Rachel just watched as Nick, crouched down on the balls of his feet, answered all of both kids’ questions. He answered so patiently, too, even though the kids seemed to be in a competition for who could ask the most questions. And she watched Aiden’s face as he ate up every single word that Nick said. Aiden hadn’t even shown any kind of interest in home improvement or construction-type stuff before, so it wasn’t like he finally had someone to answer his questions.
But who knew? Maybe he hadn’t shown any interest because he hadn’t been exposed to it before. He did enjoy doing crafty things—maybe this was just a bigger version of that passion. Or maybe he was just showing interest because Miss Goodrich had been right in guessing that Aiden wanted a dad in his life.
She tried to think back to her second impression of Nick—she’d already decided that she was going to pretend thefirst impression with the wreaths hadn’t happened—when she’d hurried down the hall to where Aiden and Holly were arguing earlier. Had she noticed then just how attractive he was?
Yeah, she’d noticed. So maybe it was how adorable he was, crouched down and talking with her son that made her heartstrings stand up and take notice. This was her Season of Yes. She should say yes to being attracted to this man. It was practically part of the bet, right?
The man grabbed two tubes of what must be construction adhesive and tossed them into the cart with the panels and some screws they’d added along the way. Rachel took the break in conversation to ask what she’d been wondering on and off for most of the shopping trip. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a computer programmer. I help make the software used for many online courses.”
“Software? I assumed you worked in construction.” Especially because the first time she’d seen him, he’d been at a hardware store.
He laughed. It was a nice sound—the kind that made her chest feel instantly lighter. “No. Don’t mistake my ability to explain caulking to a couple of six-year-olds for expertise. I know just enough to be dangerous.”
“You’re not dangerous, Daddy,” Holly said, walking alongside the cart with one hand on it. She looked at Rachel. “He’s not—he’s really careful. We got a new house and he’s redoing everything in it. It’ll be all done just in time for Christmas.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you know a lot about this stuff.”
“My dad was in the military,” Nick said. “And although we lived on plenty of bases all over the world that really could’ve used some home improvement, we never did any ourselves. But my in-laws practically built the house they live in, so my wife,Clara, grew up helping with every project imaginable. When we bought our first home—a place that had seen better days—Clara and I did all the work of fixing it up ourselves. I learned as I went.”
He glanced down at his wedding ring, seeming… uncomfortable, was it? Self-conscious? Rachel couldn’t quite tell. Either way, this was clearly a guy who was still grieving, and Season of Yes or not, she had no business checking out how nicely those shoulder muscles filled out his t-shirt.
“Look, Dad!” Holly said, pointing. “The wreaths! Let’s turn down that aisle.”
Nick chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, that aisle is dangerous to take a cart down.” He shot a glance at Rachel. “Sorry for the other day, by the way.”
She hadn’t realized that he’d recognized her from that brief interaction. She figured his mind had only been on freeing himself from the wreaths. They were all hanging nicely on their hooks now. “I’m glad to see you and the wreaths both made it out of the tussle unscathed.”
“Well, I wouldn’t sayentirelyunscathed. My ego left here looking like it had been in a fight with an alley cat.”
The expression on his face was adorable, and she couldn’t stop looking into those striking eyes.
Nick cleared his throat. “So, when are you free to start working on this?”
Rachel opened the flap of her purse as they walked and pulled out the planner from the “records” tab. She glanced through the things they had coming up—and there were a lot of them—and only saw one opening over the next few days. “We are available tomorrow.”
Holly put her hands together, pleading. “Aiden has a dog.”
“Bailey,” Aiden said.
“Can they please bring her, too? Then Rosy will have someone to play with.”
Nick looked at Rachel and she nodded, so he told Holly yes. Then he scratched down his address on the note paper they’d been using as a shopping list and handed it to her. “Tomorrow it is.”
Okay, tomorrow. She wrote it down in her planner. And since he was right next to her, she didn’t write down what she knew she should—a reminder to not notice how attractive he was or what a good dad he was.
Of course, that ring on his finger was its own reminder that he was every bit as unavailable as if he was actually married.
six
NICK
Nick sankonto his bed and adjusted the pillow against the headboard so he could sit up comfortably. It had been such a long day, and he was exhausted. But Clara’s parents had gone to bed and Holly was asleep and he was finally able to crash in this temporary room of his. He opened his phone and flipped to the last page of apps so he could see Clara’s picture and smiled back at her.
“Remember that conversation you had with me a month or so before you passed away where you said that if you ever died that I should remarry quickly so I wouldn’t be alone and so that Holly would have a mom?” He gazed up at where the corner of his room met the ceiling for a moment before looking back at the phone. “I’m sorry I completely blew you off at the time. You probably needed me to say that I understood instead of just saying that your death wasn’t ever going to happen.
“I like to think that you had the same conversation with Holly and with your parents to prepare them, too, because that’s the kind of thing you would do. If part of the reason why you told them was because I had ignored your plea, I apologize.” Heshook his head. “But between your parents, Holly, and Holly’s teacher, I got your message loud and clear this week.”
