Behind Closed Doors (4 page)

The thought sent a shiver down her spine. Even though Jan seemed to like him and she couldn’t see the older woman letting a violent man live here, she was still unsure. It was probably irrational, but emotions weren’t always logical.

Her reaction to him was getting to her. She didn’t
want
to be scared all the time.

In a split-second decision, she grabbed her keys and ran downstairs to Jan’s apartment. Maybe if she found out more about Chris, she’d feel better. Besides, she needed to thank her landlady for getting her sink fixed so quickly.

When Jan came to the door, she seemed surprised to see Elizabeth. “Well, hello, dear. Is everything all right?”

“Oh, yes.” Elizabeth quickly assured her. “I just . . .” She paused. “I just wanted to thank you for getting my sink fixed so quickly.”

“Chris stopped by then?”

“Yes.” Although part of her reasoning for coming down here had been to learn more about Chris, she was still uncomfortable talking about him for some reason. She felt like she was snooping on her neighbor, but that was the point, wasn’t it? How was she going to find out about him if she didn’t ask?

They stood there for a few awkward seconds. Elizabeth started to rethink her plan and was just about to excuse herself when Jan said, “Would you like to come in?”

“Yes, please,” she said with a sigh of relief.

Jan’s apartment looked a lot more lived-in than hers did. It was still the same basic setup, but the furniture was older and little touches gave the place a warm, welcoming feel. She only hoped that one day her place would feel the same way.

She sat at Jan’s table with a glass of ice tea in front of her. “How are you liking your apartment? Are you getting settled in?”

“Yes, thank you. All my furniture was delivered, so it’s starting to feel like home.”

“That always helps,” Jan said, taking a sip of tea. “Hard to feel truly comfortable in an empty place.”

It was quiet as they both just sat there.
It’s now or never,
she thought. “Has . . . Chris”
—it seems odd saying his name out loud for some reason—
“lived here long?”

Jan looked up and there was an odd expression on her face. “About three years.”

She nodded when Jan didn’t go on. It didn’t seem like she was going to find out much this way.

“You’re from Columbus, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” She gulped as the cold liquid slid down her throat a little too fast.

Jan didn’t seem to notice her reaction. “It’s a nice city. I have some friends there I visit from time to time.”

Elizabeth froze. Did Jan know?

But Jan eased her worries when she went on to talk about her last visit to the capital city. “We even went to see a hockey game!” she exclaimed, laughing. “If that isn’t an excuse for grown men to fight, I don’t know what is.”

Jared hadn’t liked hockey. He’d preferred golf. Personally, she found it to be the most boring sport imaginable, but as with everything else in her past life, she hadn’t been given much of a say.

“So what did you do back home?” Jan asked.

Elizabeth didn’t answer right away. Although it wasn’t unheard of for a woman to not work outside of the home, since she had no children it wasn’t common either. Most women her age held a job of some sort. She wondered how Jan would react to her lack of employment over the last five years. “Community work mostly. My husband and I were heavily involved in fundraising for the local university.”

“Are you married then, dear?”

“No.”

Thankfully, when she didn’t elaborate, Jan didn’t press, but instead steered the conversation to some volunteer work she did at the local senior center.

As they continued talking, Elizabeth realized she was enjoying herself. The time flew by and before she knew it, it was after five. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m keeping you from dinner.”

“Don’t apologize. If I’d wanted to kick you out, I would have.” She winked. “Besides, I like having company. Chris is much too busy these days to come visit much.”

“Oh, sorry.” She didn’t know why she was apologizing so much, but it just felt right.

Jan laughed and shook her head. “Do you have plans for tomorrow?”

“Uh . . . no.”

“Good,” Jan said as she began taking, what Elizabeth soon realized were leftovers, out of the refrigerator. “You can come have dinner with us. We eat at two,” she said, popping the first plate into the microwave. “It’s nothing fancy, just come hungry. I put out quite a spread on Sundays. It’s always more than Chris and I can polish off on our own.”

She didn’t know how to respond but didn’t feel like she could say no, considering how hospitable Jan had been. Plus, wasn’t learning about Chris the whole point of coming down here in the first place?

Well, she was getting her wish, one way or another. Tomorrow she would find out more about her upstairs neighbor.

Chris’s life wasn’t getting any easier. No matter if he stayed late at the office or if he brought is work home, he couldn’t seem to do anything but fall more and more behind.

There was no two ways about it; he was going to have to call a temp agency first thing Monday morning. Placing an ad and doing interviews himself would just take too long. He needed someone now.

Currently he was sitting at his kitchen table surrounded by stacks of paperwork. To his left were three potential jobs he needed to research and decide if he was going to put in a bid. On his right sat bills that he’d discovered during one of his frantic searches for something else, which now urgently needed to be paid. Directly in front of him were three different piles with everything from accounts receivable to a message from his mother.

For the next four hours he tried to get through as much as he could and even managed to get checks written and envelopes made out for all of the unpaid bills. All he had to do now was take them to the post office and mail them come Monday. He’d also been able to look at two of the three jobs up for bid and dismissed one right away.

It was only his stomach’s rumbling that caused him to look up at the clock. It was Sunday and that meant dinner with Jan. She’d been feeding him every Sunday since he’d moved in, except for when he drove down to see his parents. It was a tradition they both enjoyed.

And according to the clock, he was late.

After putting the finishing touches on her pineapple upside down cake and making sure she was dressed appropriately, Elizabeth carefully walked downstairs. She was nervous, but it didn’t make a lot of sense, really. Jan was going to be there, and it wasn’t as if Chris was going to attack her or anything. With one last deep breath, she knocked on Jan’s door.

Faster than she would have thought possible, Jan opened the door and ushered her inside. “You didn’t have to bring anything, dear. I invited you.”

“I know, but it didn’t feel right coming empty-handed.”

Jan chuckled. “Why don’t you find a place to put it in the kitchen? I think there’s a little space left on the counter, although you might have to move things around a bit.”

She nodded and walked with her cake into the kitchen. Almost every surface was covered, but with a little maneuvering, she was able to find a spot big enough beside the refrigerator.

There was a small picture sitting on a shelf over the sink that caught her eye. The woman in the picture was Jan—a much younger version, but still recognizable. The man in the picture towered over her, but it wasn’t their difference in size that caught her attention. It was the look on his face. Something she had longed for in her own marriage. Joy. The couple in the picture appeared to be totally absorbed in each other. It was almost magical.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

When she heard Chris arrive, her nerves took over again. Then she reminded herself that she knew he’d be here, and she could have declined. Her original plan to avoid him had already failed anyway. It had been less than a week, and they had crossed paths more than she had in a month with her previous neighbors.

She was going to have to work through this fear that gripped her every time she saw him. It might help if he didn’t act angry every time he saw her. Maybe all they needed to do was get to know one another. Not too much though. She just wanted him to stop being angry with her and for her to stop jumping out of her skin every time she heard him walk past her door or bumped into him on the stairs. With a steadying breath, she walked back out.

What’s she doing here? w
as his first angry thought when she walked into the room. Okay, that wasn’t true. His first thought involved doing things to her that might even make Jan blush, and that was mighty hard to do. Of course, that just made him even angrier. Why couldn’t he just block out this woman’s effect on him or something? He didn’t even know her!

“Did you find a place for your cake?” Jan asked her.

Instead of answering, Elizabeth just continued to stare at him like a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide.

“Elizabeth, dear? Are you all right?”

She finally snapped out of it. “Oh. Yes. I did, thank you.”

Chris watched her chest rise and fall under her shirt. Even though it was loose fitting, like all her clothes seemed to be, it didn’t help, and in fact only made him more eager to find out what was underneath.

What the . . .

He stopped those thoughts right in their tracks. Elizabeth Marshall was off limits. It was already decided. But for some reason, his body was having difficulty grasping that concept.

Thankfully, Jan asked him to help bring the food to the table.

Over dinner Jan kept the conversation going, and he kept a covert eye on Elizabeth, but tried not to address her directly unless he couldn’t avoid it. Jan seemed to want them to get to know each other, but it was the last thing he wanted. She’d suck him in just as Carol had, and that wasn’t happening again.

Jan asked what her plans were now that she’d moved to a new town, and Elizabeth mentioned she was going to start looking for a job tomorrow. That’s when Jan very nicely informed her of his need of a new assistant. She played it up, sharing how much he’d been working lately, how desperate he was. He began to get suspicious.

Sure enough, she dropped the bomb he might never forgive her for. “Elizabeth would be the perfect solution to your problem, Chris. She needs a job and you need an assistant. These long days are going to catch up with you soon.”

He just looked at Jan, dumbfounded and coming dangerously close to yelling at the woman he’d always thought of as a second mother.

“Don’t you think she’d be perfect?” she said again, looking at him with innocent eyes.

Perfect.
That was a word he didn’t want to explore when it came to the woman sitting across from him, since his body was currently telling him the exact same thing.

He contemplated all the reasons he shouldn’t offer her a job, even if it was just until he could find someone else, but Jan was right. He was going to run himself down quickly if he continued to work these long hours.

Finally he took the plunge, hoping he didn’t regret it. “I could use the help if you’re up for it—just until I find someone else,” he said hastily. There was no way he could handle seeing her every day and
not
drag her into his office and—