“It’s just a hard thing to convey on the phone.”
“What?”
“How happy I am. How safe I am with you. I told you, they worry about me. Especially Birdie. She’s going to be so happy for me and so…scared for me at the same time. Scared for that lost teenage boy she found who she never wants to see get hurt again. Does that make sense?”
Nick protecting the people he loves by trying not to cause them any pain or worry. Totally made sense. But Birdie would see the truth. I was never going to hurt Nick.
I reached up to cup his cheeks in my palms. “Go meet your brothers. You don’t want to be late.”
“I’ll be back in time for you to go to your meeting,” he said, stroking my hair. Funny, how I’d stopped worrying about grease. “You excited?”
“Very!” I was helping local businesses set up social media accounts. I was showing them how to make videos, sync music and come up with strategies best suited for their businesses.
“You should be charging them for your time,” he said.
“If they want to hire me after this meeting, we can discuss it, but this is just my way to give back to the community.”
“Because you’re awesome?”
“I am. Thank you for noticing.” I winked at him and he planted a hard kiss on my lips. “Now go,” I said, and smacked his butt as he left.
Not two minutes after he left, I heard someone coming into the garage.
Shoot. I hoped it wasn’t an emergency. I’d gotten pretty good at jumping dead cars and checking oil, anything more than that, I had to schedule an appointment for Nick. I got up from my office seat to make my way to the garage bay.
“Hi!” I cried, “I’m sorry, but Nick-”
I stopped when I saw Peter standing by the open doors. Snow was falling. A dusting that hit the ground and melted right away. Peter looked cold in his trench coat. “Please tell me you have car troubles, Peter, because if you’re here to talk about the book again-”
“I’m not,” he said, cutting me off. “I’ve given up on that idea.”
“Good.”
“But I have this great idea for a new novel and I…well, I understand you’re helping local businesses with some social media strategies. I’d like to talk to you about what I can do as an author.”
Oh. That kind of sounded like fun. And Peter’s books practically wrote their own content.
“Okay, we can talk. Come on back to the office-”
“You need to come with me, Nora.”
“Come with you where?”
“Common Grounds. I left my computer there. Coffee is on me.”
Well, coffee always sounded good. “If this is some kind of play on your part…”
“It’s not. I promise you. I just want to pick your brain. It won’t take long. I’ll drive. You’ll be back in ten.”
My spidey senses were tingling, mostly because I knew Nick would not like this one bit. But I’d known Peter for years, so I had absolutely no fear he was any kind of physical threat.
“I like expensive coffees,” I warned him. “And eclairs.”
“My treat,” he said, with a beaming and completely harmless smile.
Nick
I pulledmy truck off the main road, onto a dirt road that led back into the woods. The early snow that had been falling was already turning to rain and the ground was getting mucky. I knew we were close to the bluff that overlooked the ocean, but didn’t realize this land was even for sale.
