by Beth Andrews
“We can’t be friends,” she blurted.
For some reason, that only seemed to amuse him. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t like you.”
NICK’S SMILE DISAPPEARED. Didn’t like him? What the hell? Everyone liked him. Just ask around.
“Maybe if you weren’t in such a hurry to get away from me,” he claimed irritably, “you’d learn to like me.”“I don’t like you getting your hero worship fix from my son.”
“Hero worship?” He clenched the wrench he still held, and gave it a backhanded toss into his toolbox. Faith jumped when it hit the handle with a loud clang. “Funny how we’ve barely spoken, and yet you have no trouble coming up with a shitty opinion of me.”
“You had no right to involve yourself in my personal life—”
“I wasn’t trying to stick my nose into your business.” He hated losing control, even for a moment. “Austin seemed upset…”
“Sad to say, life is full of disappointments. And while I don’t relish the idea, Austin is going to have to deal with not always having things go his way.” She dumped the rest of her coffee into the utility sink and rinsed out the cup, her movements jerky.
“I was trying to help.”
“I didn’t want or need your help. You don’t need to befriend the struggling single mother. I’m not one of your sisters.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re at their beck and call.”
He scowled down at her. “Lady, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? Let’s see…” She gestured toward the washing machine. “You’re here, on what I’m assuming is your day off…?”
She paused and looked at him expectantly. What else could he do? He nodded once and she continued. “And what are you doing on this gorgeous morning? You’re changing water hoses.”
“They needed to be replaced and—”
“Yes, they did, but Britney could’ve done it.”
“Britney can’t tell a wrench from a screwdriver.”
“If you’d teach her how to take care of things herself, she wouldn’t have to have someone ride to her rescue all the time.” Though Nick had at least five inches on Faith, she somehow managed to look down her nose at him. “I didn’t want or need your help with Austin. What I want is for you to keep your nose out of my business.”
“So you’d rather have your pride than accept a helping hand every once in a while?”
She flushed, but he couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or anger. “I don’t need your charity.”
“You think I don’t understand what it’s like for Austin, sitting here while you work? How bored he is?” Nick clamped his lips shut. The last thing he wanted was to open up to her about how he knew exactly how the kid felt. Not when she obviously thought so little of him.
His mother might not have dragged him to work with her, but she had left him at home in charge of his sisters. There were plenty of times he’d had to put his needs second.
But he hadn’t minded having to quit baseball so he could be home to watch Britney after school, or that he didn’t get a video-game system when he was fourteen because they’d needed new snow tires for the car. He had a responsibility to his mother and sisters—the same responsibility Faith Lewis felt for her son. Family did for each other. So why did she think his favors for his sisters were anything different?
“I thought Austin would like something to read to pass the time,” he continued. “But if I was out of line, I apologize.”
Then, because he didn’t care one way or the other if she accepted his apology, he went back to the washer. Kneeling, he unscrewed the hoses from the back of the machine. Water dribbled onto his hands and he wiped them on his jeans. After a moment, he heard the sound of her footsteps as she walked away. Too bad she’d left her soft floral scent behind.
How the hell had she twisted his simple gesture into something to be pissed about? He pinched the bridge of his nose. Even after being surrounded by females his entire life, he still found them a mystery.
“Ms. Garey wants you to come out when you’re done,” Britney said as she entered the room. “Her niece is visiting next week and she was wondering if you’ll take her out.”
“I’m busy.”
“I didn’t even tell you what days she’ll be here,” Britney said. “Oh, and Ms. Garey wanted me to remind you of how she let you retake some English final your senior year so you could graduate with the rest of your class instead of suffering the humiliation of summer school.”
He grabbed the new hoses, viciously tightening the connection for the cold water one. “Blackmail is illegal.”
“Hey, you’re the cop. You tell her.”
Nick tilted his head to the side. Why him? He was a decent guy. What had he done to deserve this? “Is this the same niece she set me up with a few years back? The vegan?” He connected the hot water hose. The wrench slipped and he whacked his knuckle. Pressing his lips together against the pain, he shook his hand. “Because I’ll tell you right now, I’m not eating one bite of her tofu casserole or whatever it was she cooked up for me the last time.”
“Take her to the Wave Runner. She can get the all-you-can-eat salad bar.”
“And spend the night listening to her lecture me about eating lobster? No thanks.” He stood and dropped the dripping hoses into the utility sink. He grimaced when he finally saw his sister. “What the hell are you not quite wearing?”
“Now, Nicky, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times, I’m a grown woman and I can dress however I want.”
The headache that had started when Faith ripped into him intensified. “True. But I’m pretty sure I can write you up for indecent exposure. Aren’t you supposed to wear that vest over something? Like a shirt?”
She adjusted the hem of her top. “For your information, Michael likes the way I dress.”
And the last thing he needed to hear was how his baby sister’s latest unemployed, stringy-haired, dumber-than-Nick’s-firearm boyfriend liked her to show lots of skin. “I’ll sleep better tonight knowing that. Toss me a towel, will you?”
Britney handed him one from the dryer, then leaned against the washing machine while he sopped up the water on the floor and put his tools away. “If you had a steady girlfriend, you wouldn’t have to go out with the mean old vegan.”
He locked his toolbox and stood. “No.”
“Why not? Faith is sooo nice and she’s smart and funny and—”
“And she’s off her rocker. She’s also mighty ticked off at me, so even if I was interested—which I’m not—I don’t think you’d be able to convince her we’re destined to be together.”
“What do you mean, she’s ticked? What did you do?” Britney asked suspiciously.
He folded the towel and laid it on top of the washing machine. “What makes you think I did anything?”
“Now, don’t get all sensitive.” Britney poured a cup of coffee, added creamer and handed it to him before getting a bottled water out of the fridge. “Come on. Spill.”
He quickly filled her in.
“That doesn’t sound like Faith,” she said thoughtfully. “Although she is very protective of Austin. Maybe she was just worried about him going that far on his own?”
“Maybe,” Nick conceded. But he had a feeling whatever had set Faith off was more than that. His cell phone rang. “Coletti,” he said after opening it.
“Nicky,” his sister Andrea said, “please tell me you’re not busy.”
He turned his back on the new hoses. “I’m not busy. What’s up?”
“Marie called. Isaac’s sick. Marie thinks it’s chicken pox.” Their sister Marie ran the day care center Andrea’s two kids, five-year-old Isaac and two-year-old Dana, attended. “He needs to be picked up, but I can’t get away from work until two-thirty and Tuesdays Steve is at his Brunswick office and—”
“And you need me to go get Isaac.”
“If you don’t have any other plans,” she said in a rush. “I’d really appreciate it.”
So much for meeting a few buddies for an afternoon golf game. “No problem.” He wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear and shoved the washing machine back in place. “Tell Marie I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Thanks, Nicky.”
“Isaac’s sick,” he told Britney after he hung up. “Marie thinks it’s the start of chicken pox.”
“I told Andrea she’d regret not getting those kids vaccinated.”
“Her choice.” He picked up his toolbox.
“Wait.” Britney grabbed his free wrist. “You can’t go until you’ve made up with Faith.”
“Hey, even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I already apologized.” He’d figured, correctly, it would be the easiest way to get her to lay off.
“Great. Now you two can put this behind you—”
“Are your braids too tight?” The last thing he needed was some high-strung, antagonistic woman in his life.
“Fine.” Britney flipped one of those braids over her shoulder. “But you’re making a mistake by giving up. You and Faith would be great together. Don’t forget, I inherited Great-grandma’s sight.”
“The only thing you inherited was a tendency to overdramatize situations.”
He took it back. She must’ve also inherited their Nonna’s ability to skewer a man with one dark look. “I was going to make you chicken parmigiana for fixing the washing machine,” Brit said with an indignant sniff, “but just for that, all you’re getting is a thank-you card.” She then whirled around on the heel of one of her cowboy boots and sashayed out of the room.
Nick shut his eyes. God, please save me from the women in my life.
Amen.
He hoped Britney listened this time. She’d been after him to ask Faith out ever since she’d first hired her. What Brit wasn’t aware of was that he’d given in and had invited Faith out to dinner a few months ago. An invitation she’d quickly and politely declined.
He didn’t need to be told no twice.
CHAPTER THREE
TEN MINUTES AFTER FAITH got home from work that evening, the phone rang. She remained where she was, staring into the refrigerator, hoping she might find inspiration for dinner. “Austin, can you get that, please?”
The second ring ended abruptly. “It’s for you,” Austin called from the living room.Shutting the refrigerator, she grabbed a washed apple out of the bowl on the table and headed into the other room. From his prone position on the sofa, Austin held the phone out, his nose buried in that blasted comic book.
For about the hundredth time that day, she felt guilty over not letting Austin get the comic in the first place. She was so very tired of feeling guilty all the time. But she doubted she’d get any reprieve, seeing as how her list of sins was so damn long.
Like forcing Austin to leave his prized comic book collection behind two towns ago. Which was what happened when you took off in the middle of the night as if the devil himself were after you.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly who they were running from. And he would never stop searching for them.
She bit into her apple, then took the phone, holding the mouthpiece against her stomach as she chewed and swallowed. She swatted the tops of Austin’s sneakers with the back of her hand. “Get those dirty shoes off my couch.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, not looking up from the comic as he toed his shoes off onto the floor.
Faith pursed her lips and gave him her best Mom stare until he lifted his head. “What?” he asked.
“Put your shoes away,” she said around another bite.
“But I just got to the good part.”
She nodded toward his shoes. “Go.”
He groaned and rolled his eyes.
She lifted the phone to her ear as someone knocked on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Austin said, rushing past her.
“Check to see who it is first,” she reminded him, then said into the phone, “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me,” Britney said. “Now, promise you won’t get mad…”
Faith watched Austin move aside the curtain covering the door’s window. “That is so not a good lead-in.”
Whoever knocked must not be a stranger, because Austin undid the dead bolt and opened the door.
“You’re right,” Britney admitted, “and you can be mad, but remember, I’m doing this because I want to help you.”
“I don’t suppose that help involves an idea of what to cook for dinner using half a pound of ground beef, two carrots and some stale saltines?”
“Uh…no. Sorry. But this is better,” Britney promised. “I got you a surprise.”
“I hate surprises.” Faith bit into the apple again as Austin stepped aside, giving her a clear view of her doorstep. She inhaled sharply and coughed to dislodge a piece of apple from her windpipe. “Never mind,” she choked out. “It’s here.”
“Already? He was supposed to give me time to prepare you first.”
Phone still at her ear, Faith walked over and stood behind Austin, who tipped his head back to look up at her. “Mr. Coletti’s here,” he said.
“I can see that.” She made the mistake of meeting Nick’s unflinching, cool gaze. In her stomach, it felt as if a baby bird was about to take flight. “Why don’t you put your shoes away and then set the table for me?”
“Are you talking to me?” Britney asked.
“Now why on earth would I ask you to put away your shoes?” Faith said.
“Well, I did leave them by the door…”
Faith smiled and shook her head. “I was talking to Austin. Just…hold on a minute, would you?” She nudged Austin’s shoulder.
“Bye,” he told Nick.
“See ya, Austin.”
She waited until her son was out of earshot. “Britney says you didn’t give her time to prepare me.” Still holding the phone to her ear, she kept her other hand on the door frame, blocking his entrance to her home. Her sanctuary.
If he didn’t get the message she didn’t want him here, he wasn’t as bright as she’d given him credit for.
He set his toolbox on the blue-painted wooden porch. “Should I come back later?”
“Tell him not to go anywhere,” Britney demanded. “Even if you’re mad at him—”
“I never said that.” She bit into her apple. Hey, she hadn’t eaten anything since she’d tried to finish her leftover ham sandwich hours earlier. She was too hungry to worry about crunching in someone’s ear.
“He told me how you got upset about him paying Austin to run an errand.”
Her face heating, Faith leaned against the doorjamb. As soon as she’d walked away from Nick that morning she’d known she’d been out of line. But her fear that he’d been trying to somehow get close to her son by giving Austin something he wanted so badly had overridden her good sense.
“And now he’s standing on my porch with a toolbox at his feet because…why?” Faith asked.
“I asked him to look at your water heater.”
“I’d hate to put him out,” Faith said, straightening.
Nick hooked his thumbs in his front pockets and rocked back on his heels. She squeezed her apple so hard, she half expected to wind up with sauce on her hands.
“He might be able to fix it, which will save you from having to pay a plumber—a plumber who might not even get to it for days. If Nick can’t figure out what’s wrong, he’ll collect his tools and go home. No harm done.”
No harm done? The harm was having Nick Coletti in her house, in her personal business.
“Crap,” Britney said. “Michael’s beeping for me. I have to go. Just let Nicky look at it, okay?”
She hung up in Faith’s ear.
“What’s the verdict?” Nick asked, as if he couldn’t care less one way or the other what she decided.
“I’m not sure why Britney asked you to come over—”
“She’s got a
big heart. It’s her greatest weakness.”
“And you’re enabling that weakness?”
“I have a hard time telling her no. Besides, she laid it on thick, told me how much she’d consider it a personal favor to her….”
“She guilted you into coming over here?”
“She’s good at convincing people to do what she wants,” he said, so solemnly that Faith blinked. “She thought if I helped you with your water heater problem, it’d make up for you being ticked off at me and we could all hold hands, sing songs of friendship and skip off over some fairy-tale rainbow.”
Faith cleared her throat. “I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”
“Yeah, well, Brit wants everyone to get along. She’s always been that way, even as a kid.” He tapped the toolbox with the toe of his work boot. “She loves me and considers you a friend, so she wants us to tolerate each other.”
Panic knifed through Faith. Friends? Her and Britney? Why did all the Colettis want to be her friend? Britney was her boss. Period. Besides, when you were friends with people they did things like send their brother to your house. She hadn’t missed all those hints Britney had given her these past few months about how wonderful Nick was, how perfect he’d be for some lucky woman.
That lucky woman obviously being Faith.
“If you want me gone,” Nick said, “just say the word.”
Oh, she wanted. But she’d long since learned that it didn’t matter what she wanted.
She’d play nice with Nick, show him she was just a single mother trying to get by, and then he’d stop looking at her as if she was a suspect in one of his cases.
Damn it, she and Austin were done running. And Nick Coletti wasn’t going to change that.
“I APPRECIATE YOU checking the water heater.” Faith sounded sincere. So why did Nick have the feeling she’d rather eat her apple core then let him in?
“No problem.” He picked up his toolbox and stepped over the threshold, his bare arm brushing against hers, causing his skin to prickle with awareness.Faith shrank back as if she wished she could disappear into the wall. She shut the door. “Uh…it’s in the basement.”