been a total of six attacks over the last five weeks. Each one became more and more violent, but it didn’t appear that the police force were any closer to finding out who was doing it. The only clue was that each of the girls’ hands had been bound closed with duct tape and there was a heart drawn on their palms. No one knew what it meant.
When she returned home for the evening, she began formulating a way to offer more self-defense classes. She worked on the list of everything she needed to do. At the very top, she needed to get Cassie and Penelope into the workout room and give them a refresher course.
Julie was pondering the possibilities of the why’s of the attacks when a knock rattled her door. She looked through her peep hole and her heartbeat sped up. Chris. She took a moment and leaned her head against the back of the door to calm her breathing. No matter what her brain said, her heartbeat raced at the mere sight of him. Every single time she saw him.
She opened the door and was struck again by just how beautiful he was. At this point in the day, he’d developed a bit of scruff on his rugged jaw which just drew her attention to his lips. What those lips could do to her. But she couldn’t dwell on that now. Friends. They were just friends now and that’s how it had to stay.
“Hey, Chris, what’s up?”
“Hi. I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.”
“Sure. Come on in.” She stepped aside so he could come in the door. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thanks.” He sat down on her eggplant-colored couch, rubbing his hand across it for a moment. When he glanced back up at her, she was struck by the raw emotion in his eyes. It wasn’t necessarily pain, but it was definitely something different than normal. “Purple. I’ve never noticed it was purple before.” He looked at her for a moment, again with that strange look on his face. “I miss the purple in your hair. Why’d you change it?”
Her chest tightened with the sudden struggle to breathe. Her hair had been purple on that Valentine’s Day weekend. Oh God. She couldn’t go there with him. She. Just. Couldn’t. She fought to deepen her shallow breaths and refused to meet the question in his eyes.
Instead, she refocused on her table where she had papers about the wedding spread out and started straightening and reorganizing them. She inhaled and worked to regulate the tone of her voice. “Oh, you know how it is for girls. Always trying new things. I wanted to go shorter so I cut the purple off.”
One of the papers she moved was the contract for the caterer. She snagged her planner off the edge of the table and began to make a list for Cassie. She needed to check to make sure Cassie made the appointment, check her choices, and get back to the caterer about the final details.
Chris’s hand grabbed hold of her pen to halt her writing and she startled, raising her eyes to his. His forehead creased with a frown. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” Her voice sounded high pitched even to her ears. She couldn’t do this. Not now. Not ever. He could never know.
Change the subject. She needed to change the subject. “Hey, are you dating anyone?” Oh God, not the right subject to change it to.
His eyebrows lifted. “Um, no,” he said slowly. “Why?”
Her brain scrambled for a reason to ask that of all things. She was a friend now. Think like a friend. “There’s a new girl who just joined the Physical Therapy department. She’s single and cute. I thought…maybe…” Was she really going to go there? Deep breath. “I could set you up on a blind date, or something.” Oh God, no. That wasn’t what she wanted at all. Please say no, Chris. Just say no.
He looked stunned, but then suddenly frowned. She couldn’t let him go back to what they were talking about and she sure didn’t want to pursue this line of thinking anymore.
Push through. Just push through and maybe he’d forget this entire conversation. She cleared her throat.
“Why did you come over again? Did you need to borrow something?”
He watched her for a moment, the concern and disbelief palpable in his eyes. She held her breath, again willing him to leave it.