Penalty Clause Read Free

these things for her so he could live with himself after what he’d let happen to her.
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she had finally said, literally throwing her hands up in the air. “If you must.”
    And they’d left it at that.
    Andrew and Lydia had taken to eating dinner sitting on the couch in Nora’s temporary bedroom to keep Nora company. One evening, as Lydia brought in her peach cobbler for dessert, Nora piped up with news that jolted Andrew back into his teen years.
    “ Jillie Walsh just moved back in next door, Andrew. Do you remember Jill?” Nora knew damn well that Andrew remembered Jill. When Andrew was fifteen, he had the biggest crush of his life on the next door neighbor’s granddaughter, Jill.
    Andrew hadn’t been very good at hiding his crush when Jill was eighteen and he’d only been fifteen. Jill Walsh had come to visit her grandparents many times. But the summer that Andrew was fifteen, Jill spent two months with here before she went off to college. Andrew spent most of the summer at his upstairs window watching Jill swim in the Walsh’s pool. Jill may have been oblivious to Andrew’s attention but Nora had certainly caught on to the reason for his sudden attachment to the upstairs window. Luckily for Jill, her bedroom was on the other side of the house or Andrew would likely have watched a lot more than Jill in her bathing suit by the pool.
    “Really? I didn’t think the Walshes lived next door anymore,” Andrew said.
    Andrew’s years in the corporate world had at least honed his skill at hiding his feelings so Andrew was able to act a lot more casual about Jill this time around. But Andrew wasn’t feeling as nonchalant on the inside as he was acting on the outside.
    The mention of Jill’s name began a slow burn in Andrew’s body. He thought back to her long blond hair and captivating hazel eyes. Andrew hadn’t seen eyes like that on another woman in all these years. And no woman Andrew had been with lived up to his fantasies about Jill. Not even Blair, the woman Andrew had once loved.
    Andrew wondered briefly if even Jill herself could live up to his fantasies but he had a disturbing feeling an older, more mature Jill would live up to them and then some.
    “They moved to South Carolina to live near their son two years ago but they kept the house. It’s been empty until now, but Jillie was divorced in September and she wanted to relocate. She’s moved into their house while she figures out what she wants to do.”
    It didn’t surprise Andrew that Nora already had the whole story behind Jill’s reappearance. He was always amazed at how quickly Nora and Lydia had the scoop on everyone in the neighborhood.
    “Wow,” said Andrew, “I didn’t even know she was married. Where has she been all these years?”
    “She and her husband lived in Hartford for the past few years. Mrs. Berlinger down the street spoke to her the other day but Jill didn’t tell her much about the divorce. No kids, so it was a clean break,” Nora said.
    “Jill’s a photographer. Nature pictures, I think.” Lydia added that tidbit to the story as she cleared the peach cobbler dishes.
    “Mrs. Berlinger said Jillie will be staying in her grandparents’ house until she figures out where she wants to buy something of her own,” Nora said. “You should go over and say hello tomorrow. I’m sure she’d be happy to see a friendly face now that she’s back.”
    Andrew helped Nora back into her bed and raised the safety rails on the side. Nora scowled and Andrew knew she would make Lydia lower them after he left.
    “Maybe I’ll run over and say hello in the mornin g.” Andrew tried to sound casual even as his body tensed at the thought of seeing Jill again. It was stupid, but he had thought of Jill on occasion over the years and sometimes, when he saw a blond woman in a crowd, he would even crane his neck to see if she was Jill. None of them had been Jill, so the thought that she was once again just next