After eating, Damien showed Mandy around his apartment. It had been built in the sixties, so it was sparse on details, with chopped-up rooms and low ceilings. He had been working on fixing that, adding walnut wood for an accent wall and working on plans with a contractor to knock out the walls that created narrow hallways. The end result would be an open, airy flow from three principle rooms, instead of the five tiny rooms he had now.
Except he was thinking some modifications to the plans might be needed.
“It’s a great apartment, and so amazingly quiet.”
“That’s why I moved here.” He paused in the doorway of his bedroom. “I was planning to knock this wall out into the other bedroom and make this room bigger and the other into a walk-in closet, but I’m rethinking that.”
“Why?” Mandy went into the room and turned around, taking in the space as her fingers trailed over his bed, lingering on the soft downy white pillows. “And why am I not the least bit surprised that this room is so clean and neat you could probably eat off the floor?”
Because he had become slightly neurotic. He knew he couldn’t control a lot of things in the world, in his life, but he could control his personal environment. He could wrestle order and tranquility into this apartment.
“I’m a neat freak. I’m man enough to admit that. And it’s something that you need to think about—whether or not you can live with that.” He meant that literally. He wanted her to live with him. “And I’m rethinking my plans because I’m hoping that I’m going to have to accommodate a nursery.”
Her head turned sharply back to him.
Damn, that wasn’t right. He had meant to start with her, tell her how he loved her, propose to her. Then discuss living together, the baby, eloping over the weekend.
But he was feeling a little sick, and it wasn’t the chicken. He wanted these changes. He wanted Mandy. But he was terrified she’d say no. Terrified she’d say yes.
God knew he didn’t want to hurt her, and he didn’t want to make the same mistakes he’d made the first time with Jessica.
Mandy stared at Damien, searching his face for something, anything that would reveal to her what he was really saying. He had a way of putting out words that masked what was really going on underneath.
He wanted to build a nursery in his apartment. Did that mean marriage? Living together? A guest room for her baby when she came over to visit Uncle Damien?
Heart pounding, she was about to ask when her cell rang in her purse. She had been hauling her purse around to freshen up her makeup when Damien showed her the bathroom. She absently glanced down toward the sound.
“Let it ring.” His voice was urgent, harsh almost.
“It might be my mother. Or Ben. Just let me check.” Mandy pawed through her purse and pulled the phone out. It was Caroline. She answered it, not sure what her roommate could possibly want since she knew she was out with Damien.
“Hello?”
“Mandy, this is us, all three of us.” It was Caroline’s voice, so Mandy wasn’t sure what theusentailed. All of her roommates, she had to assume.
“Hi, Caroline. Listen, I’m a bit busy. Can I ring you later?”
Damien was giving her a most frightful scowl.
“No! Just listen to me. I have to tell you something about Damien ... Honey, this will come as a shock I know, but you need to know this.”
Mandy was only half listening, waiting for that moment when she could interrupt Caroline to tell her it would have to wait.
“Damien’s wife was killed. Murdered.”
Mandy turned toward the window, startled. “I know that, Caroline. But how do you know that?”
“I read it online in theChicago Tribune’sarticles. Damien was charged with killing her. The cops were certain he did it, but the grand jury didn’t indict him.”
Mandy almost dropped the phone. Damien had been arrested? Good God. She felt a hot flush start up her neck. “Why are you telling me this?”
“So you can get yourself away from him. Just go to the restroom and sneak out the front door of the restaurant. You don’t want to be involved with a man like this.” Caroline’s voice was urgent.
Mandy swallowed hard, her heart aching. “I’m with Damien at his apartment right now. I’ll talk to you later.”
She hung up the phone.
Jamie shook her head at Caroline, who looked as flustered as she’d ever seen her. “That was not a good thing to do for a lot of reasons.”
