hadn’t worked out, she’d dumped him. Well, fine, he thought, stripping off his clothes and stumbling into the shower. If it was over, it was over. He’d been expecting this all along, anyway.

  He just hadn’t expected it to hurt quite this much, he thought, letting his head droop beneath the steady stream of hot water.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dani was thinking about moving. Her lease was coming up at the end of March and it seemed like a good time for a change of scenery. She wasn’t running away from Teague, she assured herself. She’d hardly caught a glimpse of him since their quarrel a week earlier, anyway, though she knew he’d been home most every day since.

  He was very good at avoiding her.

  It would be nice to find an apartment with a somewhat larger kitchen. Now that she’d started cooking, she was rather enjoying it, and her current kitchen was really too small to store some of the appliances she’d like to buy eventually. And it would be nice to have an apartment with an outside entrance, maybe a nice little courtyard. She had never intended to stay here permanently.

  It wasn’t about Teague, she assured herself again. Not entirely, anyway.

  Sure, she’d had a good cry the night they’d…well, broken up didn’t seem like the right term, since they’d never really been together. The night they’d ended their “friendship with benefits.” She’d been hurt and insulted by some of the things he had said, and it was only natural that there’d been a few tears. And that she’d almost cried once or twice since, just remembering how cutting their quarrel had been, even after they’d spent so many pleasant hours together.

  Hadn’t she known all along that the ending wouldn’t be easy between them?

  She would get over this, she vowed. She’d never expected anything to come of it, anyway. Hadn’t even wanted anything to, really. Falling in love, getting serious, making a commitment just wasn’t on her life schedule right now. So if she burst into tears at hearing James Blunt wail, “Goodbye, My Lover,” it had to be due to hormones, not a broken heart. She turned off the radio just as he sang, “Goodbye, my friend.” Wiping her eyes, she got out her music history books, determined to lose herself in her studies.

  She was locked into her apartment on February 13th—not hiding, just studying, she assured herself—wrapped in an afghan to protect her from the chill that seeped through the old windows of the building. It was bitterly cold out, and a nasty winter storm was predicted for the next day. She didn’t know if Teague was working tonight in this terrible weather, but she reminded herself that she didn’t really care. As he had coolly pointed out, it was really none of her business.

  A knock on her door brought her quickly to her feet. Even as she moved to answer it, she realized that it wasn’t Teague’s knock. Sure enough, Mrs. Parsons stood on the other side of the door. Dani tried to convince herself that she was relieved.

  “I was in the mood to make brownies today, so I brought you some,” Mrs. Parsons said, holding out a covered plate. “I know you have a weakness for chocolate.”

  “Yes, I do. Which makes it very naughty of you to bring it to me,” Dani teased, accepting the plate anyway.

  “Wouldn’t hurt you to gain a few pounds,” the older woman said with a bluntness that was certainly familiar to Dani, considering the way her mother and grandmother always spoke their minds.

  “Considering that I’ll probably lick this plate clean, you might just see that happen. Would you like to come in? Can I get you anything to drink?”

  “Nothing to drink, but I wouldn’t mind coming in for a minute.”

  Setting the brownies on a table, Dani waited until her visitor was seated before settling on the sofa herself. “Have you decided yet about whether you’re going to accept your son’s invitation to move into his guest house?”

  Mrs. Parsons nodded. “I believe I will,” she said. “It’s been a hard decision, but I finally made up my mind today. I called him just before dinner. He sounded pleased.”

  “I’m sure he is. He must look forward to having you closer to him where he can see you every day.”

  Mrs. Parsons laughed wryly. “We’ll see if he still feels that way after I’ve been there awhile.”

  “I have no doubt that he will. I’ll miss you, though.”

  “I’ll miss you, too, dear. I think very highly of you, you know. Like a favorite niece.”

  Dani blinked, wondering why tears seemed to hover so close these days. Maybe she needed to start taking some vitamins or something. “That’s very sweet.”

  “Now, tell me about you and Teague. When are the two of you going to make up and be friends again?”

  This, too, sounded like something her older relatives would ask. She decided to handle the personal question from Mrs. Parsons just as she would from one of her own family. Candidly, but making it clear that she wasn’t really looking for advice. “Teague and I both have very busy lives, Mrs. Parsons. It’s better if we just go our separate ways for now.”

  Clucking her tongue in disapproval, the older woman shook her head. “You’re both so stubborn. It’s obvious that you’re both unhappy with the way things stand between you, but neither one of you will do a thing about it.”

  “I know you heard the things he and I said to each other that night last week. We were both pretty mad when we parted.”

  “One quarrel and you’re ready to give up?” Mrs. Parsons shook her head again. “If you’d heard the spats my husband and I got into during all our years together, and knew how happy we were together despite those arguments, you’d know how foolish that sounds.”

  “Yes, well, this is different. Teague and I aren’t—We don’t—We didn’t have that sort of relationship.”

  “Hmm. Maybe you could have, if you’d just worked at it a little. But that’s none of my affair, of course,” she said quickly, before Dani could point out that obvious fact. “I just hate to see you both unhappy, when I’ve grown so fond of you both.”

  “I’m not unhappy, Mrs. Parsons,” Dani lied without blinking.


  She might as well have tried to fool one of her too-perceptive relatives. Mrs. Parsons gave her a look that said a great deal, and then rose from her chair. “I’d better get back home. It’s getting close to time for my favorite television program.”

  Dani walked her to the door. “Thanks again for the brownies.”

  “You’re welcome. Good night, dear.”

  Closing the door, Dani stood where she was for several long minutes, wondering if Mrs. Parsons was right. Was Teague really unhappy with the way things had ended between them? She doubted that he was hurting quite as badly as she was, but maybe he regretted some of the things they had said to each other. It just seemed too late to even try to go back to the way things had been between them before those words had been spoken, she thought with a long, deep sigh.

  The storm hit as predicted the next evening. By 10:00 p.m., everything outside was covered in a half inch of ice. Dani was watching the weather reports on her TV when the electricity in the building suddenly went out. She figured a few tree limbs somewhere had collapsed beneath the pressure of the ice and fallen over some lines. According to the reports she’d heard before she’d lost power, it was happening all around the area.

  She groped for the flashlight she’d kept handy, just in case. It wouldn’t be long before she’d feel the cold, since the building was heated by electricity. She wrapped her afghan around the shoulders of the warm turtleneck sweater she wore with her jeans, and was glad she’d kept her boots on over her thick socks.

  Some Valentine’s Day this was turning out to be, she thought glumly. It felt almost as if the weather was responding to the stormy mood she had been in for the past week. Something told her she was never going to enjoy this holiday again, as it would always remind her of Teague, and how much it hurt to be this bitterly estranged from him.