by Jen Gilroy
“Nothing.” Mia folded Charlie’s discarded newspaper into neat creases.
“I guess you didn’t check Lexie’s Facebook group. There’s a picture of you and Nick kissing.” Charlie poked Mia’s arm then winced.
“What? I’ve been here with you, so I haven’t checked Facebook in a while. When did you see it?”
“When you went to the bathroom. Oh, no you don’t.” Charlie knocked the phone out of Mia’s hand. “Not until you tell me why you kissed Nick if there’s nothing going on.”
“Okay, I kissed him. Or he kissed me, I can’t remember.” Mia’s face heated. “We were upset. Lexie was being flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock and you were still unconscious. It was a reaction to stress.” At least that was how she’d tried to rationalize what had happened.
Mia retrieved her phone, swiped to Facebook, and groaned. Why would somebody take a picture of them? And how had Ty Carmichael gotten hold of it and posted it for everyone to see? Even her daughters. Mia’s hand shook. She had to call Naomi right away and explain it was a big mistake.
Liz Carmichael, Sean’s aunt by marriage, a widow in her mid-sixties who worked part-time at the North Woods Diner and mothered half the town the other part, came through the doorway. She had bleached blond hair piled on top of her head, and a gold charm bracelet jingled on her wrist.
Nick followed her, dressed like he’d come straight from court and carrying a bag from the Firefly Lake Deli.
“Charlie, you poor thing.” Liz kissed Charlie before turning to Mia. “Look who I bumped into in the parking lot? I told Nicky I’d stay with Charlie so you could take a breather. Hospitals are full of germs, so Gabrielle shouldn’t be here. With Sean’s mom in New Hampshire with Sean and that precious baby, and everybody else in the family working flat-out to fill a big Carmichael’s order, you girls need help.”
“I’m fine. I want to stay with Charlie.” Mia looked at her feet as Charlie shook with suppressed laughter.
“You’re a devoted sister, but you need a break.” Liz tapped Mia’s knees with red-lacquered fingernails. “I brought popcorn, my portable DVD player, and movies. Matt Damon and Colin Firth will distract us in no time. Charlie and I will be as happy as clams at high water.”
Charlie made a choked sound, and Mia shot her a silencing look.
“We can watch movies together.” Then she could slip out and call Ty to get that Facebook picture removed.
And avoid being alone with Nick.
“Hey, Charlie.” Nick approached the bed and leaned over to give Charlie a careful hug. “You and Lexie gave everyone a big scare. How are things?”
“I’ve been better, but the doctor says it’s still early days.” Charlie hugged him back. “Lexie’s great. Sean says she’s a real fighter.”
“Who does she get that from, I wonder? You fought pretty hard, too.” Nick handed Charlie an envelope with the logo of the spa at the Inn on the Lake embossed on one corner. “This is from my mom, my sisters, and me. We figured you’d have enough flowers and maybe you could use a gift certificate once you’re home from the hospital. It’s for one of those pamper days.”
“That’s so thoughtful.” Charlie grinned at Mia. “Can I count on you to babysit?”
“Of course.” Mia’s throat clogged. Nick cared about other people in a way Jay never had. It was in the way he’d hugged Charlie and his genuine concern for her and Lexie.
“If there’s anything else I can do, I told Sean to say the word. I offered to help out at Carmichael’s, but he said he’s got it covered. I don’t think he trusts me with that fancy equipment.”
Charlie’s smile was warm. “My husband loves his power tools, but thank you. Everybody has pitched in to help. Even though I’ve lived here for almost a year, I was surprised. Sean says it’s the Northeast Kingdom way, though.”
“Of course it is. Real Vermonters stick together in good times and bad.” Liz rubbed Mia’s back. “You go on with Nicky. You look like a wrung-out dishrag, you do. You’ll be the next one to fade away.”
“I haven’t faded away.” Charlie’s brown eyes twinkled. “Mia won’t either.”
“Mia looks pale.” Liz dug in her tote bag and popped open a DVD case. “Your blessed mother was always pale, like a puff of wind would have blown her away. Then the cancer carried her off too young, God rest her soul. You’re not anemic, are you?”
“No.” Mia stood and forced a smile.
Liz meant well and she and her mom had been acquaintances, even friends of a sort. The kind of friendship fostered by a small, isolated town.
“Still, there’s no harm in Nicky taking you out to fill your lungs with some good, clean air. An ounce of prevention’s worth a pound of cure.” Liz plumped Charlie’s pillows with brisk efficiency. “Charlie can show me pictures of sweet little Lexie.”
“Great idea.” Laughter lurked in the depths of Nick’s blue eyes.
“Nicky always had a good heart. Even through all those wild times, I told Gabrielle he’d turn out right in the end and he sure has. You two kids run along. We’ll be fine.” Liz sat on the end of Charlie’s bed.
Giving Charlie the “I’m your big sister and I’ll get you for this later” look she hadn’t used in years, Mia grabbed her purse and went to the door. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”
“You aren’t running off without me, are you?” Nick caught her halfway down the hall.
“Nicky?”
A hint of red colored his cheeks. “Liz served me my first ice cream cone over at the diner when I was about a year old. She started calling me Nicky and the name stuck, but Liz is the only one who gets away with using it nowadays.”
Whereas Jay would have made an issue of the nickname, Nick had been considerate of the older woman, respectful even.
Mia dodged an empty wheelchair and headed to the elevator at the end of the hall. “I need to make a phone call.”
“Wait.” Nick put out his hand to stop her from hitting the elevator button. “I didn’t expect to meet Liz out front, but I came here to talk to you.”
“Sure. As soon as I make this call.”
“Is something wrong with the girls?” Concern shadowed his face. “Or Charlie?”
“Naomi and Emma are fine.” At least they would be if they didn’t see Facebook. She pushed his hand away and tapped the elevator call button. “The doctor says Charlie’s doing really well.”
“Would that phone call be to Ty?” The elevator doors slid open, and Nick came in with her. He filled the small space. “If so, I beat you to it.”
“You did?” The elevator swooped downward, and Mia’s stomach swooped along with it.
“I told Ty if he didn’t delete that Facebook picture of us, I’d slap him with an invasion of privacy lawsuit he’d still be paying for when he’s thirty.”
The doors slid open again and Mia followed Nick into the hospital lobby.
“He’s sixteen. You can’t sue a sixteen-year-old.”
“Ty doesn’t know that. I also told him you wouldn’t let Naomi so much as walk to the high school cafeteria with him if he didn’t remove the picture within forty minutes of my call. I’d have made it five, but he was over on the other side of the lake with a canoe rental and Internet’s spotty there.”
“Thank you.” Her heart felt full. “But what if Naomi and Emma have already seen the picture? I have to call them and try to explain.”
Nick guided Mia along a short hallway past a flower shop, where the scent of roses masked the sterile hospital smell. “Ty said Jay took Naomi’s tablet and phone away last night. No Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, no games or YouTube, no e-mail, nothing for twenty-four hours. She can only use the phone when she wants to call or text you, or if you call or text. Jay’s got her phone with him.”
Which explained why he’d answered when Mia had called the girls earlier. But when she’d probed for the reason why, Naomi had made a joke.
“How does Ty know all that?” Something was wrong, big time. She and Jay onl
y took away Naomi’s phone and computer privileges for something serious. Yet, mixed with the worry was relief. Mia might not have to explain to her daughters why she’d kissed Nick, when she couldn’t even explain it to herself.
“When everyone else was out by the pool, Naomi snuck the cordless phone into the bathroom to call a friend from her old school. She told the friend Jay cracked down because he doesn’t want her in contact with Ty so much. Then the friend called Ty.” Nick gave her a lopsided smile. “You might not approve of Naomi’s methods, but you have to give her credit for ingenuity and determination.”
Mia stepped through the door Nick held open for her. “Naomi shouldn’t have gone behind Jay’s back, but the more he tries to push Ty and Naomi apart, the more determined she’ll be to see him. There’s a reason people still relate to Romeo and Juliet and…oh.”
A patio shadowed by maple trees was tucked into a corner of the old wing of the hospital. A large-flowered, purple clematis climbed a trellis on a red brick wall, and a garden swing sat between two tubs of flowering lavender. In the center, water trickled over a pair of chubby cupids in a stone fountain.
“I had no idea this place was here.” Mia sat on the swing and slipped off her sandals.
“I brought food.” Nick sat beside her. “If I had to tell you about that Facebook photo, I wanted to make sure you were fed first.”
“You didn’t take the picture. You didn’t post it on Facebook.”
“No, but I knew it would upset you and maybe even hurt you.” His voice got low and intimate. “I don’t want that. I’d never want it. You don’t look like a ‘wrung-out dishrag.’ Liz is wrong about that. But you do look like you could use a breather.” Nick handed her the deli bag. “I know what it’s like to spend too much time by a hospital bed and eat hospital food.”
Mia closed her hands around the top of the bag so they wouldn’t shake. Sitting with Charlie had brought back those awful weeks she’d sat with her mom. When she’d known she’d lose her but pretended she wouldn’t. How she’d been afraid to leave her side for more than a few minutes. And how she’d wanted her mom to be free of pain but didn’t want to let her go.
Then those memories had gotten tangled with the worry over Charlie and Lexie because she couldn’t lose them as well. With too much time to think, she’d also worried about Naomi and Emma. She missed them, of course, and, from the moment she’d kissed them good-bye, had counted the days until Jay would bring them back, but now she had a whole new worry beyond if they ate and slept right and brushed and flossed. She worried what her ex-husband might be plotting.
Somehow Nick had sensed how troubled she was, and he’d brought her here, to a place that was part of the hospital but as far removed from it as possible.
It was sweet, wonderful, and caring.
But it also meant she couldn’t pretend whatever was between them was superficial and casual or joke about their kiss like she’d planned. For a woman who’d lived her life by plans and schedules, the feelings that churned through her were unplanned, unscheduled, and terrifying.
Chapter Nine
Nick was supposed to get things under control, not shoot the breeze with a beautiful woman on a sunny weekday afternoon. Except, this was Mia, a woman he was at ease with in a way he hadn’t been at ease with anyone in a long time, maybe ever.
She dabbed at her mouth with a paper napkin. That luscious mouth with a little dimple at one corner. “Avocado and tomato is my all-time favorite sandwich.”
“On seven-grain bread with no mayonnaise and Greek olives on the side.” Nick rocked the swing with one foot, and Mia’s breasts moved under her yellow T-shirt.
“Whereas you like mayonnaise, the more the better, wouldn’t eat an avocado if your life depended on it, and snuck half the olives when you didn’t think I was looking.” Mia grinned, and he glimpsed the teenage girl he remembered.
The one who was sweet and a bit shy and had a sexy smile and an even sexier walk. The girl whose picture he’d cut out of the Kincaid Examiner when she was Queen of the Firefly Lake Fishing Derby then hid in the back of a math book so his nosy little sisters wouldn’t find it.
The only girl he’d wanted, but the one who’d always remained elusive and out of reach.
“Your point is?” Nick handed her the plastic olive tub, where a lone olive rolled around the bottom.
Mia popped the olive into her mouth, her eyes fluttered closed, and Nick caught his breath at the pleasure on her face. Her eyes popped open again. “That wasn’t the last olive. You hid a few somewhere.”
“Busted.” He dug in the deli bag and handed her another container. “I got a double order.”
She batted his hand away and, at the brief touch, sensual fire ricocheted through him. “Paws off.”
“Has Pixie finally turned you into a dog lover?”
“No.” Mia gave him an impish grin. “But your mom loves that little dog, and I love your mom. Besides, Pixie keeps me on my toes.”
Nick looked at Mia’s bare feet. Her toenails were painted a soft coral color, and all he could think about was sweeping her off those toes and into his bed.
“You can get cute clothes for dogs like Pixie.” Mia wiggled her toes, and one of her slender feet brushed Nick’s ankle.
“You’re dressing Mom’s dog?” He breathed in the lavender of the flowers mixed with the soft floral scent that was Mia. A scent he could pick out anywhere.
“It was your mom’s idea. When I took her shopping last week, we bought Pixie a pink coat for winter, a scarf, a new carrier, and a few T-shirts. She’d like to get Pixie a dress for Christmas from this store we found online.”
“A Christmas dress for a dog?” His mom had lost it and taken Mia along with her.
“You should be happy your mom wants to make plans for Christmas. She hasn’t given up.” Mia’s voice got a catch in it that made his heart turn over. “If dressing Pixie makes her happy, who are we to judge?”
“I…” Nick stopped at the dejected expression on her face. Unlike Mia, he still had his mom. “Do you think Mom would like a gift certificate to get something for Pixie?”
“I think she’d like it more if you spent time with her.” Mia dug in the bag and handed him a Snickers bar.
“I do spend time with her. I fix stuff around the house, manage her investment portfolio, and do anything else she wants. I want to help her buy that new bungalow, don’t I? It’s the top-of-the-line one with European finishes and an attached garage so she wouldn’t have to go outside to get her car in the winter.”
“You do lots of things for her, sure. Maybe even things she doesn’t care much about or could do herself, but how much do you do with her?” Mia eyed him over a fruit tart, and her brown eyes, edged with those thick dark lashes, were serious.
Nick opened his mouth and closed it again. The woman would have made a good lawyer the way she cut right to the chase to ambush him. “Well…I…not much, I guess.”
“In that case, what will you do about it?”
Mia nibbled the fluted edge of the tart, and Nick forced himself to look away. This was about his mother. He had to stop his wayward thoughts about Mia’s mouth. How soft it felt on his. How sweet it tasted. How he wanted her to use it to explore every inch of his body.
“Mom has refused to sell Harbor House. If she doesn’t sell, I don’t know what else to do. That’s all we talk about these days.”
“Talk?” Mia brushed pastry crumbs off her skirt, and a pair of sparrows hopped over to investigate.
“Okay, argue.” Like he was a teenager again, and the two of them were pitted against each other with neither one prepared to compromise.
“Your mom’s made a choice. Her choice. You might not like it, but you need to respect it.”
Like hell he didn’t like it. Before he went back to New York in a few weeks, he had to make sure his mom was safe. Apart from the cancer, which Nick couldn’t control, the biggest threat to her safety was that ramshackle old house.
“Maybe you could…” He shut his mouth fast.
“What?”
“Help me out. I hired you to organize Harbor House, but maybe that’s not what Mom needs. Except, I don’t know what she needs.” He dropped his head into his hands, and the sparrows took off in a flurry of wings.
“Gabrielle needs help to clear out more than a hundred years of stuff from that house. She’s bogged down by memories and expectations of family members who died long ago, and she’s lost sight of which things truly mean something important to her. The problem isn’t clearing out the house. It’s selling it that has her in pieces. Harbor House means more to her than any of the things in it.”
“I—”
Mia raised a hand to silence him. “Your mom doesn’t think she can talk to you because when she tries, you don’t listen. Your sisters don’t, either. The three of you are so afraid of losing her you’re treating her like a child. I understand you’re doing it out of love, but it’s not working for any of you.”
“Mom can’t manage in Harbor House all winter alone.” At least not with Nick back in New York, which had always been the plan. Once his mom was healthy again and settled in a new place, he’d go back to his real life. “What if there’s an ice storm and the power goes out? What if she slips and falls on one of those staircases and nobody finds her for days?”
“Firefly Lake is a tight-knit community. Gabrielle’s friends call her every day. She could have an accident alone in that bungalow, and an ice storm could cut off her heat and light there the same way as in Harbor House. Maybe Harbor House is too much for her, but your mom doesn’t see it that way, so you’ll have to figure something out.” Mia’s gentle smile warmed places in Nick’s heart he’d locked away long ago.
“You won’t help me out?”
“You’re such a guy. I already did.” Her smile broadened. “You’re part of the problem, so you have to be part of the solution. Start by listening to her, really listening. Pretend she’s a client. You listen to your clients, don’t you?”
