by Jen Gilroy
“Atta girl.” Charlie gave Mia a thumbs-up.
“I also talked to Allison, Nick’s colleague. She was reassuring, but she said we can’t make a move unless Jay does something concrete.”
“Allison Pelletier’s great.” Charlie levered herself off the table to loop an arm through Sean’s. “Behind that angelic face she’s a real kick-ass woman. After I deliver this baby, I’d be happy to kick that bullying rat of an ex-husband of yours right where it would hurt most. Sean and I are here if you need us.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.” Charlie cradled her enormous belly covered in a white-embroidered maternity top, a vintage gem also from Gabrielle’s closet. “A loan, a safe place to stay. Whatever you need, it’s yours.”
“Thank you.” Mia met her brother-in-law’s steady gaze.
Sean was a good man who looked out for his family, and that family had expanded to include her. He’d become the brother she’d never had, the brother of her heart. Like Nick, he was in her corner, no question.
“Hey, gorgeous pregnant lady.” Nick appeared at Charlie’s side and gave her a quick hug. “Are you one of the models tonight?”
“Get your hands off my wife.” Sean gave Nick a mock glare.
Charlie chuckled. “I’m only the MC, but my stylish sister said I needed to look the part.”
“Hey, princess.” Nick’s voice was low and, as he turned to Mia, his gaze changed from teasing to something hot and dark that made her breath short and remember the bad boy he’d once been.
“Nicolas McGuire.” She moved away from Charlie and Sean toward the little vestibule at the entrance to the hall.
He raised an eyebrow as he followed her. “Mia Connell.”
“It’s Gibbs again.” At least it would be once the official paperwork was done. Even though the girls would keep Connell, losing Jay’s name gave her back part of herself. One more step to being her own woman.
His expression changed. “Mia Gibbs.” In his mellow baritone, the name she hadn’t used in so many years sounded like it belonged to someone else. “Amelia Gibbs.”
“No.” Her stomach muscles clenched.
“Okay.” Nick’s voice was steady. “You’ve always been Mia to me.” His gaze caught hers and held.
Or princess. The word he didn’t say hung between them. Except, she didn’t want to be a princess either, locked in a castle and shut away from the world. She dredged a smile. “Jay calls me Amelia, and I don’t like it.”
“Mia Gibbs it is.” He dug in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out an envelope. “I have something for you.”
“What?” She eyed the envelope he held out.
“A check for the work you’ve done for my mom so far.”
She fumbled with the flap and took out the thin slip of paper. “It’s too much, more than we agreed. I can’t take it.”
“You’ve already done much more for Mom than we agreed. She told me you mended the slipcovers on the living room chairs and steam-cleaned the rug. You polished all that old silver. You make snacks for her all day long. You even arranged for the piano to be tuned and paid for it.”
“That piano’s a beautiful instrument. I don’t think it’s been tuned in fifteen years.” She folded the check in half and her hands shook. “It’s a privilege for me to be able to play such an instrument, and it’s a crime not to maintain it. As for everything else, if I see something that needs doing to help your mom, of course, I’ll do it. She doesn’t like big meals, but snacks will help her get her strength back just the same. It’s what I did for my mother.”
“It isn’t fair for you to not be paid for the work you do. Sure, it’s for my mom, but it’s also business.” Nick’s expression softened. “You have a good heart, but if you’re not careful, people will take advantage of you.”
They already had and she’d let them. But this was different, and not only because it was for Gabrielle. Mia fingered the check. She needed the money. Naomi and Emma needed things this money would buy. The extras Jay’s child support didn’t stretch to cover.
“You wouldn’t take advantage of me,” Mia said.
Like Sean, Nick was a good man and an honest one.
“No, which is why I insist you take this check and cash it.” He covered her hand with his and gave it a brief squeeze. “Like you’ll cash the check I’ll give you next week and the week after that until your work at Harbor House is done.”
Mia’s heart pinched. He was right. Despite what she felt for Gabrielle, it was a job. Somehow, though, she’d lost sight of the job and the business arrangement, swamped by the new feelings she had for Nick. “Okay.” She tried to smile. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” He gave her hand another squeeze.
Footsteps pounded on the linoleum, and Kylie bounced to a stop in front of them. “Nick. Did you see me?”
“Sure did.” Nick pointed to her hair. “How could I miss you?”
“Great, isn’t it? Too bad the dye washes out.” Her green eyes sparkled. “Mia told me fashion is all about creating your style and being you.”
“Nobody could ever say you weren’t you,” Nick said.
“Mia helped me. Do you know she used to model, like for real?” She bounced like her feet were on springs.
“Yes.” Nick’s smile was tight.
Kylie looked at Mia, and her green eyes were softer in the muted light of the vestibule. “She even won beauty pageants.”
“Back then, Mia was the prettiest girl anybody around here had ever seen. The prettiest girl in the whole state, some said, when she was crowned Queen of the Fishing Derby.” Nick looked at the worn floor.
Mia gritted her teeth as the past crashed in on her. “None of that was real. It was fun, sure.” A lie, but she couldn’t destroy the excitement in Kylie’s face. “Girls today have lots more choices.”
“Really?” Kylie stuck her thumb in her mouth, the childish gesture at odds with her tough-girl demeanor.
“Absolutely. You don’t have to choose what someone else wants for you. Or the first thing you think you want, either. You need to take the time to figure out what’s right for you.” Which Mia hadn’t done, and she’d paid for it in heartbreak.
“Maybe I could be a hairdresser.” Kylie gave a little twirl. “Or I could work in a restaurant. I like to cook.” Her grin popped out.
“Mia likes to cook too,” Nick said.
Mia stiffened. A faded beauty queen and a domestic goddess. Was that how he saw her?
“I used to cook for my mom and brother.” Kylie’s smile slipped away. “Before my brother went away.”
“Went away how?” Nick’s voice sharpened.
“He got himself killed. In a car accident. Last summer.” Kylie fingered the ruffles on her dress. “He was racing with some friends, and they crashed into a guardrail on the freeway.”
“Sweetie, I’m so sorry.” Mia moved closer to Kylie.
“Dylan did some bad stuff, but he was still my brother.” Kylie pressed a fist to her chest.
“Of course he was.” Nick moved to Kylie’s other side. “Maybe if Dylan had had someone to help him make better choices, he wouldn’t have done the bad stuff. I did some bad stuff when I was a teenager, but I was lucky because my mom never turned her back on me.”
So he’d never turn his back on Gabrielle. She reached behind the girl for Nick’s hand. He was motionless for a second before his fingers curled around hers.
“There are people who care about you, Kylie,” she said.
Nick’s touch sent heat ricocheting through Mia’s body, and the hair on her arms stood up.
“Your social worker for a start. And the staff at Camp Rainbow. They’ll help you make good choices. Trust them.”
“People pretend they care but then they let you down. I’ve had five social workers in three years. One retired, one got pregnant, one moved out of state, and the other two got transferred.” Kylie shoved Nick and Mia aside, and the sullen expression was back on her
face. “The camp counselors are okay, but it’s not like they’ll stick around for me either.”
“Hold on a second.” Nick’s hip bumped against Mia’s thigh. His big body was solid, and her face heated. “You still need to give people a chance. Sometimes they can surprise you.”
“Yeah, right.” Kylie’s expression said she was mad at the world, had been let down too often in her twelve years, and was scared of being hurt again.
Mia tightened her grip on Nick’s hand, and he pulled her into the shelter of his muscular side. “While you’re here, the staff at Camp Rainbow can help. They’re good people. You can talk to them whenever you need to and about whatever you want.”
“They’re paid to talk to me. It’s their job. Not like you. I bet you tuck your girls into bed at night, even Naomi.” Kylie crossed her arms.
“I’m their mother.” Except, in the curve of Nick’s shoulder, with the clean cotton smell of his T-shirt, his crisp aftershave and a musky scent that was all male, she didn’t feel like a mom. She felt like a woman. A desirable, sexy woman.
“See? That’s what I mean. You cook nice things for them to eat and make sure they have the right stuff to wear so other girls won’t laugh at them.” Strands of pink hair fell onto Kylie’s forehead and hid her eyes. “You love Naomi and Emma because you’re their mom. They’re the most important people in the whole world to you, and you’d never go away and leave them. Ever, no matter what, even if they fucked up or you did.”
Nick sucked in a breath, imperceptible, but enough to make Mia’s body cool. Kylie was right. Once you got the mom role, it was who you were forever. And she was a single mom, which was an even bigger job.
“Kylie, I—”
“Whatever.” Kylie shoved the hair out of her eyes. “I gotta go change. The Camp Rainbow staff is taking us to the diner for burgers before the show. Just like one big, happy family.” She raised her hand in a mocking salute then turned on her heel and was gone in a froth of pink ruffles and a whole lot of attitude.
“You need to get ready for the show.” Nick uncurled his hand from Mia’s and stepped away.
“I do, but what you said to Kylie was great.” Mia twisted her hands together. She missed Nick’s touch, wanted and needed it like she’d never, not even at first, needed Jay’s.
A pulse worked in Nick’s jaw beneath the dark stubble. “As someone who also, to quote Kylie, ‘fucked up,’ who am I to dish out advice?”
“Maybe that makes you the best person of all.”
“I’m not a family guy. Never have been and never will be.”
“From what your mom told me, you helped raise your sisters.”
Nick gave a harsh laugh. “Because my dad skipped out and never looked back except to throw money at us. Money he probably got illegally from his so-called business investments, the con man.” He turned, and the sunlight from the pocket window in the vestibule slashed across his face like bars. “Don’t make me out to be someone I’m not.” He reached out and touched the curve of Mia’s face, the faint caress both a promise and a threat.
Mia flinched. Unlike Jay, who’d been smooth and charming but, in the end, full of lies, Nick was honest and real, heartbreakingly so. “I know who you are.”
“Then why do you keep pretending you don’t?” Nick’s expression changed, and the shaft of sunlight changed too and softened the hard angles of his face. He touched her face again like he couldn’t help it.
Mia’s stomach knotted. Despite her brave resolutions, she wanted him. Wanted him in a way far beyond her teenage crush that had been stunted before it had a chance to grow. “Nick, I know you think—”
“Forget it.” His blue eyes darkened. “I have.”
Except, Mia hadn’t and someday soon she’d have to face the truth and stop pretending. Stop lying to him and to herself.
Part of standing up for herself and being independent was standing up to her past.
All of it.
Nick stretched in a vain effort to get comfortable on the folding metal chair. He was squeezed between Sean and Josh Tremblay, from Tremblay & Sons Plumbing and Heating and, despite the air conditioners wedged into the windows, the town hall was stuffy.
He wanted to get on his bike. Tear up the highway around the lake or head over to Burlington. He’d ride the big Harley until the buzzing in his head stopped and he’d tamed the restlessness that made him chafe at the confines of his life. Confines he’d put there.
Except, he’d sold the bike years ago, part of his campaign to turn himself into the man a woman like Isobel wanted. To get as far away as possible from Brian McGuire’s son, the wild kid who’d given his mom too many sleepless nights and who the cops came after first and asked questions of later.
On the temporary runway in front of him, Cat walked with Luc Simard, who’d been four years behind him in school. Their grandmother’s wedding dress trailed behind her as Cat swayed in time to an old song about a bicycle built for two.
Nick whistled, which earned him a glare from his mom two rows over. “Sorry,” he mouthed as Cat laughed.
Her blue eyes shone like they used to when she was little, and her smooth, blond hair gleamed in the overhead light. The serious expression she usually wore was absent as she looked up at Luc.
“This place is packed. There are folks here from all across the state as well as lots of tourists. Who’d have thought there’d be such a heatwave the one night we’re all crammed in here like sardines in a can?” Sean wiped a hand across his brow and leaned forward to smile at Charlie, who stood silhouetted in a spotlight, a microphone in one hand and a framed photo of Beatrice McKellar Gibbs propped on an easel beside her.
Mia and Charlie’s mom had been a beautiful woman, but Mia was more beautiful still.
Nick searched the stage to find her, the need as surprising as it was sharp. Except she’d stayed backstage to orchestrate the show out of sight, not front and center like Isobel would have been. “We’ll sure raise a lot of money for the health center.”
“They’re wrapping up,” Sean said, as the Partridge Family’s first hit, “I Think I Love You,” echoed from the speakers. “The girls from Camp Rainbow are the last. It was a genius idea getting those kids involved and—”
“Whoa.” From Nick’s other side, Josh broke in, and there was a collective intake of breath.
Nick’s chin jerked up. Mia stood five feet in front of him, one hand on her hip and the other holding Kylie’s arm. The girl stared into the audience and trembled like a frightened rabbit in the bright lights.
A white beaded minidress sculpted Mia’s small breasts and almost pushed them out of the halter neckline. Outlined in smoky black, her dark eyes smoldered. Beneath the short skirt, her legs finished at a pair of high-heeled white sandals with jeweled straps that flashed silver in the light. Her tongue darted out to moisten her full lips, and Nick bit back a groan.
“You think she’d go out with me?” Josh asked. “I could get her a real good deal on a new furnace. I’d even throw in free parts and labor and a five-year, free maintenance plan.”
Nick swung around and fought an unexpected urge to take a fist to Josh’s blameless face. “You’re too young for her.”
“Only a few years, and some women like younger men.” Josh raised a hand. “Relax. I got you two are friends. I didn’t know she was your woman.”
“She’s not…” Nick stopped.
“Okay.” Josh searched Nick’s face. “But she’s a nice woman and you better do right by her.”
Nick bit back another groan. Josh was right. Mia was nice—too nice—and she’d already been hurt. She deserved a guy like Josh, a divorced dad with a son going into sixth grade, who could be a real father to her girls.
A guy like Josh could even give her another kid. Josh wasn’t flawed. He hadn’t sat in a doctor’s office and been told he’d been shooting blanks since forever. Nick balled his hands into fists as Mia walked the runway, Kylie still glued to her like one of the leeches that plagued
the bays along the eastern side of Firefly Lake.
Except, he only had eyes for Mia. How the dress outlined each curve of her body with every sway of her sexy hips and how the skin of her bare shoulders was luminous in the light. How a curl of hair had escaped from its complicated twist to brush her jaw.
He didn’t love Mia. He didn’t even think he loved her. It was one of those songs his mom and her friends had listened to when they were young. But as David Cassidy and the Partridge Family started again and the audience clapped along as the Camp Rainbow girls took a bow, Nick got to his feet and shoved the chair away with a clang of metal.
“What’s up?” Sean raised an eyebrow.
Nick sat and tried to steady his breath. “Nothing.” He focused on Mia, who looked at him with a heartbreaking expression in her eyes that made him want to run through the crowd of people and hold her. A look that told him she was playing a role and that she’d put herself on a stage she didn’t want to be on because she didn’t want to let Kylie down. And a look that told him once again she was so much more than a beautiful face and a killer body.
A guy behind him whistled, and then a few of his buddies joined in with catcalls and foot stomping. Mia untangled herself from Kylie’s grasp and disappeared backstage. Nick turned and gave the guys the badass look he’d perfected as a kid. The look that said back off or he’d take it outside.
He pushed by Sean, his mom, and the friends and neighbors who’d given him a second chance. Adrenaline pumped through him as he ducked backstage and elbowed his way around tables stacked with clothes, garment bags, and shoes. He pressed his fingertips to his temples. The heat of the hall, the beat of music, and the scent of perfume and hairspray pressed in on him.
Mia had to be here somewhere. She wouldn’t have left the building. Not in that outfit. Besides, the sole exit back here was through the fire door, which was alarmed.
He scanned the room again before heading toward a rough pine door with GALS painted on it in crooked black letters. The hinge squeaked as he pushed the door open.
