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    “This is going to be good for you, Nick. I just know it is.” Diana looped her arms around Nick’s neck to give him a hug.
    It was that embrace that Joy saw as she turned at the top of the stairs and glanced over the railing.
    “See you in five,” Eddie said.
    Joy forced her eyes off Diana and Nick down below and waved distractedly to Eddie. Heavyhearted, Joy walked to her bedroom.
    “Have you told Kevin?” Diana asked as Nick released himself from her embrace.
    “Not yet,” Nick answered, doing some more wrestling with his stupidity. Hell, it wasn’t like Joy had given him any sign of interest since he’d returned.
    “Kevin is going to be very relieved,” Diana was saying. “He worries a lot about his baby brother.”
    “I worry about him. It’s been just the two of us for years now.” Nick didn’t allow himself to dwell on the car accident that had robbed them of their parents eight years ago. Instead, he pushed as he always did to remember the rich, full happy life his parents had enjoyedtogether. It was that kind of happy marriage he wanted one day for himself.
    “You don’t have to worry about Kevin,” Diana said. “You’d better hurry up and change if you’re changing. Mom does hate serving a roast lukewarm.”
    Nick started for the stairs, then stopped and turned back. His hand came down from the tie he’d just started to loosen. “Does Eddie DeMarco have dinner here often?”
    “Pretty often. Mom’s sort of adopted him since he’s been working here. I’ve been using him for over a year now with all my clients. He’s got a truly artistic eye for color. I’ve never seen anyone paint the way he paints. He just about makes love to the wall.”
    Nick gave the knot of his tie a further pull. “Has he got something going with Joy?”
    “Do you mean are they involved?” Diana made a twirling motion with one hand.
    Nick nodded his head tightly.
    “Joy’s gone out with him. He is great looking, but it’s hard to tell with Joy. Since the guy she went with in college she hasn’t dated anyone more than three times. If I’m counting correctly, Eddie’s had his allotment.”
    “Is she carrying a torch for the guy she went with in college?” Nick disquietingly picked out what seemed to be the most salient point.
    “If Joy’s still in love with Paul Reeves, she’d tell me. We tell each other everything,” Diana answered. “Now, you’d better hurry up if you’re going to change.”
    Up in her bedroom Joy replaced her panty hose with white athletic socks and her skirt with a pair of body-huggingjeans. And she’d left her clingy white-ribbed turtleneck on.
    Joy glowered at herself in a full-length mirror after tying her sneakers.
    “Idiot!” she scolded her reflection. She’d already shown off her meager attributes to Nick all day long. Diana beat her out there, too, by inches.
    Though she’d had a head start, Nick was already in the kitchen when Joy came through the door. She was the last one down. Eddie was kiddingly pestering her mother by making faces into a steamer pot of broccoli. He’d changed from his painting clothes to clean jeans and a T-shirt under a tan flannel shirt that he’d left hanging out and unbuttoned.
    Joy’s eyes skidded past Eddie to Nick as he stood involved in a conversation with Diana. He’d swapped his suit and dress shoes for jeans, a navy pullover sweater and boots. He looked loose, casually hip and incredibly sexy. He was sexy no matter what he wore. Or didn’t wear—like last night in the kitchen when he’d been lethally nude from the waist up.
    Joy’s mind went to dreamland, where having Nick fall in love with her was wholly achievable. She even added a few inches to her measurements while she was at it.
    “You’ve got enough to deal with right now,” Nick was saying to Diana, while meeting Joy’s gaze for a fraction of a second before she turned her head away. He’d been aware of her the instant she’d walked into the