Sweet Nothings (2 page)

Joanie’s shoulders sunk. It was about the bill.

The insurance payment along with what she managed to send every month hadn’t been covering things for a while now, and she knew it. She’d assured them at the beginning of the year that things would turn around as soon as she had the new business stable. If only they’d give her a little more time.

Ms. Williams explained how the home had to turn a profit or their owners would shut them down, then followed with, “We hate to do this, but we’re putting you on notice.”

Joanie turned her back to the street and held her breath. She had no other way to take care of GiGi if she got kicked out.

“You have two months, Ms. Bigbee. Get caught up on your bill, or your grandmother will have to find a new place to live.”

Joanie’s breath whispered out from between tense lips. “I understand, Ms. Williams. I’ll take care of it.”

Though she wasn’t sure she could accomplish it in two months.

Joanie disconnected and pressed the fingertips of one hand to her forehead, feeling a rare headache coming on. She’d been planning to sell GiGi’s place for a while now to cover expenses, but the house needed to be remodeled before it could be sold. It was so outdated, she couldn’t imagine anyone willing to pay a decent price for it in its current shape.

The funds to improve it were limited, as well.

She let out another tense breath and scrolled through her contacts hoping she’d stored the number of the contractor she’d previously discussed renovations with. Might as well find out how much the work was going to cost her.

Locating the number, she said a silent hooray that she wouldn’t have to figure out where she’d stashed the man’s business card, and pushed the button to place the call. Only when it started ringing did she remember that he’d left her a message over two weeks ago which she’d forgotten to listen to.

As she waited for the phone to be answered, she tossed one last glance over at the red pickup, then headed into the shop so no one walking by would overhear.

Destinee passed her on her way out, arms loaded with the remainder of the cupcakes.

Three minutes later, Joanie hung up just as Destinee came back into the store. There was no way she could afford the repairs.

Which put her back at square one. Sell the house for little more than nothing, or bring GiGi home.

Neither was a viable solution.

“I swear,” Destinee said, her voice low and humming with energy that grabbed Joanie’s attention. “That man is
hot
. Ms. Lee Ann did fine when she snagged him.” Destinee was facing the window, hands propped on her rounded hips, and Joanie followed her gaze across the street.

The same nervousness she’d felt before the high school doors had burst open fluttered back through her. That was not her best friend’s fiancé.

“That isn’t Cody, D. That’s his brother, Nick.”

Wide eyes turned her way. “There are two of them?”

Joanie nodded, not taking her eyes off Nick, and forcing herself not to wipe her palms down the sides of her skirt again. Why the man made her nervous, she had no idea. She’d taken in all six-foot-four of his lean, taut, manual labor–created muscles when they’d met at Christmas, and she hadn’t been nervous then.

She’d been turned on, yes. But not nervous.

And yes, it had been unnerving to be turned on by someone who looked identical to her friend’s fiancé, even when said fiancé did nothing for her but provide an attractive view. But while unnerving, only a dead person could keep from ogling a hunk of man like that.

Only, along with her appreciation for his very fine form, she felt something new stirring inside her this time.

Something that seemed to wake from a long hibernation and jabbed at her from the inside as if screaming,
Me! Me! Let me have him!

It disturbed her even more when she had a quick flash of the man her mother had run off with on Joanie’s thirteenth birthday. She hadn’t thought about him in years. Bill had been an out-of-towner, too. Just like Nick. And also in construction. As well as friendly, what she’d thought of at the time as genuinely nice, and a total cutie.

Strike, strike, strike.

Nick was hot, but he was off-limits.

She wasn’t her mother and she would never fall victim to a man, no matter how bad her insides flamed at the sight of one. And she certainly wouldn’t fall victim to the Bigbee Curse.

Nick lifted his gaze from the paper he held in his hand and scanned the street before him, then spied her van out front. He swept a hand through his dark hair, pushing it off his forehead, and turned in their direction. The jabbing inside her intensified.

“He’s coming over here,” Destinee whispered.

Blood rushed through Joanie so rapidly she worried she’d fall over where she stood. Instead, she shook her arms and rolled her shoulders as if getting ready to go into battle. Whatever was going on inside her, she
could put a stop to it. She’d seen plenty of good-looking men in her years. She’d even slept with a few of them. There was no reason this particular one was going to get to her.

“He probably wants a cupcake,” she stated. “Let’s meet him outside since they’re all in the van.”

Joanie pushed open the door as he reached the sidewalk, and couldn’t help but smile as they made eye contact.
Dang
, he was fine.

Too bad she couldn’t have just one itsy-bitsy taste to put out the fire he lit.

Nick Dalton paused with one foot on the sidewalk and stared at the woman before him. Joanie Bigbee had pale blond hair in wild ringlets bouncing all around her head… with light pink–colored ends. She wore a fuzzy sweater matching the color in her hair, a narrow,
very
short skirt in a similar pink, and completing her outfit were white tights over nicely toned thighs and yellow go-go boots up to her knees.

He scanned her all the way to the bottom of the chunky heels, blinked to make sure he was seeing correctly, then back up to the wide smile beaming at him.

She was a fantasy come to life.

And the smile? It almost made him embarrass himself on the spot.

Hell, she’d looked fairly normal when he’d met her at Cody and Lee Ann’s Christmas dinner a couple months ago. Sexy, but normal. She’d been charming and fun and they’d tossed out the innocent flirt or two, but he hadn’t had the urge to drag her to the ground and unwrap her like a present.

Today he did.

Today he was pretty sure he would if he could figure out how.

“Joanie?” he finally croaked out. “Umm…”

He sounded like an idiot.

Light laughter floated through his foggy brain and he felt himself smile in return. That’s all, just standing there like a dolt, smiling for all he was worth.

A movement at her side caught his attention and he forced himself to look away from her. A young, cocoa-skinned girl with hips that would one day drive men wild stood there taking him in with a look on her face that said she knew exactly what he was thinking. She glanced from him to Joanie, then back at him.

“I think he likes the boots, Jo,” the girl said.

I think he likes everything
, he thought.

He had to get a grip. Forcing himself to glance at anything but Joanie in the hopes that blood would once again make it to his brain, his gaze landed on the van—which was the reason he’d come over in the first place.

It was an old Volkswagen model, and though it’d had extensive work to turn it into what appeared to be a traveling cupcake stand, it still looked like it belonged in the sixties. The aged yellow of the top and bottom panels appeared to be the original color, and the hand-painted flowers and cupcakes dotted all over the outside screamed
groovy
. It was one of the coolest things he’d ever seen.

“Did you come over for a cupcake, Nick?” Joanie’s words jerked him back to her, and he gave her another once-over before remembering that yes, in fact, he had come over for a cupcake.

“Looked appealing.” He nodded, then noticed the unlit
OPEN
sign in the store window behind her. The van was also boarded up tight. “Are you not open for business? I could come back.”

Escaping might be best. He hadn’t come to Sugar Springs to hook up with anyone. He had priorities. Get to know Cody and his girls. Open a new branch of his company. And now, find a place to stay.

When he’d spent a week in town before Christmas, he’d seen a lot of potential for business there. It was a thriving little tourist town, and had some amazing neoclassical architecture details in its historic homes. He wanted to get his hands on a few of those houses.

To add to the charm, Sugar Springs was situated at the base of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Everything about the town was gorgeous. With the right improvements, traffic would pick up even more as people headed in and out of the park.

He snuck another peek at Joanie’s legs and those boots, thinking about the weeks ahead. Focusing on business first didn’t necessarily mean he had to be a monk.

A frustrated sigh pulled his attention to the young girl as she held up her hands in a sign of irritation and headed between them to the van. “Yes, we are open,” she said, her words drawn out in teenage angst. “You two stand there gawking at each other. I’ll get everything set up.”

The words jolted Joanie, and Nick realized she’d been staring at him, same as he’d been doing to her. He couldn’t help the grin that once again covered his face.

Interesting. Maybe he
would
ask her out. Why not have a little fun while here?

Joanie jumped into action and disappeared into the van behind the girl, taking her legs with her, and his heart gave a momentary protest but then settled down to function as it was supposed to. Slow and steady. A dependable life force. Not the raging bull it had been since she’d walked out the door.

It gave him the chance to remind himself that whether she was cute or not, he was not in the market for a woman. Especially not someone like her. He preferred the more traditional. Not go-go boots, pink hair, and a cupcake van.

He shook his head, hoping to clear the idea from his mind.

His goal here was to further the connection with the brother he’d only recently learned about, and to hopefully find their still-missing third brother. He wanted to get to know them. They were his family now.

Then he could use his company as a reason to come back to visit on a regular basis.

And though he did enjoy a nice date with a fun woman, dating was
not
a priority. He had to remember that.

The order window in front of him popped open and Joanie’s smiling face beamed down at him. Her hair bounced around, doing its own thing, and he had the vague thought that if he wasn’t careful, his priorities could easily be shot to hell.

“What’ll you have?” she asked. Gone was her seeming fixation on him. She was now all about the cupcakes. She flipped out a menu of choices and it hung from a metal arm to the side of the open window. “Our special this week, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, is cherry chip. I’m calling it Cupid’s Love. You can get it with either pink…” one hand flicked the pink tips of her hair, “or red icing. We also have—”

“Pink.” The word shot out as if it had been yanked from the back of his throat, and her eyes locked with his for a brief moment. “I want pink,” he reiterated.

A slight smile danced across her lips and his blood inched up a degree.

He took in the pink in her hair and the matching sweater hugging her body, and his heart once again lost its rhythm. Yes, he wanted pink. And what the hell was that about?

He dated all the time, enjoyed going out with plenty of women. No one got him so flustered that he practically swallowed his tongue just from talking to her.

“Then pink it shall be.” She plucked out a fat cupcake with icing piled high and tiny red hearts sprinkled on top, grabbed a couple napkins, and handed it all to him. “It’s on the house, big guy. Now tell me, what brings you back to town so soon?”

He would have thought she’d heard from Lee Ann or Cody that he was coming.

Before he could answer, music blared from the speakers above him, making him take an involuntary step back. When he did, he glanced at the top of the van, the sign now flashing in lights. Apparently the teenager was trying to tell him something. Move on. Quit ogling the owner.

Joanie laughed with honest happiness, the sound warming him deep inside, and he decided that cupcakes were going to be one of his favorite things in the coming weeks.

“I’ll come out and we can talk,” she said, before turning to the girl. “There are customers heading this way. Can you handle them?”

“Sure thing, boss. Just take it outside.”

Another light trill of laughter came from Joanie, and Nick caught himself doing that stupid grin thing again. He really had to stop that.

She bounced out of the van as people trickled over from nearby stores to get their own dessert, and he followed until they stood a few feet to the side of the foot traffic.

“The first day of a new venture is pretty exciting,” she said. Her exuberance was contagious.

“So this is day one?” That must explain the outfit. She had to be freezing in that skirt.