by Jean Oram
“Well, obviously I’m not the right woman, and trying to push something like this would be a sure way to lose him.”
“Nicola, hon,” Devon said, his voice gentle as he pulled her outside again. “Have you thought that maybe you already have? And by the sounds of it, you didn’t even fight for him. Your lover.”
“Devon, Todd and I aren’t going to connect on that level. Ever. We’re great friends, but we’re too different.” He gave her a disbelieving look. “We’d be divorced in a matter of seconds. For real. I like details and plans and he’s an adventure-seeking playboy. Hardly a good fit.”
“You’re best friends who complement each other.”
“So?”
“So you’re already committed to each other as friends, how’s making it a romantic relationship any different?”
She paused to think about it. He had a point, but she also knew it was more complicated than simply stepping a bit further under the grand old commitment umbrella.
“He’d get bored with me, Devon. He always moves on after about a month in a relationship.” Feeling irritated, she reentered the café and joined her friends.
“Hey,” Jen Kulak said as Nicola flopped into a chair. “I heard about your date nights.” Her hair’s usual purple streak was an uncharacteristic faded hue.
“They’re social nights—for anyone. Are you growing out your streak?”
“Sorta. Rob doesn’t think breathing in the hair dye stuff is good for the baby.” She shrugged as she rested a hand over her expanding belly. Her boyfriend slung a protective arm around her, eliciting an unexpected sigh from Nicola.
“You guys are so cute together.” They seemed like such a great fit. Good friends with common interests. In other words, awesome. The best of all worlds.
Devon sat down with a cup of coffee. “Nicola needs guinea pigs.”
“Coffee at this time of night?” she asked, frowning at him. She checked her phone for the time. It was almost six.
“I live on the edge.”
“Does she need the animal kind of guinea pig or the experiment kind?” Amber Thompson asked, sitting forward.
“She wants to conduct social experiments on you,” Devon said in a serious voice.
Nicola gave his ear a tug. “You’re a brat and a horrible salesman.” She turned to the group, outlining the plan. “I need to test a few events to see how they play out so I can fix any weird bits ahead of time. Depending on the activity, I need about five to ten people.”
“Rob and I are in,” Jen said. “Sounds fun.”
“You’re not paintballing or hiking up to mountain lakes while pregnant,” Rob Raine replied, his neck turning red.
“Okay, we’ll skip the supposedly dangerous ones.” She rolled her eyes. “But I can still go out and have fun, you know.” She placed a hand over her belly. “Four months isn’t that pregnant.”
“Is Todd coming?” Amber asked.
“Why would he?” Nicola replied.
The group exchanged looks.
“What?” She bristled, ready like a ninja to knock down their assumptions about what she and Todd needed to do together. She’d gotten confused about their friendship. He’d rejected her advances. They were moving on. Or trying to.
“Well…” Amber paused. Jen sat back in her chair, mouth shut.
“Because you’re in love with him,” Devon said with a smug smile.
Nicola rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you guys. People can be friends.”
“Prove that you’re not in love with him,” Amber said.
“Prove it? What is this, fourth grade?” Nicola stood, shaking her head. “I’m going to get myself a chicken wrap. Anyone want anything?”
“We want you to prove you two don’t totally complement each other’s personalities and wouldn’t make a kick-butt couple,” Amber said with a grin. “And that you don’t love each other.” Everyone at the table nodded.
“It’s called friendship.”
“It’s called love...” Amber replied.
Nicola waved them away, heading to the counter to order her supper, feeling uncharacteristically edgy.
When she returned to the table she almost backed away again. Her friends were huddled together, discussing something. As a united group, they sat back, displaying various shades of pleased and smug.
“We have it,” Jen said.
“Have what?” Nicola asked, hanging her purse over the back of her chair before cautiously sitting down and wishing she was closer to the door.
“Ask him to join the date nights,” she replied.
“Social nights,” Nicola said.
“All of them.”
“As a tester or a real customer?”
Jen conferred with the group, who all said, “Tester.”
“And then what?”
“You two will see how in love you are.”
“You guys don’t quit, do you?” Nicola stuffed her mouth full of wrap so she wouldn’t be able to say more. By the time she was done chewing they’d have moved on to a new topic. Perfect plan.
“Text him,” Amber said.
Nicola made a face. Not what she had in mind. She needed a boyfriend, then she could fix up their friendship without worrying about launching herself on the poor man. Until then, she’d maintain their new status quo.
Devon snagged Nicola’s purse, lifting her phone out in record time. What was he—a pickpocket? At least she had the device password protected.
Devon tapped the screen a few times and handed the phone to Amber. “Want to do the honors?”
Nicola furiously tried to chew her mouthful of food. “That was password protected!”
“I know.”
“You’ve been looking over my shoulder?”
“Always.” Devon was completely unapologetic.
“This is an invasion of privacy.” She reached for her phone, but Jen blocked her.
“No, it’s an intervention.”
“For what?”
“Devon says you’re unhappy,” Jen stated. “And we agree. You need Todd in your life.”
“Romantically,” Amber added. She looked up from Nicola’s phone. “Done. Should I wait for a reply?”
“Yes,” the group replied.
“You guys are awful. We’re just friends. He doesn’t think of me in that capacity.”
“But you think of him that way,” Amber replied triumphantly, high-fiving Jen.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re friends.”
Dating Todd would be a surefire way to break her heart. In high school he’d dated someone for about a week before getting bored. In college that had expanded to about a month. Whereas Nicola’s shortest relationship had been two months.
“In the right situation, you will become more than just friends,” Devon said confidently.
She flicked a piece of lettuce at him. “You guys need glasses, because you’re seeing things that aren’t there.” She put out her palm. “Can I have my phone back please?” Her gut was twisting at the thought of what Amber may have texted Todd. The quicker she got her phone back, the faster she could perform damage control.
“Are we talking about Todd?” Mandy Mattson-Smith asked as she joined them. Everyone nodded. “Devon says he gave you a week to fix things with Todd and you didn’t. Now it’s his turn.”
Nicola shot Devon a glare. This was all his fault!
“Everyone agrees you and Todd are awesome together,” Mandy continued, “so we all decided we’re going to make it happen for you guys. It’s the Blueberry Springs way.” She slid a plate of her prize-winning brownies onto the table. A pile of hands depleted the squares in a matter of seconds.
“He said yes!” Amber squealed, waving Nicola’s phone.
“Yes to what?” Nicola’s mind raced, fear and hope endlessly intertwined as her imagination went wild.
Amber tapped out a reply, then, grinning, passed the phone back to her.
Nicola checked the messages that had been exchanged without her
permission. No confessions of undying love or anything she couldn’t come back from. Thankfully. Just an invite to come hang out at the social nights. “Remind me to strike you guys off my Christmas gift list.”
“We’re on your list?” Devon said, perking up. “I’d really like a new—”
She smacked his arm, cutting his daydreams short as her mood soared.
Todd was coming.
To Blueberry Springs.
She had to get ready. She had to stay calm. She had to pretend it didn’t matter nearly anywhere as much as it did.
Chapter 2
Todd looked even more amazing than she remembered. She wasn’t sure what it was. It could have been his broad shoulders and fit body. Or the casual way he held himself, with power and confidence even with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, as he moseyed across the town office lobby to greet her. Or the way he lit up and seemed to walk more lightly when he saw her. Yeah, it was probably that. Talk about an aphrodisiac. No, a balm. That’s what it was. A balm for the loneliness she’d felt for her BFF.
And yet, as she approached him, her own steps feeling as light as air, she realized he’d changed. The world seemed to ride a little heavier on his shoulders and she wondered if his father had been pushing him to take over the massive family business again—something Todd had no interest in doing.
“Hey!” she said, a lump forming in her throat as she stood in front of him, unsure whether she should hug him. She opted to bypass physical contact due to a sudden, intense urge to launch herself into his arms and never let go. She’d let her stupid mistake fester for too long. She should have talked to him the very next day and made things better again, because standing in front of him, smiling, was the best she’d felt in months.
“Your hair is longer,” he said, giving a lock a gentle tug that sent shivers all the way down her spine. Man, she’d love him to tug her hair in a not-so-friend kind of way…
Wow. Okay, not appropriate. There was definitely something wrong with her system. He was her friend.
F-R-I-E-N-D.
She needed to get moving on the boyfriend front sooner rather than later if Todd was coming to test these activities with her. Otherwise she’d find herself doing something stupid, such as licking his abs.
They watched each other cautiously, figuring out where they now stood in terms of their friendship. She smoothed her hair, then realized she was borderline preening. Had he noticed she’d put in a light curl this morning? Added a little extra lip gloss just before he arrived? That she’d lost twenty pounds over the past five months?
Because she noticed that he’d lost a bit of weight, too, and seemed to have added dark circles under his eyes just like she had. Which was odd for him. He was usually the unaffected one, drifting from adventure to adventure, not sticking around long enough to get sucked into issues that kept him up at night.
“You okay?” she asked.
He looked surprised by the question. “Yeah, of course.”
They studied each other for a long moment, their awkwardness slowly dissolving.
“I really appreciate you coming and helping out, as an outsider.”
He gave a slow nod.
Nicola froze, realizing she’d implied that her best friend didn’t belong. That she’d moved on without him, excluded him. Oh, not cool. Not cool at all. She hurried on. “It’s just that I already think a bit like a Blueberry Springs resident and I’m afraid we might make assumptions about stuff. You know?”
“You always did have a thing for small towns.”
He leaned against the wall beside her, caging her in, making her feel as though she was the only person in the area he was interested in talking to. It was a heady feeling. No wonder she’d got all caught up in her mind. She’d been mourning this—the loss of being important to someone. Special. A person who knew her, knew her history, her likes, dislikes.
“I did love that little Scottish town and their bingo night,” she said.
He smiled and brushed a lock off her forehead, making her shiver with his touch. Okay, she needed a boyfriend. ASAP. It had obviously been way too long—like, danger levels too long—since she’d been with someone, and it was clear she needed to work some important things out of her system.
Their earlier awkwardness had vanished and they’d shifted back to friends, but now it felt as though they were playing along that line she’d promised herself she would never cross again.
“So what defines you as a Blueberry Springs person?” he asked, focused solely on her.
Wow, he was intense. She needed to crack a joke, break the spell that was washing over them, cranking up the heat.
Blueberry Springs. Focus, Nicola. Right. What made her feel like a resident?
“The desire to get a ring on this finger and start popping out kids.” She froze. She did not just say that. Please, please, let that have only been in her head. Otherwise he would surely have a mini flashback to their February kiss and think she was trying to make him that man.
Even though he’d make a wonderful dad. Patient, kind, fun.
Her own father was a man she dreaded visiting because he moaned endlessly about how awful his life was every step of the way. It hadn’t been a big shocker when Nicola’s mom had left him to go work as the assistant to a diplomat. Anything to get away.
And that she did. Nicola didn’t even know what country her mother was in at the moment.
But instead of running for the hills, Todd laughed. “You? Kids? Right. I find that hard to imagine, Miss Travel the World.”
“Crazy, huh?” She let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness he knew she was joking—but of course he did. He knew her best, didn’t he? And all the physical attraction stuff that was ramping up at an alarming speed was only in her mind. Todd was still as normal as before.
“Although…” He tilted his head in thought and she froze. “…I could see you with a color-coded family calendar. You’d never miss an immunization and would always have a healthy supper ready for the kids. You’d read up to make sure you put the car seat in correctly.” He gave her chin a gentle chuck. “Yeah, one day you’ll make an awesome mom.” His smile seemed almost wistful, and she tried to think of something to block her mind from going down The Path. The one lined with peach-colored roses, her in a white gown, Todd waiting for her at the end of the aisle in a tuxedo. The pitter-patter of little footsteps.
Man, her brain was out of whack.
“So, really?” he asked. “What’s got you feeling like a true Blueberry Springsite? Springsonian? I thought we were going to hit the road again.”
She gave a panicked shrug. She’d done some amazing stuff while traveling with Todd and didn’t regret one second of their time away. And while she felt as though she should go back out there again, she couldn’t seem to muster the excitement or thrill she’d felt the first time he’d suggested they take off.
Back then, they’d been preparing to graduate, staring out at the daunting prospect of careers and proper adulthood. Backpacking had felt like playing hooky from the real world, and she’d seized the chance to finally do something that was the exception to her usual plans and rules. Being footloose and fancy free with nothing but a backpack and her best friend had been liberating. Like stepping off a cliff and expecting to fall, but instead discovering she had wings. Wings that had brought her here to Blueberry Springs. A place that left her feeling settled inside.
She didn’t want to leave.
That was the problem.
She liked it here.
Yet she’d promised him she would travel again.
“Nic?” Todd was watching her, head tipped to the side.
“Oh, you know how I am,” she said with a smile. “I always feel at home in small towns and it’s hard to oust me.”
“Like that Scottish hamlet where you cheated at bingo?” he teased.
She gave him a look. It had been his fault she’d falsely called out “Bingo” and embarrassed herself.
He c
huckled, years of history wrapping around them, bringing them together once more. She pressed her hands against his chest, intending to give him a playful shove, a move to let him know everything was okay between them again. She got distracted by the firm muscles under her hands, the serious resistance his pectorals provided. She glanced up, their laughter suddenly dying, her palms still flat on his chest. She stepped back.
That was too close. Too zingy. Her arms tingled from the connection, the heat and attraction that had ripped through her like an invading army.
He brushed off her feeble apology, his cheeks pinker than they had been moments ago, his gaze suddenly shy.
“I need to get everyone organized,” she blurted, unable to meet his eyes.
Had he felt that? How could he not have? It took two to make a powerful jolt of attraction like that. Didn’t it?
And why had he turned red? Did he want her, too?
No. No, she was projecting.
None of it could have been real.
It was just that it had felt right. Incredibly right.
But they were friends and were not going down any other path.
Final answer.
She’d find a boyfriend to funnel all that physical need toward and all would be well.
She took a soothing breath as she turned to get everyone ready for their activity. From across the lobby Amber was giving her a sly smile. Great, now everyone would think their friendly exchange had been flirtatious in nature. That Nicola wanted to jump Todd’s bones and see if their years of history led to some serious world rocking. That she wanted to find out what a deep, sweet French kiss with him would be like.
Crap. She really needed a restraining system for her brain. Her imagination was getting way out of hand.
“Ready to get started?” she called to the group, struggling to focus on her job. “We decided to give these social nights a twist. In other words, you never know what you’ve signed up for until you arrive.”
She and Jill began handing out name tags to everyone. Her friends gave the stickers a funny look.
“We all know each other,” Amy Carrick, a Blueberry Springs local, pointed out. The story was that she’d changed careers a half-dozen times over the past few years and had a bit of a thing for Moe, Brew Babies’s bartender. Nicola was secretly hoping the two hit it off over some paintball tonight.