Anyone But Nick

by Bloom, Penelope

  I shook my head. Stupid. Wild, childish fantasies were not going to help me do the job I needed to do. And neither was peeking inside this door, but I found myself pushing the handle down and moving my head to peer inside all the same.

  Inside, I saw Nick and a young, beautiful woman standing together with their lips locked. As soon as I saw them, my eyes widened, and I clicked the door shut, forgetting to be quiet in my hurry to get back downstairs.

  Chapter 6

  NICK

  I pulled back and fought the urge to wipe my lips with the back of my hand. I couldn’t believe she’d kissed me.

  I heard the door open a moment after the kiss and turned my head just in time to see Miranda’s wide eyes. She pulled the door shut without a word.

  Shit. I wanted a line in the sand, and I guessed I couldn’t have asked for a sharper stick to draw it with than this, could I? But that didn’t help push back any of the overwhelming guilt I felt.

  “Laine . . . ,” I said slowly. “I’m sorry—”

  She was breathing heavily as she looked up at me. She let her eyes fall and sighed. “God. I’m an idiot.”

  “Hey,” I said. I awkwardly reached out to touch her shoulder but thought better of it. I’d apparently sent enough mixed messages already and didn’t want to make it any worse. She was pretty, with shoulder-length black hair and a freckle-specked nose. I pulled my hand back and let it flop to my leg. “It’s okay. I’m just not . . . interested in you that way.”

  I had dated her briefly a few weeks back. I hadn’t heard from her until a few minutes ago when she’d sent a text telling me she’d come and needed to talk to me about something important upstairs. I’d assumed she was going to ask for a favor, but when I’d come in here, she’d confessed that she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about me and kissed me before I knew what was happening.

  I think part of me had suspected something like this was going to happen, and maybe I’d even wanted it to. Getting back in a relationship with Laine would’ve simplified my Miranda problem immensely. I was a lot of things, but disloyal wasn’t one of them. Dating somebody else would put Miranda from my mind, but it would’ve also been an extremely shitty thing to do to the woman I’d decided to date as a distraction. Once Laine kissed me, I knew I couldn’t go through with it.

  “God,” she said. “I thought maybe the reason it didn’t work was that you were testing me somehow. Like you were waiting for me to be brave enough to do something physical. I had this grand plan for how that would play out, but as soon as I saw the look on your face, I knew I royally fucked it up.”

  I smiled and spent the next few minutes trying to easily let her down. I gave her a quick hug that included a couple of awkward, brotherly back slaps—just to be sure there were no more mixed messages—and said goodbye.

  Once she was gone, I sat down in an armchair and breathed out a heavy sigh. Something had to be wrong with me. There was nothing objectively wrong with Laine. She was kind and attractive, and she also had a respectable job. She had never even seemed like she was interested in me for my money. But when I thought about dating her again, all I felt was emptiness. When I thought about dating Miranda, my skin got hot, and my pulse quickened. Even the idea was a thrill, but the electricity didn’t come without an oily, sick undercurrent. I’d be just as shitty for trying to date Miranda as I would be for using another woman to distract myself.

  I laughed bitterly. I’d gotten myself in one hell of a situation that apparently meant the only path for me going forward was celibacy. I was an asshole if I dated somebody other than Miranda, and I was an asshole if I dated Miranda. Perfect. But maybe this would all pass. Maybe it was just the natural human tendency to want the things we couldn’t have most. After all, the moment I’d decided she was off limits, it was like my desire for her had gone through the roof. I’d gone from being aware of how attractive she was to having to run my shower cold to stop from actively imagining what she’d look like standing across from me with water running between her breasts and her wet hair sticking to her body.

  I pressed my palms into my eyes and made a frustrated sound. Jesus. This was absolutely ridiculous. In the span of two days, I’d become unhinged. I wasn’t thinking about work. I was only thinking about her and about the things I wanted to do to her—the things I wanted her to do to me.

  I tried to steer my thoughts down a more innocent, business-focused path.

  I wondered if Miranda had stayed at the party after what she’d seen. Knowing her, she was probably down there landing us more funding than we’d know what to do with. I smiled a little at that.

  She really was an impressive woman. Determined. Hardworking. More driven than anyone I’d ever met. On the other hand, I’d seen a new side to her since the interview. Miranda the robot warrior was showing some signs of weakness, and instead of disappointing me, those chinks in her armor were only making me more drawn to her. I wanted to help mend her and get her life back on track.

  I just wished the best way to do that didn’t feel like breaking her heart all over again.

  I spent most of my morning sorting through Bark Bites’ financial accounts. So far, I hadn’t spotted anything that felt like a smoking gun to point toward the imminent failure of the business. Then again, I was hardly surprised. Every few minutes, I went back to turning over the Miranda issue. I had to hope that things would simmer back down to normal in a few days, or this takeover was going to turn into a failure.

  There was a knock at the door to my office.

  “Come in,” I said. “Oh. Miranda, hey. I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk at the party last night.”

  She smiled briefly. Cold. Professional. As usual, she was dressed impeccably. A nicely fitting pantsuit that she still managed to make feminine and—no, the word that almost came to mind was sexy. I didn’t need to be throwing words like that around.

  “It’s fine,” Miranda said. “We were both busy. I actually just wanted to tell you that I found something I thought you should know about.”

  I raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t given her any tasks yet, partly because I was curious to see how long it’d take her to come ask me for something to do. I wasn’t sure what she could’ve found on her own, but I was curious. I was also wondering if she was really going to pretend she hadn’t seen anything last night. But maybe that was for the best too. “Is that right?”

  “I wanted to make myself useful, and, well, here.” She set a folder on my desk and left without another word.

  I picked up the folder. A neat stack of papers was bound inside and marked with highlighter and color-coded sticky tabs. I thumbed through and quickly realized it was a financial report on Bark Bites. I nearly flipped through the section covering business expenditures, since I’d just finished looking through those myself, but I noticed a highlighted summary of her findings.

  Apparently, Dan had been representing the business expenses under the wrong tax code, which, according to Miranda’s math, was an extremely costly mistake. A costly mistake that I’d completely missed.

  I sat back in my chair and stared at the folder. Damn. Miranda hadn’t just found a mistake I’d overlooked, but she’d also compiled it into a neat and organized little package to drop on my desk? And she’d done it all before lunch, to boot.

  I got up suddenly and headed to her office.

  I half expected to find her hiding in the corner with some random assortment of junk food strewn around her again, but she was sitting behind her desk with perfect posture.

  “Hey,” I said.

  She jerked even more upright, and something thudded under her desk. Miranda winced, reaching down and rubbing at what I assumed was a bumped knee. “Do you have to come flying in here like Kramer?”

  “Who?”

  “Never mind. Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Sorry. I just—” I held up the folder. “I was skimming this, and I can already tell this is amazing work. Maybe we can grab lunch, and you can go over i
t all with me in detail?” What the hell was I doing? I’d never been the impulsive type, and my brain was just now playing catch-up with my actions. It was like I’d moved so quickly that my logic hadn’t been able to keep pace, and now I was neck deep in what was undeniably a bad plan.

  “Lunch?” she asked. “I don’t want to sound rude, but it’s color-coded and should be pretty easy to follow. That was kind of the idea.”

  “Maybe I should try brutal honesty for a change?”

  Miranda gave me a hint of the first real smile I’d seen from her since coming back to West Valley. “That might be an effective strategy.”

  “Strategy . . .” I couldn’t help grinning back at her. “Usually strategies involve systematic approaches to overcoming a challenge. Achieving a goal. Winning a prize, even. Are you trying to imply that I’d need a strategy when it comes to you? That you’re a prize I’m trying to win?” I wanted to kick myself in the shin. Stop it, Nick. I’d only just tried to start doing the right thing, and I was already testing the boundaries of my own rules.

  I couldn’t be sure, but I thought a hint of red had crept into Miranda’s cheeks. “Those are some relatively self-serving examples of when a strategy could be effective. I would’ve said they are also helpful when you come across as an ass to your newest employee and want to mend fences.”

  I smiled. “Fair point. Let me start over. I feel awkward around you, and I’m not used to feeling awkward around people. One minute, I’m trying too hard to pretend we don’t have a history; the next, I’m having to force myself to remember you probably hate me. But maybe we can do this again. Colleagues now. Not enemies. Not friends, unless you want to be. Just colleagues.” That was better. All I had to do was force the words out, even if I wanted far more than friendship from her.

  “I could live with that,” she said. “Especially if you keep saying nice things about my color-coded folders.”

  “Oh, absolutely.” I held up the folder. “If you keep color-coding, I’ll keep you around forever.” My stomach sank when I heard my own words. There wasn’t any scenario where this lasted forever. Either I’d make her my replacement and we’d go our separate ways at the end of all this, or I’d be forced to do the unthinkable and let her go if she wasn’t right for the position. I couldn’t do anything else if I cared about her. Putting her in charge of a company she wasn’t ready for would screw over every employee under her, and it would cheat the dream she had for herself. But I couldn’t help wondering if I’d really have it in me to fire her. Thankfully, she seemed to be more than capable, and I didn’t believe it would come to that.

  Miranda tapped her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. “Forever . . . as nice as that sounds, I’ve always been the type to keep my eye on the chair above me.”

  “If there’s a chair above you, I’d suggest doing more than just keeping an eye on it. I’d consider moving out of the way before it falls on your head.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I forget you and Cade are related.”

  I winced. “Please. Next time, just tell me it was the dumbest joke you’ve ever heard and spare my feelings.”

  It was good to see Miranda looking more loose for a change. She was giving me a devious half smile that said she was enjoying the conversation. “So,” she said. “Do you still want to go get lunch?”

  Chapter 7

  MIRANDA

  Nick and I grabbed some greasy gyros from a little collection of street vendors and sat down on a bench. We had a quaint view of the distant hills and the river that wound its way through town.

  “You know,” I said. I blew on my gyro and waited for it to cool a little more. “All these vendors would’ve never survived here before you guys brought Sion to town. Can you imagine trying to convince a bunch of homebody locals to eat Greek food?”

  Nick nodded, then did his best impression of the slight country drawl some of the older residents of West Valley tended to have. “If it doesn’t have bacon, barbecue, or homestyle in the name, we’re not interested.”

  I laughed. “I almost forget you’re from here too. It’s weird. But that impression is spot-on.”

  “You’re not alone. Being back is weird too. Everybody treats us like we’re outsiders now. I guess I can’t blame them. When I think about how we must seem to you all—to y’all,” he added with a grin, “I understand why you wanted nothing to do with me.”

  I lowered my eyes. I wanted to say the polite thing—that he was wrong. Except he wasn’t. The problem was that he was right for the wrong reasons. I didn’t want anything to do with him, but it wasn’t because I saw him as an outsider.

  Then I thought about the girl I’d walked in on him kissing at the party. Rich and Cade had a bit of a reputation as playboys before they’d settled down with Kira and Iris, respectively, but Nick never seemed like that kind of guy. Recently, he’d been seen around town with a new woman every week, so I shouldn’t have even been surprised when I walked in on him kissing that girl at the party. Maybe some stupidly innocent part of me was hurt because he’d told me he was single—almost like he was hinting that he wanted to try to make something happen between us.

  Whether I wanted that something to happen or not, I didn’t know how to feel about being misled. For all I knew, he’d met the girl after he told me he was single, but even that felt strange. Was it that easy for him? And if it was, why had I been putting the idea of dating him on some forbidden pedestal for so long? I guessed kissing one woman didn’t make him a playboy, either, but it made it harder to believe the rumors that he wasn’t actually sleeping with any of the women he dated.

  “Well, not everybody wants to avoid you.” I hoped I didn’t sound too bitter. I wanted to kick myself for saying something I knew was motivated by pettiness, but at least Nick had no way of knowing what I really meant.

  “Yeah,” he said. He flashed a genuine smile that told me he’d completely misread what I’d said. “And thank you for that. I know it’s probably not easy.”

  “You’re not the worst King brother, at least,” I said.

  Nick laughed. “Cade doesn’t set the bar very high, but thank you.”

  “And sometimes you can be kind of nice, when you’re not actively trying to be an asshole, at least.”

  Nick lowered his eyes. It looked like he wanted to say something but was stopping himself. “And your reputation as a business badass is well deserved.” He patted the report on the bench beside us. “If this is what I can expect from you, I think I’ll need to consider a raise.”

  I smiled, and in an instant his innocent compliment felt like much more as we met each other’s eyes. I could see that same desire I thought I’d seen back in my office just after he’d pissed me off.

  “You know,” Nick said softly. “I think—”

  “Maybe we should jump into the financial report I made for you?” I suggested quickly.

  Nick pushed his glasses up his nose. He was too perceptive to miss anything, and I knew he was looking straight through me. But he nodded and smiled politely all the same. “Of course. Can we start with this quarterly report? I wanted to know how you—” Nick’s eyes focused on something behind me.

  I turned, following his gaze, and saw Bear approaching us. Bear was Cade’s five-year-old son, but because of a complicated series of events, he’d only been living with Cade, and now Iris, for a few months.

  “Bear?” I asked. “What are you doing by yourself?”

  “I’m not. Daddy is playing hide-and-seek with me. He gets sad if I find him too fast.” Bear pointed matter-of-factly toward a bush about ten yards away, where I could now clearly see Cade’s huge body curled up and barely concealed. “He thinks he’s good at hiding.”

  Nick nodded. “Cade thinks he’s good at everything.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Bear said. He was an adorable kid, if you were into the whole children thing, at least. I’d always had a hard time wrapping my head around it, personally. It wasn’t easy for me to grasp why people would willingl
y bring small people into the world before they’d achieved all their goals. Chasing a dream was hard enough when you had to think about only yourself. Doing it while trying to balance cooking dinosaur chicken nuggets and managing tantrums seemed like it might as well be impossible.

  Still, he was cute, and he did occasionally say things that made me get a strange, pulsing kind of longing in my chest. But that was just biology, and I was perfectly capable of ignoring that, just like I could ignore the way my belly got warm, swimming feelings every time I was around Nick.

  “Daddy says you two are in like,” Bear said.

  “We just work together,” I said. I held up the folder to show him. “See? This is work. Sometimes grown-ups have to talk about work.”

  “Daddy said you’d say that. But he said that’s a ‘prop.’” Bear even paused to use air quotes. “He said you’re using it to pretend this isn’t a date. And he said Uncle Nick is pretending he doesn’t want to hold your hand.”

  “Cade!” Nick said loudly. “Come out of there.”

  Cade straightened and brushed some debris from his clothes. “Iris,” he said. “We’ve been made. Come on.”

  Iris, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, popped up from behind a small hill.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked.

  “Well,” Cade said as he plopped down and sat cross-legged in front of our bench. Iris sat down beside him, and Bear distracted himself by chasing after a little bug that was scuttling on the sidewalk. “When I was in the service, we called it reconnaissance. Hear, but don’t be heard. See, but—”

  “You were never in the military,” Nick said dryly. “And we could both see and hear you the whole time. You breathe louder than a pug when you’re excited.”

  “Okay,” Cade said. “I haven’t been in the service physically, but I’ve watched Band of Brothers at least three times. And Saving Private Ryan. I also had to do jury duty once because those bastards wouldn’t accept a generous bribe. I could go on, but I don’t want this to get embarrassing for you.”