by Melissa West
“Um, I guess so. Look, what do you think of—”
“But you know her, right?”
“I’ve seen her before, sure. What’s this about?”
At that, Becca stared out over the water. “Nothing. Just trying to figure something out.” She bit her lip and Nick’s attention switched to her mouth, curious what it would be like to kiss that mouth. Would she taste all sunflowers and summer air, the way she smelled, or would he find something totally different—totally new? He’d found his mind drifting there more times than he could count lately, which meant he needed to put an end to his self-imposed drought before his hormones made him do something crazy. Like hit on his best friend.
But truthfully, drought or not, it had always been hard to ignore his attraction to Becca. After all, she was a woman—a very, very attractive woman—and she was smart and funny and her smile could stop him in his tracks. She was—
He shook his head before his thoughts could travel anywhere else.
Pull yourself together, man.
“She’s a waitress, Bec.”
Her gaze snapped back over to him. “So am I.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, she works here. I’ve seen her before here, but I don’t know her. Do you? Is that why you’re asking?”
“No. I just . . .”
“What?”
“Well, Alex and Kate mentioned something, and I’m just curious why you haven’t told me yourself.” She stared at Nick pointedly, almost like he was in trouble, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what he might have done.
The waitress in question brought over their drinks and smiled wide as she asked for their order.
“We’ll both have the crab cakes.”
She eyed Becca like she wanted to make sure he wasn’t ordering for her without her permission, but Becca and Nick had ordered the same thing everywhere they went for years. They’d learned a long time ago that if they didn’t, they’d only want whatever the other one had and end up switching plates, so they’d made an agreement to get the same thing and save each other the whole spectacle.
“That’s it.” Becca’s eyebrows went up again and the waitress’s eyes fell on Nick, and Becca repeated, “I said that’s it. We’re done ordering.”
Nick’s gaze traveled back to his best friend in confusion. “What was that?”
“She was staring at you like you’re a celebrity.”
“Well, I am. Didn’t you hear? I’m the reason they put in that traffic light on Green and Main. They should build a monument in my honor.”
Becca laughed, the moment easier to sit in, but Nick had to wonder where this was coming from and why it sounded a hell of a lot like jealousy. But Becca had never once hinted at any interest in Nick. There was an unspoken agreement between them that they couldn’t go there, and neither of them had—despite Nick’s thoughts drifting there more often than they should.
“So, like I was saying, did you watch Crazy Cane’s latest on chemtrails?”
Crazy Cane was an anonymous YouTuber who videoed all kinds of conspiracy theory things, then uploaded them to his channel of millions of subscribers like Nick and Becca, who both loved a good conspiracy theory.
“You’re such a nerd.”
“So are you and you know it. Now, did you watch it?”
She leaned in closer. “You know I did. The question is why would the government spray crap all around the sky for no good reason?”
Nick matched her lean. “It isn’t for no good reason. It’s to hide whatever would have been seen. They’re keeping something from us.”
“Did you hear what you just said?”
“I did. Look, I’m not in business mode right now. Give me a break.”
“Well, can you at least try for English?”
Nick laughed as he rose up to take a drink from Becca’s straw. Her gaze hit his, and he realized how close he was to her. If he moved a few inches, his lips wouldn’t be on her straw—they’d be on her mouth.
Swallowing, because clearly his beer was hitting him too quickly, he cleared his throat and sat back down. “It’s good.”
“It is, but they put too much rum in it, or whatever they use to make it. I’m going to pass out and you’ll have to carry me to your car.”
Nick’s eyes danced with mischievousness. “But then how could you be sure I wouldn’t take advantage of you?”
“Because you’re you,” a deep voice said from behind them, and Nick turned to see Trip and Emery standing there. “Care if we join y’all?”
Nick’s jaw tightened. “It’s a two-person table.”
“We need to talk about this.”
“Not here.”
“Hey, Nick.” Emery leaned down to kiss his cheek.
“Hey, Em. Doing okay?”
She smiled. “I am.” Then she walked over and kissed Becca’s cheek, too. “Hey, Bec.”
Becca hugged her, and they all sat in awkward silence for a moment, before Becca nodded to the table beside them. “You can pull up that table.” Nick glared at her, but all she did was glare right back.
“I thought you said y’all worked this out,” Emery said to her husband.
“We did,” Trip said.
Nick laughed sarcastically. “Right. How’d you know I was here anyway?”
“Saw your car.”
Nick eyed Becca. “We should have taken your car.”
“Still would have known it was you. You two are attached at the hip lately. If Becca’s not at the diner, you’re usually with her.”
The back deck had filled up now, the evening crowd out, and the last thing Nick wanted was for them to hash this out in the open like this, with half the town’s ears pricked for some good gossip. The brothers had agreed to maintain the Hamilton family image after their father died, avoid gossip, and make sure the town trusted them to continue the legacy. The last thing the Hamilton name needed was for the town to see the brothers arguing.
“Sit already before they start talking.”
Trip released a breath, and Nick realized for the first time that his brother was nervous. A part of him thought good, he should be, but the other part felt bad. This wasn’t how things should be between them. Trip handled Stables and Nick handled Industries and that was just how things went. Nick would never dream of trying to sell Stables without consulting Trip, and regardless of what his brother said, he knew a part of him felt guilty for stepping on Nick’s toes.
“Can I get y’all something?” The waitress came back over, her gaze hitting Nick again before going to Trip and Emery, and he thought Becca might fly out of her seat. The thought made him smile despite his brother’s presence.
“Sweet tea for me,” Emery said.
Trip motioned to Nick’s glass. “I’ll have what he’s having.”
The waitress smiled at Nick. “I’d like what he’s having, too.”
“What does that even mean?” Becca said, and Nick grinned over at her as the waitress scooted off.
“Calm down, bulldog.”
“She’s ridiculous. I mean, own it, girl. If you want to give him your number, do it. Don’t dance around.”
Emery tapped her fingers against the table, her eyes twinkling as she peered at Becca. “I think there’s only one woman Nick’s calling these days.” Then there was a loud thump from under the table, followed by, “Ouch. I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re saying plenty.” Trip shook his head at his wife, like she’d revealed some scandalous secret. And then Becca took a long sip of her piña colada, refusing to meet Nick’s eye.
What the hell was going on? So what if Nick hung out with Becca all the time? It wasn’t like this was something new. He’d been hanging out with her since they were kids, and losing his dad had done nothing more than confirm to him that she was the only person beyond his brothers who meant anything to him. And maybe the only person in the world who truly understood him. He’d hang out with her as much as he liked, outside opinions be damned
.
“Anyway, what were y’all talking about?” Emery asked, attempting to change the subject.
“Chemtrails.”
“What trails?” Trip asked. “Wait, is this that conspiracy theory nonsense again?”
Case in point. Becca would never call it nonsense because she believed all the crazy as much as he did.
“It’s not nonsense,” Becca said. “This guy films it all. You can’t argue with evidence.”
Nick’s eyes fell on his friend, and he thought the rest of them could all go to hell. This was his person, the one who got him, and he got her, and that kind of friendship didn’t have to be explained.
“So what’s happening at the stables?” Nick asked, sure that mention of the farm would get Trip going on a tangent, and it did.
He started in on a few new stallions Alex had bought, new owners he was working with, and before long they’d eaten their crab cakes, finished their third round of drinks, and Becca was yawning.
“We should probably head on. Becca has an early day tomorrow.” Her eyebrows rose in question because she had the day off, but Nick had taken all the niceties he could handle. He wanted to relax, and he could no longer do that with Trip around.
“Right, early day.”
“All right, see you two later.” Emery rose up and hugged Becca, then Nick, and Trip offered his hand for Nick to shake. But Nick knew his brother, and he knew that shake would serve as an unspoken agreement that he was okay with selling, okay with what Trip had done. So instead of taking his hand, he patted him on the back.
“We’ll talk Monday.”
“Nick . . .”
“Monday. I’ve had enough for today.”
Trip nodded slowly, they said their good-byes, and finally Nick was outside the restaurant, breathing in the chilled night air, his mind fuzzy from the effort to sit beside his brother without starting an argument. He and Becca climbed into his BMW and he set off down the road, the quiet giving way to thoughts he didn’t want to have—questions he didn’t want to answer. Because at the end of the day, maybe Trip was right. Maybe it was time to sell.
“You okay?” Becca asked once they pulled down her driveway and were parked outside her house.
“Yeah, just thinking.” Nick rolled his head toward her, and Becca opened her mouth to ask him something, but Nick’s brain couldn’t handle any more questions, any more thoughts. “See you tomorrow?”
Her mouth snapped closed and she glanced out the windshield. “Right. See you tomorrow, Nick.”
Chapter Four
Becca woke to the sound of someone or something banging around in her kitchen. Immediately, she grabbed the baseball bat she kept beside her bed and started out the door. Thank God she hadn’t woken up thirty minutes before to exercise like she’d planned or she might have been killed by the intruder.
She edged down the still-dark hall because the sun wasn’t fully awake either, and then jumped into the kitchen, only to scream and then listen as the person in her fridge screamed, and then the baby on said person’s hip began to cry. Loudly.
“Reagan? What in the hell—?”
“Shhh!” her sister reprimanded, then pointed to the child sitting at Becca’s kitchen table, her hands over her ears like earmuffs. Her light brown hair was parted down the middle and pulled up into two high pigtails that hung in curls, and she had the same olive complexion as most of the Starks.
“Oops, sorry, Anna banana.” Becca dropped the bat on her couch and walked over to peck her niece’s chipmunk cheek, then glared at her sister. “What are you doing here this early in the morning?”
“We’re out of milk and Anna wanted cereal.”
“Why are you out of milk?” Becca grabbed the gallon jug from her fridge, poured it over her niece’s cereal, and then replaced it before turning on her sister, who was suddenly very interested in the kitchen sink. “Reagan?”
The sun’s rays cast in through the window over the sink, highlighting shimmery tears, and Becca’s heart sank. “What happened?”
“I can’t talk about it here.”
Becca motioned to the family room, which, with the open floor plan, wasn’t much better, but it was a small house, what could she do? “Ty lost his job again, and my credit card was declined at the market yesterday. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Reagan dried her tears with the back of her hand, then ran a hand over baby Cade’s head, and the sucker in Becca sighed. “How much do you need?”
Reagan’s face lit. “Seriously? You’ll help us?”
As though Becca hadn’t been the one to bail them out every single time Ty lost his job, which was pretty much every other week. Ty was the perfect example of why high school superstars don’t matter. He was quarterback of Triple Run High, every girl in the school wanted him, and Reagan snagged him. But then, when Ty realized that his talents in a small town didn’t translate to college and he was placed on special teams, then benched, he moved back home and drank his sorrows away.
What made it all worse was that Ty still thought of himself as a superstar and told stories of his best games to anyone who would listen. And Becca might feel bad for him, if it weren’t that he treated her sister like it was all her fault and his children like they were nuisances.
Becca’s mother had warned her against helping her sister, saying Ty put Reagan up to asking Becca and would take her for all she had if she wasn’t careful, but Becca loved her niece and nephew. How could she let them suffer? It wasn’t their fault they had crappy parents.
Though she only worked at the diner, Becca saved every dollar she made, so she had quite a savings by now. It all started with her obsession with Dave Ramsey years ago, and her determination to make the best of what she had. Then her grandmother died, and because Becca had been the one to care for her—and okay, the favorite—she left everything to Becca. Which wasn’t much. But a house with no mortgage and twenty thousand dollars wasn’t anything to sneeze at. So whenever Reagan came over, Becca always caved.
And her deep loathing for her brother-in-law grew still more.
“Reagan, maybe it’s time you get a job and let Ty stay home with the kids.” At her pointed stare, Becca sighed. “All right, so maybe not, but I bet Aunt Karen would agree to keep the kids while you work.” Their aunt and uncle lived on the Stark property, too, which had been Becca’s grandmother’s. There were three homes there—one Uncle Mark and Karen lived in, the other Reagan took over, and the last was Becca’s house. The property was fifteen acres in total, and though that would normally feel like a fair amount of land, with the Starks Becca needed more like a hundred so she could breathe without her family always showing up.
Her parents had moved to Florida years ago, and though they visited from time to time, they were content in their bubble. Instead of coming back to Triple Run, which her mother had always hated, they insisted that Becca and Reagan visit them there. Which was the reason Becca had dropped out of college in the first place, to take over caring for her grandmother. No one else would step up to the plate, and Granny refused to move to Florida, so Becca had no choice.
Years later now, she still wondered for what might have been. What might have happened if she’d finished her degree, worked at a hospital or doctor’s office, and maybe met and married a doctor husband of her own? But then her mind drifted to Nick, and she shook off the thought. Even if she’d finished her degree and training, her heart would always belong to Nick Hamilton.
After handing over sixty dollars and a check for five hundred more, Becca placed her hands on her hips in her best attempt at mimicking their mother. “This is for groceries. Understand? Don’t you dare give a dollar of it to that POS husband of yours.”
“Hey! He’s not—” Becca cocked her head and her sister relented. “Fine, okay.”
“What about clothes and stuff? Are they okay?”
Reagan eyed her kids affectionately. Though she had horrible taste in men, she loved her children. That much was clear. “I
think they’re okay. I was going to run to that consignment shop in Crestler’s Key tomorrow and pick up a few things.”
“I’ll go.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m off today.”
They fell into an uncomfortable silence before, finally, Anna asked to go home and play with her cat. It was a stray kitten Becca had found wandering around behind the diner last week. At first, she’d brought it home, all gray and white and full of fear, telling it that she would give it a good home. And she’d planned to do just that. Until Anna walked into her house and squealed with excitement, and Becca handed over the kitten and everything she’d bought it, her heart happy.
“Please, Mommy,” Anna said again. “Mittens is probably crying for me.”
“Mittens? I thought her name was Ramsey.”
Reagan deadpanned, “Seriously? You named the cat after a financial guru?”
“Hey,” Becca said with mock offense. “Dave is a genius.”
“Mommy . . .”
Shaking her head at her sister, Reagan lifted Cade higher on her hip. “You are such a dork.”
“Well, at least this dork can buy milk.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“I’m sorry,” Becca said with a fake frown.
“No, you’re not.”
“Okay, I’m not. But it’s because I think you deserve better.”
Reagan released a long breath. “I know, I know. All right, little bits, let’s go. I love you, big sister.” She hugged Becca’s neck, and Becca kissed Cade’s head before walking over to hug her niece tight.
“You can spend the night with me next Saturday if you want. Movie and popcorn?”
The little girl bounced, her curly pigtails bouncing along with her. “Really?”
“It’s a date.” Becca kissed her cheek, then waved them all good-bye.
She had just started to close the door when a hand reached out to stop her. “Good God, what now?” Becca opened the door, only to startle back.
“Man, Bec, is that the greeting you give everyone at seven thirty in the morning or just me?” Nick flashed her that grin she loved, and a part of her wondered what it would be like to be able to lean in to kiss him. To feel his arms around her. To snuggle against his chest.
