Nicole shivered. I pulled her against me and wrapped her in my arms. She leaned back, exhausted but unable to leave.
A sudden need to do whatever I could to protect her rushed through me, and I kissed the top of her head. She sighed and sank deeper against me.
The early signs of dawn were stretching across the sky when a firefighter approached the man and the woman Heidi had indicated earlier. Without saying anything to us, Heidi walked over to the small group. Chris, Nicole, and I joined them.
“Fortunately, the sprinklers were working and the fire was quickly extinguished,” the fire chief said. “Only the store at the end suffered some structural damage due to the flames. Unfortunately, the smoke and water damage is extensive, and the premises won’t be usable in their current state.”
“When can we go inside and check the damage?” Nicole asked.
“I’d say not for a few more hours. Go home and get some sleep. Call your insurance company. We have to finish our investigation first, and then we’ll let you back inside to remove whatever you need.”
“Do you have any idea what caused it?” Chris asked.
“Not yet. It started in the pet store, but for now we don’t know the cause.”
The group asked him a few more questions, but for the most part there was nothing more he could tell us. Heidi and Nicole made plans to return later in the morning, and I drove Nicole home.
It was six-fifteen by the time we entered her house. She traipsed to the kitchen, which like the hallway was now a gray-blue, and removed the single key from the counter. “I need to walk Bernie,” she told me, palming the key for his owner’s house. Her words were slurred from tiredness.
“No, what you need is sleep, Nicole. Go to bed and I’ll let him out to do his business. We can walk him before we go back to the shop later.”
She opened her mouth to argue. I placed my finger against her lips. “Either you go willingly to bed or I’ll hoist you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs.”
“Mason, it really isn’t necessary. I’ll be fine. Plus you’re supposed to return to L.A. today, since you’re hitting the road in three days.”
“Hey, as long as I’m back there by Friday afternoon, I’ll be okay. Which means I can stick around until then and help you and Heidi out. So unless you’re planning to kick me out on my ass, you’re stuck with me.” Besides, if Zack were here, he would’ve done the same. I was merely filling in for him while he was away.
You just keep telling yourself that, said an annoying voice in my head, almost as if rolling its eyes.
It took a few seconds, but she eventually nodded. Her eyes drifted shut for a heartbeat and she swayed on her feet.
“C’mon, I’ll help you.” I was prepared to scoop her up and follow through with my original threat of carrying her upstairs, but she started toward them before I had a chance.
I parked my hand on her lower back and assisted her up to her room. Once I had her settled back in bed, I left to deal with the oversized beast next door.
A car drove past, likely on its Wednesday morning commute to work, as I walked next door. I opened the front door and called out, “Morning, Bernie.”
A deep woof answered, and a beat later the monster of a dog lumbered into the hallway from the living room and barked again. He leaned against me, the same way he usually did with Nicole whenever we had walked him during the past four days.
“Hey, dude,” I said, rubbing his side the way he liked it. “Nicole’s still sleeping, so you’ve got me for a few minutes. But I’m only taking you out to do your business, okay? We’ll be back later to take you for a walk.”
At the word “walk,” Bernie let out a rumbling bark. I guessed I shouldn’t have used that term. Now he had expectations that I wasn’t planning to meet.
I retrieved his leash from the hall closet, along with his poop bags. “All right, let’s get outta here,” I said, snapping the leash onto his collar.
Bernie was obviously eager to do his doggy business. He dragged me out the door as soon as I opened it. If Nicole had been the one holding his leash, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d dragged her along on the ground behind him. Determination was his middle name.
We walked a few yards before Bernie dropped the biggest dump known to dogkind. With a groan, I crouched down and scooped it up with the blue bag. Thank God Kirk couldn’t see me now—he might’ve given me a hard time, claiming I must be in love with Nicole because I was picking up the monster’s shit so she could sleep.
“C’mon, boy.” I tugged on his leash, hinting I wanted to return to his house. Bernie yanked me forward instead. Evidently he wanted to sniff out a squirrel or two.
“Look, I get you’re a bachelor and you don’t understand. After all, I’m a bachelor too. But unlike you, I love sex and right now there’s a warm, sexy woman waiting for me. And yes, I know that she and I won’t be having sex once I’m in bed with her. That’s okay. But what I would like to do is hold her while I still can—because in three days I’m hitting the road again, and it’s back to mindless one-night stands with groupies. So give me a break and let’s go home.”
I stumbled as what I had said about the one-night stands being mindless hit me. What the hell was wrong with me? Since when did I consider them mindless?
Bernie woofed and resumed heading in the direction I didn’t want to go. I huffed a long breath. So much for our man-to-man talk.
“Okay, you win.” I had a feeling I wouldn’t enjoy what would happen to me if I tried to get my own way. He looked like the kind of dog you didn’t want to piss off if you could help it.
Luckily, he was also the kind of dog who didn’t like to go for long walks. After traveling two blocks, he decided that walking was overrated and turned around. So I was happy when I opened the door to his house and he went inside without complaint. I washed my hands thoroughly and jogged the short distance back to Nicole’s home.
In her room, I slipped out of my clothes and carefully climbed under the covers, doing my best not to disturb the sleeping blonde next to me. I watched her for a few minutes before sleep crept into my brain and body. The last thing I remembered was thinking how much I would miss her once I returned to my regular life.
Chapter 13
Nicole
I stood in the doorway of Blooming Love, unable to take another step inside as I surveyed the disaster. Tears blurred my vision.
Heidi was standing in the middle of the mess, Chris next to her. She turned around, taking it all in. The crushed flowers on the floor. The smoke-covered walls. The shattered vases. The upturned metal containers that had once held flowers. The dirty tile floor beneath a layer of water.
I stepped forward. Glass crunched under my sneaker. I opened my mouth to say something, but the words couldn’t squeeze past the tightening in my throat.
“It’s all ruined,” Heidi whispered, voice strained with unshed tears.
I moved closer to her, another round of crunching glass accompanying me. “We’ll start anew. We can redesign it. Finally make it the place we’ve dreamed of.” We’d never had the money to do that before. But thanks to the insurance money we’d be getting, it was going to be possible.
She surveyed the destroyed store again. “You’re right,” she finally said.
I nodded, wishing it was as simple as that. Sure, the store would be better than before and the insurance would pay for it, and it would also cover the lost income while we waited for the place to be renovated. But that was as far as our insurance coverage went. So if it took awhile for our business income to get back up to what it had been before the fire, we’d be hurting.
I kept that to myself. Heidi didn’t need to worry about it yet.
“Oh God!” Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’ve got the Walsh-Philips wedding next weekend.”
“Not a problem. You can make everything at my house. And you can use it as a work space for the other events that have already been booked. Everything’s going to be all right.”
>
She nodded, still in a daze. “You’re right,” she said as she surveyed the mess. “And that vacation you’ve been putting off for forever? Now you can finally take it.”
“True.” Not that I could afford to go anywhere.
“Maybe the beach,” she said, her voice faint and distracted. “You wanted ideas for your glassware designs. That would be a perfect spot for it.” She glanced at me, her eyes glossy with tears.
“True again.” The smile I gave her was small, but enough to convince her I was on board with her idea.
I left Heidi with Chris and Mason as they searched through the wreckage for anything salvageable, and entered my office. The computer was unusable, thanks to water damage, but luckily I had my laptop at home and could use it in the meantime.
I sorted through the desk drawers. Some of the papers had been ruined by the water that had leaked in, but the rest were fine, though they reeked of smoke.
“How’s everything looking?” Mason asked behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and gave him the same smile I had just given Heidi.
He shut the door and joined me by the desk. “There’s something you haven’t told your friend, isn’t there?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing. I’m just tired.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, but I know that’s not it. Financially, will you be okay while the store’s closed?”
Inwardly I cringed because he’d nailed it so easily. Instead of looking at him I fixed my eyes on the papers in my hand. “Look, Mason, you’re not my boyfriend and you’re not my brother,” I bit out, the reality of everything crushing me under what felt like a ten-ton boulder. “None of this has anything to do with you. I’m not even sure why you’re still in Desert Springs.”
God, why are you being such a fucking bitch? a snippy voice in my head asked.
Because he was leaving anyway, I reminded it. And more than likely I’d never see him again. That was what we had agreed to in the beginning, back before we had sex the first time. Our days of playing house should’ve ended already.
“Fine,” Mason said, his tone harsher than I’d heard over the past few days—harsher but also heavy with regret. “I’ll go.”
As his booted feet moved slowly to my office door, shame lashed me.
Blinking away the sting of tears, I peered up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that you’ve got more important things to deal with than my problems. And that’s exactly what this is—my problem. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Somehow I’d make it work. I could always take on a few new website-design clients, if it came to that.
Mason took a step toward me. “Look, I know I’m not your boyfriend, and I’m definitely not your brother. But what I am is your friend, Nicole.” He took another step forward. “I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you—especially since we have no expectations between us. I can’t remember the last time that happened. These days, most people want something from me.”
His last words didn’t surprise me. I guess being a celebrity came at a cost.
The small smile I gave him held more meaning and emotion than any of the words I’d hastily spoken.
“Does that mean it’s okay with you if I hang around a few more days to help out?” he asked. “As your friend?”
I nodded. “I would like that.”
Mason and I returned to the main part of the store, where Heidi was standing at the front counter sorting through the contents of a cardboard box. She looked up.
“One of the fridges is still working, but the other one is dead. Luckily, most of my tools are still okay,” she said, doing her best to sound strong, but the slight wavering of her voice betrayed how she was really feeling. “I just have to clean them so they don’t rust. And I found enough supplies for next weekend’s wedding, so I won’t have to place an emergency order.”
“Will there be enough room in the working fridge to store the flowers?” The shipment was due a few days before the wedding, and there was no way the flowers would stay fresh if left in my house. Not unless I cranked up the air-conditioning—and even if I did, I didn’t think it would get cold enough. Like everything else in the house, it was an old model. I was surprised it still worked.
“There should be,” Heidi said.
We spent another two hours sorting through the debris. Mason found a broom and swept the shattered glass and destroyed flowers into a pile in the corner.
By the time we were finished, our feet were wet, we were filthy and reeked of smoke, and our bodies were ready to call it a day. A few hours of sleep wasn’t enough. And I’d had more sleep than Mason, who had dealt with Bernie first.
I glanced over at him and my heart did a flutter kick at the sight of him, dirty and carrying a box. He could have bailed this morning while I was sleeping and headed back to L.A. He didn’t have to be here in the store with me. He didn’t have to help me with assessing the damage. And he certainly didn’t have to walk Bernie…but he had.
“You ready to go?” I asked him. We said our goodbyes to Heidi and Chris and drove back to my house. “I’m going to have a shower and then walk Bernie.”
Carrying the paperwork I’d brought home with me, I climbed the stairs, each step feeling as though I were wading through a vat of drying glue. In my room I dumped the paperwork on my desk, grabbed clean clothes from the closet, and went into the bathroom.
After turning the shower on full blast, I stripped out of my clothes and stepped under the spray. I closed my eyes, but the memory of the destruction in the store was too much, and a sob broke free.
Unable to hold it back any longer, I let the tears fall. With the water raining hard against the tub, I could cry without Mason hearing me.
Suddenly the shower curtain moved to the side, freaking the hell out of me, and I shrieked. Before I could say anything coherent, Mason stepped into the shower—fully dressed.
His T-shirt was instantly wet from the water pelting him. The soaked fabric clung to his body, showcasing his perfect muscles. Normally I would’ve been turned on. This time an unexpected laugh bubbled free. “You were that eager for a shower, you couldn’t wait long enough to take your clothes off first?”
“I heard you crying.”
“So you figured you would climb in with all your clothes on, to make me laugh?” If that had been his plan, it had worked. I giggled uncontrollably, so overwhelmed by everything that had happened that I was unable to stop laughing.
“I was thinking that you should join me on tour.” He said it with such a straight face, I couldn’t help but laugh some more. He was obviously kidding.
“I don’t think that will solve any of my problems,” I said after I’d calmed down and taken a breath. “Besides, I need to stay here to help with the store renovations.”
“Actually, it’s a perfect solution. The band needs a social media person to travel with us and post regularly on our social media sites. With your background, you’d be perfect for it. And just so you know, I’m asking you as a friend, not because we’ve slept together.”
“But I have a job.”
“You can do this one while you wait for the store to reopen. Tour with us for a few months. Once it’s ready to reopen, you can come back here and the band will find someone new to take over the social media job.”
“I can’t be gone that long. Heidi will need my help.”
“For what? I thought she was the one who does the floral arrangements, and you stick to the business and marketing side of things. You can always do that on the road with the band. We have computers and Wi-Fi on the bus.”
Was he for real? Or just plain crazy? I had a life here. And by life, I meant I had a job that took most of my time. A job that was for the most part on hold for now, thanks to the fire.
But what he was suggesting did sound tempting. I had always done the sensible thing. The boring thing. And look where that had gotten me—nowhere but a string of boring dates that Heidi and Cindy kept setting me up on.
Before that, I’d been busy with college and working part-time. I’d never done anything adventurous. What would it hurt to do something different for once? It wasn’t like I was running off to marry Mason. And it would be great job experience.
Plus I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Mason yet. In the few days he’d been here, I’d had more fun with him than I’d had in the past year. We’d taken Bernie on walks several times a day, cooked together, watched movies, and worked on projects around the house. And unlike with my recent boring dates, none of it had felt awkward.
The object of my thoughts pushed a wet strand of hair from my face, reminding me I was naked in the shower and he wasn’t.
“So what do you think?” he asked.
“I don’t need a job ’cause you feel sorry for me.”
“That’s not what this is. You’re smart and talented, and I figured you’d be perfect for the position. I mean, if you don’t want it, fine. We’ll find someone else.”
“It’s not that…” God, what he was offering did sound amazing—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“So what’ll it be, then? I already told you the job offer has nothing to do us sleeping together. If I didn’t think you could handle it, I wouldn’t have asked.”
I believed him, even if I was standing in the shower naked. “I have to talk to Heidi first.”
“But you’re thinking about it, right?”
“Yes. I’m thinking about it.”
That got a smile from him, and his entire face lit up. “I swear you won’t regret it, Nicole. It will be fun.”
“Well, it would definitely be an experience to one day tell my kids about.” My gaze wandered down his wet clothing. “Enjoying your shower?”
“If you say yes to coming on tour with me, then yes, I’m enjoying my shower.”
I laughed. “Doesn’t take much to make you happy, does it?”
I Need You Tonight Page 9