Strictly Business (11 page)

“All right,” she finally said. “But whatever happens is on your head.”

He grinned. “Every man should be so lucky.”

“We’re going to my place.”

Jess glanced sharply at Nick as he drove his car. He had suggested a drive through the country, and after she had reviewed all possible implications, she’d decided that was safe enough.

He gave her a quick look, then chuckled. “Scared you with that one, didn’t I? I just need to change.”

She held back a sigh of relief. “I knew that.”

“Right.”

She didn’t answer. Although she had a lot of misgivings about seeing him, she knew Nick well enough to realize that he was extremely stubborn when he wanted to be. Last night’s disaster had barely shaken him, and he wasn’t budging from his stand of spending time with her. She knew, too, she could trust him. He’d said he would not pressure her, and he wouldn’t.

Since she couldn’t convince him to stay away from
her, she could at least allow herself to enjoy his company, she thought, and settled back in the seat.

It wasn’t what he’d expected.

As Nick walked with Jess down the streets of New Hope, a quaint touristy town on the bank of the Delaware River, he couldn’t help glancing at her yet again in amazement. She was relaxed and smiling, stopping for a moment to look into a shop window.

Most definitely not what he’d expected, he thought.

“Nick, hold it,” she said, and pointed to a hand-painted porcelain clown mask.

He waited patiently for the “ooohs” and “aaaahs” that accompanied window shopping.

She leaned closer to him and said in a low voice, “I hate those things.”

He shook his head. “You hate them?”

“When I was a girl, I had a pair of them in my room. And then I saw the original
Dracula.
Every night for weeks after that, I stared at those things for hours, waiting for the blank eye-holes to suddenly glow in the dark.”

“Why didn’t you take them down?”

She arched her eyebrows. “I was nine, Nick, and I didn’t want to be a sissy.” She laughed. “Taking them down would have been admitting I was scared. Instead, I put my teddy bear outside the covers so the vampire would get him first.”

“You were rotten.”

“I was safe.” She grabbed his arm. “I just realized this is the street with the shark shop. I have to go to the shark shop, Nick.”

“Shark shop?”

“Yes, I forget the name of it exactly—something like Jaws and Junk. Wait until you see it. Everything in the shop has some kind of shark motif, including the … ah, powder room seat covers.”

“You’re kidding!”

“You’ll see.”

“I’m not sure I want to,” he muttered.

But he was smiling as she dragged him farther along the street. After she had grudgingly given in to spending the day with him, he had expected her to be silent and distant. Even a touch of sullenness wouldn’t have surprised him. When he emerged from his bedroom after changing, he discovered her curled up in his favorite chair, leafing through a builder’s trade magazine. He had felt a rush of pleasure at seeing her so at home among his things. She’d seemed content, too, as they’d driven through the countryside, looking at the spring foliage. They’d wound up here in New Hope. It turned out that neither of them had been here for years, and they decided to walk through the town and explore the shops.

Sharks, he thought in amusement. There had to be something Freudian about bathroom seat covers done in sharks. He swore that if the shark on the cover had its jaws wide open for a bite, he’d buy it for her. Now that, he decided, was very Freudian.

But when they arrived, it was obvious that ON THE LAMB wasn’t quite the shop Jess remembered.

“Are you sure this is it?” he asked, staring at a lamb’s wool seat cover displayed in the store window.

Frowning, she glanced around. “I know it was
right next to the Hummel place. That’s still here.… Darn it, I wanted to get a new cover for the bathroom in my father’s office. He loves the one in there now, but it’s falling apart.”

“Somehow, little lambs in the executive bathroom don’t have the same devious appeal,” Nick said, grinning.

“It would ruin his image,” she agreed.

“When Marty finally got around to telling me about you, he said that your father is the chairman of several boards,” Nick said, casually taking her arm and steering her along the crowded sidewalk.

She nodded. “He’s more of a figurehead really. Still, my divorce was very painful for him.”

The only reason Nick could think of for her father to be so upset was that he had been socially embarrassed by it. He set his jaw to hold back his temper.

“You see,” she went on, smiling wryly, “my ex-husband was the chief executive officer for one of the companies my father’s involved with, and my father introduced us. I can’t convince him to stop feeling guilty.”

“I don’t think parents ever do,” Nick said, squeezing her arm in comfort. “As the older brother, I have a lot of guilt about raising Tony. It’s worse when you’re a guardian. You feel you have to be perfect and make sure the kid is perfect too.”

She turned and stared at him. “You raised Tony?”

“Since he was sixteen.” Nick grimaced. “I thought Sandy would have told you. Our dad was killed in Vietnam when Tony was three.”

“Oh, no.”

“And my mother died eight years ago. Tony, naturally,
came with me.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t ready for the teenage years.”

“I don’t think anybody is,” she said, patting his cheek.

“I blame myself entirely for what he’s doing now. I made so many mistakes. I was too strict for one thing, and now hell do anything to show his independence, to the point of risking his future career. He thinks being with that show is the best way to put himself through law school. And I can’t convince him that it will end up hurting him.”

Jess made a face. “I don’t see why it would. In fact, I admire him for it.”

He glared at her. “You’re crazy.”

“No, I’m not. It’s what he is inside that counts, and Tony is a very sincere and responsible person.”

“And how would you know that?” Nick asked, wondering if she would confess about his brother’s visit to apologize to her.

“Well … look at why he’s doing it,” she said, giving him a guileless smile. “He’s determined to put himself through law school any way he can. He’s not hurting anybody by stripping. It’s just innocent fun for everyone, and if I’m anything to go by he makes a very good living from it.”

“What do you mean, ‘if I’m anything to go by’?” he demanded.

She grinned sheepishly. “I gave him a huge tip to stop him from dancing in front of me at the show.”

Nick couldn’t help himself. He started laughing.

Suddenly, she pointed across the street. “There’s a great plant shop around the corner! I noticed you didn’t have any plants in your place this morning. Maybe we ought to get some.”

“Is this your way of changing the subject from my ne’er-do-well brother?” he asked, smiling.

“You bet. Let’s go get some plants.”

“I’ll kill them, Jess.”

“We’ll get you some philodendron, then. Nobody can kill that stuff.”

“Then I must have the magic touch. I’ve killed four so far.”

“Maybe five’s the trick with you,” she said. “Come on.”

Two minutes later, they were staring into the window of an elegant women’s boutique.

“Did we get zapped into the eighth dimension or something?” Jess asked in disgust. “This was a terrific plant shop the last time I was here.”

“Exactly when was the last time you were in New Hope?”

“Six years ago.”

“Jessica, Jessica, Jessica,” he said, shaking his head in mock despair.

“Okay, okay. I just thought the shark store and the plants would still be here. They were my favorite places.”

“What other favorite places did you have in New Hope?” he asked, brushing her windblown hair behind her ear. Beautiful as her hair was, he also liked her delicate profile. “Just so I know what not to look forward to.”

“Very funny, Mikaris,” she retorted, stepping away from him. “Come on, I’ll show you where the German bakery used to be. You’ll notice I’m not taking any chances this time.”

Later that evening, when Nick finally returned Jess
to her house, they were still laughing over her nonexistent favorite places.

“At least the restaurant hadn’t been zapped into the Twilight Zone too,” Jess said as she inserted her key into the lock.

“Still, it was a close call,” he said. “Your French Inn turned out to be The Squire House.”

“It
was
a restaurant. Although I admit I wondered if we’d find a McDonald’s there instead.” She straightened and turned to him. “Thanks for the day. I really had a good time.”

“So did I.”

Their smiles faded, and they stared at each other.

He wanted to ignore the voice inside him, warning him that one kiss wouldn’t be enough for either of them. Yet any more than a kiss would only create more pressure for her. He’d made a promise, and he had to keep it.
Still
, he thought, leaning forward …

He kissed her cheek.

She smiled a good-bye and slipped inside the house. He resisted the overwhelming urge to follow her and repeat last night. He knew the course of action he had taken with her would ultimately pay off. Even if it meant one hell of a lot of cold showers in the interim. Sighing, he walked back down the front steps to his car.

It hadn’t been at all the kind of day he’d expected, he thought, but it hadn’t been the one he truly wanted either. Except for the moment when Jess had talked about her father, she had kept the rest of the conversation neutral. He had learned a little bit more about her background. Although her parents were socially prominent, they were most fond of evenings at home … and their only child, Jess. He
knew about her schooling, too. And last night she had told him about her divorce. But he didn’t know more about the real Jess. All day long, she hadn’t talked about what she was thinking or feeling, and as their time together had lengthened he’d found himself trying to steer the conversation that way. Each time she’d blocked him with a light comment before changing the subject.

He thought about her worry over doing something crazy, and he had to grin. He couldn’t imagine anything she would do that would scare him away. But it was endearing to know that she was very upset at the thought. Nobody had worried about him like that for a long, long time. He liked it.

Still, she had treated him like a friend today, and a casual one at that. They had both avoided touching each other and, despite his promise, several times he’d caught himself wishing she would hurl herself into his arms and kiss him wildly. Friendship was a good place to start, he admitted, and it probably helped her to feel comfortable around him. But it also bothered him. He had a strong feeling she would keep their relationship on this level for as long as she could.

He’d let her be in control for a while, he decided.

But not too long.

“Seems to me Mikaris is hanging around the boss a lot,” Roger said.

“Quite a lot,” Duane agreed as he handed his coworker a fifty-pound bag of lime. “He was around her all morning.”

Jess kept her mouth shut, as, on her hands and
knees, she shoved the last bag of lime to the open tailgate of the pickup truck. She hefted it over the edge … and let go.

“Gee, Roger,” she said innocently as the bag landed on his foot. “I hope I didn’t break any toes.”

“Sure, Jess,” he muttered, glaring at her and Duane, who was laughing.

“Now let’s quit wasting time speculating on your boss’s personal life and get to work,” she said tartly.

“She’s cracking the whip,” Duane said.

“Must be serious,” Roger said, and immediately jumped away from the back of the truck.

“Knock it off, guys.”

Jess groaned when they didn’t. It was the only drawback to the two of them, she thought. They loved to tease her. Thank goodness they didn’t know about her weekend. If there had been times earlier when she’d thought she was confused about Nick, they were nothing compared to her feelings now. She was completely bewildered by herself. She should be nervous and stiff around him, yet she felt comfortable, very comfortable. When she should be closing herself off from him, she was, instead, revealing more and more. It was as if by warning him, she had now given up all responsibility for her actions. She had made love with him, and she desperately wanted to again.

And yet she was terrified of when that subconscious part of her would take over and drive him away.

“Well, well, look at that,” Duane said as something behind her drew his attention.

She turned around to discover Nick helping a
woman out of a car. The woman was stylishly dressed, and Jess found herself clamping her back teeth together. Then she remembered that Nick had mentioned the interior decorator was coming today to see the model house.

“Maybe we ought to clean Jess up,” Duane said. “We’d better hose her off. She’s covered with lime.”

“At least get the root-rot hat off her,” Roger added. “Gee, how does she expect to impress a man while wearing that hat?”

“I think you two ought to have lobotomies,” Jess said, glaring at them. “That happens to be the interior decorator.”

The two of them merely raised their eyebrows.

Jess smiled. “Keep it up, guys, and you’ll be docked a week’s pay.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

“Okay, okay,” Duane said grudgingly. “But you look like a slob, Jess.”

“Good. Maybe you two will get the hint that Nick and I have a working relationship only.”

“No comment,” Roger said as he pushed the wheelbarrow full of lime toward the house. Duane followed him with the large bin spreaders.

Jess sank back onto the truck bed and shook her head. Her employees were closer to the mark than she cared to think. She glanced over toward Nick and the interior decorator.
Really
, she thought as she eyed the other woman’s high heels. Didn’t the decorator have any sense? This was a construction site, for heaven’s sake, not the Le Bee Fin restaurant.

Nick spotted her and waved. She automatically
waved back, then groaned when she realized she was still wearing her sun hat. Instant horror arose as she saw them coming toward her. She whipped off the hat and jumped down from the truck. She took several useless swipes at the white streaks of lime covering her clothes. If only she didn’t look quite so disreputable …