Summer suddenly laughed, drawing two pairs of eyes to her face in question. “Connie, would you listen to yourself?” she asked in unexpected amusement. “You sound just like Derek when he’s giving one of his lectures. If it was him talking to you like that, you’d go into orbit.”
Connie bit her lip, her green eyes beginning to sparkle. “You’re right,” she admitted. “I do sound like Derek.” She glanced sheepishly at her brother. “I was only yelling at you because you scared me half to death,” she told him. “You make me mad as hell, but you’re my brother and I love you. I didn’t want you to be hurt.”
Derek’s face softened as he looked at her. “I love you, too, Connie. Let’s start over, shall we? As adults.”
Connie stepped into her brother’s open arms and hugged him fervently. “Yes, let’s,” she agreed, her voice suspiciously thick before she cleared it and stepped back.
Derek glanced over at Summer, who was smiling mistily at her best friend and her lover. “Still teaching object lessons, Summer-love?” he murmured quietly.
“I guess it’s becoming a habit,” she replied, meeting his look with love in her eyes. They still had things to work out between them, but at last she was fully convinced that a solution was possible for them.
The only important thing was that Derek was safe, and he loved her. And she loved him. Anything was possible.
12
DEREK INSISTED that he and Summer would stay in the apartment until Joel arrived to pick up Connie. Connie made a token protest, but it wasn’t hard to see that she was rather reluctant to stay alone in the apartment with its broken lock. Derek
checked the locks on the windows while they waited, grumbling the entire time about the shabby security provided by their apartment. “I’ll have to have every lock in the apartment replaced,” he muttered.
“Did it ever occur to you that we’re quite capable of having our own locks replaced?” Connie asked sarcastically, sitting on the couch with her feet propped on the coffee table in front of her as she watched Derek take his survey.
Her brother gave her a withering look and walked into her bedroom to examine her windows, having already dismissed Summer’s.
“Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your life with that man?” Connie demanded of her roommate.
Summer giggled. “Hard to imagine, isn’t it? But yes, as a matter of fact, I’m sure.”
“Well, all I can say is that I’m glad Joel’s not the bossy type. At least he won’t yell at me for being the innocent victim of an attempted robbery,” Connie proclaimed loftily.
Joel arrived shortly afterward, his thick black hair windblown, as if he’d been in a great rush. He apologized profusely to Connie for being late, so courteous and attentive that Summer could see Connie falling even harder for him right on the spot.
“Wait until I tell you about the excitement you missed,” Connie told Joel after he had greeted Summer and Derek.
“What excitement?” he asked indulgently, smiling down at her.
Connie rapidly told him about the burglar they had surprised when they’d returned from Halloran House.
“What?”
Connie and Summer blinked at the unexpected roar from the man who’d been so quiet and amiable until now. Summer could have sworn she heard Derek chuckle.
“Joel—” Connie began questioningly, but his words cut her off.
“You mean you would have just walked right in on the guy if Derek hadn’t been here to stop you?” Joel demanded, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. “Don’t you ever check your door when you return from someplace? What would you have done if the door had been standing wide open? Just come on in?”
Connie’s mouth dropped open, then snapped shut. “Hey! Derek was the one who just walked right in!”
“Derek is fully capable of taking care of himself,” Joel returned immediately, brushing off the implication that Derek had behaved at all unwisely. “But you and Summer are another story. Don’t you know that the locks in this place wouldn’t—”
“Wouldn’t keep out a five-year-old delinquent,” Connie quoted her brother, turning a comically resigned face toward Summer. “I’ve heard this speech already tonight.”
“Well, you’re going to hear it again,” Joel promised her. “This is a big city, Connie. Two women living alone have to be careful. I’m only telling you this because I care about what happens to you.”
Summer was giggling when Joel and Connie left. Connie looked so stunned as she meekly accompanied Joel out the door.
“Don’t forget to let me know something about tonight,” Derek threw after her.
Connie glared back at him over her shoulder.