A month later, Donna had been invited back to game night.

The first time she’d been to Hank’s, she’d been a ball of nerves. Unsure of her welcome. But Hank himself, and Kurt, and Jacob’s other friends had made her feel welcome. Plus, she’d won at cards twice.

This time around, she decided to be brave and go in instead of waiting in her car parked at the curb until Jacob arrived.

After a month of dating Jacob, she’d grown used to the erratic hours of his job. He’d texted her earlier and mentioned he might be late.

She’d seen the toll his job took on him. Occasionally when they were together, he’d get a far-off look on his face, this little frown line between his eyebrows, which she’d learned meant he was thinking about a case. Or a person he’d had to help. Or a criminal he’d had to arrest.

He wasn’t the kind of man who could clock out and just leave the job behind, not when there were difficult situations he saw daily.

It was one of the things she loved about him.

She hadn’t meant for it to happen. It felt too soon. A month together meant there had only been a handful of dates. A few movie nights out at her place after some of his later shifts. And a couple of times, he’d taken both her and Gram to breakfast.

With Gram, he was charming and thoughtful, and he could talk about almost anybody in town, which Gram appreciated on the days when she was lucid.

He was an amazing man.

And there were some times when Donna thought maybe he was beginning to feel the same toward her. When he absently laced their fingers together on the couch watching a movie. When he kissed her good-bye with so much passion that it had inspired the last kissing scene she’d written in one of her books. Other times, he held her so tenderly that she felt precious to him. Her writing had never come so easily. The current version of Will Jacobs was probably her best hero yet.

She was always conscious of Amber’s ghost. He rarely mentioned his wife, but sometimes when she caught him in that far-off place, she wondered whether he was thinking about Amber and not his job.

She was still a little hesitant to ask.

She couldn’t wait to see him tonight. She’d made his favorite brownies, but she left them on a wrapped plate in the car. She’d give them to him later.

She took the apple pie she’d baked and went up the walk and knocked on Hank’s door.

Hank opened it and gave her a brief, friendly hug. What a change from a month ago, when he’d been joking with his brother. She was actually starting to like him.

She meandered through the partygoers, saying a hello here and there. Somehow Jacob’s friends had become hers. It was an unusual feeling, having friends after all these years of carefully holding herself apart.

Maybe she should’ve tried harder to make friends before now.

In the kitchen, Ashley Barclay was filling cups with ice at the counter.

“Hello,” Donna murmured as she deposited her pie on the counter among the other goodies. Oh, someone had brought a key lime pie. Her favorite.

“Hiya, Donna” Ashley said. “You look cute.”

Donna looked down at herself. “Thanks.”

She’d put in an eight-hour day today and hadn’t changed out of her comfortable writing jeans. Her blouse was something she’d had at the back of her closet and hadn’t worn in years, but she thought the pale blue might make Jacob’s eyes spark. He liked it when she wore blue.

And being with him, the occasional compliments he delivered, had boosted her self-confidence. He liked the way she looked. And said so.

“Where’s Jacob?” Ashley asked.

“He’ll be here soon.” Hopefully, he wouldn’t be too late.

Ashley’s manicured eyebrows crunched together. “He’s still planning on coming? He was pretty torn up by the car wreck he responded to at lunchtime. A kid died.”

The same jealousy that Donna had felt at the last game night reared its head again. She knew Ashley worked at the station as a dispatcher. But she hated it at the other woman knew something she didn’t.

Jacob had texted her at three. Why hadn’t he mentioned that he was upset? Or that he’d seen something so heavy? He’d still been on duty so she couldn’t have gone to meet him, but she could’ve offered him some comfort.

She turned her pie a quarter-turn on the counter. It was silly, but at least it gave her an excuse not to look at Ashley. “I didn’t know.”

Ashley’s laugh tinkled in the air, but the sound grated on Donna’s nerves.

“Amber was one of my closest friends,” Ashley said. “I was kind of surprised that Jacob chose you for his first relationship after losing her.”

The words were meant to hurt, and the blow stole Donna’s breath away.

She turned to leave and saw Jacob standing in the doorway, still in uniform.

Ashley had her back to the doorway and didn’t see him. She had one last barb ready. “I guess he doesn’t have to tell his rebound that he had a hard day at work.”

His rebound. As if Donna were his practice girlfriend. Easy to dispose of when he was ready for a real relationship.

Ashley didn’t look up to see what damage she’d done.

Donna was numb as she went to meet Jacob. He looked grim.

And he didn’t say anything, just took her hand and stepped into the other room.

She didn’t know what she’d been waiting for. Maybe for him to defend her to Ashley. To tell the other woman in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t a rebound.

Ha.

Maybe she even wanted him to say he loved her.

But his hand was cold as it clasped hers. He let her go when Kurt greeted him with a handshake.

She stood silent beside him as he exchanged pleasantries with his friend instead of excusing himself so they could talk.

Because he didn’t want to talk to her.