“You have a whole row to choose from, Maddie.”
She had no trouble recognizing Nick’s voice even if it had been nearly a week since she’d heard it—since the day he brought her home from his cabin and dropped her off with a muttered farewell.
Heat rose to her face, but the slow flush of memory at the wonder of making love to Nick was quickly burned away by the painful humiliation of his rejection. Play with fire, her conscience taunted, and Darcy swallowed, frozen in place despite a desperate urge to run.
On the other side of the aisle, the father-daughter argument continued. “You have to pick something, Maddie.”
“They’re all so boring.”
“Well, everyone else will be boring, too, because this is all they have.”
“Nuh-uh. Rachel has a folder with a unicorn on it and Bobby has one with a race car and—”
The little girl was still in the middle of her long list of friends with folders so much cooler than hers when Darcy finally started to move. Only she didn’t head for the door but around the end cap to the other side of the aisle. She had seen Maddie from a distance before, but up close Darcy noticed the girl’s resemblance to her gorgeous father. She had Nick’s dark hair and warm skin tone, but bright blue eyes that swam with tears.
And Nick...as much as she tried to harden her heart, it went out to the poor guy. He looked frazzled, the basket in front of him loaded with books, tablets of paper, folders, and more pens, markers and pencils than she thought a kid could go through in a lifetime.
But judging by the tension in his stance, the frustration in his broad shoulders, he and his daughter were nowhere close to done with the list Maddie clenched in her hand.
With his back to her, Darcy could have left without him knowing she’d witnessed the familial struggle. Thoughts of the dark-eyed vet had taunted her all the more since the day at his cabin, and more than once, she’d catch herself reaching for her shoulder. Not with the old, ingrained fear from that long-ago dog bite, but with the much more recent memory of his lips brushing across the faded scars there.
They’re scars, Darcy. Everyone has them—whether you can see them or not.
He was right, of course, everyone had scars. Even Nick. But he protected his gaping wounds by keeping people at a distance. Emotional distance, she thought, her body heating at the memory of making love, when they’d been as physically close as people could be.
But the misery in the little girl’s eyes called to her, and Clearville was a small town. She’d have to get used to seeing Nick around after having seen him naked. She’d been willing to take a chance, to risk her heart. That Nick wasn’t willing to take that same chance was his problem, not hers. She wasn’t going to slink around like a brokenhearted fool, not even if she was a brokenhearted fool.
She wasn’t unaware that her timing for running into Nick couldn’t have been worse. She was mentally and physically exhausted from working on her shop and she looked like hell, but no time like the present, right?
After wheeling her cart to within a few feet of theirs, she stepped around the basket. “Oh, excuse me.” Squeezing past the two Pirellis, Darcy broke some of the tension by positioning herself between them as she studied the colorful binders Maddie had declared boring. She could feel both sets of eyes—watery blue and solid brown—as she pretended to debate over the selection of binders.
“Darcy.”
Her name was a low growl, and hot chills raced down her spine as she remembered the last time he spoke her name like that. Against her lips, her jaw, her throat... Her body trembled at the memory even as she steeled herself to meet his gaze with a look of mock surprise. “Nick, hi. How are you guys doing?”
“We’re fine.” His slight stress on the first word told Darcy loud and clear to ignore whatever she’d overheard and to butt out, but if there was one thing she knew, it was how to make the customer happy.
“It’s so hard to choose, isn’t it?” she mused aloud. “I mean, green’s my favorite color, but look how pretty this purple one is. And then this pink one will match the colors of my shop perfectly.”
Digging the toe of her rainbow-colored tennis shoe into the store’s linoleum floor, the little girl muttered, “They’re just plain colors.”
“That’s what makes them so perfect. This way I can decorate them myself.”
In the silence that followed, Darcy feared the daughter might be as hard to crack as the father, but eventually Maddie asked, “Decorate how?”
“Any way I want. Like I think the pink one would be perfect covered in red hearts. And the green one is the same color as the grass at the park, so I’d probably cover it with all different flowers. And the purple one... Well, everything goes with purple.” Darcy nodded. “That settles it. Purple it is.”
She tucked the purple folder beneath her arm and hid a smile when Maddie reached for a purple folder of her own. It was crazy to feel a rush of pleasure as if she’d passed some kind of test in winning over the little girl. Especially when her efforts weren’t likely to win her any points with Nick....
“What kind of flowers and stuff?” Maddie asked.
“Well, you have everything you need already. You have glue and paper and markers. I bet you have stickers at home you could use or some pictures.”
“I could use the pictures from my trip to San Francisco, huh, Dad?”
“Why don’t you go take a look at the stickers?” Following her dad’s suggestion, Maddie rushed to the end of the aisle, shoes squeaking on the floors, to check out what the store had to offer.
Leaving Darcy alone with Nick.
The bravado that had carried her this far disappeared without Maddie to act as a buffer, and the intimacy they’d shared came rushing back. The need, the hunger, the vulnerability that had left her heart wide open and led to her total surrender in his arms.
Too late, the desire to bolt kicked in.
“I should—”
“Wait.” He caught her arm before she could turn away, the press of his fingers against her skin another reminder of his body sinking into hers. His dark gaze focused on her with enough scrutiny to make her squirm. But the uneasy buzz of nerves stilled, everything—her breath, her heartbeat—coming to a sudden stop as he reached up and touched her face.
“You look...tired.”
Reality slammed back into her, erasing the fantasy of Nick stroking her cheek and telling her she looked beautiful. She ducked away and brushed the side of her face against her shoulder, embarrassment flooding her as she wondered what streak of grit or grime hard work had left behind. She hoped the quick rub of her cotton T-shirt had gotten rid of whatever it was. Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything to erase the lingering feel of Nick’s fingertips against her skin.
“You’re being kind,” she said with a quick laugh. “I look like crap.”
“You look tired,” he repeated, and Darcy wanted nothing more than to rest her head against his chest and feel the strength of his arms around her. “Is everything okay?”
The vulnerability of her need had her hiding behind a smile she didn’t feel. “It’s fine. I’m fine.” His stare didn’t waver in the slightest, and Darcy felt sorry for Maddie should she ever try to get away with anything while under her dad’s watchful eye. “I just had a bit of a run-in with my landlord.”
The teasing comments she’d made didn’t seem so funny now that Darcy had a good idea why the spot kept losing renters. “I thought I had everything worked out in the contract, but then Mrs. Leary stopped by and—”
“The Learys are your landlords?” Nick asked with a frown, and Darcy immediately realized her mistake.
From what she’d heard, the Learys, like Nick’s family, had lived in Clearville for generations, and she wondered how badly she’d stuck her foot in her mouth. “You’d think I’d have learned by now. Small town, right? You know them. Of course you know them. Your families go back for decades, and you’ve all been friends for years—”
His sudden snort
cut off her words. “I know I haven’t made the best impression on you, but at least give the rest of my family some credit. We have a history with the Learys, but it’s not a friendly one.”
It took a moment for the rest of his words to sink in. Darcy had gotten caught on the phrase I haven’t made the best impression on you and the hint of regret she’d heard in his tone.
“So what did Marlene want?”
“I’m not sure,” she told Nick. “When I first looked into renting the spot, I met with Mr. Leary who, honestly, didn’t seem to care what I did with the space as long as I paid my rent on time. But then—”
“You met Marlene.”
Darcy nodded. She’d been almost finished working for the day, having torn up the existing scuffed and dented baseboards, pulled out dozens of nails left behind as souvenirs from previous shopkeepers and patched and prepped the walls for paint. She’d felt as limp and wilted as the damp bandanna she’d been using to hold back her hair from her face when Marlene Leary had unexpectedly dropped by.
Darcy had explained how the details of the remodeling were all written into the contract she’d signed, but that hadn’t been good enough. So she told the woman about the changes she had planned.
About the fresh color scheme—a contrast between soft, sweet pink and strong, sophisticated black. About the tables at the front of the store, loaded with testers for customers to try as soon as they stepped inside. About the front window display she wanted to decorate like a romantic, old-fashioned dressing room rather than the cold, clinical feel of a department store beauty counter. And about the vintage crystal chandelier she’d found at The Hope Chest...
Caught up in her own excitement, Darcy had slowly realized Marlene Leary wasn’t embracing her vision. If anything, the woman’s frown had darkened. “Vintage,” she sniffed. “I’ll never understand how Hope Daniels has stayed in business selling other people’s unwanted castoffs.”
Unwanted castoffs...
If she hadn’t been so tired, Darcy was sure the woman’s comment would have bounced harmlessly aside. After all, her mother had raised her to be tougher than that. But Alanna was gone, and after days of feeling that loss so keenly, Marlene Leary’s words had struck a painful blow at Darcy’s greatest vulnerability.
Unwanted—that was how she’d always felt knowing her father had walked away before she was born. And Aaron had cast her off quickly enough when he feared the truth surrounding her birth might become a liability to his political career.
And then there was Nick...
“You should have called me,” he said.
“What?”
“If you needed help, you should have called me.”
Too startled by his comment, she couldn’t help blurting out, “Why would I call you, Nick?”
He flinched as if struck by her words, but nothing in the way they had left things made her think he wanted to hear from her. “Darcy, I—”
“Don’t.” Cutting off what she was sure was an apology, she whispered, “You don’t have to feel guilty, Nick. We both knew what we were doing.”
Shivers streaked up her arm as he stroked his thumb against her flesh, making her question the truth in her words even before he cryptically asked, “Did we?”
Fortunately, Maddie broke the moment as she raced over, stumbling over her colorful shoes and scattering the packets of stickers across the scuffed linoleum. Her face turned bright red as she dropped to her knees and scrambled to pick up the stickers.
Eager to focus on something other than Nick, Darcy eased away from his touch, a little surprised he hadn’t pulled away from her the moment Maddie turned back toward them. As she bent down to help, memories of her own childhood as the shy, awkward new girl who never really fit in came to mind, and Darcy’s heart went out to Nick’s daughter.
“You know,” she said in a quiet murmur, “I drop stuff all the time.”
“Really?”
“Really,” she confided with a wink that brought a smile to the girl’s face.
“Will these— Do you think these stickers will work?”
Glancing through the plastic packages at a mix of all things girlie, she said, “I think those will be perfect. You’ll have a folder that will be just for you, decorated with all your favorite things.”
Maddie beamed as she dropped the stickers and folder into the basket, and Nick asked, “Now can we finish with the rest of this list? I’d like to have this shopping done by the time you’re ready to graduate.”
“Dad—” his daughter sighed with an exaggerated rolling of her eyes “—I’m only eight!”
“So I keep telling myself,” he said wryly. “Now, thank Ms. Dawson for her help and let her get back to her shopping.”
“Thanks, Ms.— Hey.” Maddie’s eyes lit as she glanced between Darcy and her father. “Are you the lady with the puppies?”
Darcy managed a laugh, still somewhat amazed that she had a houseful of dogs, never mind that it was something she was evidently known for. She wouldn’t go so far as to say she’d conquered her fear, but she’d made some pretty big strides, especially with the puppies. They were so cute and clumsy she couldn’t help letting down her guard. Just starting to take their first stumbling steps, they frequently fell on their faces or tumbled over one another.
She’d read online about using a small plastic kiddie pool to keep the puppies contained and to help with cleaning up after them, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Bo—the smallest yet most adventurous of the four—made a break for the outside world.
“I’m the lady with the puppies, but you can call me Darcy.”
“My dad told me all about the puppies.”
“Did he?” Darcy murmured, glancing at Nick, who responded with an almost guilty shrug. It was a sure bet the little girl wanted a puppy—something Nick might have mentioned to Darcy since she had four of them in need of good homes.
“They’re so cute when they’re little, but they’ll be bigger before you know it,” the little girl said with a wise-beyond-her-years awareness. “Then you’ll have all kinds of things to teach them. Like how to fetch and roll over and shake. Oh, and how to walk on a leash ’cause you have to show ’em how. They don’t just know how to do that on their own.” She wrinkled her nose. “You have to clean up after them, too. That’s not the fun part.” Maddie sighed. “Puppies are a big responsibility.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out where Maddie had heard that phrase. Leave it to Nick to point out the responsibility. Still, Darcy found something so endearing about seeing his strong, serious features reflected in such a dainty, feminine girl even though she hoped that wasn’t the only reason why she felt such a pull toward the little girl.
No, it was more than simply seeing Nick in his daughter. Maddie was definitely her own person with her own ideas as she proved by asking her father, “Can we go see the puppies? Please, please, please.”
As Nick gazed down at his daughter’s adorable, upturned face, Darcy’s breath caught in her chest as she waited for his response. Self-preservation urged her to step in, to put an end to the possibility of spending any more time with Nick. But her foolish heart echoed Maddie’s words. Please, please, please.
But Nick was made of stronger stuff, and he shook his head. “Not tonight. We’re having a family dinner at my parents,” he said by way of explanation as he met Darcy’s gaze over his daughter’s head. “We try to get together once a week. Sometimes it’s only a few of us. Other times we have a houseful.”
“Sounds fun,” Darcy replied with what she figured was a weak smile. Theirs had never been a large family, but she and her mother had spent plenty of time seated at their small table, sharing stories about how their days had gone. She could have used one of those family dinners right about now. How she would love to have someone to pour out her heart to about her conflicted feelings for the man in front of her!
“Loud is how it usually sounds,” Nick corrected. “Lots of arguing but lots of laugh
ter, too.” He shifted his feet as if weighing a decision, the shopping cart squeaking as its wheels inched forward and back again. “We, um, need to get going. We have to pick up dessert on the way.”
“From Aunt Debbie’s bakery?” Maddie asked, her disappointment over the puppies assuaged by the promise of dessert.
“Yeah, from Debbie’s.”
Nick’s gaze sliced toward Darcy and then cut away, but the quick glance was enough to make her wonder. Did Nick have something going on with the pretty blonde baker? Yet how did that fit in with his speech about how Maddie was his first priority and he didn’t have time to start any kind of relationship?
“She’s not really my aunt like Aunt Sophia is,” Maddie explained, “but she said I could call her that.”
“That’s...nice.”
And it was. It spoke to the close relationship Debbie Mattson had with the Pirellis...and Nick.
Swallowing hard, Darcy forced a smile. “Well, I’ll let you go then. Maddie, it was nice meeting you. Enjoy your dinner.”
“You, too,” he said automatically, and Darcy did her best to hold her head high and ignore the way his gaze dropped to the somewhat pathetic, single-serving frozen dinner sitting in her basket as she wheeled her cart away.
Chapter Nine
It didn’t take a genius to realize he’d blown it with Darcy big-time.
For one afternoon, she’d made Nick forget his responsibilities, his doubts, his insecurities as a divorced, single father. With her in his arms, he’d simply been a man making love to a sassy, sexy, sensual woman who made him feel more awake and alive than he had in years.
And then the camp counselor had called, and all those responsibilities, doubts and insecurities came crashing back down. He’d rushed Darcy out of the house as if she were someone to be ashamed of. She’d given him those golden, glorious hours in her arms, and he’d tarnished them in minutes.
And he’d hurt her doing it.
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