Joe thrust his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he walked towards Vanessa’s house. He hadn’t felt like driving. He needed time and space to think. As he walked along, his thoughts were intermingled with lines from Vanessa’s letter that he had finally brought himself to read that morning.

It was true. Joe had finally admitted it to himself. He had wanted to end it all. He had loved Iola too much to go on. He thought he couldn’t face missing her for the rest of his life.

All he had been able to think about was her, and how she would have been alive still if she hadn’t been in love with him. Every time he had felt like crying for her, Joe had felt like such a hyprocrite. The counselor had told him that he would feel better if he allowed himself to grieve. But Joe hadn’t believed he deserved to ‘feel better’. What right did he have to feel better, when Iola was dead because of him?

Joe had never really considered the need to protect Iola. He and Frank were the detectives! He’d never thought there was any danger in his girlfriend opening the door of his car.

Joe knew that some people had speculated that he was going to have a nervous breakdown; that he was eventually going to fall apart. But he’d managed to resume doing the things people expected of Joe Hardy. He’d toughened up. Of course Frank had helped him…. But Joe didn’t want to think about Frank right now. It was too difficult to not get angry.

Joe stood and waited for the traffic to pass so he could cross the road. He and Iola had become so close that he had felt she was part of his soul. He had felt they were ‘meant to be’. Ms Jones had talked about Romeo and Juliet falling in love and that their love and their deaths were ‘written in the stars’. They were ‘star-crossed’ lovers. They had to fall in love and then die to teach their families’ a lesson. What lesson had Joe learnt, he wondered, by seeing Iola die a violent death?

Joe crossed the road and made his way up Vanessa’s street. He was walking a little more rapidly now. Iola had been full of life. She had made the most of every moment. She had been honest with her feelings and told people what she thought. What would she have thought of Joe shutting himself away from people and being afraid to feel?

Joe found himself at Vanessa’s front door. He rang the doorbell and returned his hands to his pockets, his right hand feeling the letter.

The door opened. Vanessa’s face broke into a wide smile for a moment before she assumed a straight face and crossed her arms across her chest.

‘Yes? What can I help you with Sir?’ she asked formally.

The corners of Joe’s mouth turned upwards.

‘I’ve heard, ma’am, that you require the services of a handsome, young detective,’ he told her.

Vanessa peered around Joe and looked down the path in an exaggerated fashion.

‘That’s true,’ she teased. ‘Have you brought someone fitting that description with you?’

As Joe rolled his eyes, Vanessa took his hand and pulled him into the hallway, shutting the door behind them.

In the privacy of the hallway, Joe drew Vanessa into his arms, pressing his face into her long, soft hair. Vanessa, delighted, allowed herself to melt into the embrace.

Finally, Joe kissed Vanessa’s hair and shifted back enough so that he could look into her beautiful, grey eyes. He kept his hands resting gently on her shoulders, unwilling to break physical contact with her.

For her part, Vanessa was a little overwhelmed. Joe was looking at her so intently, his blue eyes serious and his brow slightly furrowed.

‘What’s the matter Joe?’ she asked, full of concern. ‘Has something awful happened? Is Frank okay?’

Joe took a deep breath and released it slowly, his eyes not leaving hers for a second.

‘I can’t promise to always be able to protect you,’ Joe said earnestly, ‘But there is definitely a place in my heart if you still want it.’

Joe looked down at the floor then, wishing he had Romeo’s words! There was so much he wanted Vanessa to know about how he felt, but he couldn’t express it.

Vanessa placed one hand against the side of Joe’s face and stroked his cheek softly with her thumb. As he turned his eyes back to hers, she smiled dreamily at him.

‘I can look after myself, Joe Hardy,’ Vanessa told him softly, ‘And as for that place in your heart, try keeping me out of it. I feel like we’re meant to belong to each other.’