by Jess Bryant
He held his breath but it wasn’t Kady that rounded the corner. His smile fell. It was a pretty blonde, around the right age, and she was nearly as familiar to him as Kady was. She’d been one of his closest friends when he was a kid, Kady’s best friend, but the way she shook her head as she marched up to him, and the set of her face told him that this wasn’t going to be a happy reunion.
“Nick.” She offered up a small smile.
“Hey, Holly.” He leaned down to hug her when she opened her arms.
Shane’s first wife was a nurse too. She and Kady worked together. He should have known they did. They had back before he left and things didn’t change much in towns like Fate. The two of them had been practically inseparable and considering that Holly was no doubt here to act as Kady’s bodyguard now didn’t surprise him either. She’d always been a good friend to Kady, just as Shane had been a good friend to him. The four of them had all gone their separate ways but that didn’t mean they weren’t still friends.
“It’s nice to see you. Shane told me you were coming back. Have to say I wasn’t nearly as surprised as he was.” Holly leaned back and gave him a knowing look, “I always thought you’d come back for her eventually.”
“I never should’ve left.”
“No. You shouldn’t have.” Holly sighed, “But you were young. We were all young once and we made our mistakes. It’s how we try to fix them that defines us. At least I hope so.”
“Look at you, all full of motherly style advice.” He chuckled and Holly wrinkled her nose.
“If you say I’m older and wiser now I’ll gut punch you.” She grinned and he chuckled before she shook her head again, “I really am sorry Nick.”
He’d known it was coming but it still felt like that punch she’d promised, “She doesn’t want to see me.”
“No. She doesn’t.”
“I need to talk to her.”
“I think, maybe, for right now, you should be worrying more about what she needs, Nick.” Holly gripped his arm and squeezed reassuringly, “Give her some time.”
“I’ve already wasted so much though…”
“Just, think of it this way. You’ve had weeks, months even, to think about this. You were in recovery and then you put in notice at work. You sold your place in Dallas. You put a lot of time and thought into coming back here and being with her. But she just found out about all that last week. She needs some time to think, Nick. You have to give her that.”
He ran a hand through his hair. Holly was right. Of course, she was. If Kady needed time, he had to give her time. He couldn’t force her to just accept his apology and be okay with him barging back into her life. He sighed.
“She doesn’t just need time though, does she?” He frowned, “She needs to know that I’m not going anywhere this time. That I’m sticking around.”
Holly gave him a small smile, “Probably wouldn’t hurt.”
“Okay.” He nodded, “Then tell her I’ll be back tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. I’m not going to stop coming after her. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here waiting for her when she’s ready to talk to me.”
Holly nodded, a hint of a smile playing on her lips, “I’ll tell her.”
“And here. Give her these. You two can share. It’s cheeseburgers and fries from the diner. Her favorite.” He held the sack out.
“Oooh. Nick Sloan.” Holly grabbed the bag, “You trying to buy your way into our hearts?”
He chuckled, “If I have to, sure.”
Holly winked, “See you tomorrow, Nick.”
“See you tomorrow.”
He turned and left the hospital after watching Holly disappear back around the corner and out of sight. He wanted to go after her. He wanted to go find Kady and insist she see him. But Holly was right. This wasn’t about him. This was about Kady and what she needed and if she needed him to prove that he wouldn’t give up, he could do that.
He stepped back out onto the curb and scowled at the police cruiser sitting in the emergency lane, “What the hell?”
Connor grinned at him through the open window, “I figured it wouldn’t take long for her to kick you out so I thought I’d be nice and pick you up so you don’t have to do the walk of shame.”
“Shut up.”
Connor laughed, “Get in loser.”
Nick snorted but did as he was told. The Shaw siblings were going to be the death of him. But God if he didn’t love them.
4
Kady tipped the beer bottle up to her lips, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of the cold liquid went down. There wasn’t anything quite like an ice-cold Shiner to soothe the soul. She opened her eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful that she had the kind of good friends that knew when she needed a good beer and a good time to distract her.
She needed to get out of her own head. It had been a long strange week. She was stressed and distracted and in her line of work that was dangerous.
A night out with the girls was exactly what the doctor prescribed.
She wished that Holly could have gotten away but she understood why her best friend couldn’t come out with her. Holly had children to take care of. She had a man to go home to at night. Holly had a life and Kady had promised herself a long time ago that she would never hold it against Holly that she’d found all of the things Kady most longed for in her own life.
Besides, it wasn’t as if she was alone. She had the other girls. And Lord knew they were experts at having a good time.
Tamara said something she didn’t quite catch and Victoria and Angela laughed loudly. Kady grinned over the top of her beer. She loved these ladies.
She’d known Tamara since she first started working at the hospital and they’d become quick friends. Tamara was single and childless, like Kady, a rarity in a town as small as Fate. Unlike Kady, she’d been married before but was divorced now and in her own words, she intended to make up for all the wasted time she’d spent with her asshole ex.
She was a lot like the wild little sister Kady had never had.
Doctor Victoria Sands-Evans was the older and wiser sister by comparison. She had a picture-perfect life. A gorgeous husband that adored her, a mini-me little girl and an adorable cherub baby boy, a chocolate lab, a big house on the hill and a white picket fence. Kady had never thought she would call the doctor a friend but once she’d started working shifts with her at the hospital, she’d realized that the ice princess veneer Victoria wore wasn’t about being superior so much as shyness. They’d grown close over the last couple of years and she truly valued Victoria’s insight and advice.
Angela was the newest member of their little girl gang, having only moved to Fate a couple of years ago to be closer to her family and though she could be stern and unbending, that was one of the things Kady loved about her. In a lot of ways, Angela was like a surrogate mother to her and all of the younger girls on staff. But that didn’t keep her from going out drinking and dancing with them, usually leading the way when the inevitable call for shots began.
They were good friends. Great friends. So much more than just work friends. She loved them for always having her back and knowing what she needed even when she wasn’t sure herself. It had been Angela that held Nick at bay at the hospital day after day this week and it had been Victoria and Tamara, along with Holly, that had played interference for her so that she didn’t have to face him.
And just like that, her mind was back on Nick and her good mood slipped.
When he’d shown back up and surprised her that day, she’d sworn that she would avoid him for the rest of her life if need be. Now, just a week later, she found herself wavering. She hadn’t even spoken to him, not really. Just seeing him was enough to make her heart ache for all the things he’d taken away from her, from them.
A part of her had hoped he would leave her alone once he realized she wasn’t going to leap back into his arms. Another part of her, a bigger part of her she was realizing, had hoped he wo
uld put proof into his words and commit to winning her back. That part of her had found herself watching the clock every day this week, her blood pounding harder through her veins as it inched closer to the lunch hour. She’d nearly chewed her fingers to the quick waiting to see if he would show up again even though she continued to turn him away.
And he had.
Every day, he’d shown up at the hospital with lunch in hand and asked her to share a meal with him. She’d mostly avoided him, using her friends as bodyguards. When she hadn’t been able to avoid him, she’d told him to go away and leave her alone. Yet every day, he came back for more, taking a seat in the small lobby on her floor and eating his lunch alone, or sometimes giving what he’d brought her to Holly if she sat to chat with him for a bit.
Kady knew it was silly to be jealous of her friend for that since she was the one that sent Holly out to see him on her behalf, but she was. Holly had a man at home. She and Nick had always been friends, because she’d been with Shane when Kady was with Nick and those two boys had been inseparable. It was how she and Holly had grown so close. But even when Holly came back from those impromptu lunches with intel on Nick that Kady soaked up impatiently, she still found herself annoyed it was her friend that got to sit opposite him and earn his smiles and his laughs.
She was a mess. She knew that. Nick made her a mess. He always had. Which was why she needed to figure out what she was going to do about him.
Connor told she was crazy to even consider giving Nick a second chance. Holly told her she’d be crazy not to. And she wasn’t sure which of them was right, just that this current state of limbo between them, of his pursuit and her constant avoidance couldn’t continue because it was slowly driving her crazy anyway.
She loved her brother. He was one of her closest friends. He understood better than anyone what Nick had put her through when he left. She had to take Connor’s opinion into consideration. He’d seen the damage Nick did. He’d idolized Nick back then, looked up to him like the big brother he’d never had and when he’d left, he’d hurt Connor too. She thought, maybe, Connor was dealing with his own issues when it came to Nick being back and being partnered with him. He was biased and she could admit that even if he wanted only the best for her that he might not be thinking completely clearly when it came to her situation with Nick for many reasons.
Even still, as much as she loved the girls and hanging out with them, she wished that Connor could have come with them tonight. Nobody served as a distraction better than Connor. It was a gift really. He had an ability to take one look at her and know she was getting lost in her thoughts and pull her out. He would make a joke that would crack her up or he’d drag her to the dance floor for some stupid line dance. But Connor had his class reunion tonight, which meant he was dealing with his own issues.
He wouldn’t talk to her about it but she knew he had someone that twisted him up into knots too. He did nothing but complain about her, about how crazy and delusional she was, but Kady saw through his annoyance to the anger and pain that lurked beneath. Tonight, he’d be in the same room with her and he’d no doubt go home alone and be in a hurricane of a mood for the next few days after seeing her with someone else. It was always the same with him and Kady worried about him. He didn’t want her to worry about him though. That was why he’d never confessed his feelings for the girl. So Kady let it go and stayed out of it even when she wanted to jerk the girl aside and smack some sense into her.
“Oh my God.”
It was Tamara’s thick drawl that managed to pull Kady out of her thoughts and she blinked, looking around. Her friend was frowning and Victoria and Angela were whispering something to one another as they shot glances at the bar. Her own gaze followed theirs, looking for the source of the sudden shift in mood, already knowing what she was going to see even before her eyes found him among the crowd.
Nick was here. She bit her lip when her heart automatically squeezed at the mere sight of him. Of course, he was here. He seemed to be everywhere she went these days. But dammit did he always have to look so good?
She’d seen him plenty of times since he returned to Fate. Too many times really because she’d been trying like hell to avoid him. But this was the first time that she’d seen him out of uniform and Lordy, she’d somehow forgotten the justice the man did to a pair of jeans and a pearl-snap shirt.
Without the ugly brown Sheriff’s Department uniform distracting from his natural good looks, he took her breath away even from across the room. He’d rolled the sleeves of the pear-snap up his forearms revealing the suntanned skin and dark hair, the bulging muscles that had always made her a little lightheaded. Some girls liked pecs or abs but Kady had a thing for a man’s forearms. Strong and sinewy and sexy as hell, she liked to imagine what it would feel like to have those arms around her.
The problem was, with Nick she didn’t have to wonder. She knew. She knew how strong those arms were, knew how softly they would hold her, knew the sense of safety she felt in them. She knew what it was like to fall asleep wrapped in those arms and worse, she knew what it was like to wake up without them around her.
As if he could sense her as easily as she still sensed him, his dark eyes flicked up and caught her watching him. His brows knit together momentarily as his gaze took in her tablemates and when they settled on her again his face softened. A small smile slid upwards and her stomach flipped.
He leaned over and said something to the man at his side and Kady bit her lip when Shane Lowry glanced her way as well. She hadn’t doubted for a second that the dark-haired man at Nick’s side was his oldest friend in the world. If Nick was out and about, it was only logical that it would be Shane keeping him company, especially since Shane’s wife was off on her latest tour and it was Holly’s night to have their kids. She supposed a night out with his buddy had sounded better to Shane than a night at home alone so she didn’t even blame him for coming here if Holly had mentioned this was where she would be.
Damn matchmakers, the both of them.
The two men started towards her table and she found it hard to breathe. She’d known it was inevitable. But she’d thought they would play it cool for at least a few minutes before heading her way.
“What do you want us to do?” Tamara leaned towards her.
“I’ll tell them to get lost.” Victoria chimed in.
Angela glared at the men but nodded, “You just say the word.”
She shook her head. It was too late for that. Avoiding them would get her nowhere. Just like avoiding Nick at the hospital all week hadn’t gotten her anywhere. He was still here in Fate and he was still coming for her. Just as he’d said he would.
“Ladies.” Shane grinned his easy-going smile at them, “How are ya’ll doing tonight?”
“We’re just fine, Sheriff.” Victoria spoke up, “Having a girl’s night out. Just us girls.”
Kady bit her lip to hide a smirk. God, she loved that woman. The way she stressed the word girls both times was all the message any of them needed. In her own sweet, polite way, she was telling the boys to go away.
“I can see that.” Shane only continued to smile, “Austin at home with those cute babies of yours tonight?”
“He sure is.” Victoria drawled, “Too bad it wasn’t your night with your own babies, Shane. Maybe Holly could’ve come out with us for girl’s night.”
Shane chuckled, “Mine ain’t so much babies anymore.”
“Teenagers.” Nick grinned at his friend and shivered, “Terrifying.”
Everyone at the table chuckled except for Kady. She couldn’t seem to find her funny bone. Not when Nick was standing just a few feet away from her. Everything inside of her felt tense and nervous, agitated, and she knew that despite the fact Nick looked relaxed as could be that he must be feeling it too.
Everything fell silent for a moment. The bar around them was still loud. The music was still playing. But nobody at her table said anything and the tension began to mount.
Shane fi
nally cleared his throat, “Dance with me, Kady.”
She knew her relief must have been obvious on her face and she didn’t care. She’d needed a way out. She needed away. Even if she’d always considered Shane more of Nick’s friend than her own, even if she’d long ago joked that she got Holly in the divorce and Shane was stuck with Nick, she wanted to hug Shane Lowry in that moment for putting her out of her misery.
“Sure.” She took his outstretched hand and let him lead her onto the dance floor.
He spun her quickly and then pulled her back in to a respectable distance, making her grin as he led her into the first step. Kady followed his lead and was shocked to find he was a very good dancer. Better than her that was for sure, but she supposed that might just be because her mind was elsewhere.
“Did Lemon teach you how to dance?” She grinned up at him.
“What makes you think my wife taught me these moves?”
“Because you certainly didn’t have them when you married your first wife.” Kady giggled when he growled and spun her out again dramatically and she laughed louder when he did a fancy double step and then fell back into step easily. “You and Holly could barely sway to the same beat back then.”
“Mmm.” He gave a small nod, “We were never quite as in sync as we should have been. That probably should’ve been the first clue we were better friends than we were a couple.”
“But you made some damn cute kids.”
Shane chuckled, “That we did.”
“And you and Lemon?” She raised an eyebrow but Shane shook his head.
“We’ve got our hands full juggling the girls, our life together and her career. We’re happy with our family, just the way it is.”
“I’m glad, Shane.” She offered softly and when he looked down at her she smiled, “It’s nice to see you happy again. It’s been a long time.”
Shane smiled in return as he moved them across the dance floor. It was only when the music transitioned to a new song that Shane cleared his throat. He didn’t stop dancing but he did look down and meet her eyes again.
