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her.
    She was relieved when they got to the restaurant and those
strange, fluttery feelings finally dissipated.
    ***
    When they returned to their
apartment, almost three hours later, Jenn had a headache that felt like a
tourniquet, squeezing painfully around her skull.
    She wasn’t even sure when the headache had come on, since
she’d felt pretty good when they’d left for dinner. But sometime between the
appetizers and dessert, as she’d been making pleasant small talk and trying to
sell this uptight buyer on her line of baby clothes, her normal tension headache
had formed, and it was killing her by the time they returned.
    She wanted to go hole up in her room and turn out all the
lights, but Nick had been really good tonight—charming the wife and asking
intelligent questions of the husband—so she wanted to make sure he knew she
appreciated him.
    “Thanks for everything,” she said, managing a smile as she
dropped her purse and kicked off her heels. “You were a big help tonight.”
    Nick was peering at her closely. “Good. I’m glad.”
    “I think I’m going to turn in early,” she said, pulling out
the pins in her hair and letting it fall around her shoulders. “But I really
appreciate you being so good with them. They liked you a lot.”
    “You don’t want your massage?” he asked, when she turned
around to walk away.
    She paused. Of course, she wanted it, but she suddenly felt
a little guilty, like she shouldn’t want him to touch her so much. “You don’t
have to.”
    “It might help your headache.”
    “The headache isn’t too bad.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    She turned back to face him, wondering why she could never
fool him—about anything. “But you’ve done more than your husbandly duty
tonight. You really don’t have to bother.”
    “It’s no bother.” He was frowning at her thoughtfully, like
he couldn’t figure her out. “Do you not want me to anymore?”
    She almost choked on how absurd the question was. “It’s not
that. I just don’t want to…be a bother.”
    He gave a soft chuckle and came over to guide her into a
chair. “I already told you it’s no bother. Why are you being so standoffish
tonight?”
    She had no idea why she was being this way. She just
suddenly felt nervous and jittery—which she’d never felt around Nick before.
She sat down where he put her and closed her eyes. “Sorry. I really appreciate
it.”
    “You don’t have to say that again.”
    She didn’t understand why he sounded a little frustrated,
and she couldn’t say much of anything anyway, since Nick had combed his strong
fingers through her hair.
    She sighed in pleasure when he started to knead her scalp,
pushing into pressure points and making them ache deliciously.
    “Why did this dinner have you so stressed out?” Nick asked
after a few minutes.
    Since the question sounded casual, she heard herself
replying, “I don’t know. Just that he doesn’t seem to like me.”
    “Why wouldn’t he like you?”
    “He thinks I’m too aggressive.”
    “Did he say that?”
    “No. I just sense it from him. He looks at me like I’m an
unnatural woman.” She let out a low groan when Nick adjusted his hands and
found new spots to press into.
    “That’s ridiculous.”
    “I’m not making it up.”
    “It doesn’t matter if you’re making it up or not. It’s still
ridiculous. If he thinks that about you, then he’s wrong. And he doesn’t know
women at all.”
    “I’m sure he expects all women to be like his wife.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with his wife, but it would be a
pretty boring and unsexy world if every woman was like her.”
    Jenn couldn’t help but laugh. The tightness in her head and
neck was softening, as it always did to Nick’s touch, and the laughter
unexpectedly got caught in her throat. She felt one stray tear stream down her
cheek, which was bizarre since Jenn almost never cried.
    She had no idea what was wrong with her. She hadn’t realized
she was so bothered by