For one tiny moment, Heather was jealous of the other Belles for having actual plans. Brooke and Seth were headed back to California to spend the holiday with Brooke’s family. Alexis was . . . well, hell, nobody knew where Alexis was headed, since she refused to talk about it, but she’d announced that she was taking the rare weekend off, and everybody was too grateful for her overdue vacation to press for details.
Looked like it would be turkey and pity party for one this Thanksgiving holiday.
Heather forced a smile on her face as she said her good-byes before stepping into the brisk autumn night. It was a long walk home, but Heather needed the air. Needed to think and get herself out of her funk.
She swapped out her heels for the comfy foldable flats she kept in her oversized purse. But thirty minutes later when she got to her building, thinking had only made her thoughts muddier.
And as she trudged up the stairs, her already-simmering bad mood took a turn for the worse.
Josh’s door was open, and he was standing in the doorway, one arm braced against the doorjamb, no shirt, of course.
He was saying good-bye.
To a woman.
Heather couldn’t see the woman’s face, but if her slim profile and long shiny brown ponytail were any indication, she was likely quite cute. The way that Josh was looking at her told Heather that.
Great. Just what she wanted. A front-row seat to the exit routine of one of Josh’s flings.
His eyes flicked up to hers as she stepped into view, and she could have sworn she saw him jolt slightly in surprise.
But his eyes were bored and casual as they flicked over her, taking in the short skirt. “Hey, 4C.”
“Hey,” she said grimly, digging her keys out of her bag.
The woman turned to see who Josh was talking to, and Heather saw that she was right. The woman was cute. Wide brown eyes, pink lipstick, perfectly done eye shadow.
Heather smiled reflexively in greeting. The woman didn’t smile back.
Okay, then.
She had bigger things to worry about than whether or not her neighbor’s one-night stands liked her.
Say, like the fact that she had a weird knot in her stomach at the thought of Josh and this woman together.
Not wanting to dwell too deeply on that, at least not in front of Josh and his lady friend, she shoved the key in the lock, about to utter a terse good night, when another familiar voice called her name.
“Heather. Hey!”
She glanced over to see Trevor, Josh’s band’s lead singer, standing beside Josh.
Heather smiled in greeting, this time for real. She liked Trevor. Like Josh, the guy had plenty of easy charm and confidence, but unlike Josh, the guy didn’t seem to have a secret side of himself that he kept hidden from the world.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Honestly,” he said, jerking a thumb at Josh, “this guy bailed on our practice to entertain Kitty here. So, feeling very third wheel.”
There it was again. The knot. Tighter this time.
“In fact,” Trevor said, easing by Josh with a friendly wink at Kitty, “I wouldn’t mind an escape route.”
“You have one,” Josh said. “The stairs. Or the elevator. Your choice. Unless you want me to shove you out the window, because I’d be more than happy—”
“You want any company?” Trevor asked, interrupting Josh and directing the question at Heather.
Heather opened her mouth to say no. The entire reason she’d left the bar was to get away from people and stew on her own.
And yet, even as her brain was formulating some polite excuse about having an early morning, Heather realized that she didn’t want to be alone after all.
The thought of sitting by herself in her apartment, staring at the ceiling while picturing Josh and this girl . . .
“I’d love some company,” she said with a bright smile at Trevor.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Josh jolt again.
Trevor grinned at her, and Heather swung open her door, gesturing playfully for him to precede her.
Heather started to follow him, but at the last minute, she dragged her gaze back to Josh. It was a pull she couldn’t deny—almost as though he silently demanded that she look at him.
He was looking right at her, his gaze unreadable, his mouth set in a firm line.