Point of Attraction (11 page)

“Jeez what do you have in that jacket?”
she asked.

“Pure thick leather, Georgie Girl,” he
said, steadying the coat tree. “Keeps the rain out.” Then sat down
in the hydraulic chair.

Georgie put on the neck strip, snapped
open the drape to wrap it around him, and asked, “What did you say
to Officer Montgomery?”

“No,” Nick said, settling into the
chair. “First you cut my hair. Then we’ll discuss Dudley Do-Right.
No clippers this time. I’m wearing it longer.”

“I can see that.” Georgie gave his hair
a tug and started combing through it. There actually was no sign of
thinning, but she couldn’t help noticing the blond was slowly
giving way to hints of white. Though he tried to hide it, he
winced, and she eased a finger over the spot.

“What?” he asked. “Did you find head
lice?”

Carefully parting the hair again over
the area, Georgie saw a healing cut, and looked into the mirror at
him. “What happened? How did you get this cut?”

“Quit playing with it.”

“What happened?”

“God, you’re nosey,” he said. “Alright.
First, if it’s any of your business, while trouble-shooting the
computer system I sold, I opened a metal drawer... you know...
sharp corners and all that. Then I crawled under the metal desk to
make sure all the connections for the system were securely in place
and not been compromised. And I came back up. Oh, did I mention the
drawer was still open at the time? Very unforgiving, that sharp
corner was.”

“Oh, Nick.”

“Split me wide open.”

“Looks like it took a couple of
stitches,” she said, easing a finger over it. “More than a
couple.”

“Ow. Quit playing with it, I told you.
It still smarts.”

“You are such a crybaby,” Georgie said,
with a quick laugh.

“Thanks to you and Cassie.”

What would Cassie and she have done
without Nick, she wondered? No one ever bullied them when Nick was
around. She finished the haircut and shampooed him. As she blew his
hair dry using her fingers instead of a brush, she accidentally
rubbed the scar and he jerked way.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

Georgie eyed the cut. If one comes up
under an open drawer, you expect the cut more to the back of the
head, she mused. This one was more to the side and
front.

“Do you want to call Cassie and April
and have dinner?” he asked, jerking her back from her thoughts. “Or
do you have a date?”

Her sensors surfaced to
full alert. He was fishing here, and she could see and hear another
no-win situation lurking in his question. She had to find a
benign
answer, came up
empty, and tip-toed her way. “Why would I have a date?”

“Well, one: it’s Friday night and two:
I just thought Dudley Do-Right would step up to the plate and be
doing the smart thing.”

Georgie put the blow dryer into its
holder with a noisy shove, and looked into the mirror with a deep
and loud warning breath. Was this why Mason asked to see her
tonight? Had Nick bullied him into asking her? If so, why did Mason
cancel? She leaned down close enough to smell the shampoo fragrance
in Nick’s hair. “Just what did you say to him last night?” she
hissed, keeping her voice as low as she could.

When he tried to get up, she leaned one
elbow on his shoulder to keep him in the chair. With that elbow
still sitting heavy on the shoulder, her free hand took hold of his
earlobe and began to twist slowly with intent.

“Not the ear, Georgie, not the
ear.”

“What did you say to him?”

“Nothing!” He pulled away while rubbing
his abused ear, his face crunching up. He kept his voice low as his
eyes darted to those left in the salon then back at her. “I just
wanted to make sure he found my Raggs. That’s all.”

“She’s mine, not yours.”

“I know, I know,” he assured her, his
hands up to keep her from him.

She wanted to laugh, but knew better.
Here they were, having an argument over Raggs; two grown people
avoiding the real subject, her life, and his caring interference in
it. She sighed and dropped into the nearby hair dryer chair. It was
always a long run, talking with Nick. He just sucked the energy out
of her.

“Guys?” Emmee called back from the
front of the shop. “Brandy and I are through for the night. Want us
to lock you two in or do you want one of us to stay and
referee?”

Georgie glanced at Nick, saying, “No.
We’re leaving too. Turn off the neon though. See you in the
morning.”

In the quiet of the empty shop, the
clock on the wall ticked away the seconds of peace. Somewhere
outside, a car honked while another beeped that unmistakable
auto-lock or unlock.

“Georgie Girl,” Nick
started out. “You and Cassie are all the family I have. I wanted to
see if Dudley Do-Right was as
do-right
as Cassie wants him to
be.”

“He is a classmate, Nick,” she pleaded
with him to accept the fact, “a fellow writer. That is
all.”

“Okay. But I don’t think he’s the one
who put the rose on your windshield.”

She shrugged. “He told me he
didn’t.”

“He told you I asked him?”

Georgie laughed as she went to the
circuit box and turned off the lights. “Was he supposed to keep it
a deep dark secret?”

“Well, no,” he said, putting on his
jacket. “But I didn’t think he’d go running to you right off the
bat.”

“He waited till morning. Is that okay?”
She lowered the thermostat and grabbed her coat. “Why did you take
credit for it?”

“I didn’t take credit,” he
defended. “If I remember correctly, I said
oh, that rose.
Though I do admit it
didn’t hurt for you to think I did.”

“You are such an...”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, motioning
that he’d heard it all before.

“How did you know where to find
him?”

“Policeman.” He put his finger to his
head feigning deep thinking. “Let’s see. Where would you find a
policeman? Ooh, a police station, maybe? That took a lot of gray
matter.”

“
Did you tell him to ask
me out?” She studied his face for any signs of a lie. “Tell me you
didn’t do that.”

“No, I did not tell him to do that,” he
said, handing over her scarf and hat. “And if he asked you out, it
was his own idea, and I will truly have to check him out. So does
that mean you do have a date tonight? Do I eat dinner alone or are
you going to invite me to come along?”

“Yeah, I can see that happening,” she
said, leading the way to the front of the shop. “He was coming over
later, but he cancelled out. Said something was happening and he
didn’t know how long it would take.”

“Yup, going to have look into this
puppy.”

“And did you do this with April too?”
she asked.

“Oh, you bet’cha. You want to be a
life’s partner to one of my girls, you had better be legit and very
squeaky clean.” He put his helmet in the crook of his
elbow.

“And you get this info how?”

“I’m a computer guy,
remember?”

“Nick!”

“Come on, call Cassie and April,” he
pleaded. “See if they want to have dinner with us. It’s Do-Right’s
loss.”

“Okay,” she gave in. There was no point
trying to pry anything more from him. He was clamming up. She
picked up the phone to call Cassie and April. When she hung up, she
gave Nick a grin. “They’ll meet us at the Italian
Garden.”

After locking the door and giving it a
tug, she looked toward her car. The rain had stopped, but the night
air was damp. She shouldered her purse and pulled her scarf snuggly
to ward off the cold. “Want to go in my car?”

“Sure, I’m game. I have my helmet,” he
said, tapping his knuckles on his head gear. “Lead the
way.”

“You ass,” she half laughed, and led
the way between the parked cars for her Subaru. At least most of
the traffic was at the other end of the Center near the restaurant
and store. Just as she passed the rear end of the car facing her
shop, Georgie heard the rev of an engine and turned. Headlights
blinded her as the loud gunning roar came toward her.

“Georgie!”

Her name was a sharp shrill in her ears
at the same moment she heard the clank clank of Nick’s helmet
hitting the pavement. Her world went wild with a sharp yank at her
neck, her feet slipping out from under her.

Chapter ten

Just as Georgie was yanked back, a dark
car roared by, missing Georgie, but striking her purse. There was a
sharp jerk to the shoulder strap. Georgie found herself slammed
into Nick’s chest, then quickly set aside so Nick could step out
and stare after the vehicle. The driver didn’t even stop to see if
he had hit anyone. Nick looked both ways searching for another set
of eyes to the event. His features pinched with a quick shake of
his head, and came back. He cupped a hand on her shoulder, and she
held out the broken purse strap.

“You hurt?” he asked.

Georgie shook her head, trying to catch
her breath and make out what happened. Georgie realized Nick had
snatched her clear of the car, by her coat collar.

“I didn’t get a look at the plate,” he
said. “He’s long gone. Sure you’re okay?”

Still unable to speak, she nodded while
staring at her purse and the torn strap. With trembling fingers,
she felt the burning welts at the back of her neck where Nick’s
fingernails had dug in as he pulled her to safety.

“You scratched me,” she said, looking
around, at Nick... at... nothing, just staring.

He pressed her to his chest once more
and patted her head. “Yeah, I scratched you.”

He let go of her just long enough to
pick up his helmet that had rolled and got snagged by the rear tire
of a parked car. His arm was firm about her as he looked both ways
before moving them across the parking lot to her car.

“You didn’t by any chance recognize the
car?” he asked. “SUV, dark.”

She shook her head. “All I
saw was headlights.” As she too looked both ways, she
thought,
a little late, Georgie, a little
late on that
. “I guess a black coat on a
wet winter night is a bad idea.”

“Going that fast in a parking lot is
asinine!” he said. “Thought you said the shopping center had
security.”

“We do. Instant Reply Security. But
they’re not on constant patrol, and I don’t think we’re the only
center they guard.”

Nick stopped, then quickly continued to
her car. “You know,” he said, “I could swear I’ve seen that vehicle
before. Something about it.” Giving her a little quick hug of
assurance, his heavy hand then slipped away with a pat.

Georgie dug into her coat pocket for
her keys, and beeped open her car. When she reached for the door
handle, she saw her hands were shaking, and the realization of just
how close that speeding car had come to hitting her sunk in. She
held out the broken strap to stare at it in the dark. Her kids
would have been orphans. She would never have seen her grandchild,
and everything blurred behind hot welling tears.

“Give me the keys,” Nick
said.

Though she heard him, she couldn’t
respond.

“Georgie!”

It was a sharp call, jerking her back
to her old self, and her hand instinctively curled into a
fist.

“Okay, calm down here.” He waited, his
hand out for her keys. “Georgie Girl, I’m not asking you to give up
your freedom, space, or any other ridiculous thing that’s going on
in your little square head. Let me drive until you calm
down.”

“Fine,” she said, handing over her
keys, then went to the passenger side. She was alive. That’s what
mattered. She was herself again. “But you better put the rear view
mirror back to where it is now,” she told him, trying to sound
hard, and failing miserably, she knew. “You can slide back the
seat, but don’t touch the seatback. I’ve got it set just where I
want it.”

“Just get in the goddamn car.” He
released the seat as far back as it would go to accommodate his
long legs then slid in after tossing his helmet in the back. “How
the hell did Sam ever put up with you?” he asked.

The silence in the car was accented by
the slamming of the doors, and broken by rain suddenly pouring down
in a pounding force.

“I can’t believe I said that,” Nick
said, forehead pressed to his hands on the steering wheel. “I’m a
fucking idiot!”

“No, you’re not,” Georgie told him, and
reached over to take his hand. “We’re both shaken up and a bit
touchy, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, just a bit, I guess” he admitted
with a half grin, and squeezed her hand hard before releasing it to
insert the key in the ignition, but did not turn it on.