He narrowed his eyes at her. “Meaning?”
She held up her hands. “Please rest assured that I’m not the type of person to file a sexual harassment lawsuit—unless the problem persisted, of course, which I’m sure it won’t.”
He gasped and withered into his chair. “W-well good.”
“Sandi and I will be in close contact with the staff in the London club, though, so I suggest you treat the women well,” she said. What a creepy little bug of a man he was. “No pressuring subordinates to go out with you, and no gender-based salary gap. We all know it’s the women who keep these clubs afloat anyway. It’d be such a shame if you were the subject of an international class-action suit…”
He turned a bit green at that, and she knew she had him. God, it felt good to finally tell him to cram it. Even if it meant giving up London, finding her voice and her career footing was so worth it.
“Have a safe trip, Tristan.” With that, she left the club.
As soon as she arrived home, she phoned Sandi to tell her she’d love to work with her.
“I’m thrilled to hear it,” Sandi said. “You’re good at your job. I’m glad we’ll be keeping you.”
“But I have a condition I’d like to discuss with you first.” Niki felt nervous butterflies batting around her ribcage. But if she didn’t go for it, she’d kick herself. And she’d likely regret it for the rest of her life.
Sandi was silent for a moment. “A condition, hmm? What would that be?”
She thought about Grant. He still hadn’t told her that he loved her, but she had to lay her heart out there and see if he felt the same. “I’d like to discuss it in person.”
“Fine,” Sandi said. “Whatever it is, I’m sure we can work it out.”
After she hung up, she thought about Grant. Every day for a week after she’d moved out, she’d taken a little detour on her way to work to drive past his house, hoping against hope that the Sale Pending sign in front of his house would be removed, that he’d changed his mind and decided to stay.
Then a week ago, it was gone, and she saw someone else moving furniture in. Grant had left.
She’d locked away the pain, pretended it didn’t bother her, because giving in to it hurt too much.
Sinking into the sofa, she scrolled down to Grant’s number on her phone and stared at his photo. Had he gotten a job yet? Did he miss her as much as she missed him?
Biting her lip, she resisted the urge to call him—for about a minute. Holding her breath, she hit the send button and quickly racked her brain to think of an excuse why she’d called him. She could say she couldn’t find a particular T-shirt or pair of shoes since she’d moved out of his house and inquire if he’d found them.
But all her thoughts evaporated in a green haze when a woman answered his phone. Niki’s temples immediately started throbbing.
“Hello? Who’s there?” the stranger asked.
Niki disconnected and dropped the phone onto the cushion.
The woman had sounded young, definitely not Grant’s mom or grandmother. Had he already hooked up with someone?
The more she thought about it, though, she realized there had to be another explanation. Maybe it had been Grant’s sister-in-law who’d answered the phone. She tried to recall Amber’s voice, but never having spoken to her over the phone, she couldn’t be sure. Still, that was a possibility.
Grant was different from every guy who’d come before him in her life. Her jealousy morphed into sadness. What if Grant didn’t want to be with her? He’d had plenty of opportunities to tell her he loved her, yet he hadn’t. And worse, he’d left. Could it be that he didn’t feel the same way she did? She paced the floor as she tried to work up the nerve to call him back, but when her best friend called asking her to go to dinner to celebrate Amy getting a job, Niki agreed. Who better to discuss her future with than the woman who’d known her since middle school? But before she could make any decisions about her personal life, she had to make a stop at Heatwave to speak with Sandi.
By the time she met Amy for dinner an hour and a half later, she’d changed her clothes, but she had yet to shed the cloud of doubt following her.
Amy ordered a carafe of their favorite wine and, after it arrived, they toasted to Amy’s future. “Thanks for coming out to celebrate with me,” she said. “I can’t believe I got the job at The Miami Observer. I’m so freaking excited.”
Niki summoned all of the enthusiasm for her friend she could. “Oh, Amy, that’s fantastic. You’re going to be a real reporter. I’m so happy for you.”
Amy sipped her wine. “So why do you look as if you’ll burst into tears at any moment?”
What was the point of pretending with Amy? “I guess I miss Grant a little.”
“A little? Puh-lease. What you’re doing, my friend, is known as pining.”
Niki bristled. “Oh, come on. I’m hardly pining for him. I just wish I knew how he felt about me.”
“Then what are you doing sitting here with me? Go ask him.”
Niki wished it were that simple. “He lives more than a thousand miles away now.”
“Like you’d be the first couple in history to have a long-distance relationship? Maybe you’d decide that you enjoy farm country.”
Niki shrugged, which just caused Amy to roll her eyes.
“What the heck are you waiting for?” Jabbing a finger toward her, she went on. “You tell your new boss that you need a few days off to make up for the vacation that stupid Tristan ruined. Then you get your ass on an airplane and go visit Grant.”
“For all I know, Grant’s already moved on to someone else.” As soon as the words had left her lips she realized that in her heart, she knew it couldn’t be true.
Amy twisted a blond curl around her finger then let it spring back into place. “Could you possibly be the same person who refused to take no for an answer when Principal Klein said we didn’t have enough money for a DJ at our prom? The Niki Hamilton I knew organized a carwash and a bake sale then handed that woman seven-hundred bucks cash to hire a DJ. Remember that?”
Setting her wine down, Niki balked. “This isn’t high school, and a man’s heart can’t be won by a carwash or a bake sale.”
Amy reached across the table to pat Niki’s arm. “You’ve already won his heart.”
Niki leaned her chin on her hand. “I don’t know. He might not want me to come.”
“Who says you have to ask him? Just show up.”
“I’ve never done anything so crazy.”
“My point exactly.” Amy leaned closer. “Just do it. You have nothing to lose. You know you want to.”
Her friend was right.
Amy clinked her glass to Niki’s. “Pinky swear, double dare.” She extended her right pinky and Niki hooked hers to it as they’d done in high school.
Now she had to do it.
…
Three days later, Grant finished painting the front porch of the farmhouse—a task that was years overdue—when he heard a car coming up the long driveway.
Assuming the vehicle was his parents’ SUV returning from their house hunting in Peekskill, he grabbed the paint supplies and headed around the house to the tool shed. Soon enough his brother would be there to help him. Since Amber was starting her new job in a few weeks, Ben had put in his two-week’s notice.
As he used the hose to wash his hands, he spotted Sarge in the kitchen window, watching him. The cat now reminded him of Miami, which made him think of Niki. Actually, everything made him think of her these days.
He smelled her perfume everywhere he went, saw her face on TV and in magazines, heard her voice in the wind.
“Grant?”
Holy cow, that really had sounded like her.
“Grant? Are you there?”
“Niki?” Holding his breath, he froze. Was he imagining things now? Sure, he’d been miserable without her, but he hadn’t realized he’d completely lost it. He shut off the water and waited, listened.
Foots
teps approached. Suddenly she stood a few yards away, the late afternoon sun at her back.
They remained silent for several moments.
A thousand questions bombarded his brain. Did he dare hope that she wasn’t going to London? If she wasn’t, what did it mean? “What are you doing here?” he finally asked.
She tilted her head and gave him a lazy smile. “We never had a proper good-bye.”
His hopes sank. “I thought it would be easier for both of us that way.”
Another long silence stretched between them. He grabbed a towel from a hook on the side of the shed and wiped off his face and arms. “When are you heading overseas?”
Kicking dirt around with the tip of her boot, she didn’t answer his question.
“I’m not sure why you came all this way, Niki.”
The hurt in her eyes ripped a hole through him, or maybe it merely widened the one that was already there. “I saw Tristan kiss you,” he blurted. “That night when I came to the club to get you and take you to the hospital to see your Aunt Bev.”
Her jaw went slack. “There’s nothing between Tristan and me. Yes, he tried to kiss me—”
“Tried?”
“Yes, I stopped him. And ran away. That was why I was so distraught when you found me in the club that night. I was probably trying not to be physically ill as well.”
Made sense. “But you still work for him?”
She shook her head. “Only technically.”
“I don’t get it.”
“All you need to understand is that I didn’t kiss him back.”
“Why not? I thought that was what you wanted. He was who you wanted.”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “That was before, Grant. I couldn’t bring myself to kiss him because I was already in love with someone else.” Her voice broke on the last word. She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a piece of paper. “Tristan gave me this airline ticket a couple days ago.” Abruptly, she stopped talking and started picking up twigs from the ground.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she dropped the sticks into the barrel they used to burn leaves in the fall. Wadding up the paper in her hand, she pulled a lighter out of her other pocket and set the thing on fire. Then she dropped it into the barrel. “There.”
Grant looked from Niki to the fire and back again. “Why’d you do that?”
“Because I’m not going to put an ocean between us. I’ve got this great new boss—she’s Tristan’s business partner, and she’s taking over the US clubs. I really like her. She made me an offer to stay at Heatwave in Miami.” She blew out a breath and waited a beat before continuing. “But then I asked if I could get the same position at the New York club.”
“New York?” His pulse was racing. He was still trying to absorb that fact that Niki was really there. Mostly he was excited, but part of him was terrified.
“Mmm-hmm.” Niki nodded. “She said yes. It’ll be a massive commute out to see you, but Grant, it’s worth it, and it’s a lot closer than Miami.” When he didn’t say anything, she twisted a small silver ring she was wearing on her right hand and plunged on, her speech louder and more rapid-fire than usual, betraying her nervousness. “I know Carrie hurt you, and you’re afraid that I will, too. All I can do is assure you that I’m not her.” Her eyes glistened as she spoke. “I care about you, a lot. In fact, I-I love you.” She wiped away a few tears. “I understand you might not feel that way about me, but I couldn’t take the chance on not saying it and never seeing you again.”
Deep down he loved her too, but after everything with Carrie, giving in to the emotion with Niki felt a lot like heading into hot-zone conditions without a hazmat suit.
Turning away from him, she sniffled. “I realize I might have just made a huge fool of myself. If I did, please forget everything I said and consider this a long trip to say good-bye to Sarge. Then I’ll walk away, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
Now that she was here, short-circuiting his every thought, he knew he couldn’t lose her, not again. He’d made a commitment to his brother and Amber that he’d share in the work and responsibility of the farm, and he’d made a promise to himself that he’d never open himself up to the kind of pain he’d suffered when Carrie had left. He hadn’t counted on Niki breaching the wall he’d erected around himself. Only she had. She was in his blood now, part of every breath he drew, each step he took. Why had he believed that putting a thousand miles between them would change that?
He just watched her for a moment, his heart so full he couldn’t even speak. But then it registered in his numb brain that his silence was making her feel terrible. He’d never been good at flowery speeches, but for Niki, he had to try.
“You didn’t make a fool of yourself, Niki,” he said, speaking slowly as he tried to find the right words. “Actually, you showed me how brave you are—a lot braver than I’ve been. I was punishing both of us for someone else’s sins, someone who was all wrong for me. Maybe I had to go through that in order to be the man I need to be, the man I want to be for you. All I know is that if you leave, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
Her eyes widened, and then the smile she gave him was enough to live on for the next hundred years. “New York City is only a couple of hours away. I know you hate my farm, or I might get sick of the city. But somehow—maybe somewhere in between—we can make this work. Home is wherever you are, Niki. I love you.”
She let out a sob, and without quite knowing how he got there, he was standing directly before her, with his arms outstretched. “Come here, you funny, brave, beautiful woman.” And as he’d just told her, when she fell into them, it felt like home. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you first, but I’ll tell you last, and every day as long as you let me. I love you,” he said again.
There was always the possibility he might get hurt, but it couldn’t hurt any more than he’d already been suffering without her. One thing he was sure of—letting her go would be the biggest mistake of his life.
Being a man meant facing down his fears. Hell, he ran into burning buildings for a living. Loving one smoking hot woman was a no-brainer.
She hooked her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.
Even though he was wet and dirty, he didn’t care. She certainly didn’t seem to.
She wasn’t leaving. Grasping her upper arms, he broke the kiss and held her at arms’ length. “Please tell me I’m not dreaming. I don’t understand what the hell’s going on or why you’re here, but I’m so happy that you are.”
Those cornflower eyes sparkled with desire and happiness. “Amy helped me see that anything’s possible when you want it enough. And I realized that I want you enough. If I have to, I’ll go back and forth between here and New York City. Maybe I can get a small place in Manhattan and spend a few nights a week there.”
He thought about her making the long drive several times each week. “I’d be worrying about you on the road that much. Plus you’d be exhausted by the time you got here. And by the way, even a postage stamp–sized apartment in the city costs a small fortune.”
“I’m getting a big raise. What better to spend it on than a place that’ll allow us to have weekends together?”
“I can’t bear the thought of only seeing you two days a week. I bet we could find something between here and the city.” He thought about a conversation he’d had with his brother a few days ago about a town where the local government was giving homeowners cash incentives to start urban farms in the area. “Actually, Ben told me about this place called Dream Falls. The town pays people to farm their yard. You get to keep part of the crops and the rest you donate to the school lunch program there. It’s about a forty-five-minute drive from here, and probably about that far from the city. I could probably find a place with a really big yard.”
“I love that.” Her smile slipped a little. “But what about this farm? You love this place too much to give it up.”
He told her about his parents and grandparents plans to move. “Ben and Amber are taking over the farm. They’re really excited about it. Once the repairs are finished on the house and barn, I’d planned to get my own place within an hour of here, since I promised to help out when they need it. I’m so happy that we’re keeping the farm in the family, and I can visit as often as they can stand me.”
She glanced past him. “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t mind spending more time here, as long as I got my city fix, too.”
“I need my fix of you more than anything.” He lifted her off her feet and gave her a proper kiss. When he finally set her on her feet, her lips were red, and she wore a dazed expression.
“The farmhouse looks good. You’ve been busy,” she said.
“I have.” Taking her hand, he led her toward the back door.
She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked.
He stopped walking, faced her, and took both her hands in his. “We can do this, Niki. We can even go down to Miami to visit your family whenever you want.”
Her eyes filled again and his chest tightened at the sight. “I’d like that.”
He nodded. “Me, too.”
“Let’s go inside and give Sarge the good news.”
Epilogue
Three months later…
Niki climbed up onto a chair to hang a Happy Birthday banner across the archway between the kitchen and dining room of their new house. The three-bedroom, two-bath charmer was the perfect size for them, at least for the time being.
Lucy gave Niki a hand off the chair then went into the kitchen with her. “I’m glad things are going well between you and Grant,” her sister said. “I like it up here. And so does Dex. It isn’t easy to talk that man into time away from the office, but after one of our eight-month Florida summers, he was more than ready for an autumn trip up north. Even with the rest of the family coming, too.”
The Best Man's Proposal (The Hamilton Sisters) Page 19
