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enerally been outside of school. Community softball and soccer teams, martial arts studio in a nearby town, the rest of her free time spent mostly with her family. Her classmates would remember her, of course, but certainly not with the intense admiration—bordering on near reverence—that this group showed for Heather.
Tables had been arranged around the perimeter of the large ballroom, each seating eight people. A buffet table with covered serving dishes sat against one wall, uniformed servers waiting behind them. The center of the room had been left clear, presumably to serve as a dance floor.
Nic didn’t see a band but spotted some equipment in a secluded nook that indicated a DJ would probably show up later. If she had one, she would call her bookie to bet that the music would be exactly the same playlist from that long-ago senior prom.
Joel led her to a table where two couples were already seated. She didn’t remember any of these people from the night before, and the greetings they exchanged with Joel told her she was right in guessing they hadn’t attended the game. Both couples were African-American, and their genuine pleasure at seeing Joel again reinforced her impression that he had been friends with all the different groups and cliques in his class.
“It’s great to see everyone,” Joel said after shaking hands with the men and exchanging air kisses with the women. “I was hoping you’d show up.”
“We were sorry to miss the game last night,” one of the men said. “Terrell and I both had to work yesterday and didn’t get off in time to get here for the game. We drove in together this morning.”
“You all still live in Birmingham?”
All four smiled and nodded.
Joel drew her forward. “This is my friend, Nicole Sawyer. Nic, I’d like you to meet Kevin Bender and his wife, Naomi. And this is Kevin’s cousin, Terrell Bender, and his wife, Latricia. Kevin, Naomi and Terrell were all in my class, and I met Latricia at the last reunion.”
Nic smiled and nodded to each in turn. She was impressed that Joel remembered everyone’s name—but maybe he was just really quick and subtle at reading name tags. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Heidi said we’ll be eating soon, and Terrell and I are way past ready,” Kevin confided. “Lunch was a long time ago. Y’all want to sit here to eat with us?”
“We’d love to join you,” Joel accepted quickly, pulling out a chair and motioning for Nic to be seated.
Something about his manner made her wonder if he was deliberately avoiding being seated with the Watson twins again, who had two extra places at their nearby table and were looking their way. Maybe he’d had enough of them the night before. Or maybe he just wanted to visit with some other old friends for a while and had no ulterior motives at all.
They went through the usual ceremony of looking at children’s photos, catching up on job advances and extended family news. It didn’t take Nic long to figure out that she was sitting among a group of successful professionals. She learned that Terrell was a professor of mathematics and that his attractive wife Latricia was a cohost on a morning television news-and-features program. Kevin was an architect, and Naomi an elementary school principal. They all expressed interest in Nic’s career, but it was obvious that they were surprised by her occupation.
“Is everybody getting hungry?” Heidi chirped, approaching their table with a pleasantly plain-featured man in tow. “We’re about to open the buffet lines.”
Terrell assured her earnestly that he was about ready to start chewing on the red-and-white-flower centerpiece.
Heidi laughed, then waved the man with her to one of the two empty chairs. The one next to Nic. “I’m sure you all remember Jimmy. You don’t mind if he joins you for dinner, do you? Nic, this is the man I was telling you about. Officer Jimmy Waller, this is Joel’s pal, Officer Nicole Sawyer. I bet the two of you have lots of exciting police stuff to talk about.”
With that, she was gone, bustling over to the buffet table to direct the servers as the dishes were uncovered and tantalizing aromas filled the room.
Having spoken to his old classmates and been introduced to Latricia, Jimmy turned to Nic with a rueful smile in his friendly brown eyes. “So, Nicole, do you have any ‘exciting police stuff’ to talk about?”
She laughed. “I’m afraid not. You’re the one from the big-city PD. Maybe you’d like to try to impress everyone with tales of your adventures.”
Grinning, he shook his head. “Actually, I’d rather eat. We’d better head over that way before the Watson twins clean out the serving dishes.”
“Good suggestion,” Kevin said, jumping to his feet. “From what I remember, those boys can really put away the food.”
Joel held Nic back a few steps as the others rushed toward the growing food line. “Sorry again about Heidi,” he said. “Don’t feel like you have to personally entertain Jimmy just because he’s a cop and he came stag tonight.”
“No problem. He seems very nice.”
“Well, he was a nice enough guy back in school,” Joel agreed guardedly. “But I haven’t seen him in fifteen years, and people can change, you know.”
Was he actually warning her off Jimmy? He wasn’t motivated by jealousy, of course, but maybe he didn’t want her attention to be too far distracted from her purpose in being there—serving as a buffer between Joel and the sympathy of his classmates.
She thought it best not to tell him that he didn’t have to worry about her paying too little attention to him. The unsettling truth was, she was having trouble focusing on anyone else but him this weekend.
Joel couldn’t say he was enjoying the party, exactly. It was great to see Kevin and Terrell again, but after the first hour they had pretty well caught up. By the time they finished their entrées and were making their way through desserts, they were having trouble coming up with anything new to talk about. Nic and Jimmy, however, seemed to be having no such difficulty.
Maybe it was because they were both cops. Gave them something in common to discuss. Stories to swap, bad guys to compare.
Just because they were laughing a lot and seemed to be enjoying their conversation certainly didn’t mean they were flirting. Exactly. Or that they were making a connection that might go somewhere after this evening ended. It was just dinner conversation—and none of his business anyway.
