Read Gone for Free Online

makes me look fat. What’s going on?”
    Even if she could talk about it—and if she told anyone it would be Cadence, but Jack had forbidden that—she wouldn’t want to, at least not until she sorted it out a little more in her own mind. “A small, unexpected complication in my life,” she said evasively.
    Small? Liar . Try huge .
    “Such as?”
    “Eric.” It probably wasn’t fair to blame this all on him, but she wasn’t supposed to mention Jack yet.
    Her sister’s brows rose. “Something wrong? I thought everything was great with the two of you.”
    “Everything was—is—great, it isn’t that.” She speared another shrimp. “I think he’s really serious.”
    “Marriage?” Cadence smiled warmly. “Nick, you couldn’t do better. Eric is fantastic.”
    “Yeah, he is.” It was true, dammit.
    “You have doubts?”
    Had they been having this conversation only a day before, she would have said no. She responded evasively, “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
    “Is it Jack?” Setting aside her fork and pushing her empty plate to the side, Cadence gazed at her sympathetically. “I guess I can see where that might be an unresolved issue, but if you ask me, if you had to end up with someone else, I think Jack would have chosen Eric for you.”
    Nicole choked on a swallow of shrimp and quickly took a sip of iced tea to cover it up. “I’m not as positive of that as you,” she murmured.
    “You need to let go.” It was said gently and well meant, but a day too late. Whenever the information was released that Jack was alive, everyone would be looking at her, wondering what she was going to do, and she didn’t have a clue herself, so that was going to be interesting.
    “I need to really think about things,” she equivocated, setting down her glass. “Life isn’t quite as black and white as I first imagined before Jack left. I suppose I thought I’d meet someone and fall in love and that would be that. It doesn’t work that way.”
    “Who can say you can’t fall in love twice?”
    As if to emphasize that thought, the system over the restaurant intercom started playing a song on just that theme—older tune, but applicable.
    Yes, she’d fallen in love twice. No doubt about it.
    How to handle it was another question. The last thing she wanted was to come between Eric and Jack. Yes, she’d mourned Jack, but she had no illusions, Eric had mourned as well, probably as deeply. Romantic love was not the same as friendship, but emotion can’t be measured or put in a neat compartment.
    Especially for her. Now.
    Quietly, she agreed, “I am not saying it isn’t possible—not at all. I’m just saying that Eric and I have something we need to work out.”
    Her sister regarded her over the rim of her glass. “As in?”
    She said succinctly, “Jack.”
    “Nicole—”
    “As you just pointed out, I loved him.” So true. Still true.
    She’d slept with him. Just last night.
    It had been…intense, but everything about Jack was that way. In bed, Eric was entirely different. Gentle, taking his time, lingering over every touch, every heated whisper, deft, thorough and oh-so sexy. He’d waited so patiently for that first time, not pressuring her though she knew he wanted to take that next step, and when she did finally invite him to stay the night, in the morning she’d had no regrets.
    She still didn’t, but it was suddenly very complicated. In essence, she’d cheated on them both, but it didn’t really feel that way. With Eric she’d thought Jack was gone, and last night, well, she hadn’t been given much time to think about it. Even if she had…
    It was doubtful she would have said no.
    “So you really think it is possible to be in love with two men at the same time?” She gazed at her sister, finally giving up and pushing her plate aside as an indication she was finished trying to pretend to eat.
    “Of course,” Cadence said promptly, nodding, swirling her spoon in her tea glass. “I