the digital clock on the nightstand.
Three a.m.
Not questioning my reasons, I tossed aside the covers and went to the open door leading out to my small balcony. Down below, walking up the driveway, were Elvis and Nick Schwartz. I’d seen a man and a dog late at night once before but hadn’t put two and two together. I couldn’t imagine what they were doing or why they would be here. By all that was right, I should have hesitated, should have ignored Nick and his dog, but did I do that? Oh no, not me. It startled me to realize I was happy to see him. I grabbed my sweatshirt, slipped it over my head, and raced down the two flights of stairs at breakneck speed.
I flew out the back door off the kitchen, as that was the closest one to the driveway. The security alarm made a series of short beeping sounds. I paused briefly, hoping the alarm didn’t wake Rover or Jo Marie. Apparently not.
Hurrying onto the driveway, I slowed my pace when I saw that Nick had caught sight of me. Elvis, too. Both stood frozen, as if doubting it was me.
“Hey,” I said.
He didn’t answer.
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“You going to report me as a trespasser?” he asked, keeping a tight hold on Elvis’s leash.
“Not my place.” Even if it was, I wouldn’t.
Elvis went as far forward as the leash would allow, and I bent down to pet his fur.
“You okay…you know, after the other night?”
“Fine.” His tone was testy.
“Did you come to see me?” I asked, hoping that was true, knowing it wasn’t.
“No. I didn’t even know you were here.”
This was confusing. “Then why are you here?”
“I have trouble sleeping,” Nick said, as if admitting a character flaw.
“I do, too, at times,” I admitted.
“You own the inn?”
“No, Jo Marie Rose does.” Clearly he didn’t know much about the town in which he currently lived.
“You a friend of hers?”
He was full of questions. “We’re becoming friends. I’m boarding here while looking for a place of my own.”
“She own the dog?”
“Yeah.”
“He recover?”
I nodded. “Have you ever seen a dog with a hangover? It isn’t a pretty sight.”
Nick grinned. “Can’t say that I have.”
“I saw you and Elvis and came rushing down…I wanted to thank you for the other night.”
He shrugged off my appreciation as though he didn’t want to hear it.
“Would you like to sit on the porch awhile?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t refuse. “The view from there is lovely and it’s restful.” Seeing it was the dead of night, the view wasn’t going to be nearly as spectacular as it was in the middle of the day.
He seemed to be in some kind of internal debate before he nodded. I struggled to hide my smile. He remained leery of me, although he’d taken a huge risk on my behalf the other night at the biker bar. One on one, I suspected Nick could have held his own, but against an entire motorcycle club, well, it would have been ugly.
He hesitated and it looked like he was about to change his mind.
“I don’t bite,” I assured him.
He grinned. “Not sure I believe that.” Whether he did or not, he followed me to the porch.
We sat in the very chairs that Jo Marie and I so often did, overlooking the cove. The moon was bright, casting a warm glow across the still waters. The lights from the Bremerton shipyard sparkled in the distance. For the first few minutes, neither of us spoke. I looked skyward at the amazing display of stars. Nick’s attention was focused on the night sky as well. I thought I could see Venus, but then I wasn’t that knowledgeable about the position of the planets and wasn’t about to make a fool of myself by pretending I was.
“It’s peaceful here,” Nick whispered.
“It is,” I returned in a low voice, stretching out my legs and crossing my ankles. “I sometimes sit out here at night and think.” My hair was in total disarray and I was grateful for the dark. I wished I’d taken time to run a brush through it, but then I might have missed talking to Nick and seeing Elvis. We hadn’t gotten off to a good start, and I was hoping to correct that.
“What do you think about?” he asked.
I shrugged, unwilling to delve into anything too personal. “I don’t know: life, the future, nothing profound, just everyday stuff. What about you? What do you think about when you’re