It wasn’t going to help things between them that he’d walked in on a conversation he never should have overheard. Should she act as though she was unaware that he’d heard anything at all? Try to explain, perhaps, or to assure him tha
t Natalie had spoken out of turn, and risk making everything worse? Or should she simply accept that what Natalie had said struck much too close to the truth?
At that moment, Mia couldn’t say with total confidence that her friend’s accusations had been unjustified.
Still seething over the things he had heard Natalie say to Mia, Connor hoped he could put all his worries aside for a few hours to concentrate on his studies. The gross anatomy final was just over a week away and the thought of it filled him with apprehension. It would be an intense, comprehensive exam and it was going to require every bit of his concentration for him to do well. He couldn’t help but resent that his relationship with Mia was becoming so complicated, so intrusive on his school work.
It wasn’t her fault, he told himself as he rapped quickly on the door to James’s apartment. She was obviously no happier about the developments than he was. He just wished he understood better what was going through her head.
Was Natalie right? Was Mia unhappy living with him? Did she really think he viewed her as an “unpaid housekeeper”?
“Hey, Connor. Come on in.” James moved out of the doorway with an inviting wave of his hand.
Something about James’s expression caught Connor’s attention. “What’s going on?”
“Just a minor meltdown,” James replied in a murmur. “Haley’s handling it.”
Glancing toward the kitchen table where they usually studied, Connor saw that Anne was sniffling into a tissue while Haley hovered over her and Ron stood helplessly nearby, wringing his hands.
Connor groaned. Now what? “Is she okay?”
“She’s worried about the test. She hasn’t been getting enough sleep or eating right or giving herself any time to relax and unwind, and it all just caught up with her.”
“What should we do?”
As clueless as Connor, James shrugged. “We follow Haley’s lead, I guess. I think it takes another woman to understand this sort of thing.”
His life had been so easy a year ago, Connor thought wearily, pushing a hand through his hair. He’d been surrounded by teenage athletes who responded, for the most part, to praise and threats and occasional bribes. His weekends had been filled with pickup basketball games and sports on TV.
He’d eaten when he felt like it, slept when he was tired, thought of tests only as something he administered to his own students. He’d had a group of casual friends to hang out with for fun and games. He and Mia had been the best of pals, able to ignore any simmering attraction and just enjoy being together, returning to their own safe quarters before any of those banked emotions could flare out of control. His future had been his own and any choices he’d made had affected no one other than himself.
Everything was different now. His life no longer felt like his own. He was tired, stressed, worried, frustrated, dejected and hopelessly in love with a woman who quite possibly viewed him and his sweet, needy daughter as obstacles to her own future plans.
And if he kept this up, he thought in self-disgust, he was going to sit next to Anne and burst into tears himself.
“Okay,” he said loudly, moving forward in determination. “Let’s make some coffee and break out the sweets. I know you’ve got cookies or cake or something around here, James. That housekeeper of yours always keeps your pantries stocked.”
Everyone was looking at him in surprise now, even Anne, who’d lowered her tissue with one last sniffle.
“We’re going to spend the next few hours guzzling caffeine and sugar and filling our heads with so many gross anatomy facts that there won’t be any room left for thoughts of anything else,” he stated firmly. “Anne, you know this information as well as anyone in this room. You’re going to do fine. We all are. Now, let’s get at it, okay?”
Anne drew a deep breath and tossed aside her tissue. “I need chocolate.”
Connor smiled encouragingly. “That’s the spirit. You got chocolate, James?”
Nodding in approval, James moved toward the fridge. “As a matter of fact, I do. Several kinds.”
“Bring it on,” Ron said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Let’s kick some gross anatomy butt.”
Haley laughed and moved toward the coffeepot. “Works for me.”
Rather pleased with himself, Connor tossed his backpack on the floor beside his usual seat at the table.
He just wished all his problems were so easily tackled.
That Saturday was Valentine’s Day. No big deal, Mia assured herself as she served heart-shaped pancakes to Alexis. She’d declined another invitation for a double date with Natalie and Donnie and one of Donnie’s many single buddies, preferring, instead, to spend the day taking Alexis for that long-promised outing at the zoo.
It was predicted to be a chilly but sunny afternoon, and they both needed the fresh air after the bad weather they’d been having lately had kept them cooped up in the house when they weren’t at school. Mia figured they could bundle up in coats, scarves, hats and gloves and they’d be fine for a few hours outside. She would take her camera and she expected to get lots of cute shots of a pink-cheeked Alexis admiring the animals.