Night was falling over the city, and still Adam Chandler couldn't seem to convince his feet to walk in the direction of his hotel. The McCullough Industries job had been a difficult one, and he was happy to have it behind him. He really could have used an assistant. In fact, he should have hired someone weeks ago, but he was holding out for certain special person.

It didn't take much to bring Justine's image to mind. Her deep brown hair with its reddish highlights, her blue eyes, her smile, her laugh, her lips. No, it didn't take much to bring her to mind at all because she was never absent. He had thought that he could be patient and wait her out. But she was taking too long and he wasn't sure how much longer his heart could stand the suspense. It didn't help that the McCullough Industries job had required that they be in the same city.

But now the job was finished, and he only had to go to his hotel and pack. He had a flight scheduled out that very evening. Justine had his number; she would call him when she was ready. It was just a matter of time.

Just time. Right. He looked up at the clouding skies in askance. What was he supposed to do? She would probably be hurt if she knew that he had been so close and hadn't done so much as called to say hello. But then, she'd sneaked off. Perhaps she wasn't ready to be found yet, and he should respect her privacy.

The argument was not a knew one. How many times had he driven by her home? How many times had he picked up the phone? How much time had he already wasted just standing in the middle of the sidewalk staring at the sky when he could have been on his way to her house?

~*~

Justine stared through the windshield at the little bungalow style house she called home. It had been in her family for years, and though the neighborhood was beginning to show its age, she was loathe to move. She loved that little old house. Unfortunately, it was a lonely little house. Lonely because its owner was lonely. Especially so in the driving rain that had began pouring from the sky shortly after she'd begun her drive home.

When she was a little girl, she'd often thought of rainy evenings as times for families to be together. For houses full of the smell of cider, or tea or cookies baking. Rain begged for comfort foods with comfortable people. Immediately the image of Adam Chandler came to mind. Although, she didn't think that were he a part of her life, drinking tea and eating cookies would be what they would be doing on lazy rainy evenings.

But then, someday when her heart least expected it, he would be gone and she would again become the lone woman drinking hot teas, skipping the cookies, and talking to her cat. A desperate picture, to be sure. But a safe picture. Better for her heart to stay at least part way whole.

Deciding that it was inevitable, she opened her car door and dashed up the drive to the relative shelter of her porch. Within moments she was inside, shaking the few droplets that her umbrella had missed from her clothing. Up went her rain jacket and umbrella on the little wooden rack in the hall. Off came her shoes. A quick greeting for Lazarus, her cat, and she was off to the kitchen to put on the tea pot. A lonely woman indeed. Today she would have the cookies.

The water was barely just beginning to whistle when she heard a knock at the door. Quickly shutting off the tea kettle, she went to the door. By then the downpour had decreased to a gentle pattering that was altogether soothing to raw nerves.

She peered through the peephole and felt as if the ground had gone out from beneath her feet when she saw Adam Chandler standing there. Snatching open the door probably wasn't the most graceful thing to do, but it was purely instinctual.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, sounding far more hysterical than she would have wanted.

Drenched as he was from head to toe, and still dripping, the sheepish look in Adam's eyes was nearly her undoing. How was she ever going to regain her equilibrium after this stunt?

"I. . . uh, just wanted to say hello," Adam managed more than a little taken aback.

"No, you don't understand. You can't be here." Justine was in full self-defense mode. It wasn't tactful but it was the best her jumbled mind could manage. Her world had finally leveled off and she'd come to terms with being alone again. And just seconds into one surprise visit he'd blown all of her progress off the map.

"I came earlier and you weren't home," Adam hurried on, sounding a little desperate. "And I would have waited on your porch." He glanced down at it as if forgetting his thought. "But, um, y-your neighbors kept watching me and I was afraid that they might call the police so I walked around the b-block. But, hello," he waved and then turned to go. "G-Good-bye." Slowly he walked off the porch and down unto the sidewalk.

Justine's brain seemed to come back online as he reached the end of her yard. The poor man was shivering. That was the only reason she was calling him back, she told herself. Her grandmother hadn't raised her to be impolite.

"Adam! Wait!" she called to him. He stopped, but didn't turn immediately, almost as if he were considering whether to keep going.

"Please, come back," she added more softly.

Adam turned and met her gaze. Justine felt a sinking situation in the region of her heart and knew that fighting was useless. Her heart was beyond caring that inviting this man in could mean exposing herself to possible future hurt. It was only a matter of time before her fool brain was right there with her heart. It was inevitable, she reasoned.

Adam seemed to know the moment she came to that realization. He smiled and walked up the sidewalk to greet her. Justine returned his smile and invited him in out of the rain.

The End.

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