As Darla looked at the tiny, glinting facets, she wondered again about her ancestor. Internet searches that she’d done hadn’t turned up much about Amelia’s life. While Darla was home, she vowed to stop by the library or historical society and get help with some local research.
Darla felt certain that Amelia had faced a lot bigger problems than fixing a book. She’d led her life boldly and bravely and against the grain. She hadn’t let anything stop her.
Like fear. Which reminded Darla that her cancer checkup was forty-eight hours away and counting. Tick tick tick.
Maybe she should wear the ring. To remind herself to be brave too.
A few minutes later, she’d dozed off for the tenth time, only to jerk her head up to find that she’d left an entire paragraph of zzzzz on her screen. She was exhausted. She was stressed. And distracted by the bizarre presence of her hot-but-troublesome ex right down the hall.
Rubbing her temples, she did the math for the thousandth time. Two thousand words a day times a month till her deadline was still doable but felt impossible unless the ideas started flowing. Finally, she shut her laptop, slid it under the bed, and immediately sank into a deep sleep.
She was awakened sometime later by her doorbell ringing, followed by banging at the front door. Giant “woofs” sounded out, and doggy toenails clicked on her polished wood floor. She threw on her robe and charged down the hall, suddenly having to contend with a one hundred–pound dog excitedly running circles around her while the knocking continued.
“Boss! Hey, get over here,” Nick said, grabbing the dog by the collar as he approached the door from the opposite side of the house.
One glance showed him to be wearing a sleepy expression from just being awakened and little else. He was shirtless—again—with soft gray sweats, his thick, wavy hair tousled and sticking up a little on one side, once again stirring up memories of tender moments she didn’t want to remember.
As the light from the hall fell on his smooth planes of muscle and his toned arms, she froze. A rush of heat flared up inside, and for a second she forgot about the pounding, which was now accompanied by giggling and laughing, meaning in all likelihood that her friends were on the other side. Nick glanced up and caught her staring at him full-on. Which made him break out into a slow, sure smile.
Darla put her hand on the doorknob. “I am not staring at you,” she said. Just in case he was thinking that.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I never said you were.” But his smirk proved he thought otherwise.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Almost midnight.” He looked through the sidelight. “I don’t believe this,” he said.
Darla walked up behind him. The sharp, spicy, masculine scent of soap and shaving cream wafted toward her. Yep, fresh from a recent shower would be her guess.
Darla tried to shake the scent out of her nostrils. It was just that she hadn’t dated anyone in a year. Which made her way too susceptible to cloves and menthol, that was for sure.
Sure enough, outside the door stood Darla’s two best friends. Hadley, whose light brown hair was up in a ponytail, stood there staring back and holding a pizza box. Kit, who had long dark hair, waved excitedly at her side.
Nick’s brother and Hadley’s fiancé, Tony, was there too, and so was Kit’s fiancé, Alex de la Cruz.
Her best friends, ironically with his two best friends.
“I think they’ve been drinking,” Darla whispered to Nick. “They look way too happy.”
“At this point, I wish I were too.” His glance slid over to her. Suddenly she knew what he was thinking—imagining the fallout when their friends saw them together looking like—
“Maybe they won’t notice,” she said, her cheeks on fire.
He lifted a brow. “Too late now,” he said with a shrug. “They’ve seen us.”
“Why don’t you have a shirt on?” Her words slipped out in an irritated tone.
“Um, because I don’t sleep with a shirt.” He flashed her a pointed look.
She felt another blush overtake her face. Because she knew that that wasn’t all he didn’t sleep with.
“Also, I rushed out here to save you from potential home intruders. I didn’t have time to put one on.”
Darla sent him an oh well glance and threw open the door.
“You’re back!” Hadley cried, passing the pizza box to Tony, who caught sight of Nick, his brows immediately shooting up in surprise.
Darla went into a hug huddle with her two oldest and dearest friends. Except that the giant dog tried to join in. Hadley, who ran an animal shelter, crooned to Boss, making him even more excited.
Despite the antics of the hairy party crasher, it was a thrill to see her friends again after so long. That made her happy but also hurt her heart because California was a long way away.
“Oh!” Kit said, a hand suddenly flying to her mouth. Her expression grew puzzled as she looked from Darla to Nick and back again.
Oh fricking no.
Darla looked down at her pink robe. And her T-shirt. And dragged her gaze over to Nick, who was standing there in all his shirtless glory. Except Nick hadn’t flinched. Whereas she was wrapping her robe tightly around herself and wanted to disappear into the floor.
Tony, a big guy with a tight end’s body, gave a fake cough. “Hope we’re not…interrupting.” Tony, a young-Tom-Brady-kind-of-famous football player until an injury sidelined his career, had returned to Seashell Harbor, reassessed his life, and opened up a crazily popular restaurant called Cam’s Place. Most people called him Cam, but Darla never had, probably because she’d known him since high school. Nick loved his brother and had never resented his fame, but calling Tony Cam seemed, to her, to omit the fact that Nick was a Cammareri too.
“Oh, Darla.” Hadley, who was always exuberant, immediately wrapped her arms around her. “You guys got back together. I knew it would happen!”
Over her embrace, Darla telegraphed Nick a do-something look. And in response, she got…a shrug.
Yeah. Like either of them could actually fix this mess.
“It’s not what it looks like—” he offered.
“What exactly is ‘it’?” Hadley bit down on the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing.
Darla tried to sound as controlled and no-nonsense as usual. “Nick was here when I got in, working on some projects. He needed a place to stay for tonight.”
“Right,” Kit, her kind, empathic friend who tended to believe everyone, said like she didn’t believe it at all.
“Projects.” Tony looked his brother over with a huge grin. Alex cleared his throat and suppressed a laugh.
“Oh,” Hadley said in an overly cheery tone, “that makes complete sense. We actually believe it.”
“I was crashed in the guest wing.” Nick pointed down the hall. “And Darla was…over there.” He waved his hand in the opposite direction.
“Way over there,” Darla said. “Complete opposite sides of the house.” They sounded…ridiculous. Even worse, they sounded guilty.
“Well, hope both of you are hungry,” Hadley said.
“Were you all out having fun?” Darla asked them. “Why didn’t you call me?”