He drew her to her feet and dusted her off. “You have a concert tonight?”

“Sort of.”

“Why are you home so early? It’s only nine o’clock.”

She narrowed her eyes, whirled around on her plaster-encased foot, and hobbled toward her house. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Dave picked up the crutches and the cello case and followed after her. He took her key, opened her door, and then carried her up the stairs. “Everything has its price. I picked you up, and now you have to tell me all the awful details of the evening.” He turned on the light and looked around in surprise. “You have furniture.”

“The real estate lady said it would help to sell the house. Besides, I have students coming over here for lessons now. Their mothers need a place to sit.”

He untied the narrow velvet bow at the neck of her cape and let it slide from her shoulders. Her dress had a low neck, ending where the swell of her breast began. The dress hugged her slim waist and the curve of one hip before falling to the floor in a full skirt. Around her neck she wore a cameo on a velvet ribbon, and her cameo earrings matched. Classy, Dave thought. And very sexy. He stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep from running his finger along the neckline. “Sounds like you’re getting your life in order.”

Kate winced at the pain behind his eyes. She’d hurt him, and she couldn’t make it better. The knowledge was almost worse than her own misery.

“Sometimes good things come out of bad things. I can’t drive, so I arranged to have my students take their lessons here. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It saves me a lot of time, and I don’t have to brave the traffic.”

An awkward silence stretched between them. He wasn’t going to make this easy, she thought. He was going to quietly stand his ground and make her come to him. He had good instincts, she decided. He knew if he didn’t push, she’d resume the friendship. But that was as far as it would go. Friendship.

She smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from her velvet skirt. “Would you like a cup of coffee? I bought a coffeemaker.”

“Coffee would be nice.”

He watched her swing off to the kitchen on the crutches and thought they looked incongruous with the elegant black gown. She must have been a sight onstage at the Kennedy Center with her bare toes peeking out from the white plaster. She wasn’t long on common sense, but you had to respect her dedication.

She leaned one crutch against the counter while she filled the coffeemaker with water. “I’m not up to grinding my own beans yet, but I got a special blend at the deli.”