“Whoa, Joel,” Earl teased. “You better not mess with this one. I think she could take you.”
Joel didn’t seem to mind the ribbing. Instead he merely laughed and said, “I have no doubt that she could. That’s why I never argue with her.”
Nic gave a little snort of disbelief. “Yeah, right.”
Still smiling, he motioned toward his father’s car. “Let’s get out of here.”
“We’ll see you tomorrow, Joel,” Heidi called after them. “Oh, and, um, you, too, Nicole.”
“She could hardly contain her enthusiasm,” Nic murmured beneath her breath.
“What was that?” Joel asked as he started the car.
She snapped her seat belt and gave him an artificially bright smile. “Nothing. Great game, huh?”
“Yeah. It’s always nice when our team wins the homecoming game.”
“Sorry if I embarrassed you by breaking up that fight. Habit kicked in, I guess.”
“You didn’t embarrass me.” He seemed surprised that she had suggested it. “I just wish I had reacted as quickly as you did. I didn’t even realize what was going on until you were already in the middle of it.”
“I’ve worked enough ball games to know when a fight’s starting.”
“You handled that tall guy easily enough. Don’t you ever worry that your smaller size will put you at a disadvantage?”
“I’ve learned to use it to my benefit. You know what they say—small but wiry. Besides, the guy was tall but skinny beneath those baggy clothes. I doubt he outweighed me by much.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think I’ll put Earl’s theory to the test anytime soon.”
“Earl’s theory?”
“That you could take me down. He’s probably right.”
Most men seemed to have a problem with the idea of being bested in a physical confrontation by a woman. Brad, for one, had always had a need to prove himself around Nic, challenging her to foot and bike races and other endurance tests. Even friendly games of pool and darts had become fierce competitions when the two of them had gone head-to-head.
It was almost as if the subtext had been, You might be a trained officer of the law, but I’m the real man in the relationship. Nic had gotten the message, but she hadn’t backed down—and in some ways, Brad had respected that. Until he’d gotten tired of it, of course, and gone l
ooking for someone with whom he didn’t have to work quite so hard at maintaining his ego.
If Joel harbored any similar feelings of threatened masculinity, he hid them very well. He cheerfully admitted that he was no fighter and that his idea of extreme sports was a rousing game of racquetball in the local gym. He had no problems being friends with a woman who could hold her own in a physical contest—but she didn’t know how he would feel about being in a romantic relationship with a woman like her.
As far as she knew, he’d had only a few dates during the time she had known him, usually when he had needed a companion for some social function he had been expected to attend in his position as one of Cabot’s prominent professionals. His choices had been fairly predictable, as far as Nic was concerned. A pretty kindergarten teacher who’d once been a Miss Arkansas runner-up. An attractive divorcée who owned a successful travel agency. A veterinarian from nearby Searcy that he had met through mutual friends.
If there had been any second dates with any of them, Nic wasn’t aware of it. She had always believed—and Aislinn concurred—that Joel had deliberately refrained from leading any woman on to believe he was interested in more than a pleasant evening of companionship. The more she learned about his late wife, the more she could understand how difficult it was for him to find anyone who measured up to her.
Vaguely depressed—or maybe she was just tired—she leaned back in the plush seat of Dr. Lou Brannon’s sedan and pretended to listen to the music streaming from the stereo speakers.
Chapter Five
Elaine was in the den, sipping a cup of what smelled like herbal tea and watching the evening news on TV, when Nic and Joel returned from the game. She wore a floor-length pink velveteen robe that revealed just a hint of a lacy white nightgown at the neck, making her resemblance to a porcelain doll even more striking to Nic.
Smiling when they walked into the room, she asked, “How was the game?”
Joel leaned down to brush a kiss against his mother’s cheek. “We won. By a late-game field goal. Very exciting.”
“Oh, I’m glad. And your reunion? How did that go?”
“It was nice enough. I wish it were over.”