by Jen Gilroy
“Fine by me.” Nick guided her through the diner to the front counter. “You go get him and I’ll order. Does he like chocolate waffle cones as much as we do?”
“He sure does.” He’d bought one for both of them last week. Gabrielle might not know much about Ward, but she knew that. Like she knew his favorite color was blue, he had a deep love for his daughter and granddaughter, and he was the kindest man she’d ever met.
There was still a lot she wanted to know about him but, for now, she knew what she needed and both of them were taking baby steps.
Her gaze met Nick’s again and held. Like she was taking baby steps with her son.
Chapter Twelve
Despite being in Nick’s old room, Mia wouldn’t let herself think about last night and how he’d rocked her world. She secured one end of the fitted sheet over the single mattress as Naomi grabbed the other. The small bedroom under the eaves overlooked the circular driveway in front of Harbor House. However, if Gabrielle hadn’t told her, Mia would never have known it had been Nick’s.
The narrow bed, chest of drawers, and battered student desk didn’t hold any reminders of the boy who’d once lived here, and the pale green walls hadn’t held any pictures. But then Mia had discovered the posters on a shelf in the closet beneath a pile of winter blankets. Posters of the Harley Davidson motorcycles that had once been Nick’s passion. She’d rolled them into a cardboard mailing tube and waited for the right time to give it to him. So far, she hadn’t found it.
She shook out the top sheet and Naomi tucked it in. There was a new maturity about her daughter, as if she’d grown up in the weeks they’d been apart. As if her sixteenth birthday, which Mia would always regret missing, marked a milestone between the girl Naomi had been and the young woman she would become.
Mia sat on the end of the bed and squeezed the pillow into a white case edged with knitted lace. “You’re sure you’re okay here? Your dad wanted you to stay at the Inn on the Lake with him to finish your vacation there.”
“Dad forgot all about Emma and me as soon as he saw that business center. We hadn’t even left before he was on the phone to somebody in Tokyo.” Naomi’s long brown hair gleamed in the light from the desk lamp.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” Never again would Mia excuse Jay’s behavior, but she’d always share her daughter’s hurt.
“That’s how Dad is. He cares about us, I guess, but most of the time he’s so busy he forgets to show it.” Naomi set a battered teddy bear on the pillow. “Besides, how could you think I’d want to stay with him when I could be with you? I missed you so much. My birthday wasn’t the same without you there. Before this one, I’ve never had a birthday without a cake you made for me.”
Mia’s heart warmed. This was who she was. A mom who was always there for her girls. She’d had fun with Nick, and she’d always be grateful, but she wouldn’t be greedy and want more than she could have. “I missed you so much, too. We’ll have a belated birthday celebration for you here, and when school starts, you can have a party with your new friends.”
“I know.” Naomi sat beside Mia on the bed. “But I’d always thought my sixteenth birthday would be this amazing day, and it wasn’t. Dad took us out for dinner, but he didn’t make it special, not like you would have. Tiffany was busy with the baby, and Emma…she…well…she’s gotten really weird.”
Mia reached for Naomi and pulled her close. In only a few weeks, Emma had also grown up and grown closer to Jay. This was what divorce was like, a constant tug of divided loyalties with children in the middle who had to choose. Birthdays, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. The annual calendar of celebrations now divided into his and hers, no longer theirs.
“Emma’s confused. I wish—”
“It’s not your fault.” Naomi nestled closer to Mia. “Emma thought, we both thought from what Dad said, that maybe you could work things out. He made it sound…I don’t know…like everything was a big misunderstanding.”
Because Jay was a consummate sales guy, a smooth talker who could sell anything to anyone. “It’s not a misunderstanding. Your father and I aren’t getting back together.”
Almost twenty-four hours later, Mia could still feel the imprint of Nick’s body on hers and in hers. She could smell the lingering fragrance of his aftershave on the sweater she’d worn to the play. The sweater she’d slung around her shoulders before having dinner with Jay and the girls as a reminder of who she was, and not who she’d been.
“Dad and Tiffany argued all the time, even before the last big fight when she left. Tiffany’s only seven years older than me, and she wanted to hang out with her friends sometimes. Dad didn’t get it.”
Mia drew in a breath. “Your dad—”
“Can be an idiot sometimes.” Naomi’s legs stretched out on the bed were long and tanned below her pink sleep shorts, and her breasts beneath the matching vest top were more defined than they’d been a few weeks ago. “Tiffany’s okay. Not as a stepmom, of course, but if she wasn’t Dad’s girlfriend I could like her. She just wants to have some fun. Dad still works all the time, and he’s not really a fun guy.”
Mia got up and went to the window. According to Jay, she hadn’t been fun either. She looked out into the night. The wind ruffled the leaves on the century-old maple trees near the house, and stars dotted the blue-black sky. Through the half-open window, a train whistled at the level crossing at the far end of Main Street.
“Your dad has to figure out what he wants.” Mia turned and tried to smile at her daughter. “You need to get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”
Naomi crawled under the covers then reached over and flipped off the light to plunge the room into darkness. “Today, you and Nick seemed different.”
“Different how?” Mia forced herself to sound casual, like what Naomi had said wasn’t a big deal.
“How he looked at you.”
“I didn’t notice.” Mia tried to make herself believe the lie. She’d felt Nick’s eyes on her from across the diner, and she’d been hyper aware of the invisible thread that linked the two of them together.
“Come on, it was obvious.” Naomi thumped the pillows and yawned. “Even Emma noticed.”
“You both have overactive imaginations.” Mia kissed Naomi good night.
“I know what I saw.” Naomi rolled onto her side and tucked one hand against her cheek like she’d done as a baby.
Mia got a lump in her throat. Her baby was almost a woman, and the years had flown by in the blink of an eye. Years she’d wasted waiting for Jay to change and trying to change enough for both of them. Always feeling she wasn’t good enough and couldn’t meet his standards.
She closed Naomi’s bedroom door, then peeked in on Emma in Cat’s old room. Her younger daughter was curled in a ball, and her silky blond hair was tousled above pink pajamas patterned with hearts. Unlike Naomi, Emma had clung to Jay and wanted to stay at the inn with him. And she’d spent the short drive back to Firefly Lake staring out the car window and giving one-word answers to Mia’s questions.
“Did the girls settle in all right?” At the end of the hall, Gabrielle’s bedroom door swung open, and she came out tying the belt on a purple bathrobe. Pixie followed at her heels.
“Fine. Kids can sleep anywhere.” A knack Mia envied, although last night with Nick she’d slept better than she had in months. Once they’d finally slept.
“If you want to go out for a while, I’ll listen for the girls if they wake.” Gabrielle’s eyes were warm in the muted light cast by the lamp on top of a bookcase.
“Out where?”
“For some fresh air.” Gabrielle scooped up Pixie and thrust the squirming dog into Mia’s arms. “You’d help me if you could take Pixie for a walk. I was too tired to take her earlier. You’d love a walk, wouldn’t you, baby dog?”
Mia’s heart thumped. Maybe Nick wouldn’t be home. Maybe he’d be busy. And maybe those were more excuses to deny what she wanted.
“Well…” Mia struggled to keep hol
d of a protesting Pixie. She might not know much about dogs, but if ever a dog looked less like wanting a walk, it was this one.
“Go on.” Gabrielle made a shooing motion. “It’s a mild night and we won’t get many more of those this year. A nice stroll into town will do you good.”
Being with Nick would do her good. Mia had said she’d call him, except she hadn’t. Every time she picked up her phone she’d told herself she didn’t know what to say. Even though she’d never dropped by his place before, maybe she needed to take that next step.
Twenty minutes later she stood in front of McGuire and Pelletier. Nick’s office was dark, but there was a light on in the upstairs apartment. “What do think, Pixie? Do you want to say hi to Nick?”
The dog yelped and strained at the end of her leash.
Mia wound the leash tighter around her fingers with one hand and hit the doorbell with the other. The sound echoed and made her jump. Above her, a window opened with a squeak.
“Mia?”
She tilted her head to meet Nick’s gaze and clocked the surprise in his expression. “Hey.”
Pixie whined and scratched the door.
“Hang on. I’ll be right down.” He disappeared from view.
Mia smoothed her hair, which had curled into spiky tendrils in the mist off the lake. She couldn’t run even if she wanted to, but she didn’t want to. The lock clicked and the door swung open. On the other side, Nick wore a pair of low-slung jeans and a white T-shirt, and his feet were bare.
Mia swallowed as she tried to look anywhere but at him, and how the T-shirt molded to his broad shoulders. Now she knew what was beneath that shirt and those jeans, too. “The girls are asleep at your mom’s. I took Pixie out for her, but I’ve caught you at a bad time. I’ll go, I—”
“It’s not a bad time.” Nick pulled her inside and shut and locked the door behind her. “You didn’t call.” He led her past the law office and up the carpeted stairs.
“I wanted to. I planned to.” She stopped outside his open apartment door. The Bruce Springsteen classic “Born to Run” spilled out into the stairwell. “After last night…” She let go of Pixie’s leash, and the dog scampered into the apartment.
“And this morning.” Nick led her into the foyer. “Don’t forget the tub. I haven’t.” His blue eyes teased her before he dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“I don’t do one-night stands. Or mornings.” Mia moved through the foyer into a sparsely furnished living and dining area. The music was louder here, and there was a smell of roasted vegetables and yeast. “With Jay and the girls here, it’s complicated.”
“Last night wasn’t a one-night stand. At least it wasn’t to me.” Nick turned the music off, and in the sudden silence, the tick of the clock on the wall above the table was unnaturally loud. “Are you hungry?”
Mia started to shake her head and then stopped. She’d only picked at the two meals she’d eaten with Jay and the girls, so she was hungry. “Yes.” She pushed away the memory of Jay’s comment about her having gained a few pounds.
The oven timer dinged from the galley kitchen tucked off the living room. Nick grabbed a pair of black oven mitts from the counter and slid a pizza pan out of the oven. He gestured to the cupboard above the sink. “Dishes and glasses are up there, and there’s silverware in the drawer.” He sliced the pizza into triangles.
“How have we been friends this long and I didn’t know you could make pizza?” There was no cardboard takeout box, only a dusting of flour across the white countertop and rich, good smells. Mia grabbed two plates from the cupboard, knives and forks from the drawer, and paper napkins from a metal holder shaped like a sailboat.
“When my dad left, and Mom went back to teaching, I had to cook for my sisters. Liz helped me.” Nick balanced the pizza tray in one hand and two cans of soda in the other as he led Mia to the round table with four chairs at the end of the living room.
Mia pulled out a chair and sat across from him. “Nobody makes pizza dough unless they want to.”
A faint flush crept up Nick’s cheeks. “I like to cook. Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s great.” She set the table and then took a piece of pizza. The tomato sauce and melted cheese base was topped with a colorful medley of grilled vegetables, and her mouth watered in anticipation. After years of making meals for Jay and the girls, a man who liked to cook was a major turn-on. Along with all the other things about Nick that were a major turn-on.
“I already know you like to cook. What else do you like?” His eyes had a mischievous glint.
“Simple things, like spending time with my girls. I also like the roses in your mom’s garden when they’re wet with dew, and the smell of fresh-baked bread. How the sun rises over Firefly Lake in the morning and makes the sky all pink, and the first hint of red on the maple leaves here.”
“I like the fall colors too.” Nick’s voice deepened. The man could arouse her with his voice alone. “I also like the dress you wore last night and the way your hair is all curly right now.” He reached across the table and tugged on a strand near her jaw.
“It’s a mess. The humidity on a night like this gives my hair a mind of its own.” Mia’s skin burned as he traced a path along her jaw and down her neck.
“I like a woman who knows her mind.”
Which Jay hadn’t. Mia chewed a piece of pizza. It was crisp, flavorful, and everything homemade pizza should be.
“I like you, and I also like what happened between us last night.” Nick hitched his chair around the table next to hers. “I’d like to talk about what happens now.”
Mia had two daughters asleep at his mom’s place and an ex-husband settled into a suite at the Inn on the Lake, going on about the family he’d destroyed like he was still part of it. Her sister and brother-in-law were camped out at a New Hampshire hospital with their premature baby, and her house was still under construction since the baby and keeping Carmichael’s boat yard going were way more important than Mia’s new kitchen cupboards.
And she had a friend who’d turned into a lover and feelings she didn’t know what they meant or how to handle them. Talking wasn’t high on her list of priorities, but if Nick was so set on conversation, she had a question. “What happened between you and your ex-wife?”
“Isobel?” Nick’s hand slid away from the curve of her thigh. “Why do you want to know?”
“We slept together.” She wanted to sleep with him again, but she also wanted to know the truth Gabrielle had skirted around.
“Yeah, we did.” Nick’s voice got flat. “And Isobel slept with the senior partner at the law firm where we both worked. She had sex with him in the thirty-second-floor boardroom on the big conference table. I came back one night to get a file I needed for court in the morning and caught them.”
“Nick—” This was so much worse than Mia imagined.
“I never thought people really had sex on those tables. I’d read about it in books and seen it in movies, but when it’s your wife and a guy you work for…” He stopped and rubbed a hand across his face. “Isobel told me she’d be at a baby shower for a friend at her gym. I believed her. She even had a gift in one of those fancy bags.”
“I’m sorry.” Mia put an arm around his shoulders. “Jay played a lot of golf, but I never caught him doing it in a golf cart.”
Nick’s laugh sounded more like a sob. “Count yourself lucky.”
Except Jay had still made her look like a fool in front of everyone. The women who’d pretended to be her friends whispered behind their hands at the country club, at the girls’ schools, and even the grocery store. She’d taken to doing the weekly shopping at a store two suburbs over to avoid meeting anyone she knew. If your spouse cheated, everyone thought there must be something wrong with you.
“You came back to Firefly Lake after…” Mia twined her fingers with his to give and seek comfort.
“Not right away, but when Mom was diagnosed, she needed me. The other lawyer at McGuire
and Pelletier had just retired. Allison needed help, so I said I’d cover for a while. My dad was the last McGuire to head the firm, so maybe I had something to prove.”
“What did you need?”
He stiffened. “I needed a place to get away, where I didn’t have to see Isobel in the office and in court. A place where people gave me a second chance.”
Apart from the office and the courtroom, those were pretty much the things she’d needed. She dipped her head, found the sensitive spot on his neck, and nipped at it.
He twisted into her touch and groaned. “Angel, you’re killing me.” He pulled her onto his lap and his hands sought her breasts, the nipples already tight. “I want—”
“I want, too.” She straddled him and rocked over his thighs. Talking was overrated, especially about things she didn’t want to talk about.
Pixie gave a sharp bark and scooted under Nick’s chair.
“Hang on, there’s someone at the door.”
The door? So the ringing noise wasn’t in her head. Mia lurched to her feet, bumped into the table, and grabbed Nick’s soda before it spilled. “You go and I’ll…” She sat in her chair and found her abandoned cutlery.
“Hold that thought.” Nick’s kiss was hot and intense. “I’ll get rid of whoever it is and be right back.”
Nick took the stairs two at a time as the doorbell rang again, like the person outside was leaning on it. His mom would have called his cell if something was wrong. Sean and Charlie were still in New Hampshire, and everything had been fine when he’d spoken to Sean earlier. Most of the guys he played pool with had families and weren’t the kind of friends to drop by without a phone call first. And McGuire and Pelletier didn’t have the kind of clients who needed an attorney on a Sunday night.
He unlocked the door and opened it. “What do you think you’re…Kylie?” He took a step forward.