by Jen Gilroy
Gabrielle had welcomed the girl with a hug and a glass of warm milk and said Harbor House was her home as long as she needed it.
“Since Mom isn’t here, I can do this.” Nick bent his head and kissed her. The heat from his body generated an answering heat in Mia’s.
“Stop.” She pulled away.
“You don’t like me kissing you?”
“I do, but Emma could come back. Or Kylie.”
“I’m sure Kylie’s seen lots of people kissing and more.” Nick snagged a cookie from the cooling rack. “She talked about us having sex.”
“What? To who?”
“Me.” Nick grinned. “Even before you and I had sex. Kylie’s smarter than her years.”
“Too smart. I’m worried Emma will get a whole new vocabulary before Kylie goes back to Burlington.”
“I already talked to Kylie.” Nick’s expression turned serious. “I told her she had to behave around you and the girls. No bad language and no talking to Emma about stuff she shouldn’t. She gets she has to watch her mouth.”
“I hope so.”
“She’ll be fine. At work with me today she was great. She sat at the conference table and worked at some puzzle books I got her. While I met with Kim, she helped Lori with scanning and filing. Lori said she was polite and helpful.”
“I’m sure she was.”
Nick was Kylie’s hero, and the girl was desperate for his approval.
“Do you think Kylie would like a tablet?”
“I’m sure she’d love one, but you can’t…” Mia bit her lip.
“I know.” Nick blew out a breath. “Even if Kim approves foster care here, it’s only temporary. We can’t get attached to Kylie.”
“Did Kim say so?”
“No, it’s what I think. Kylie’s had a lot of losses in her life. If she gets attached to us, it’ll be another loss. If she stays here, though, I’ll take some time off work to help you. It’s the least I can do.” He gave her a slow smile. “There are lots of other things I’d like to do, too.” His fingers slid down her arms and brushed the side of her breasts.
“We can’t.”
“You won’t sneak me in after lights out?” Nick’s chuckle was low and sexy. “I can be very quiet.”
He might be, but Mia wasn’t sure she would. Not if Saturday night and Sunday morning were anything to go by. “In case you’ve forgotten, this is your mother’s house. She’ll be home any minute, and Kim will knock on the front door to assess our suitability as foster parents.”
“Yeah.” Nick gave her a wry smile and took his hands away from her breasts. “Mom might have told you I’ve had a few ideas about this house. If we convert the old pantry to a full bathroom and make a bedroom out of the small parlor beside it, she could live on the main floor this winter. Mom seemed to like that plan.”
“Sure she did.” At last Nick had tried to understand Gabrielle and had listened to her. And when she’d come home from having dinner with him, Gabrielle had been happier about the prospect of a new relationship with her son than the changes he’d suggested to Harbor House.
“I already called some contractors for quotes. Once your place is finished, I can help with the work here. Best of all, after you move out and I go back to New York, Mom can rent out a room to have some company. There must be people who’ve just moved here who need a place to stay. Mom said it would be perfect.”
“Perfect,” Mia echoed, although all she could think about was what her life would be like when Nick had gone back to the city. The friend she counted on. The lover she wanted.
“You look tired. After we meet with Kim, why don’t you have a nap and I’ll take the girls to the beach?” He patted her shoulder. “Afterward, I’ll cook. Or order in, whatever you want.”
“Great.” Mia had gone into this situation with her eyes wide open. She didn’t want a relationship, but she hadn’t expected Nick to get tangled in her life, either.
“Tomorrow I’ll swing by and help you clear out the attic. Most of the stuff up there hasn’t been touched in years. Some of it’s my stuff, as Mom reminded me.”
“You don’t have to—”
He gave her a quick kiss, sweet, tender, and a little sexy. “What else are friends for?”
Friends weren’t to have sex with. Despite what her body told her.
And friends weren’t to fall in love with. Despite what her heart said.
Although Nick hadn’t come here in years, the triangle of sand at the base of the granite cliffs below Harbor House had once been his favorite place.
He dropped the beach towels near a rocky outcrop and scanned the horizon. The red sun hung low in the sky and dipped behind the hills. Watching Emma and Kylie was a small thing he could do for Mia, especially since Kylie’s social worker had approved the girl staying at Harbor House for at least the next forty-eight hours.
His chest ached as he pictured the purple shadows beneath Mia’s beautiful eyes and the lines of strain around her mouth. The look on her face when Emma had slammed out of the kitchen. A look he couldn’t fix.
And the other look he’d put on her face when he’d talked about renovating Harbor House and going back to New York.
“Stay close to shore, girls. It gets deep fast.” Even though he hadn’t swum in Firefly Lake in over twenty years, Nick remembered the rogue currents and sharp rocks that lurked beneath its tranquil blue surface and how the sandbar fifteen feet from shore here dropped off into the dark, cold depths of the glacial lake.
Scrawny in the purple bathing suit he’d bought her earlier, Kylie waded into the water to her ankles. “This is awesome. Your mom has a private beach.”
“My dad’s house in Dallas has a swimming pool.” Emma slipped out of her flip-flops without looking at him.
“That’s lucky, isn’t it?” Maybe this was a mistake. Without Mia to run interference, Nick was way out of his depth. He didn’t know much about kids, but at least if Emma had been a boy, or a tomboy like his niece, he could have talked about guy stuff. Sports or action movies. But not only was Emma a girlie girl, she was one who didn’t like him much.
Emma rolled her blue eyes. “Yeah, I’m so lucky. I don’t live in that house. I have to live here.”
“Did you hear me about not going in too deep?”
“I’m not deaf.” Her small shoulders were stiff in her pink two-piece as she marched toward the water’s edge.
Nick took a deep breath and sat on the sand. Far above him, a broad-winged hawk circled before it disappeared into the trees. As a kid, he’d loved this time of day, when the lake was quieter and most of the tourists had gone home.
He squinted against the setting sun. The wooden swim raft he and his dad had built the summer he was ten still bobbed out on the lake. The raft must be rotten, even though his mom took it in every winter. He toed off his sneakers and walked to the water’s edge for a closer look.
“Nick?” Kylie waved at him from the water near where the sandbar started. “Watch me swim. Mia helped me, so I’m a lot better.”
“Sure, but don’t go out any farther.”
Kylie floated on her back and kicked her legs.
“Anybody can do that. Watch this.” Emma did a somersault and disappeared below the surface before she popped up five feet beyond Kylie.
“Emma, come back here.” Nick waded into the icy water, glad he’d changed into the board shorts he kept at his mom’s.
“Emma?” Kylie’s voice rose. “Nick? What’s she doing?”
“Emma.” Nick called again, but the girl ignored him and broke into a choppy front crawl.
She scrambled onto the swim raft. “Bet you can’t do this either, Kylie.” She jumped high in the air then launched herself off the raft, cannonball style, and a wall of water sprayed high.
Nick’s heart pounded. She’d surface any minute. He’d jumped off rafts in this lake when he was younger than Emma. Cat and Georgia had too, but they’d all been strong swimmers.
“Nick?” Kylie’s
gaze met his. Her lashes were spiky from the water, and her face was white.
“Wait on the beach. Don’t move unless I tell you.”
Her pointed chin jerked in agreement. He had to go after Emma. Mia’s daughter needed him.
He stripped off his shirt and tossed it onto the sand, together with his phone, wallet, and keys. Surfacing from a shallow dive, he slipped into a fast crawl, the rhythm instinctive, and he reached the raft seconds later.
Still no Emma. Nick scanned the lake then dove under the water. It was cloudy from mud on the bottom, and he rubbed a hand across his eyes. His lungs burned and he surfaced again to gulp in air before he went back under. One of his knees knocked the chain that anchored the raft to the lake bed.
Emma’s swimsuit was caught on the rusty chain, and blood trickled down the side of her face.
He tugged on her swimsuit strap before he tore the top off. Swinging her over his shoulder, he battled to the surface and maneuvered Emma into a rescue hold before he struck out for shore.
“My cell, call nine-one-one,” he yelled at Kylie, but she already had the phone at her ear.
Emma was a dead weight, and she wasn’t breathing. He took one stroke after another until his feet caught the lake bottom and he stood, staggered to the beach, and put Emma on her back.
He had to do CPR. Which he knew, thanks to the lifeguard qualification he’d earned as a teenager.
“Breathe, sweetheart.” Nick pressed Emma’s tiny chest and counted.
“I said it was an emergency.” Kylie’s voice was high and reedy. “The ambulance is on the way.”
Nick nodded, still counting, before he put his mouth to Emma’s and willed her to breathe.
Kylie crouched beside him. “She’ll be okay, won’t she?”
Nick couldn’t answer. The world telescoped to counting, watching Emma’s chest and then counting some more.
Emma coughed and struggled to sit, then flopped back on the sand, her eyes unfocused.
“Emma.” Nick pushed hair away from her face where a jagged cut oozed blood across her forehead. “It’s me, Nick. You’re okay.” At least he prayed she was. He couldn’t face Mia if anything happened to her baby girl. He was the one who’d offered to take the girls to the beach. Why hadn’t he chosen the diner or the bowling alley? Anywhere but here.
Emma blinked. “Nick?”
“Yeah.” He grabbed a towel and covered her then pressed his shirt to her forehead in an effort to stop the bleeding.
“I want my mommy.” Emma coughed again then threw up lake water.
“She’ll be here any minute.” He inclined his head to Kylie. “Run and get Mia and then wait for the ambulance out front so they know where we are.”
“Mommy,” Emma said again. “I’m cold.”
“Here, sweetheart.” Nick grabbed another towel and piled it on top of the first one.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
Nick looked at Mia partway down the steps to the lake.
“My baby.” She made a high, keening noise and ran the short distance to the beach.
“I did CPR. Emma’s breathing. She jumped off the swim raft and—”
“Baby girl…” Mia’s voice cracked, and she knelt on the sand beside Nick to gather Emma into her arms.
“Don’t move her. The ambulance is on its way.”
“It’s my fault. I wanted to show Kylie and—” Emma coughed again, a raspy sound that twisted Nick’s insides, and more water came up.
“Hush. It’s okay. You don’t need explain.” Mia pressed the shirt harder to her daughter’s forehead. “You’ll be fine, Emma bear.” Her worried gaze met Nick’s in a silent plea. “I couldn’t sleep so I came outside and saw you here. And Emma…”
“I’ll uh…” Kylie twisted her hands.
Nick glanced at her. Kylie’s lips were blue, and shivers wracked her small body. “You were great.” He took the last towel and wrapped it around her. “You didn’t panic, and you did what I told you to. Good job.”
Her eyes widened.
“Kylie?” Emma looked up. “I’m sorry. I said mean things to you and I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s okay.” Kylie dug a bare toe in the sand. “I better go meet the paramedics. I can get Emma some clothes.”
“Thank you.” Mia raised her head. “Thank you both.” Her gaze lingered on Nick. “If you hadn’t known what to do, it could have…she could have…”
“She didn’t.” He touched Emma’s hair. The strands were heavy with water, and near her temples blood matted with mud. “You get some clothes for yourself too, Kylie. We don’t want you to catch cold.”
“Sure.” Kylie turned toward the steps, her shoulders hunched. “Emma, she has to go to the hospital.” She turned back to Nick, and he read the fear in her face.
“She’ll come home again, Kylie. I promise.” Her brother had gone to a hospital and hadn’t come back. From what Kylie’s social worker had said, maybe her mom hadn’t either. She’d been strung out on heroin, bleeding from a knife wound, and her daughter, who’d witnessed everything, had been taken into care again, permanently this time.
Kylie held his gaze for a long moment before she turned, skipped up the steps, and disappeared into the trees.
Across Emma’s body, Nick took Mia’s free hand. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I brought the girls here. I didn’t think.”
“I didn’t either. Emma’s always been sensible around water. But she…you went in the lake after her, and since the accident you—”
He squeezed her hand tight. “Your little girl was in there, hurt. I’d have searched the whole lake to find her if I had to.
“Nick?” Emma blinked at him. “It isn’t your fault. It’s mine. I didn’t listen, and I was mean to you, too.” Her voice came out in a croak. “Even meaner than I was to Kylie.”
“You didn’t say anything worse than I said to people when I was older than you, and old enough to know better.” His throat tightened.
“I’m really sorry. Sorry about everything.” Emma’s hand cupped his on top of Mia’s. “It’s okay if you and my mom are friends.”
“Thanks.” The one word was all Nick could manage. His gaze met Mia’s, and the man he was shifted and changed.
Except, Mia was beautiful and sweet, and she’d rebuilt her life. She deserved a better man than him. A man who wasn’t afraid to love.
Emma’s grip on his hand tightened. Mia also deserved a man who could be a father to her girls, and who’d stick around Firefly Lake longer than he ever planned to.
Chapter Fourteen
Two days later, Mia pushed an empty trunk aside and sat on the shallow seat beneath one of the attic windows in Harbor House. Rain tapped against the glass, and she traced the pattern of drops with her index finger.
The lake was choppy today, a pewter gray dotted with whitecaps. She shivered as she remembered what might have been. But Emma was safe and, for the first time in a long time, life was good. Not perfect. In this new life she’d given up on perfect, but good was more than enough.
Turning away from the window, she stretched, and her T-shirt rode up over the top of her cotton skirt. Thanks to Nick’s help, she only had a few more boxes to go through and the attic would be cleared out. She’d be one step closer to finishing her work in Gabrielle’s house. And one step closer to when Nick would leave Firefly Lake. Although he hadn’t mentioned a date, Labor Day was coming up, and he’d always said he planned to leave after the long weekend.
She had to stop fantasizing about him and wondering what if.
The attic door creaked open, followed by footsteps on the plank stairs. “Mia?” Nick appeared at the top of the stairs and ducked his head until he reached the middle of the big room away from the eaves. “Mom said you were still here.”
Her heart somersaulted. All this time she’d tried to pretend she only cared for Nick as a friend, but when he saved Emma’s life, feelings she’d tried to deny had surfaced. New and scary feelings sh
e’d never, in all their years together, had for Jay.
“Hi.” She tugged one of the remaining boxes toward her, and a cloud of dust floated in the air between them.
“Let me give you a hand.” Nick lifted the box onto the trunk and leaned in close to give her a quick kiss. He lifted the flaps on the box to reveal Christmas decorations. “Mom never threw anything away, did she?” He fingered a cardboard angel. “I made this for her one year in elementary school.”
“When kids make you things, it’s special. You keep them forever.”
“I wouldn’t know.” His voice was flat. “My niece has never been a crafty kid.”
Mia propped the angel on the window seat and straightened her tinsel halo. “Your mom’s doing crafts with the girls, and Kylie’s really into it. When I stuck my head into the dining room earlier, she was decked out in sequins, purple felt, and feathers. She told me she’s making a surprise for you, so you better act surprised.”
Nick picked up the angel then put it down again. “I missed all that. I came in through the kitchen with the contractor. He can start on the main floor bathroom tomorrow. Mom’s already picked out paint colors and tile, as well as a tub and shower stall. He’s also updating the existing powder room so it will be more convenient for Mom.”
“What you’re doing so she can stay in the home she loves is good.”
Gabrielle had gotten what she wanted, so why didn’t Mia feel better about it?
“You were right. I hadn’t listened to Mom, but compromising isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” Nick gave her a dry smile.
“So why won’t you open your heart to Kylie? Her heart’s wide open to you.”
Nick’s smile disappeared. “She’ll have a new family soon. Kim approved Kylie to stay with you and Mom for what, five days tops? I don’t want to unsettle her.”
“Don’t you think never seeing you again, never even hearing from you again, will unsettle Kylie even more?” Mia took three more angels out of the box, porcelain ones this time.
“Kylie’s a kid. She’ll forget all about me.” There was a catch in Nick’s voice as he turned away.