“What?” She glanced down at her clothing. “Don’t I match?”
The fact that she thought his staring had nothing to do with her looks made him smile. “No. I, uh, just haven’t seen you with your hair pulled back.”
She squinted, her eyes a little suspicious. “I usually wear it this way when I run.”
He better back off with the compliments. She looked like she was going to bolt on him again. Glancing away, he stretched out his other leg. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
There was a lengthy pause and then she let out a long breath. “I don’t want to be gone very long, especially after just eating. Plus, I’m going to take it slow.”
He straightened up and slanted her a glance. Somehow he got the feeling that running wasn’t the only thing she wanted to take slow. “Slow is good.” He would take whatever time was necessary in order to get to know her.
She looked as if she wanted to say more, but she just nodded her head. “Okay. Let’s go.” She strode past him and then broke into an easy tempo.
It took him a second before he caught her. After that, they fell into a matched rhythm, their feet hitting the pavement, her long legs keeping up with his strides.
After they circled the path three times, she slowed her pace and Nick followed, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. Finally, she changed the tempo down to a brisk walk, her breath coming in short gasps. She gave him a dubious look. “That’s not fair. You’re not even winded.”
He laughed. “Maybe it’s the altitude change?”
“Yeah, except I’m pretty sure our altitude here is supposed to make breathing harder, not easier.” She stopped walking and looked at him through narrowed eyes. “But thanks for trying to make me feel better.”
They stood close together, nearly touching. Their eyes met and Nick fought the intense attraction. He wanted to reach out and touch her, maybe take her hand. The damp hair around her face made the tiny ringlets glisten. Her skin glowed, flushed from the exertion. Her lips seemed to almost be in a perpetual pout and he had to force himself to look away from her mouth.
She drew in a deep breath and turned away from him. “Your offer to help me with Cade. I guess if it’s not a problem…if you were serious, then your help would be nice.”
She kept her gaze averted and he knew the admission for help cost her. He wanted to reach out to her, stroke his hand along her arm in an attempt to give her reassurance. He knew her skin would be smooth and warm under his fingers.
Restraining himself, he tightened his hands into a fist. “I’d be happy to help in any way I can. I need to check my schedule, but I think I have to be in L.A. on Thursday. If we planned to go two days before, it would give us plenty of time to see all the attractions.”
Ellie whirled around, a look of confusion clouded her features. “You…don’t have to go with us.”
He felt like he’d just been sucker punched and flinched as the rejection of her words hit him. “Oh. Okay.” He swallowed and took a step back. “I didn’t mean…uh, if you don’t want me…” He didn’t finish the sentence. She really didn’t want anything to do with him. All these years of having women fall at his feet had obviously made him overconfident.
Not wanting to make the situation even more uncomfortable, he did something he hadn’t done since high school. He faked a leg cramp. “Hey, my calf muscle is really bothering me.” He turned away from her and started to jog slowly backward. “I’m just going to run it off. I’ll let you know what I can work out, though.”
Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened to say something, but then she clamped it shut. He turned and made his way home, feeling immature and like a total coward. This whole situation felt foreign—as shallow as it sounded, he was used to getting whatever woman he wanted. For so long if he met someone he found remotely interesting or attractive, all he had to do was ask. It was the first time he could remember when his fame and charm were ineffectual.
He had to ask himself if he was really attracted to her, or could it be a case of wanting something you can’t have—like she gave him a challenge?
Besides, realistically it was stupid to have offered to go with them. It was only a matter of time before his life would become a three-ring circus and it wouldn’t be fair to get Ellie and her son in the thick of it.
He ran a hand through his dampened hair and laughed. Who was he kidding? If he accompanied them to Disneyland, the media frenzy would follow. Yeah, he could probably wear a ball cap, sun glasses and not shave for a couple of days to throw them off his trail, but he knew from past experiences it never worked for long.
Approaching his house, he decided he was probably going about this all wrong. Ellie was a woman who had been betrayed. He knew she would have trust issues. So did he. It was hard enough trying to find a wife—the added fame made it nearly impossible. How could he trust anyone’s motive for dating him?
Obviously, he needed a different game plan. Maybe like pretending he wasn’t too interested in her.
He stepped inside his house and went immediately to the bathroom for a hot shower. She wanted slow? Well, that’s exactly what he planned on giving her.
* * *
Too stunned to speak, Ellie watched Nick run away. Wasn’t that her gig? And please, a leg cramp? Apparently his excuses were just as lame as hers had been when she’d run away from him. But why would he run from her?
She replayed his words over in her head. The part “if you don’t want me” confused her. His offer to accompany them stemmed more from obligation, didn’t it? Betsy had practically forced him into helping her out. The poor guy didn’t have a choice. She just wanted to give him an out.
Kneeling down, she tied a loose shoelace and recalled the hurt look in his eyes just before he took off. Hurt? Nah. That had to be wrong. It was probably more like shock at the crazy woman’s overreaction to him. For crying out loud, the man was a philanthropist! He felt sorry for her. He could start another charity catering to jilted women everywhere.
Groaning, she placed her hands on her knees and rolled up to a standing position. As she walked toward home, she kept stifling the notion that there was a remote chance he might be interested in her as a woman. It didn’t make sense. Why, if he wanted, the man could go to the college campus and start shopping and no one would bat an eye if he picked someone more than a decade younger than himself.
Still, a tiny glimmer of hope that Nick found her attractive kept trying to make its way to the surface. She plucked at the thought and tossed it away. But just like the weeds in her parents’ flowerbed, she always found more trying to push through. What if he did like her?
As she approached the cul-de-sac, she sprinted across the pavement, her eyes only strayed for a few seconds toward the big stone house. He was in there, and somehow she needed to find a way to apologize to him. After that, she needed to uncover the flirting skills she’d buried more than five years ago.
* * *
Flipping through the channels on the television, Nick sat barricaded inside his house and tried to ignore the local news vans parked outside his home. Today was his first Sunday to attend church, and apparently he’d been sold out by someone from the congregation who had given out the location of his house.
The press release on Friday had gone as planned and all the local stations had reported his move to the Denver, Colorado area. It was never his intention to give out the exact location, although he knew it would surface soon enough on its own. Still, it would’ve been nice to have had a little more time.
On a national level, he’d caught a little blurb on Entertainment Tonight, suggesting he’d moved to the quiet suburb in Colorado to settle down and focus more on his charities, which was true. The people over there were a lot nicer than some of the other entertainment programs. Celebrity Weekly made it sound like Nick’s moving to Colorado was so he could avoid any more scandals in Hollywood.
He supposed that was also true. However, since recommitting to his faith after
Jared’s death, Nick hadn’t done anything that could be considered scandalous. Everything the tabloids reported was hearsay. He couldn’t erase the stupid mistakes he’d made early on in his career, all he could do was try to live his life in a way that reflected his deep faith.
Running a hand over his face, he thought about how nice it had been to be free from the media over the past week. Now he wondered how long it would take before they moved onto the next story.
He slipped his fingers in between the blinds and parted them just enough to see out the window. Every news station was represented by women reporters in short skirts and high heels. One of the Barbie-type women peered in the van’s side mirror to check her makeup. Why couldn’t they just send the male sportscasters? At least then the questions would focus on football, not the player.
Letting the blinds fall back into place, he moved away from the front of the house and thought about today. The first Sunday in a new church is always a little nerve-racking. He smiled when he remembered Pastor Stewart’s plea from the pulpit. “Now folks, let’s remember while Mr. Coulter is at church, he is just like you and me and we need to treat him like anyone else.”
Nick had held out hope that even if people were in awe, they would listen to the preacher. When the meeting ended, the swarming church members basically forgot they were at church to worship the Lord—not him. While trying to deal with the crowd, Nick had spotted Ellie. Her eyes were wide with shock. Did she think he liked this?
He’d tried to leave, but was unsuccessful largely due to the fact his pew had a line of people waiting for him to sign any scrap of paper they could find. Finally, Pastor Stewart cleared the members out and then escorted Nick to Sunday school. Having the preacher as his security detail was pretty effective. Nobody asked for another autograph the rest of the day.
Nick never did see Ellie again. He thought she’d gone home after the sermon until Betsy told him she volunteered in the nursery. It was too bad. He had hoped to run into her so he could ignore her.
Having the media camped outside his house pretty much nixed any of his wacky ideas. Until things calmed down, he wouldn’t be chasing, flirting with or ignoring his single, divorced, attractive neighbor.
Obviously, her rejection still stung.
Rubbing a hand across his empty stomach, Nick padded bare foot into the kitchen to forage for food. He knew his choices were limited. With Betsy feeding him every night, he hadn’t bothered to have a good supply of groceries delivered.
Opening the fridge, he scanned its meager contents. A half-gallon of milk sat all alone on the shelf. The milk had even been purchased by the pastor a few days ago, along with a couple of boxes of Lucky Charms.
Grabbing the milk, he found a bowl and a spoon. Cold cereal didn’t sound appetizing, but aside from a plate of oatmeal cookies Betsy had baked, he didn’t have any other choice. While he munched on the cereal, he tried to remember where he had put his cell phone. Every Sunday, he always called his folks, but somewhere between home and church he’d misplaced his phone. More than likely it was in his car. Had he parked in the garage, it wouldn’t have been a problem to go search for it.
He took another bite of the cold cereal, chastising himself for being more interested in Ellie Garrett than getting groceries or having his landline connected. At least he had his Sprint wireless card. After he finished eating, he would email his parents. He’d already sent a message to Alec about the problem outside, but Alec didn’t answer email on the weekends. Nick figured it would be late Monday morning before he had a security team in place to encourage the media to leave his private residence.
Picking up the box of Lucky Charms, Nick poured more sugared cereal into his bowl. As he added the milk, he heard a commotion outside. He scooted his chair away from the table and went back to the living room. Once again, he parted the blinds and peeked through the window.
What in the world? A woman wearing a bright colored muumuu with a large hat that covered her head held a platter containing some kind of food. It looked like she was feeding the masses or—in this case—the media.
It had to be Betsy. Maybe she and the pastor would figure out a way to get him out of his house. They had to know he was starving.
As he returned to the kitchen, he sat back down to his soggy cereal. He pushed it away and reached for the plate of cookies. It was better than nothing.
* * *
Ellie looked out her window again, stunned at the tenacity of the news vans—they hadn’t budged for hours. The circus at worship service today had made her ashamed of her fellow church members. Couldn’t they see the look in Nick’s eyes? How awful it must be to go somewhere and have your personal space so invaded. Someone must have given out his address. She just hoped it hadn’t been on purpose.
She strained to see any kind of movement from within Nick’s house. If only she could have talked to him before today. He’d been pretty scarce this week. In fact, the only time she actually saw him, other than at church, was on television. On Friday, every channel reported his move to Colorado.
Twirling a curl around her finger, she turned her attention to all the reporters roaming around like vultures, waiting to devour their prey. His popularity made her a little nervous about her plan, but she knew she had to at least apologize to him. Today she’d finally gathered the courage to ask for Betsy’s assistance.
After admitting to Betsy that, yes, she was attracted to Nick, she told her about the conversation leading up to his hasty retreat. Betsy had convinced her that Nick Coulter was not the kind of man to be coerced into doing something he didn’t want to do. If he had made the offer to physically accompany her and Cade to the theme park, it was something he really wanted to do.
Betsy had been so convincing, Ellie had agreed to go to his house and talk with Nick. The plan had been to go after church and bring him a peace offering: A loaf of bread Betsy had made, but Ellie baked.
However, the plan had been derailed by the news trucks planted in front of his house. Ellie had decided to call the guy and get it over with, but Betsy said that his only phone was his cell, and he wasn’t answering it.
As she thought about Nick’s cell phone, Ellie heard the familiar ring-tone to her own phone. She fumbled around in her church bag and answered it just before it rolled over to voicemail.
“Hello.” She went into the kitchen, leaving Cade to play with his Transformers in the family room.
“I have a plan.” Betsy sounded a little too excited.
Instantly, Ellie was leery. “What kind of plan?” She should’ve never told Betsy she found her new neighbor attractive. Now, until Ellie talked to the guy, Betsy would never leave her alone.
She heard a giggle on the other line, making Ellie even more suspicious. “I can’t tell you about it, I have to show you,” Betsy whispered. “I’m on my way over right now. Meet me at the back door.”
Seconds later, she heard a soft knock. When she opened up the door to admit Betsy, Ellie wanted to run and hide. What have I gotten myself into this time? “What on earth are you wearing?”
“Hush.” Betsy stepped inside the house and shut the door behind her. “It’s my Aunt Myrna’s muumuu she brought home from Hawaii.”
Betsy made her way into the kitchen, placing a foil-covered plate next to the loaf of bread Ellie had just finished baking.
Ellie reluctantly followed. “Okay, so what are you doing in your Aunt Myrna’s muumuu?” Did she really want to know?
Peeling the large hat off her head, Betsy handed it to Ellie. “I already went over to the media vans and gave them some treats.” She fluffed her hair with her fingers. “They won’t be interested in me if I meander around the side of Nick’s property, especially if I’m calling for my lost dog.”
Ellie narrowed her eyes. “You don’t own a dog.”
Betsy gave an exaggerated eye roll. “I know, but they don’t know that.” She started to take off the awful dress. “Besides, this is Pleasant Wood, and I doubt anyone is going to
be trespassing on Nick’s property. They want to be his friend, not his enemy.”
Ellie snorted. “Yeah, I’ll bet they want to be his friend.” It wasn’t hard to miss that every news station had sent their prettiest, most shapely reporters.
Betsy handed the dress to Ellie. “Put this over your clothes so they’ll think you’re me.”
Huh? Was she crazy?
No. Ellie was the crazy one, because she took the clothing. “You want me to wear this and sneak into his house?”
Betsy’s eyes positively glowed. “Well, not sneak. You’ll knock on the back door. It’s brilliant, isn’t it?”
Brilliant? Insane was more like it.
The next thing Ellie knew, she was wearing the hideous dress. She had the hat on her head and was holding a bag with the bread and the plate of roast beef, potatoes and gravy concealed inside. Betsy laid her hands on Ellie’s shoulders and pushed her out the door. “Have fun.”
Ellie snorted again and walked around to the front of the house. Yep. She was absolutely crazy.
Much to Ellie’s surprise, Betsy’s plan actually worked. No one even questioned Ellie as she called for Spot. She quickly found herself at the back of Nick’s house. Knocking softly, she wondered if Nick would even answer his door. Now that she was here, dressed the way she was, she wondered what in the world she had been thinking. Betsy’s plans always sounded so conceivable while still in the planning process. Before she chickened out, she reminded herself why she had just sneaked past all of Denver’s local news station trucks.
Her heart started to pound when she saw Nick coming to the door. She’d almost forgotten how nice looking he was. Suddenly she didn’t feel very brave. Betsy’s pep talks about how attracted Nick seemed to be to her didn’t sound as probable at the moment. Feeling shy, she lowered her chin so the brim of the hat covered her face.
Fair Catch Page 7
