Eve pulled her coat tighter around her neck. It was Christmas Eve, the shop was closed, but she couldn’t stop herself from stopping on her way to the rehearsal dinner. The bright sun illuminated the front window she’d filled and arranged herself.

She couldn’t remember if she’d told Jake how often the display would need to be changed out to avoid sun damage. Maybe she should send him an email. If she told him tonight, he’d forget before he got into work.

The past two years had been spent in that shop. Her entire life had taken place in this small town. The courthouse square she stood in had been part of her every summer.  The candy shop that used to be on the corner had been a frequent haunt once she and Jake were given free reign with their bikes and allowances.

Of course, that candy shop was now a book store, and it had spent time as a tea room and a metaphysical shop in turns over the years.  Everything changed, but at the same time it all stayed the same. Even Jake, who happened to be approaching, had changed so much, but still was the same boy she’d always known.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Jake smiled as he walked up.

“I was early, so I thought I’d take a last circuit around the square.”

“It’s not going anywhere, you just have to visit.”

“I thought I’d raise my children here.” The familiar gnawing fear and depression tightened its grip on her nervous belly. “I guess I thought I’d have them by now, too.”

“You’re going to be the best mom.” Oddly, his voice cracked.

“At this rate, I don’t know if that will ever happen. I just…I’m struggling to let go.”

“I know the feeling.”

Jake let himself into Eve’s apartment without knocking. The pain that streaked his heart at the line of packing boxes against her wall eased when he found her with her head buried deep in a box, her gorgeous ass wiggling with each grunt of displeasure.

She muttered, “Where the hell is it?”

He covered his mouth to keep his laughter silent. It would be far more fun to enjoy the show.

“Damn it. You stupid shoe. Where the hell are you?” One hand grasped the edge of the box, a silver shoe dangling from her finger.  “I specifically didn’t pack you, so why can’t I find you?”

Her rant was reaching whine-levels, but Jake still didn’t speak or move. He thought the veins in his forehead might burst from the laughter he was holding in. The shoes in the box rumbled as she shoved them around.

For his part, Jake was content to keep watching her ass. The past few weeks he’d been trying to figure out why he couldn’t keep his eyes off her lately. Since he knew she was leaving soon, he’d decided to just relax and enjoy it rather than worry.

“Son of a—argh.” The silver shoe dropped to the floor and both hands dove into the box, shoving the shoes aside so forcefully several tumbled out onto the floor.

He shook his head and looked toward her bedroom. If history was any indication, the shoe she was looking for would be in the first place she’d looked.  He let her keep digging and slipped down the hall.

The room, like the rest of her apartment, was almost empty. Evidence of her packing could be seen in the empty shelves he knew to be decorated with pictures that included himself, and knick-knacks from as far back as kindergarten.  Everything that had made the apartment Eve’s was gone.

He sighed and shoved aside the aching hole that had begun to open. Today was supposed to be a good day. There were going to be in a wedding, after all.

Once he’d shaken the melancholy out of his shoulders, he scanned the room. He dropped to his hands and knees. Crawling across the floor he first peeked under the bed and then the dresser. Just before he rose he spotted the toe of a shoe sticking out from behind the planter.

How, in a clean and packed apartment, she’d managed to get a shoe hidden behind a planter was beyond him.  He snatched it up and hopped to his feet. On his way back down the hall he brushed at wrinkles he’d caused in his tux.

Eve still had her head stuck in the box, although there were now more shoes on the floor than in the box. Jake leaned on the wall and dangled the shoe from his finger. He cleared his throat loudly. “Ahem. Looking for this?”

With a shriek, she leaped to her feet. “Jacob Anthony Gardner, you sneaky bastard.”

He lost his train of thought at the sight of her. The plum dress hugged her curves just right, the fabric gathered and pinched at her right side. A plunging neckline revealed just enough of her cleavage to leave him salivating.

“Jake. What is your problem? You’ve got no defense?”

He had to physically shake his head to clear it and realize she wore a teasing smirk. She must have been trying to bring him down to size with her words, and by the gleam in her eye he could tell she thought she’d won. He quirked up a corner of his lip. “How in hell can you lose a shoe in an almost bare apartment? The perils of a packrat, maybe?”

“Swine.” She raced toward him. Before he could properly defend himself she was smacking him with both her hand and the heel of her stiletto.

“Ow, ow, damn it.” He laughed and squirmed away. Once he’d ducked under her arm he spun around to catch her around the waist.

She grasped his arms and tried to pull free. The shoes dropped to the carpet as she got a good hold. “Let me go.”

“No, you’ll hit me again.” He tried to capture her hands before she pulled them away.  Before he managed she shoved her ass back into him hard.  He stumbled backward, but didn’t let her go.

Three steps back and he bumped into something. He tumbled, bringing the shrieking Eve with him. A sharp pain hit him when he landed right inside the box Eve had been digging through. “Oh, damn it. Ow.”

Through her laughter she managed to continue smack his arms. “Let me go, you’re going to ruin my dress.”

He obliged, and she scrambled to her feet.  With a groan, he sank back against the side of the box that hadn’t collapsed. “Crap.”

“What?”

“I landed on a damn stiletto.”

“Serves you right, butthead.”

“Who the hell does he think he is?”

“I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s Thomas Strayer, an antiquities dealer—and he’d be right.” Eve inched past Jake’s red-faced bluster to step into her office.

“That isn’t what I mean.” Jake snarled. “I mean he was checking out your ass.”

She wasn’t sure what to make of that statement, or his clear displeasure about it. Rather than stammer or fret as she would have done years ago, she snorted. “I sincerely doubt that.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I know when a guy is checking out my ass. On the rare occasions it does happen, I can always hear them mumbling that they like big butts and they can’t lie.” She sat at her desk. The miniature train she’d been holding got set to the side while Jake continued to somehow manage to stare with a combination of anger and shock. “What?”

“I don’t like that.”

“What? Aren’t you the one that always told me not to let them get to me? I’ve learned that the best defense is a good offense. You should know that after all your years of hockey.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like anyone talking about you like that, not even you.”

With a sigh, she leaned her head back against her chair. “The point is, what difference does it make either way? He’s not interested, and if he was, what does it matter to you?”

“He is interested. The guy wasn’t listening to you talk about that stupid train. He asked you to get it down so he could ogle you.”

Eve had to forcibly hold back her snort at the suggestion. No man had gone to lengths like that just to do anything akin to ogling. Most of them managed well enough just with her chest. It was the best thing about her big-boned body, the girls got her lots of attention when she wore her favorite low-cut tops.

“Eve?”

“Hm? Oh, right. Well, I think you’re imagining things.”

“What were you two whispering about?”

She sighed in exasperation. This interrogation was pointless. He was acting like a guard dog, but she was a grown woman. After a lifetime of him giving her the big-brother act, she was just about at the end of her rope. Not once had he bothered to ogle her, what did he care if anyone else did? “We weren’t whispering. We were making plans for dinner, actually.”

“What?”

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist. It’s a business dinner.”

“Business.” Jake scoffed. “Right.”

“In case you’ve forgotten. I am trying to establish a relationship with the auction house so we can sell your excess inventory. That is what dinner is about.”

“I don’t want him taking advantage of you.”

Eve groaned and dropped her head into her hands. “Did you ever think that maybe I need a little bit of advantage taken?”

“No.”

She sighed and rose. “I’m not getting any younger, Jake. Unlike you, I haven’t had much of a chance to dive into the dating pool all my life. For the first time ever I’m starting to like myself and I’m damn well going to enjoy myself if I want to.”

“But…”

“I’m a big girl.” She leaned forward. “I can handle myself.”

“You’re my—”

“Best friend. I know.” She knew all too well. It’s all she’d ever been to him, and it was all she’d ever be.  Her friend Ivy was right, it was time to piss or get off the pot. Eve’s fantasy life where she and Jake had a happy ever after was never going to happen. “As my best friend, you should want me to be happy. You’re the one that’s always telling me I need to stop playing it safe.”

“I do want you happy.” He sighed and leaned against the doorframe. A smile curved his adorable lips. Damn it, maybe she wasn’t quite done with the fantasy. “I just get a bad vibe from this guy.”

“You’re being silly.” After all, Thomas was gay, but she wasn’t about to tell Jake that. In Eve’s fantasy’s later Jake’s freak-out would be because he was jealous, not because he was once again riding in on his white horse to protect her from some big bad.

“Call it an old habit.”

“Old habits are hard to break.” Eve sat back down and eyed the train engine she’d set in front of her computer. Thomas did want a business dinner, but not over the auction. It involved a job—in Albany. Far enough away from Lake Point, her life-long crush, and her boring life. She’d never been outside of Lake Point for anything, her whole life was nothing but habit and pipe dreams. “But sometimes it’s what you have to do.”

“What if you don’t want to?”

“You never want to, that’s why it’s a habit.”