Nothing In Common Read online

  "Now when you can handle it?" Rivka didn’t sound convinced. "You’ve lost weight, Lila, and you’ve got circles under your eyes. You aren’t handling it at all."

  Lila wiped her face. "I could be handling it, if you’d just leave me alone about it. I’ll get over him."

  Rivka moved away, disdain on her perfect features. "You let a man who wasn’t worth the ground you spit on take away what I’ve always admired about you. William made you Lila forever. You’re not bold at all."

  Rivka left the room. Lila stared after her until the tears dried on her cheeks. The words her sister had said stung worse than a swarm of bees, but Lila no longer felt boneless and weak. She felt angry and not at Rivka. At William, who had made her sister ashamed of her. And at herself, for letting him.

  * * *

  Emma was singing in the shower. Her enthusiastic, off-tune words floated down the hall into Tom’s bedroom, where he was trying—without success—to sleep. He gritted his teeth against her happiness and buried his face in the pillow.

  He could not begrudge his niece her joy. If only she wasn’t so vocal about it! Tom had never heard more love songs in his life than in the past week. Emma, it seemed, was an incurable romantic. She quoted Romeo and Juliet over breakfast. She made up terrible but heartfelt poetry and read it aloud to him in an awful Elizabethan accent, and expected him to give his true opinion about it. She had even invited Michel to dinner at the house and baked him a heart-shaped meatloaf. The girl was crazy. He listened to Emma’s song crescendo into an almost unbearable, deliriously love-struck trilling.

  Months ago, Emma’s behavior would have made him laugh. A week ago, he’d probably have been singing right along with her. Since Lila had shut him out of her life, Tom had never felt less like listening to the wonder and beauty of love as seen by his freckle-faced niece.

  He had fired both Jennifer and Wendi, despite their threats of claiming sexual harassment. He’d risk it, he’d told them. They’d get their last paychecks in the mail, don’t bother coming in to The Foxfire, good-bye and I hope not to see you later.

  None of that could bring Lila back. After the confrontation on her porch, he had itched to dial her number a thousand times, but never had. He had driven past her house, but did not stop. He wanted to see her so badly he ached, but what could he do? She didn’t want to see him. She didn’t trust him. She didn’t love him.

  But ah, God! He still loved her! Every note of music on the radio, every star shining in his window while he tossed, sleepless in his bed…they all reminded him of her. Her eyes, her smile, the sound of his name coming from her lips. Everything, everything was Lila, and he could do nothing to stop himself from thinking of her.

  He had written a dozen letters and thrown them all away. He didn’t have any talent with words, not even Emma’s poor one for poetry. Tom was a man who used action to show how he felt. If he spoke, it was from the heart. And wasn’t that what had gotten him into so much trouble? Speaking from the heart?

  Tom heard the shower shut off. Emma, still singing, came down the hall and paused outside his door. He willed her to go away, but the sound of her hesitant tapping on his door told him his wish had been ignored.

  "Boss?"

  "I’m awake."

  A thin sliver of light pierced the blackness of his room. Emma stood outlined in the doorway, her figure bulky in a terrycloth robe and thick towel swathed around her head. She stepped through the doorway.

  "It’s only seven o’clock on a Saturday night. Don’t you feel well?"

  "Just tired." He bit out the words like he was chewing jerky. "I’ve had a rough week."

  "You haven’t even been out this week." Emma’s tone was slightly accusing. She flicked on the light switch, which made him groan and fling his arm across his eyes. "You look like hell."

  "Gee, thanks." Tom slid up in the bed until he rested against the headboard. "Any other personal criticism you’d like to leave with me? I’m all up for it."

  Emma sat on the edge of the bed. "What happened with Lila?"

  Tom ran his hand through his hair. Then he scrubbed his face with his hands, and the stubble scratched his fingers. He hadn’t shaved for three days, or showered, or done much of anything but lay in bed. He only hoped The Foxfire would still be standing by the time he got back to work.

  "This isn’t like you. I’m worried about you."

  "I’ve never been in love before." As he said the words, he felt some of the burden he’d been feeling lift. No wonder women talked to their girlfriends. It made everything seem bearable.

  "Oh, boss." Emma made a sympathetic noise.

  "She thinks she’s not pretty enough. I tried to tell her that to me she was beautiful. She didn’t believe me. I tried telling her it wasn’t her face I loved anyway, but she didn’t believe that either. I couldn’t win, Em. I just couldn’t win."

  "It’s the one time in your life your face hasn’t gotten you what you wanted." Emma’s nonchalant reply wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  Tom’s back stiffened. "Thanks."

  "I’m being honest." Emma shrugged. "You’ve had it real good your whole life, boss. Women have just fallen all over you. You’ve never had to work at anything because no one ever turned you down."

  "What’s that supposed to mean?" Now he realized why men didn’t talk about these things with their guy friends. Blunt, brutal honesty. It was a real bitch.

  "I heard the whole story about last Saturday night from Donna at The Foxfire." Emma let out a low whistle. "Lila got double-teamed by two pros—Jen and Wendi. It would take a woman with nerves of steel not to buckle under that."

  "But I never said she was my charity case! I told her those women were nothing! I told her how I felt about her!"

  Emma snorted. "All you men. You think your words are enough. What did you do to show her?"

  "She didn’t want to listen to me. She closed the door in my face."

  "Did you knock?"

  He had not, but he didn’t want to say so. "I don’t play games, Emma!"

  His niece scowled and crossed her arms at him. "And my guess is Lila doesn’t either. She’s not playing hard to get."

  "Well, what is she doing?"

  "I don’t know." Emma shrugged. "But if you really love her, I don’t think you’d have given up so easily."

  "I didn’t give up. I shouldn’t have to fight for her to listen to me." Tom thumped his head on the headboard.

  Emma rolled her eyes. "That’s what love is all about. Fighting to keep what you want. Fighting to keep the one you love from harm. Fighting to make your pig-headed lover see the truth if that’s what you need to do!"

  "Are you calling me pig-headed?"

  "I think you must both be stubborn idiots if you’re letting two bimbos who don’t know when to keep their mouths shut come between you."

  "What are you saying?" Tom was bewildered at how his younger niece had managed to learn so much about love while he had remained clueless.

  Emma made a noise of long-suffering patience. "I’m saying that if you love her, you shouldn’t let her shut you out. If she loves you, she’ll listen. If she doesn’t, then at least you’ll know. Either way, it’ll be better than hibernating in here forever."

  "You harder on me than your mother ever was."

  Emma shrugged. "Learned from the best, I guess."

  Tom allowed a ghost of a smile to touch his lips. "Maybe I should hire a skywriter. Or take out an ad in the paper."

  "Maybe. Or maybe you should just tell her you understand how she feels. Instead of trying so hard to make her believe you think she’s great, try a little harder to understand why she doesn’t." Emma grinned. "That’s what we women want, boss—someone to understand us."

  "She dated a guy who made her feel ugly." Tom briefly told Emma the story of William and his "favor."

  Emma groaned. "No wonder she got so upset! I’m surprised she even went out with you at all, looking the way you do."

  "Can we forget about my face