Smitten (35 page)
Want to go?”
“Sure. I’ll drive.”
They slipped into the truck and Nick drove to town, maneuvered the truck up to the curb, and turned off the engine. He looked at her. “Listen, Shelby, I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. And it seems like I’m taking everything out on you. I’m sorry.”
Shelby smiled. “We’ve both been under pressure.”
They got out of the truck and strolled along the lamplit sidewalk. A few townsfolk were out and about.
He wanted to say more, but one look at Shelby and all words scattered from his brain.
“The moon is beautiful tonight,” she said, gazing up at the sky.
“It sure is.” They took a few steps in silence. “So are you ready for your big night?”
“I think we’re fairly set to go. Of course, next week will be the busiest.”
“Yeah. Will your dad be here for that?”
Shelby turned a surprised glance his way. “I don’t think he’ll still be here. My goodness, I hope not. I have enough on my plate without worrying about him.”
“Oh, sorry. I just thought since the other dads would be escorting their daughters, and your dad is in town, and you’re the teacher—”
“I don’t think so.”
“Uh-oh. Things not going well?”
“Let’s just say we have a history, as I think I’ve told you.
Not the greatest daughter-dad relationship around. That’s why, I suppose, I was a little too anxious to help you.”
“Are you trying to patch things up with him?”
“We just have to kind of go from here, you know?”
“You mean, forget the past and forge ahead?”
“Something like that. Can we talk about something else?”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry.”
They settled on a wooden bench at the edge of the walk. A tub of mums rested beneath the lamplight just ahead of them.
“I know I overreacted on that ski deal. It’s just that this parent thing is so scary.” He looked at his big calloused hands.
“What if something happens to her? What if I do it all wrong?”
Shelby touched his arm. “Nick, no one is perfect.
Remember, all parents make mistakes. You have to give yourself some grace.”
He shrugged. After a long pause he said, “Anyway, I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you.”
“All is forgiven.” She smiled.
They talked awhile longer and then headed back to the truck. Nick reached over to open her door, and their gazes locked. Moonbeams danced in her eyes. “You look beautiful tonight.” His breath caught in his throat, but the way she looked up at him gave him courage.
Without so much as a wisp of another breath, Nick gently pulled her to him, then leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. Her mouth was as sweet and intoxicating as he had imagined it would be. Reluctantly he let her go. Neither said much on the ride home, but Nick’s heart told him plenty.
His heart had moved to a place it had never been before—at least not in a very long time.
Tonight, something different definitely stirred deep within him toward Shelby . . . and it wasn’t friendship.
The following week Shelby was so busy finalizing the details for the tea, she didn’t have time to sort out her feelings about the kiss with Nick and all it entailed. He’d been busy at the tree farm, so they’d merely passed one another from time to time, which was a good thing for right now. Good for both of them to think things through.
People scurried around the room, setting tables, hanging tulle, placing centerpieces and candlesticks. Shelby could hardly believe the class was over and this was the grand finale.
The time had passed so quickly.
Once the final touches were in place, she rushed home to dress for the occasion in a long, elegant black dress. She pulled her hair up into a fashionable twist, fastened pearl earrings and necklace in place, stepped into her fragile heels, and hurried back to Nick’s place.
The room was fragrant with the scent of tasty desserts.
Candlelight flickered about, casting shadows in the room.
“We just lit those,” Rose said proudly as Shelby greeted her.
Natalie appeared in a beautiful wine-colored floor-length dress and sparkling jewelry. She carried a tray of desserts. “Gluten-free brownies that are guaranteed to be the hit of the tea,” she announced with pride.
“I wouldn’t doubt it for a moment,” Shelby said, relieving her friend from the load and taking them to the food table.
There was a hum of car engines and the crunch of tires on gravel, and people spilled out of their automobiles and entered the building. It seemed most of Smitten was present, dressed in elegant evening wear and fine-tailored suits. The students looked the loveliest of all, fine young ladies scrubbed to perfection and glowing with their first dashes of makeup.
When it was time to start, Shelby took her place at the microphone. Everyone found a seat, and at Rose’s nod the Garner Sisters began to play chamber music. Shelby introduced each student, with her father as her escort, and two by two they filed across the front of the room, glittering, smiling, and delivering postures and entrances above reproach.
Finally, just as Shelby wondered if Willow and Nick were coming, they walked through the doorway. Her lungs seemed to hold her air captive, and she hesitated long enough for the audience to notice. Nick stood there in a black suit, hair cut in the latest style, and . . . clean-shaven. Not a hair on his face anywhere. Shelby thought she would melt into a puddle at his feet.
When she paused, he held her gaze, obviously wondering why she was taking so long to introduce them. Somehow she managed to get the girls and their escorts introduced and gave words of praise for the girls’ hard work. Just as she was about to tell everyone the fine music would continue during the meal, Rose walked over and whispered to her to go stand by the door.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Rose said, “Miss Evans didn’t know she too would have an escort this evening, but he has arrived. I would like to introduce you to Miss Shelby Evans and her handsome escort, her father, Mark Evans.”
Shelby’s breath caught as the door opened and her dad stepped into view, dressed in a suit and tie and looking the handsomest she had ever seen him in her entire life. The audience clapped as he held out his arm and she slipped her gloved hand into it. All her life she had dreamed of her dad showing up for a school play, a ball game, a choir program, but he never came. Finally she had quit dreaming.
Hot tears stung her eyes. She swallowed hard to keep her emotions in check. This was the girls’ night, and she would not take anything away from them.
But there was no denying that tonight she felt like a true princess. Her dad stepped up beside Willow, leaving Shelby standing between him and Nick. And at that very moment she realized it; they were the two men she loved most in all the world.
“Are you sure you’re warm enough?” Nick asked as they sat on a bench in his yard following the tea.
“I’m sure.”
“We can go back into the warm building, or my house, if you want.”
“I’m fine, really.”
He put his arm around her and held her close. “Do you mind?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Nick, I love the look.”
She tickled his chin.
“I did it for you, you know.”
Her pulse quickened as his lips met hers once, then again, and again.
“All this time, how did I not see it?” He grinned. “You, me, us.”
She laughed. “I didn’t see it either. But you were and are a great friend.”
“I’ll never be happy with just that anymore.” Like soft whispers, he placed light kisses on the side of her face. He reached up and pulled a pin from her hair. “You looked beautiful tonight, but you never look more beautiful”—he slipped out another pin—“than when”—then another—“your hair is down.” And another.
Her skin tingled at his touch as her hair fell softly around her shoulders. Her hand reached up to straighten it, and he caught it in his own.
“Let me,” he said.
He lifted her hair between his fingers and worked his way through it, tucking here, lingering there.
Her heart drummed hard against her chest. Nick bent over and kissed her with an intensity that seemed to grow stronger with every second that ticked by. His lips tasted salty, his muscles strong and taut beneath her hands. She reveled in the tingle of his breath against her face, until she finally forced herself to pull away.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” he said.
She stood. “Let’s walk.”
He joined her. “Were you surprised when your dad showed up?”
“That is an understatement.” She worked to relax her breathing, to shove aside the moments they had just shared— moments she knew she would relive a hundred times before sleep would overtake her tonight.
He laughed. “I could see it on your face.”
“You don’t know our story. Maybe it’s time I told you.”
As they walked beneath the starry sky, wandering through the maze of fir trees, she shared her story of the forbidden passion as a teenager, the pregnancy, and the abortion.
Nick stopped in his tracks. “You had an abortion?”
“Well, not by choice.” She started to walk again, but Nick didn’t move an inch.
“Doesn’t everyone have a choice?”
She turned back around. “I didn’t. Not if I wanted a place to live and eat. Dad would have thrown me out.”
“I just don’t understand how you could do that.”
“It wasn’t what I wanted to do, don’t you get that? A piece of me died that day too. Thoughts of my baby haunt me every day. But when I met Jesus—”
“Shelby, I know that had to be hard for you. I’m sorry for what you endured. But . . . I need time to think this through.
I thought things were different—you were different. After all this time—”
“But, Nick, you don’t understand.”
“No, no, I get it. I do.” He ran his hand through his hair.
“I just need time to digest it, okay?”
Tears scalded her eyes. The burning in her heart radiated through her chest, making her feel weak, vulnerable, lonely, unworthy . . . and unfairly judged.
“
You
need time to digest it? Who do you think you are, Nick?
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
. Did you know that?
All
. You can judge me all you want, but I’ve been forgiven by the One who matters.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and she flipped them away. “How could I have been so wrong about you?”
The judgment seemed to leave his eyes, but it was too late.
He’d made his feelings clear.
With a heavy heart, Shelby turned and walked back to her car.
S
helby eased out of bed the next morning, careful not to jar her aching head. Inching her way into the bathroom, she pulled out some pain relievers, grabbed a nearby cup, and washed the pills down with water. She had hardly slept all night.
This was Nick’s fault.
Pots and pans rattled in the kitchen, alerting her that her dad was already up. She glanced at her alarm clock. Ten o’clock. She couldn’t remember when she had slept in that late before.
