Serendipity (11 page)

Without warning, Nick lifted his head and met her gaze, obvious surprise in his expression.

“What?” she asked softly, resisting the urge to touch her sleeve to her lips.

“Honestly?”

She nodded. She didn't want him to be anything but. Because in a matter of minutes she'd be doing the same to him and probably breaking his heart in the process.

“It was . . . nothing. I felt nothing,” he said, more than a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Faith blinked, his comment taking her off guard, and suddenly she burst out laughing.

“Should I be insulted?” he asked.

“No!” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It's just that I didn't feel it either and I was afraid I was going to have to let you down gently. Yet here you are doing it to me.” She grinned and wrapped her arms around him in a friendly hug. “God, I'm relieved!” She stepped back and met his gaze.

His smile was grim but accepting. “Whatever happened to us?” he asked. “I mean, one day we were the most popular couple and the next you were a different person. We broke up, drifted apart. I never expected it,” he admitted, speaking of their high school days.

She nodded, understanding how her actions back then could have hurt him. “I'm sorry. I just realized that my feelings for you were more about friendship, and at sixteen I didn't know how to tell you. So I froze you out until a breakup was inevitable.” She shivered at the memory, recalling how awful she'd felt ignoring him and being cold all because she hadn't been able to get Ethan's kiss out of her mind.

Then or now.

And she couldn't admit the truth to him any more today than she could have back then.

Nick nodded slowly. “I get it now. I was a little dense back then. Couldn't quite understand how you didn't want to be with a studly football player,” he said, laughing. “High school. Aren't you glad that time in our lives is over?”

She smiled. “I sure am. Umm, Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“I know what happened tonight is awkward and everything, but it's also been . . . cathartic. I feel like now we have the closure we never had before.” She drew a deep breath. “What I'm trying to say is, I don't have many friends in town and I'd be really grateful if you remained one of them.” She held her breath, waiting for his answer.

Hoping this whole incident hadn't cost her an ally and someone she liked.

He cocked his head to one side. One hand braced against the wall, he studied her as if seeing her for the first time. “I'd be honored to be your friend, Faith.”

Relief poured through her. “That's great!”

“I have a project to finish up, but I can schedule one day next week to meet at the store. My sister can let you in to look around in the meantime. Then we can go in and discuss where you want the shelving you mentioned, as well as any potential repainting, carpeting, et cetera.”

Faith nodded. “I plan to keep it to a minimum for both my budget and not to take advantage of you and April. You've been so good to me already.”

He waved away her concern. “Don't worry about it. Consider it a favor for a friend.” He winked at her, clearly relieved they'd cleared the air—she wouldn't hold that kiss against him and they could go on with their friendship.

“I guess now that we've cleared the air between us, I'll have to get used to seeing you with other men,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Kidding! As long as any guy treats you right, I'm all for you dating.”

She shook her head and laughed. “I'm not ready to date,” she admitted.

Yet she'd kissed Ethan. What was it about him, she wondered. The bad-boy charm? The wounded soul inside? A kindred spirit in some sense?

“Earth to Faith.” Nick snapped a finger in front of her face.

“Sorry,” she said, startled.

“I should let you go in and get some sleep.”

She nodded. “I am tired.”

They said good night and she let herself inside but knew sleep would be a long time coming, thoughts of Ethan's bottled-up pain and his fathomless dark eyes keeping her tossing, turning, and awake.

 

 

A week after Faith had agreed to take on Ethan's job, she met Nick at the storefront. He'd arrived earlier than she had, and by the time she showed up he was already stacking boxes in the corner of her store.

Her store.

He'd provided her with a standard lease a few days earlier and she'd taken it to the man with the most established shingle in town, Richard Kane. Nash Barron was the other lawyer in town and she wouldn't be going to him. Richard had read through it, made a few changes, and negotiated them with Nick. He'd charged a reasonable fee, she felt like she'd protected her interests, and she'd signed on the dotted line.

So here she was, in her store. “What's in those?” she asked, gesturing to the plain brown boxes.

Nick turned to face her. “You tell me. The UPS guy delivered them fifteen minutes ago. They have your name on them.”

She raised an eyebrow and strode over. Carstairs Designs' distinctive label stared back at her from the top of the box.

“Recognize the name?”

“Actually, I do. Joel Carstairs is my good friend. He's a decorator and he's way too generous!” she said, her excitement rising. “He promised to send me samples and books to get me started, but this looks like he's sent me enough to stock this place!”

“That's some good friend.” His tone held a question with no note of jealousy.

Some time since that disastrous kiss, they'd become more comfortable with each other. Even more than when they'd been boyfriend and girlfriend.

“Joel's a friend. In fact, he's gay, so there's no possibility for anything more,” she said, being honest with Nick. “Which has always taken the pressure off, you know?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I do.”

“Coffee for the workers!” Kate's voice rang out from the doorway. She strode inside, a cardboard holder in her hands and the now familiar disposable coffee cups inside.

“Oh, you wonderful person, you!” Faith made a beeline for the caffeine.

“Not so wonderful. Bored. I'm a teacher on summer break and I need to be busy! Put me to work, please!”

Faith laughed. “I thought you were volunteering at the youth center.”

“Part-time. I'd love to help you!”

Faith eyed her friend, then shrugged. “Okay, but be careful what you wish for. See those boxes over there? I'd love it if you would start unpacking them. Organize them by fabric, wallpaper, whatever different goodies are in those boxes. We'll decide where to put them once Nick finishes his part.

“Yes, boss!” Kate saluted. “What will you two be doing?” she asked.

“Figuring out where to put shelving, hanging some pictures, and ordering a sign for outside—once I figure out a name for this place.” Faith studied the walls, envisioning the prints she'd chosen to take with her before leaving New York.

“I'll brainstorm names with you,” Kate offered.

“I'd love that. But first”—Faith pointed to the coffee—“which one's mine?”

“Latte for you.” Kate handed her one cup, then pulled out another for herself. “Chai tea for me.”

“Hey, what about me?” Nick asked.

“Sorry. I didn't know what you drink.”

“Regular, dark, no sugar,” he said.

Kate narrowed her gaze. “And you want me to what? Go back and pick you up a cup?”

“Well, since you offered . . .” He treated her to an endearing grin.

Or one Faith would have found endearing if she were interested in Nick. She wasn't. But suddenly she wondered if her best friend could be.

“Well, I'm not serving. But if you'll be here tomorrow, maybe I'll remember to pick up something for you. If you're nice to me.”

“For coffee and a pretty woman, I can be on my best behavior.”

Faith glanced at Kate, who flushed before turning away and heading over to the boxes.

“What's up with that?” she asked Nick. “You two went to high school together and you've never teased her like that before.”

He shrugged. “I don't know. It just happened.”

Faith would love for it to
just happen
again, but she kept her thoughts—that they'd make a cute couple—to herself.

“Okay, let's get to work,” he said.

Faith nodded.

For the next hour, they each had their jobs. Kate unloaded the boxes, sorting, resorting, and making piles of the books and other supplies Joel had sent over. Then Faith and Nick talked shelving and paint and he headed to the hardware store to pick up supplies. Faith took the time to call the local florist and order a thank-you bouquet to be delivered to Joel. She helped Kate with the sample books and together they sketched out a more detailed plan for where everything should go. Faith had already ordered pieces to stock in her shop that she could use as decorative accents until they sold.

Nick returned with picture hooks and the shelving units she'd requested, and he got to work measuring the wall space and planning where things would go.

The next few days comprised working to get the store ready to open. Kate suggested a simple business name: “FAITH'S!” Storefront sign ordered, Faith turned her focus to business cards and letterhead.

She brought her laptop to the store and was waiting for Nick to come by to help her set up the wireless modem the phone company had sent over. It still irked her that she couldn't figure it out on her own, and she decided to try once more. She called the phone company's toll-free number and followed the computerized voice instructions telling her to shut down the computer, unplug the modem from the wall, then from the computer. She was then instructed to plug in both again and to reboot. No luck.

The annoying voice then told her to make sure she had the serial number of the modem ready for the next available operator. The modem was plugged in beneath the desk and out of view. Placing a pen and pad on the floor, she bent down beneath the desk in a futile attempt to get the serial number without any light.

“Hello?” Nick's voice called out.

“Under here!”

His footsteps sounded as he walked around the desk. “Mind if I ask what you're doing?”

“Trying to get the serial number on the modem,” she muttered.

“I said I'd be here to help you!”

“Well, I wanted to figure it out myself.” Suddenly aware that her position on all fours beneath the desk exposed her lace underwear (and thank God she hadn't worn a thong), she began to back out of the uncomfortable, small spot she'd wedged herself into.

“Let me help.”

She felt Nick's hand on her waist at the same time she heard Ethan's dark voice. “Anyone want to tell me what I'm interrupting?”

Faith didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the situation. She did know she had a situation on her hands.

 

 

Ethan should have walked out while he had the chance. When he strode into the small store, expecting to find Faith, he hadn't anticipated discovering her beneath the desk with Nick Mancini bending over her. And though there was probably a good explanation, he couldn't stop the jealousy that exploded inside his head, despite the fact that he had no hold over her and no right at all to be jealous.

Right or not, he heard his voice through a haze. “Anyone want to tell me what I'm interrupting?”

Ignoring Ethan, Nick placed his hands around Faith's waist and helped her up from beneath the desk.

She rose, brushed her half-lifted, extremely short skirt farther down on her legs and met his gaze. “Modem troubles,” she said with a too-bright smile.

“And really, what's it to you?” Nick stepped in front of Faith, in male protective mode.

Ethan clenched his jaw, no desire to get into a pissing match with the man. “I didn't know I answered to you, Mancini.”

“I take it you two know each other?” Faith rushed around Nick and inserted herself directly between the two men.

“I know he's trouble,” Nick muttered, crossing his arms across his chest.

“You don't know a damn thing about me,” Ethan said.

“I know that you—”

“Nick, stop.” Faith put a hand on Nick's arm, halting whatever words he'd been about to hurl at Ethan midsentence.

At the sight of her hand on the other man's skin, a burning sensation spread through Ethan's gut.

Faith glanced up at Nick. “Ethan and I have business. And we're
friends
. So even though you mean well, you need to back off.” She shot Nick a warning glare.

Friends, huh? Ethan had a bone to pick with that description. After the kiss they'd shared in her apartment, he wanted to be a helluva lot more. In the week since he'd seen or heard from her, her silence had him twisted in knots. Like a teenage guy wanting to get into a girl's pants, he couldn't stop thinking of her. Except even as a teen, no girl had denied him what he wanted.

Except this one.

There was that unfinished business between them, rising up to tease, tempt, and torment him.

“I hope you remember his reputation,” Nick said, his face flushed. Clearly he didn't like being told to back down.

“People change.” Faith spoke with more certainty about Ethan than he felt about himself.

He appreciated her efforts, but he didn't need Faith fighting his battles. And she didn't need him provoking Mancini in her store either and decided now would be the time to ignore the other man completely.