“You’re enjoying this all way too much,” he said, but he followed her. Unfortunately, the only woman browsing in the travel section when they got there was one who couldn’t have been much younger than Mrs. B. “Well, we tried,” Benji said, growing more cheerful, and he turned as if to leave.
Nadia put her hand on his arm to stop him. “Wait—”
A young redhead wandered past them and toward the Great Britain shelf, where she paused and pulled out a book to examine it.
“Perfect,” Nadia said with satisfaction. She nudged Benji. “And may I suggest that this time you don’t try to get her opinions on sexual practices.”
“Thank you, that’s very helpful.”
“You’re welcome.”
He gave her a look but then manfully made his way over to stand beside the redhead, and after a moment, he spoke to her. She glanced at him and smiled at whatever he said, and he turned to face her more directly before speaking again.
Progress. Apparently he was a quick study.
But before Nadia could feel too pleased about her new pupil’s progress, the redhead quirked her eyebrows and glanced in Nadia’s direction before shaking her head and saying something that made Benji blink. Then the woman put the book she’d been holding back on the shelf and wandered off in the opposite direction.
“At least this one didn’t sprint,” Nadia observed when Benji returned to where she waited for him. “What did she just say to you?”
“That she’s not into threesomes.”
It was Nadia’s turn to do a double take. “She thought you and I—”
He nodded.
“No…”
“Yes.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and wondered just how close he was to bolting out the door now. “At least she smiled at you before she made up her mind that you were kinky,” she noted finally, trying to find something with which to encourage him. “That’s a good sign, Benji. We’re moving in the right direction.”
“Absolutely, if the right direction includes a sexual harassment suit. They’re going to slap up warning posters of me all around this place.” Benji glanced at his watch. “But right now I’d better move in the direction of my office,” he continued, rolling his shirtsleeves back down and buttoning their cuffs. “This was… interesting.”
“You know, you actually did very well,” she told him, meaning it.
“I’m sorry, which fish out of water were you watching?”
“No, really, you did. You just had a little bad luck with the circumstances, that’s all. But you’ve got guts, Benji Garner. That’s a very attractive quality in a man.” It was a nice change from the machismo that most men she knew seemed to think qualified as the real thing.
“Mm,” was all he said in response. Holding up his suit jacket, Benji fished around in the pockets until he found his tie. He slung the jacket over his arm and wrapped the tie around his neck, attempting to recreate the earlier knot with little success.
“Here, let me.” Nadia loosened the clumsy knot he’d made, and Benji let his hands drop away as she took over. “So did today scare you off, or are you still in?” she asked, concentrating on the tie. There was no reply, so she glanced up and found him watching her.
He cleared his throat. “Depends. Does lesson two involve awkward bookstore scenarios in any way whatsoever?”
“Nope. It’ll be safe, I promise.”
“You know, it’s funny, but I seem to remember you calling bookstores safe, too.”
“They are. Today was just…fluke-ish.”
“I’m not sure that’s a word.”
“Do I look worried?” She finished fixing his tie and smoothed it down. “Lesson two will be on dressing for success. In the dating world, at least. We can meet at your place. Safe enough?”
“It sounds safe,” he agreed, “but then again, don’t most ambushes seem that way at first?”
“Poor baby, so suspicious. It will get easier, you know.” She patted his chest where his tie rested. “I am dying to see if there’s anything else in your closet besides suits. Tomorrow night work for you?”
He slipped the suit jacket on. “I think so, but I’ll have to check my calendar to be sure.”
“All right, here.” Nadia fished out one of the bakery business cards she carried around in her purse and scribbled down her cell phone number. “Call me when you know for sure,” she told him, handing the card over.
“I will.”
Hooking her arm through his, Nadia led the way toward the exit. “And I really mean it, Benji. You did great today. Just because you struck out—”
“I didn’t strike out.”
She stared at him as he held the door open for her, wondering how to politely remind him that he’d done exactly that, and not once but twice. “You didn’t—”
Benji held up the card with her phone number on it.
Nadia blinked.
His eyes were wide with innocence, but there was the faintest hint of mischief in them. It was unexpectedly appealing. “Call you later,” he said with a nod goodbye, and then he turned and walked off down the street.
And a bemused Nadia watched him leave as a slow smile formed on her lips.
Chapter Five
Several hours later, Nadia found herself sitting cross-legged on the floor of Ian’s living room and across from his six-year-old daughter Kelsey, painting the little girl’s fingernails with a bottle of plum-colored nail polish Nadia had found in the bottom of her purse.
“Pretty,” Kelsey declared, holding up all ten of her fingers and eyeing them with approval.
“Glad you like it. Careful—don’t smudge them. Blow on them for a couple of minutes,” Nadia advised, putting the top back on the bottle. Nail polish. Who would have thought? After nearly twenty minutes of eyeing each other and Kelsey shooting down every activity Nadia suggested, it had been Revlon to the rescue.
“You work with Trish at her bakery,” Kelsey said abruptly, confirming rather than asking.
“Yes, I do.”
There was a gleam in the girl’s eye as she lowered her voice conspiratorially.
“My dad likes Trish a lot.”
Nadia grinned. “Trish likes him a lot, too. Sh, don’t tell her I told you.”
The girl nodded, apparently pleased with Nadia’s response. “She’s my dad’s girlfriend now.”
“Uh huh.” Nadia plopped a couch pillow on the floor in front of her and patted it with one hand in invitation. “Here. Turn around, and I’ll braid your hair.” They’d have a full-fledged salon going here by the time Trish and Ian returned from the movie, but judging by the expression on her face, Kelsey was enjoying every minute of the attention.
The child settled onto the pillow with her back to Nadia, still admiring her newly-painted fingernails. “You’re really pretty. Do you have a boyfriend, too?” she asked over her shoulder.
Nadia began combing Kelsey’s hair through her fingers. “I have lots of boyfriends.”
“Lots?” the girl repeated in such a tone that Nadia didn’t need to see her face to know she had screwed it up into an are-you-nuts kind of expression. “Aren’t you just supposed to have one?”
“Different strokes for different folks.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means not everybody does things the same way.”
“So you like all your boyfriends the way Trish likes my dad?”
Nadia’s fingers slowed in their braiding. “Well, no,” she said after a moment, considering her answer and the best way to deliver it to a six-year-old girl. “It’s more like they’re—I mean… well, it’s sort of like getting to meet all kinds of exciting new friends. It’s just fun, that’s all, sweetie. And it keeps life interesting.”
“My dad and Trish have fun.”
“That’s true,” Nadia admitted, biting back a smile. “But it’s a different kind of fun.”
“How?”
Nothing like getting grilled about one’s r
elationship status by a gradeschooler, Nadia thought. “Well, it just is.”
Kelsey drew a deep breath, and Nadia suspected she was about to ask another question about her love life.
“Braid’s done,” she said quickly before Kelsey could speak. Turning the girl around to face her, Nadia smiled a little too brightly. “Tell you what. If we can change the subject to anything else in the world, I’ll paint your toenails, too. Deal?”
Kelsey’s eyes brightened. “Deal.”
Yes, Nadia thought with relief. She was going to have to write a thank-you letter to Revlon very soon. “Great. What shall we talk about next?” she asked as she retrieved the bottle of nail polish.
The little girl smiled a beatific smile. “Do you like zombies?”
Nadia blinked.
* * *
“So Gram says you’re going to turn Benji Garner into a ladies’ man.”
Nadia poked her head out of the kitchen to see Aimee Beasley standing at the bakery counter near Trish. Gone was the goth look and the jet-black hair. Now the young woman sported a warm honey-colored blonde that was probably a lot closer to her natural hair color. Well, except for the pink streak running through one lock of it. “She does, does she? Did she tell you how she set it up?”
Aimee snorted. “She didn’t have to. I’ve seen her when she’s in guilt-trip mode. Suckered you with the whole trembling voice and teary eyes thing, didn’t she?” The girl rested on one elbow and eyed a tray of cupcakes that Trish was in the process of frosting.
“Something like that.” And yet, Nadia wasn’t quite as irritated now with Mrs. B as she had been before.
“Doesn’t work on me anymore since I go with her to all of her doctors’ appointments. She’s healthier than any of us, trust me.”
“Somehow I’m not surprised.”
Aimee drew just a little bit closer to the cupcakes. “So you think you can do something with him, huh?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Feeling the effects of having been on her feet all day, Nadia leaned against the doorframe to rest her back. “There’s lots of potential there, once I get him loosened up a little.”
Trish looked up from her frosting. “She’s enjoying herself,” she told Aimee. “Did you see the way her eyes lit up just now? Poor guy’s like her lab rat.”
“He is not,” Nadia returned. “I’m not experimenting on him, I’m helping him.”
“So what’s the plan?” Aimee asked her. “Give him a head-to-toe makeover, a pair of contact lenses, and turn him loose on the women of the world?”
“He says contacts are a no-go. Doesn’t want to put anything on his eyeball.” Nadia grimaced. “Can’t say I blame him there. But tonight I am going to give him a lesson on wardrobe and grooming.”
“Tonight?” Trish repeated, glancing up at her.
“Sure. Why not tonight?”
Trish took a break from her cupcakes and turned around, massaging the muscles in her neck. “It’s just—it’s Saturday. I thought you liked to hit the clubs on Saturday nights.”
Funny, but that had slipped her mind somehow. Nadia shrugged and waved a hand in dismissal. “There’s always next week for that. We made a deal: one week. New Year’s Eve is coming up, and I’m trying to get him ready.”
“You make it sound like an unveiling.”
“Kind of. With a little effort, I think Benji’s going to turn a few heads.”
“No doubt he’s delighted.”
“Not as much as you’d think, no. Well, he’s a man. What do men know about style and charm anyway?”
“I thought you said the right kinds of men knew everything about it,” Trish said wryly.
“And with my help, Benji will join their ranks,” Nadia said, switching gears and refusing to be fazed by it. She straightened, ready to return to the kitchen.
“Whether he wants to or not.”
“I heard that,” Nadia shot back.
Trish grinned. “You were supposed to.”
Aimee’s voice startled them both. “Hey, what do you guys think?”
They turned and saw Aimee putting the finishing touches on the rest of the cupcakes.
“So,” she said, holding up the tube of frosting and examining the results of her handiwork with satisfaction. “I hear you’re hiring.”
* * *
Nadia stepped off the elevator in Benji’s apartment building and glanced at the slip of paper in her hand to double check his address. “Apartment four-oh-four,” she said aloud, and then she turned her head and saw his door to her left. Worn out as she was from a busy day of work, she found herself perking up in anticipation of the evening’s events, and she raised her hand to knock briskly on Benji’s door.
He opened it almost immediately. “Hi,” he greeted her, and then he glanced at his watch with feigned shock. “I must be rubbing off on you. You’re early.”
“I find being late a few times makes people appreciate it all the more when I’m early.”
“Good strategy.” Benji opened the door wider and stood to one side to let her enter.
His apartment was a lot like him, Nadia decided as she stepped inside. Not flashy but neat and orderly. There was no dirty laundry lying about or any evidence of used dishes stacked in the sink, which were things she had come to expect from most men who were bachelors. Oh, there were a few things out—a glass on the coffee table with a dog-eared paperback beside it, a couple of remotes for an impressive entertainment system, and what looked like a day’s worth of unopened mail—but nothing that could be called clutter.
“Baseball fan, huh?” she asked, catching sight of a framed jersey hanging on his wall.
He nodded. “You?”
“I wouldn’t even know which end of the bat to hold,” she admitted wryly.
“Nothing a day at the batting cage can’t fix.”
“Batting cage? Me?” She raised an eyebrow. “Not likely.”
“Ah, so you can tell me to try new things, but I can’t do the same for you?” Now he raised his eyebrows, and she could have sworn she saw a hint of the same mischief she’d seen when they parted ways at the bookstore.
“Touché,” she conceded, inclining her head in acknowledgment. Turning, she dropped her purse on the kitchenette table beside where his suit jacket hung over the back of a chair. “Clean kitchen,” she observed immediately, which might have been due to the baker in her. Compared to the ones she’d seen in most bachelor pads, his kitchen practically beckoned her into it. “What a guy. Does housework, has a steady job—”
“I floss, too.”
“I’m telling you, Benji, you are turning out to be quite the catch. If you can rotate tires and give decent foot massages, I’ll marry you myself.”
“Sorry,” he said, putting a hand to his heart as if pained. “But I have it on good authority that by New Year’s Eve I’m going to be irresistible to women everywhere, so I have to keep my options open.”
Nadia grinned. “Benji Garner, you are a player.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot.”
She studied him with a growing appreciation. He was proving to be not at all what she’d expected him to be, and she was increasingly curious to find out what other surprises were in store. “Come on,” she said, nudging him with her shoulder. “Show a girl what’s inside your closet.”
Chapter Six
“Not bad, Benji,” Nadia called out as she combed through the shirts hanging on his closet rack. Sure, there were plenty of suits and ties, but there were actual honest-to-goodness street clothes in there, too. “I’m actually a little bummed we won’t need to go on a shopping spree. I was looking forward to trying Armani on you.”
“I think I just heard my credit cards gasp in relief.” Benji’s voice traveled in to her from the living room. “Do you like Thai food?”
“Love it. Why?”
“I’m ordering in. No man should have to learn how to color coordinate on an empty stomach. Pad Thai okay with you? And fried rice?”
“Sure, th
anks.”
“Shrimp or chicken with the rice?”
“Chicken.” She pulled out a blue dress shirt that she suspected would make his eyes dazzle and turned around when Benji finally entered the room. “All right, I need a white t-shirt and jeans, stat.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Benji replied gravely, retrieving the requested items from his bureau and holding them up.
“Perfect. Go try these on, and I’ll see what else I can put together,” Nadia said as she began taking inventory of his t-shirts. “There aren’t any dirty little secrets I’m going to stumble onto in your dresser drawers, are there?”
“Are you talking about private papers or more like something in sequins?” he called out from the adjoining bathroom as he disappeared into it.
She let out a startled chuckle. “Both, I guess.”
“No, you’re fine.”
He really had been remarkably agreeable about all of this. Trish had been right when she’d said Nadia was enjoying herself, and she felt a flicker of guilt now that perhaps she had assumed too much when she told herself Benji didn’t really mind her jumping in this way.
“Benji,” Nadia said after a minute, slowing in her movements as she laid out pieces of clothing on his plain navy-colored bedspread.
“Yes?”
“Am I being too pushy? You can say so if I am.”
“Pushy? No,” he said through the door.
“Are you sure?” It was completely natural for Nadia to come on strong. Her mother was quite fond of reminding her that she was born in the middle of hurricane season and seemed to have absorbed the force of at least one of the storms. But as the circumstances of the present situation sank in to her, Nadia realized it was the first time she had ever found herself in the bedroom of a man she’d met such a short time ago—rearranging his wardrobe, no less.
“Yes, I’m sure. Although if I walk in there and find you elbow deep in my underwear drawer, I reserve the right to change my opinion.”
Her lips twitched. “Fair enough. But just so you know, this is kind of a first, even for me.”
The Heavenly Bites Novella Collection Page 9
