He’d hoped his dream of making a home and raising a family in Clearville would become Carol’s dream, too, but it didn’t work that way. Nontransferable, he thought, like some kind of fine print he hadn’t seen until it was too late.
And yet wasn’t that exactly what Darcy was trying to do? To live out her mother’s dream? He couldn’t help wondering if once she opened her mother’s shop, she’d then be ready to move on. To her own dreams...whatever they might be.
And yet, she was working hard, remodeling the store. She’d put in far more effort in a short period of time than Carol had put into anything in the four years she’d lived in Clearville.
An image of Darcy’s pale face in the drugstore that afternoon flashed through his mind. She’d looked ready to drop. He hadn’t seen any signs of that exhaustion this evening, but if she kept at it, she’d wear herself out long before her grand opening.
He didn’t want that to happen.
He didn’t know if fulfilling her mother’s dream would mean the end to Darcy’s time in Clearville or if it would only be the beginning, but either way, he wanted her to enjoy that success. He couldn’t control what happened after, but the work that still needed to be done now, he could have a hand in.
Aware he was completely changing the subject, Nick looked over at Drew. “I know you’ve been busy lately,” he said, referring to the trips his brother had been making back and forth between their hometown and Seattle. As a custom home builder, Drew was used to demanding clients, but this reclusive millionaire wanted face-to-face meetings without rearranging his schedule to travel to Clearville. “But do you know of anyone who might be available to give Darcy a hand with the remodeling over the next few days? And don’t say Travis Parker.”
Nick didn’t care if they’d had only a few meaningless dates; he didn’t like the idea of that man being anywhere near Darcy. Hell, he didn’t really like the idea of any man spending time with her. Any man other than him.
Drew gave a scoffing laugh. “You know me better than that. I wouldn’t recommend Parker for remodeling a birdhouse.” He tipped back his beer, but Nick recognized the stall tactic. His brother had a ton of them. Drew had always been the type to think before he spoke, to examine a situation from all angles, analyze structural strengths and weaknesses.
And he couldn’t help wondering how much he’d given away with his request.
Sam might be like a persistent mosquito, always buzzing and biting along the surface, but Drew would dig deeper, going to the heart of the matter. And right now, Nick didn’t want anyone examining his feelings for Darcy too closely.
Including himself.
Setting the beer can on the table, Drew finally said, “I think I know just the guy for the job.”
His brother’s easy answer caught Nick off guard. He’d hoped Drew might agree but— “Who is it? And are you sure he’s free on such short notice?”
“It’s me, and yeah, I’m free. My trip to Washington’s been postponed a few days. I already have my crews set, since I thought I’d be gone, so unless an emergency comes up, I’ve got time. How about you, Sam?”
Thanks to their dad, all of the Pirelli sons knew a thing or two about construction and about cars, but it was Drew and Sam who’d turned those hobbies into professions. Anytime one of them needed a hand, the others were quick to join in.
“Will’s been begging me to give him more responsibility, so I’m sure I can free up a couple hours tomorrow, and then the shop’s closed on Sunday. Between the three of us, I bet we can knock it out in two days. What about you, Jake? Willing to make it four?”
Jake’s smile was a little wry as if he already anticipated what was coming, but the future Pirelli in-law said, “I’ll run it by Sophia to make sure we don’t have any pre-wedding plans, but I’m sure she’ll be glad we’re all helping Darcy out.”
“Run it by Sophia,” Sam echoed beneath his breath but loud enough for all to hear. “See, Nick? You see what’s ahead of you? It’s sad, man, I’m telling you.”
Ignoring him, Nick said, “Thanks, guys, I appreciate this, and I know Darcy will, too.”
Or she would as soon as he convinced her to let them help.
Leaving the beer he’d barely touched on the picnic table, he turned to head back to the house. In the fading sunlight, his youngest brother’s voice carried across the grassy yard. “Oh, no, he’s not dead man walking at all.”
“Shut up, Sam.”
* * *
Welcome home...
Two simple words, but Darcy hadn’t felt the warm embrace of home since her mother’s accident. Maybe not even before that. Although Alanna had tried to make each place feel like home, they’d both known how temporary their stay would be.
Embarrassed by the rush of emotion at Vanessa’s warm welcome, Darcy had asked to use the powder room before Vanessa or Sophia could see the tears in her eyes. But instead of heading back to the kitchen afterward, she slipped out the front door to the porch swing she’d noticed when Nick had first pulled up to the house.
Over the faint squeak of the chains, Darcy could hear the sound of male laughter and Maddie’s happy squeals from the backyard. The sounds were unfamiliar, and yet they felt so right. The setting sun cast the pines surrounding the house into silhouette and shadow, but even in the growing darkness, she recognized Nick’s broad-shouldered form as he circled the side of the house.
The boards creaked beneath his boots as he climbed the steps and crossed the porch, and Darcy stilled the swaying swing in invitation. “What are you doing out here by yourself?” he asked as he sat beside her. The seat rocked as he angled toward her and stilled. He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone. “What’s wrong?”
She ducked her head and wiped her eyes. “Your sister and mother have been so nice.”
“And that made you cry?”
“It was just...unexpected.”
“You didn’t expect my family to be nice?”
Darcy heard the frown in his voice and shook her head. She was making a mess of her explanation, but how could she expect Nick to understand unless she told him about Aaron?
“The last family dinner I was invited to ended in a broken engagement,” she blurted out. “Mine.”
Darcy sensed his shock—whether at the way her engagement had ended or that she’d been engaged in the first place, she didn’t know. But all he asked was, “What happened?”
“I’m not sure what kind of woman Aaron’s parents thought he’d marry, but it certainly wasn’t me. I told myself what they thought didn’t matter. Turned out it mattered to Aaron a lot.”
Sitting beside Nick now, though, she had a hard time remembering the sound of her fiancé’s voice, the exact color of his eyes, the differing shades in his blond hair. Aaron’s image was like a faded photograph compared to Nick in full, rich dimension.
Nick swore beneath his breath, his voice incredulous as he demanded, “He broke up with you because his parents told him to?”
There was more to it than that, but nothing Darcy felt like getting into right then. Staring out into the shadows shifting across the yard, she simply stated, “Actually, I’m the one who broke it off.”
She could feel his gaze on the side of her face before he reached up and drew a finger along her jaw, turning her toward him. “The guy was a jerk.”
“So what about you?”
“Me? Okay, yeah, I admit I’ve been something of a jerk, too—”
“No,” Darcy protested with a laugh before sobering. “What about you and Maddie’s mother?”
“Carol,” he answered. “All I ever wanted was to live here in Clearville. To get married, raise a family and do the job I love. I fooled myself into thinking she wanted that, too.”
“What did she want?”
“More,” he said simply. “More than Clearville, more than me, more than Maddie. Unfortunately, I refused to see that until the day I came home and found that she’d left.”
Feeling Nick had more to say, Darcy
waited. A long silence followed, finally broken by a high-pitched giggle and robust laughter drifting over from the swings where Maddie and her grandfather were playing. The sound made Nick smile, and he said, “When Carol first left, my parents were amazing. They stepped in right away, my mother, especially. I was struggling, trying to do everything on my own, and after raising four kids, my mom knows more about being a parent than I can hope to learn. I never had a doubt that Maddie was better off with my mom than she’d been with Carol. But after a while, I started to wonder if she’d be better off without me, too.”
“Oh, Nick.”
“I wouldn’t have abandoned her. I never considered that. Not once.” Fierce determination glowed in his dark eyes, visible even in the fading daylight. “But I did think of how easy it would be to let my parents do a little more here, a little more there. But deep down I knew those ‘little bits’ were pieces of our lives—mine and Maddie’s. And if I gave them away, I’d never get them back.”
“Does Carol ever come see Maddie?”
“Come here? No, but Maddie visits her in San Francisco.”
Remembering the watchful eye Nick had kept on his daughter even on Clearville’s friendly streets, Darcy said, “That must be tough.”
“I hate it. I hate shared custody. Not being at Maddie’s side, thinking that something might happen to her and I’d be hundreds of miles away and helpless to do anything about it—”
He cut himself off, but only after telling Darcy more than she expected, opening up about his love for his daughter and his vulnerability where she was concerned.
He exhaled a deep breath before asking, “So tonight... Was it too much?”
“Too much?”
“Sam’s been giving me a hard time for bringing you to meet my family on a first date.”
“Is this a date?” And did first imply that there would be a second?
He gave a rough laugh. “Hell, it’s been so long since I’ve been on one, I was hoping you’d tell me. If you don’t know either, we might both be in trouble.”
The swing rocked as Nick leaned closer, upsetting the tenuous balance that had kept them still. Though the chains swayed in a gentle, easy motion, she felt as though she were soaring through the air when he pulled her close. The final lingering rays of sunset had disappeared, but his touch heated her skin with all the promise of a brand-new day.
The kiss was everything a first kiss should have been—everything they’d denied themselves by giving into the rush of passion instead of slowing down to enjoy these initial, innocent steps. The simple, sweet hello of his mouth against hers. The unhurried, getting-to-know-you parting of lips. The tentative revealing of hopes and dreams and emotions as they opened up to each other. One kiss and Darcy knew.
She was definitely in trouble.
Chapter Eleven
“Now can we go see the puppies?” The long-suffering question came from Maddie as she climbed into the backseat of the SUV.
Nick glanced over at Darcy as she buckled her seat belt. “It’s up to you,” he murmured, knowing she’d had a long day and giving her an easy out even though he didn’t want the evening to end.
“We can’t disappoint the puppies,” she said, leaning around the seat to face his daughter. “I know they’re so excited to meet you, Maddie.”
“Yes!” She flashed a conspirator’s wink back at Darcy, one Nick caught in the rearview mirror.
It wasn’t the first shared moment Maddie and Darcy had during the evening.
Not long after their kiss on the porch, Vanessa called the family in to dinner, and by the end of the evening, Nick had decided Sam was right. He was crazy to have invited Darcy to a family dinner on their first date. Not because of any ideas her presence might create about their relationship, but because of all the ideas he had. Ideas he shouldn’t be having with his parents and daughter sitting a few chairs away.
He’d felt as though his desire was written on his face for all to see, and he was endlessly grateful Sam had taken some kind of pity on him and hadn’t called him out on it while passing the garlic bread.
Thoughts of their kiss played like a video on a loop, and he’d felt hypersensitive of every move she made—from wrapping her slender fingers around a fork to smoothing a napkin over her thighs to the small hum of appreciation she made at her first bite of lasagna. A sound almost identical to the one when they made love.
Trying to keep his focus off the woman at his side, he’d quickly noticed Maddie studying Darcy, mimicking her actions down to the napkin his daughter had placed in her own lap.
After all her questions that afternoon, he’d expected Maddie’s fascination with Darcy’s feminine touches. On the ride over to his parents’, she’d asked about her dress, her shoes, her jewelry, her hair.
He tried to tell himself his daughter’s obvious craving for a woman in her life wasn’t a reflection on him. That each question didn’t strike at the heart of his failure as a husband, as a father. That was what he told himself.
He just wasn’t sure he believed it.
* * *
Once they reached Darcy’s house, a sound he hadn’t heard in far too long went a long way to easing his worries. Crouched down in the laundry room doorway, with her fingers tightly laced together beneath her chin as if doing all she could to keep from reaching out, Maddie giggled as one of the puppies took an awkward step before tumbling into its closest sibling.
Standing outside the doorway to the small room, Darcy murmured, “I’m surprised you and Maddie don’t already have a dog.” She kept her voice down as if not overhearing the words would keep Maddie from wanting to take all four puppies home with them.
Little chance of that, Nick knew. His daughter was clearly in love already. “I always had pets growing up. My poor mom learned early on that she might as well let me have a dog because if she didn’t, I’d just as likely come home with an injured squirrel or rabbit or raccoon.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It can be. You never know how wild animals will react when cornered, especially if they are injured.”
Darcy made a small sound, as if she was agreeing with what he was talking about and yet he wasn’t talking about animals at all. Was that how she thought of him? Like an angry bear with his paw caught in a trap? He had to admit, he had felt caught between a rock and a hard place that day at his cabin. Trapped between his desires as a man and his duties as a father. And so he’d snapped.
Was that why he sensed Darcy keeping a distance between them? Because she’d learned her lesson and wouldn’t risk another chance with him? Or was she simply doing what they’d agreed and taking things slow? It was hard to tell considering they hadn’t been alone most of the evening. Other than the brief moment on the porch swing, they’d been surrounded by his family.
“So your mom let you have a dog,” Darcy was saying, and Nick turned his attention back to their conversation.
“And I still brought home just about any injured animal I found. But I think she felt better about telling me I couldn’t keep them since I already had a pet.”
Her gaze wide and innocent, Darcy asked, “Have you, I don’t know, ever thought about getting Maddie a puppy?”
“Oh, nice,” he deadpanned. “Very subtle.”
“Okay, okay, so my motives aren’t entirely selfless. But look at them, Nick!”
Advertising agencies struck gold by putting kids and puppies in commercials. Nothing could be any cuter or bring out the warm fuzzies faster. “I always pictured having pets around when Maddie was growing up,” he admitted.
But Carol hadn’t wanted pets. As a stressed-out mother of a newborn and then active toddler, she’d sworn she couldn’t handle one more thing. And Nick had agreed. He’d sensed from the beginning that his wife saw taking care of Maddie as more of a chore than a joy. It was hard work, he’d never once argued with her about that, but he hadn’t understood how Carol could experience Maddie’s first smile, first tooth, first step and not be bl
own away by the sheer wonder and love the way he was. And then when she left...
Well, Nick would readily admit he’d been too overwhelmed to consider taking on a new pet. He’d struggled through that first year, desperate to maintain a sense of normalcy even as his and Maddie’s world was falling apart.
And then somewhere along the way, one year had turned to two and then three... Now five years had passed and Nick was still trying to keep their little world from changing. But the truth was, Maddie was growing up whether he wanted her to or not.
“I think you might be right,” he told Darcy. “Not that my motives are completely unselfish, either. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard Maddie laugh like that.”
She tilted her head, quietly studying him with such intensity, he wondered if she could see right inside to the broken and missing pieces he’d patched together after his divorce. “When was the last time,” she asked finally, “that you laughed like that?”
“Like an eight-year-old girl?”
“Funny! See, I knew you had a sense of humor. But when was the last time you let go and let yourself have some fun?”
Aah, now that he could give an answer to. After making a production of looking at his watch, he leaned close and murmured, “Two hours ago. On my parents’ front porch swing.”
Watching the soft color bloom in her cheeks and those knowing emerald eyes darken with desire, Nick longed to pull her back into his arms, to finish what they’d started on that front porch swing. “Want to know about the time before that?”
Her elegant throat moved as she swallowed, and a vivid memory replayed of him pressing his lips to that very spot. “I think I already know all about that,” she whispered.
If they’d been alone—
But Maddie’s laughter rang out once more, reminding him that they weren’t alone.
Darcy and the Single Dad Page 14