Nadia puffed her cheeks as she let out a breath. “We’re not going to get into this again, are we?”

“You’re going to be living here anyway when we’re married.” His nuzzling was sending goose bumps down her back. “Why not just move it up a few months?”

“It’s over a year. And do you want to convince my mother?”

He laughed. “No thanks!”

She’d moved in with her mother during her residency. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. She’d been spending so much time at the hospital, it didn’t make sense to rent a place when Mom’s little two-bedroom rent-controlled apartment on the upper border of Kip’s Bay was just a few blocks from the medical center. Might as well pay the rent stipend to her rather than a stranger.

Now she wished she hadn’t. Not that they didn’t get along. Just the opposite; they got along too well. Mom was seventy and a widow—Dad had died five years ago. She’d come over from Poland before the war. She might be an American citizen now, but she had never really let go of the Old Country. Her accent was thick, and pictures of Pope John Paul II papered her apartment walls.

Except for religion—Nadia had stopped going to Sunday mass while Mom went daily—they got along fine. Well, maybe Mom was skeptical about her daughter the doctor taking a research job instead of practicing medicine like a “real doctor,” but that was a minor point.

Moving out of Mom’s and into her own place would not be a problem—Mom was independent and could handle living alone just fine. Moving in with Doug, on the other hand, would become an issue. She’d wail about her daughter living in sin and embark on a string of Novenas to try to save Nadia’s soul.

What was the point in putting the poor woman through that torment? She and Doug would be married before long. Until then she’d hang in with the current arrangement, which wasn’t hard to take. They saw plenty of each other, and living apart certainly hadn’t stunted their sex life.

“Didn’t want to start anything,” Doug said.

“I know,” she sighed. Reluctantly she pulled free of his embrace and rose. “Gotta go.”

“Call me when you get in.”

He always had her call him after she left, just to let him know she got home safe.

“How will I get through if your modem’s got the line tied up?”

He held up the cell phone from the desk and hit a button. “I’ll leave this on.” He blew her a kiss and renewed his attack on the keyboard.

Another wave of apprehension eddied around her as she headed down to wait for her cab. Tonight she wished more than ever that she lived here.

17

Dressed in layers of rag shop clothing, Jack sat on a piece of cardboard in a shadowed doorway of Doyle’s auctions across the street from Dr. Monnet’s co-op building on East Eighty-seventh Street. He was keeping a low profile, not because he was afraid Monnet would spot him but because his current look wasn’t exactly common in Carnegie Hill, especially just a few blocks up from the mayor’s digs. The hour was late and traffic was light in this land of upscale shops and high-rise condos and co-ops.