by Jen Gilroy
“Mia?” He edged into the small room. Three industrial-green metal stalls were fronted by a line of sinks and a speckled mirror that made his reflection wavy.
“Nick?” From inside one of the stalls, Mia’s voice rose an octave. “What are you doing in here? This is the women’s restroom.” Clothing rustled and then a zipper lowered.
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” He closed his eyes. The image of her slipping out of that dress less than a foot away made his heart beat faster and his body throb.
“I’m fine.”
He leaned against the sink vanity, the tiles cool against his back. “You didn’t look so fine out there.”
The stall door swung open, and Mia emerged in a denim skirt and pink tank top with the white dress folded over one arm. Her face was flushed, and a big purse was slung over the arm that didn’t hold the dress. “See? Fine.” She patted her hair and looked in the mirror instead of at him.
“I don’t believe you.”
Her face crumpled. “Okay. You want the truth?” She tugged at the pins in her hair, and the dark mass fell loose around her shoulders.
“I do, actually.” Except, he also wanted to run his hands through her hair. Bury his face in it and then spread it out on a pillow next to his face.
She faced him, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “Tonight, I did what I always do. Like I told you, I didn’t want to model. I said no to the foundation board, to Charlie and everyone else. Then in the blink of an eye, there I was in this dress in the spotlight. I did what somebody else wanted. I caved.”
“You did it for Kylie.”
“Exactly. Don’t you see? It wasn’t my dream. It was somebody else’s, and I went along with it.” Her voice cracked.
“Kylie was scared. You put yourself out there for her so she’d fit in with the other girls.”
“I still did something I didn’t want to do.” She gathered the hairpins and dumped them into her purse.
“It wasn’t about pleasing your mom, or your dad either.”
Despite the makeup, Mia’s face blanched. “Remember all those beauty pageants I was in? Mom was so happy when I won. Dad was proud of me, like all that mattered was how I looked. Even though I hated the whole contest circuit, I could never tell anybody. I did it for Mom, and she thought I loved the pageant experience as much as she did.”
Nick inhaled the scent of the floral perfume Mia always wore, sweet with a subtle sexy edge. “Tonight you helped a young girl who needed you. It was your choice, not anybody else’s. You might not have seen Kylie’s face, but I did. You gave her confidence in herself, and you helped her feel like she belonged in a group, maybe for the first time in her life. But now you can do what you want, and I guess you want out of here.”
“I can’t just walk away.” In flip-flops and without her usual skyscraper heels, Mia’s head only grazed the middle of his chest. “I have to pack up after the show. I’m the organizer. I told Sean to make sure Charlie gets home early because she’s tired.”
“You’re tired, too. Everything and everyone else can wait until tomorrow. You’ve been here all day and you need a break.” She was the kind of woman who didn’t take breaks and who never disappointed people.
“I can handle it.”
“Sure, but you don’t have to.” Nick held out a hand and, after a long moment, Mia slid her smaller one into it. He pushed open the restroom door, and the red light over the fire exit winked in the shadows.
“What are you doing?”
“You want to leave, don’t you?” He tracked the play of expressions on her face as resolve replaced uncertainty.
“Yes, but the door’s alarmed. See?” She pointed to the sign.
“That would be a problem, how?” He reached up to temporarily disable the alarm then eased the fire door open to tug her out into the cooler night air. “Where’s your car?”
“Back in the shop again. Charlie gave me a ride.”
He scanned the rows of vehicles. His Lexus was boxed in by Josh’s plumbing van and a florist truck. “Charlie still has her car, right?”
“It’s over by the road. She parked there so she could leave as soon as the show ended.”
He headed for Sean’s pickup with the Carmichael’s logo on the side and pulled open the passenger door. “Hop in.”
He reached under the floor mat and pulled out the spare key Sean kept there for emergencies. Mia stared at him wide-eyed as he slid into the driver’s seat and the engine roared to life. “You can’t take Sean’s truck.”
“Why not? He can go home with Charlie. I’ll text him.” He grinned. “Buckle up.”
She grinned back and clicked the seat belt into place, a reckless gleam in her beautiful eyes. “Where are we going?”
He pulled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires and accelerated onto Lake Road, the highway out of town.
“Wait and see, angel.”
Chapter Six
Angel?” Mia glanced at Nick’s profile.
His jaw was straight and the wind through the cab’s open windows ruffled his dark hair.
“You don’t like it when I call you princess.” His voice was rough.
“I…” She shut her mouth fast. This was the Nick she remembered, sexy as sin and with the wild streak that had excited more than scared her. “I don’t want to go back to Gabrielle’s.”
“You’re not up for bedtime milk and cookies with my mom and Cat?” He shot her another spine-tingling grin.
Mia shook her head. She didn’t want to go back to the town hall either, even though it would be the sensible option. Except, she was tired of being sensible.
She rested a hand on the dress on the seat between them. Even if only for a moment, she wanted to be the kind of woman Nick had seen in that dress. She gave him a slow sideways smile.
His breath hissed as she fiddled with the radio dial until the notes of a mellow country song filled the cab.
The LEAVING FIREFLY LAKE, COME BACK SOON sign flashed past, and then Nick turned off Lake Road and headed away from the lake along a country lane. Moonlight reflected off the thick curtain of old-growth forest and etched it with silver.
“If you don’t text Sean right now, he’ll think somebody stole his truck. He’ll call the state troopers.” Mia raised her voice above the guitar riff.
Nick took one hand off the wheel and rested it along the back of the bench seat. “The show just ended. He’ll still be inside the town hall talking to folks, but since you’re so worried, why don’t you text him?”
Mia found her phone in her purse and swiped at the screen. “Nick borrowed your truck to take me home. Let Charlie know.”
Within seconds the screen lit up with a reply. “Way to go, big sis. Have fun.” Mia’s face heated as she hit DELETE.
She hadn’t meant what Charlie assumed. That she and Nick were going home together to his place. An apartment above the law office on Main Street she’d never seen but wondered about. Was it a home or only a place to live?
“Well?” Nick’s voice, sexy and comforting, wrapped around her in the velvety darkness of the cab.
“You’re right. Taking Sean’s truck isn’t a big deal.” She curled her fingers around the phone. She might never have another chance to tell Nick the truth. He deserved the truth. Maybe she did, too. “I’m sorry.”
“No worries.” He turned up the radio on a Sam Hunt song, “Breaking Up in a Small Town.”
“I didn’t mean about the truck. I meant for pretending I didn’t remember about us.” She hated the catch in her voice almost as much as she hated peeling back the layers of herself to feel things she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Nick switched the radio off. “There was never an ‘us.’”
The breeze caught Mia’s hair and whipped it around her head. Like it had all those years ago the only time she’d ridden behind him on his motorcycle. When they’d cruised along Lake Road and Firefly Lake’s Main Street past the movie theater, the creamery, and th
e bowling alley, and she’d tucked her face into the back of his jacket in the hope nobody would recognize her.
The truck slowed as Nick hung a left along a dirt road, where tree branches dipped and tangled overhead. She held on to the side of the cab as they bounced down a hill then up the other side. He took another left farther into the trees and braked in a small clearing. The truck shuddered into silence.
Her heart pounded as her stomach knotted. “The summer before senior year I liked you. I couldn’t believe it when you asked me out.”
“Why not?” Nick unclipped his seat belt and turned to face her.
“I wasn’t like the girls you usually went out with, and you dated a lot.”
And she hadn’t because she’d never been sure if boys liked her for her, or wanted to be seen with the beauty queen, as if her pageant ribbons were all that mattered.
“You were different, special.” He looked at the pattern of stars against the inky sky. “Every guy in Firefly Lake wanted to have a date with you.”
“All the girls wanted to have a date with you, not only the locals but the summer ones too.”
“Except you.” His voice hardened. “You couldn’t wait to get rid of me. Why did you say you’d go out with me if you planned to ditch me in front of half the town?”
“I didn’t plan it. Back then, I wanted to go out with you more than anything.” She focused on the half moon that cast a white light on the dark trees and encircling hills. “I couldn’t believe it was me at the diner with you on a Saturday night.”
“So why did you make some excuse and leave? You could at least have waited to finish your meal.”
“I was scared.”
“Of me? What did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything. You were the perfect date. I was never scared of you.” Despite his reputation, she’d known there was a goodness in Nick and that he’d never hurt her.
“Then why did you leave?”
“I didn’t tell my mom I had a date with you. I told her I was going to a movie with a friend so I needed to borrow her car. That’s why I said I had to meet you in town. My dad was in Boston on call at the hospital that weekend.”
“And Daddy wouldn’t have wanted his little girl to go out with me.” Nick’s voice was as brittle as ice pellets against her skin.
“No.” Mia dug her nails into her palms. She’d spent her life trying to be who her dad wanted, date who he wanted, and even marry who he wanted. All that effort to make him and her mom happy, when she hadn’t understood until years later she couldn’t fix what was wrong between her parents. And she shouldn’t have had to try.
“So you came to your senses and bailed. You couldn’t take the risk somebody would tell your dad you were out with Brian McGuire’s son.”
“Not exactly.” Mia flinched and nausea threatened. “It turned out Dad wasn’t in Boston after all. I saw him through the diner window.”
As if in slow motion, she’d watched him park the new, dark blue Cadillac. A blond woman, the afternoon tea hostess in the dining room at the Inn on the Lake, sat in her mom’s place. A woman with bright red lipstick and artificial eyelashes who’d leaned over and kissed her dad on the mouth, long and intimate. Her hand lingered on his jaw and then on the collar of the shirt Mia and Charlie had given him for Father’s Day.
“I didn’t want…” Her voice trailed away.
“You didn’t want him to see you with me. End of story.”
“No, wait.” She had to make him understand and tell him a truth she’d never told anyone, not even Charlie. “He had a woman with him. It wasn’t Mom, and he’d lied. Again.”
Nick pushed the white dress aside and slid toward her along the seat until his breath feathered the hair at her temple. “I’m sorry, I—”
“He cheated.” Mia’s heart raced, and if she didn’t get the words out now, she never would. “Even though Dad promised Mom, and then me, that there wouldn’t be any more women. That’s why I didn’t want him to see me, not because I was with you.”
“So you left through the back door.”
“If he’d seen me, he’d have come in and told some story, like the woman was a friend.” Mia gulped as the years of buried hurt and anger tumbled out. “Like he always did, like it meant nothing and I was some gullible little kid. Then he’d have taken me home, and he’d have yelled at me for being with you, but that wasn’t why I left, I—”
“Mia—”
“No, I have to finish. I was so ashamed. Afterward, I pretended everything about that night hadn’t happened. I didn’t want it to be real because if it was real, my family and my whole life were based on a lie. When I got up the next morning, Dad was at the cottage and he and Mom were drinking coffee on the porch. He said he’d gotten someone to cover for him at the hospital so he could surprise us.”
Nick reached for her hand and squeezed it. The warmth of his touch gave her courage.
“Dad took us out for brunch, and then we spent the afternoon on the lake in his boat. Mom was so happy. I couldn’t tell her what I’d seen. When you helped me establish Mom’s foundation and we became friends, I was scared you’d talk about that night. I was sure you must have seen him with that woman, so whenever you mentioned anything about back when we were kids, I pretended I didn’t remember. I’ve pretended for so long, but I can’t keep pretending with you anymore.”
How could she expect Nick to understand? Even she didn’t understand why she’d done what she had. She choked on a sob as Nick looped one arm around her shoulders and held her tight.
“I brought you out here because I want to show you something.” He unbuckled her seat belt and maneuvered them out of the truck. Then he took her hand and guided her through the trees into an even smaller clearing, where a miniature waterfall cascaded over rocks and tumbled into a pocket-sized pool.
Mia drew closer to him. The carpet of pine needles on the forest floor was soft under her flip-flops, and the trees were dark, silent and listening. “What is this place?”
“It’s supposed to be a healing place.” In the moonlight, his teeth gleamed white in the shadows of his face. “It’s sacred land for the Abenaki, the Native American tribe who live in this area. Mom used to bring me here.” He knelt at the edge of the pool, and Mia crouched beside him.
“Back when you were…” Mia stopped as Nick eased their joined hands into the stream of icy water.
“Back when I was a mixed-up, out-of-control kid. I drank. I picked fights. You name it, I did it.” The water trickled over their hands, and its coldness numbed Mia’s fingers.
“Did this place help you?”
“Mom swears it did. To hear her talk, this waterfall turned my life around. It washed away all the bad stuff and gave the good a place to grow.” He clasped her hand tighter. “I still come out here when life gets complicated.”
“Complicated how?” The water against the rocks blurred the night sounds, and the carpet of stars far above gleamed mysterious and timeless.
“Mia.” His face was inches from hers as Nick ground out her name.
“What?” The familiar knot in her chest loosened, and the heaviness she’d carried there for years lifted.
“I wanted to do this when we were kids.” The Vermont lilt he’d lost during his years in New York was back. His lips brushed her jaw in a faint caress before his mouth covered hers, warm and insistent.
She kissed him back, and a needy little moan slipped out as he drew them onto the grassy bank and fit her body against his. She ran her hand along his arm, where the muscles were corded tight, and a faint sheen of sweat dampened his skin. He deepened the kiss and, despite herself, Mia moaned again and arched into him. She ran one hand across his jawline, the beard stubble rough beneath her touch.
He tore his mouth away, breathing hard. “Mia.”
She lurched upright. “It’s fine.” Her hand shook as she tugged on the hem of her top.
“No, it’s not. I’m sorry, I…” Nick raked a hand through his hair
.
“No need to apologize.” She scrambled to her feet and brushed pine needles, twigs, and soil off her clothes in sharp, jerky motions. “We got carried away. Forget it. I will.”
Nick got to his feet, too, and his expression was dark with the same edge to it she remembered from all those years ago. “Forgetting and pretending. Despite what you said, you’re still good at those things, aren’t you?”
Mia sucked in a harsh breath. He was right. She’d pretended for so long she’d forgotten what was real and what was pretend. What she was supposed to feel masked what she really felt. The good girl who’d always followed the safe path. Except, the safe path hadn’t been the right path and that supposed safety was a lie.
Nick dug in his pocket for the truck key. “I’ll take you back to Mom’s.” He walked away from her and slipped out of the circle of moonlight that had bewitched her, bewitched them both.
The healing place that had made everything a whole lot more complicated.
Something had changed for Mia and Nick tonight. Gabrielle glanced between the two of them as they hovered outside her living room doorway. “You’re welcome to join us. Amy’s asleep upstairs, and Cat’s grading papers in the kitchen.”
“Us?” Nick lounged against the door frame as far away from Mia as possible, and so like Brian that Gabrielle’s scalp prickled. In all the ways that mattered, Nick wasn’t anything like his father.
“I don’t think you’ve met Ward.” Gabrielle inclined her head in the older man’s direction.
“You know I haven’t.” Nick’s casual demeanor was at odds with the sharp, assessing look in his eyes that hid a pain only a mother could see. He turned to Mia. “Have you met him?”
“Yes.” Mia flicked a glance at Ward. “He’s interested in plants. He helps your mom in the garden.”
A muscle worked in Nick’s jaw. “Why didn’t you—”
“Your mom’s business is her business.” Mia’s smile disappeared, and she turned back to Gabrielle. “Although I’d love to join you, I’m tired after the fashion show. I want to call the girls and have a shower.” She put a hand to her mouth, dropped it again, and shifted from one foot to the other.
