Charmed (Contemporary Romance) (2 page)

Minutes later, Jamie was sitting in Nick’s office, waiting for him to retrieve her file. She turned to watch Nick and Claire in the front office. What on earth had possessed Justin to tell her that Nick had lost his looks? He was wearing dark gray slacks and a light blue dress shirt, open at the collar, sleeves rolled up. His forearms were tight with nice, lean muscles.

Jamie swallowed hard and shot her head back around as if the motion could knock her thoughts away. This wasn’t like her.

Looking for a distraction, she glanced over at Nick’s desk and saw a few pictures of a young girl with smiling eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair. Emma, she guessed, before she noticed Nick heading her way.

• • •

Nick opened the door to his office and paused when Jamie looked up at him. He couldn’t get rid of the feeling they knew each other from somewhere and that he might offend her by not acknowledging it.

Also, he was wondering how he could get the interview off to a proper start. As disciplined and focused as he was, he’d have a hard time concentrating today. How often did a beautiful woman literally fall into a man’s arms?

He formally introduced himself and got down to business. “The purpose of this interview is simply to get a conversation going,” he explained. “I’ll ask you a series of informal questions about you and your children, and you can interrupt at any time with questions of your own. Hopefully we’ll get to know each other a bit, and we can determine if our school is a good fit for you and your children.”

Nick looked down at her file. Michael Scott and Timothy James Sullivan. He looked at their pictures. “They’re not identical. That’s a definite plus for the teacher.”

“Right. They both have dark brown hair, but Michael is taller and has brown eyes, while Timmy has blue eyes.” Jaime pointed to each picture, and it was obvious she was avoiding looking at him directly.

“Well, tell me more about them.” Mothers were never at a loss of words when asked about their children. It always broke the ice.

True to form, Jamie perked up as soon as she began speaking about her boys, their interests, and their quirks. Her whole face lit up, and Nick listened to her while taking the opportunity to study her features and see if he could place her.

She had full lips, the kind many women tried to buy with collagen injections. She looked like she was pouting until she smiled. And then she had one of those smiles that went all the way up to her eyes.

Bright eyes. They looked as if they were usually either on the verge of laughing or deep in thought. It was a curious contrast. She was interesting.

A moment later, he wondered why he’d think that when he wasn’t fully listening to her. The realization that he wasn’t paying a parent due attention jolted him back to the conversation.

“So, Michael wants to be a rocket engineer. Pretty ambitious, I don’t think I’ve heard that one from a five year old. What does Timothy want to be when he grows up?”

“Well,” she hesitated. “Timmy wants to be Santa Claus.”

“Santa Claus?”

“Yes. Santa Claus,” she repeated. “He’s very serious about it. See, Michael’s a lot like his father, and he tends to think in practical terms, whereas Timmy is more like me — he lives in his imagination a lot. But he’s just as smart as Michael.”

“So, you wanted to be Santa Claus when you grew up?” Nick couldn’t help asking.

Jamie bit her bottom lip and Nick nearly squirmed. What was wrong with him? The woman was just talking about how her son was like her husband. On a whim he looked at her left hand.
No ring.

No ring meant she was a single mom, which meant he definitely had to get the conversation back on track … in a moment.

“No, I wanted to be an ice princess,” Jamie explained. “But the point is, I was serious about it, it was real to me, and fueling my imagination turned out to be a good thing. I learned to draw, and I even made a silver snowflake wand out of metal scraps at a very young age.”

“And what powers did your snowflake wand have? I’m assuming it had powers.” Nick was enjoying the conversation a little too much, but he told himself he was only getting to know a parent.

“It could make snow, and it could freeze the lake so I could figure skate whenever I wanted to … ”

“Then it sounds like being an ice princess was a worthwhile ambition. If you could have permanently frozen the pond behind the school so I could play ice hockey all year long, you would’ve been my favorite hero.”

She smiled for the first time since he’d seen her outside. “Not a hero, a
princess
.”

“But you had superpowers.”

“The wand had superpowers and … are we
seriously
having this conversation?”

It was Nick’s turn to smile. “Right.” He dutifully forced himself to look down at her file. The more he looked at Jamie Sullivan, the more he was sure he’d seen her before. Yet he didn’t think she was someone he’d have easily forgotten.

Sullivan. The name didn’t ring a bell at all. He looked down at the application she’d filled out.
Child’s Father: Scott Sullivan, deceased.
He went back and read the last word again, staring at the paper in his hands, the tragedy of leaving behind a young wife and two little boys momentarily enveloping him.

Looking up, he saw Jamie was absorbed reading a newspaper clipping about one of his college hockey games. He took in her olive-toned skin and long, dark hair, and tried hard to remember where he knew her from.

“Dr. Grey?” Jamie turned to him.

“Nick,” he reminded her.

“Nick.” She nodded and visibly drew in a breath. “You’ve been quiet for a while now, and I’ll admit I’m worried about the questionable first impression I made outside. I’m sure if you ask me a few more questions about my children and we get a real conversation going, you’ll see we’re a good fit for your school.” She leveled an amiable yet determined look his way, and he realized he’d been silent too long.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Sullivan. I hate to admit I didn’t notice I was quiet for so long.” He paused and considered his next words. “To be honest, I’ve been distracted by this thought that I know you from somewhere.” He searched her face to see if she acknowledged she knew him.

“Oh,” was all she said.

“Am I right? Do we know each other from somewhere?”

“I just moved to Autumn Falls. I bought the small, blue-and-white cottage on the corner of Willow and Meadow. Maybe you’ve seen me around.”

Nick thought about that, surprised to learn they were both from Autumn Falls, a small town fifteen minutes north. He passed the house she mentioned every day, but he hadn’t even been aware anybody lived there. “No, I haven’t seen you around.”

Their little town had a population of just under one thousand, and almost everyone knew who everyone else was, even if only by name. “Do you have relatives there?” he asked, thinking if she was widowed she may have moved there because of family.

“Yes, I grew up there.”

“What’s your maiden name?” She was clearly younger than him, which would account for him not remembering her very well. But he probably knew her family.

“You know, I think I know why I look familiar to you. I treated you to ice cream at Mrs. Bird’s shop once, a very long time ago. You probably don’t remember, but that has to be it.” She splayed her hands in front of her as if she’d solved the puzzle when she’d only managed to confuse him more. “Now, can we get back to the interview?”

“You treated me to ice cream once? I’m guessing you’re somewhere around seven to ten years younger than I am, and I haven’t had ice cream with a girl since high school. I’m positive I didn’t let a little girl treat me to ice cream when I was in high school.”

“Actually, I was eight … and you must’ve been fifteen or so. You were at Milford Park with your girlfriend, and I hit my head with my snowflake wand. The metal was sticking out, and it was pretty rusty. There was blood. You helped me get my head cleaned up at a nearby fountain, and I insisted I buy you ice cream. I’m sure you don’t remember, but it might be why I look familiar.”

Nick tapped his pen on his desk. “Actually, I do remember … ”

“You do?” Jamie’s eyes widened.

A slow, satisfied smile spread across Nick’s face. “First of all, I would never have guessed that thing was a snowflake wand. Second, you
bribed
me with ice cream so I wouldn’t call your father, but I had Mrs. Bird call him behind your back, and Dr. Viera came to pick you up.
You
are Justin Viera’s little sister. Well, his sister.” He was sure of it, though he couldn’t see the resemblance. There was no way he would’ve found her attractive if he’d thought she looked anything like Justin.

Nick pointed to her with his pen, hearing the strangely triumphant tone in his voice, unable to rein it in. He nodded toward the newspaper clipping of a hockey game between Boston University and Boston College that Jamie had been looking at. The article outlined Nick’s winning score against Justin.

“You used to yell at me at the top of your lungs at our games back in college,
that’s
where I remember you from. How old were you? Twelve, thirteen? Man, you had a mouth on you. ‘Savage goon’ and ‘ignorant brute’ were among your favorites, if I remember correctly.” Nick leaned back in his chair, completely unable to wipe the smile from his face.

“Are you gloating?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Because I called you names as a teenager and now I’m here? I’m not at your mercy, you know. There are other schools to choose from.”

“No.” Nick chuckled. “Because you’re Viera’s sister, and I’m wondering if he knows you’re here.”

“Yes, he does. He actually recommended your school.
He’s
being mature about it.”

Nick thought about that for a moment. Justin Viera had recommended his school. To his own sister. He sat back and took it in, realizing it was a huge compliment. And here he was behaving in a decidedly unprofessional manner. He tried hard to wipe the smile off his face and look sincere.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Sullivan. I guess I’m not making a very good impression on you,” he said, wondering how he could backtrack.

“Then we’re even. I’m sure I didn’t make a great first impression outside. And if I’m to call you Nick, you should call me Jamie.”

“Okay, Jamie.” He shook his head. “I think it’s safe to say that today hasn’t been a normal day for either of us. I’ve never caught a parent dangling from a tree, and we’ve never had a mix-up with an appointment. I’m usually better prepared. Also, I assure you that my meetings with parents never contain any gloating and, although we do sometimes talk about superheroes, it’s always in relation to the kid’s ambitions, not the parents’. I propose we start over.”

“Yes! Please, let’s start over.”

“Okay, then.” Nick leaned forward. “First question: is it true that Viera shaved all his hair off because he realized he was going bald?”

Jamie laughed. He’d known she would, just like he knew he shouldn’t be trying to make her laugh. He sat back. What was wrong with him? He remained silent a moment too long, wondering how to bring the so-called interview to an end.

“How old is Emma now?” Jamie asked, pointing to his daughter’s picture.

“She just turned eighteen.”

“Really? Will she be starting college this fall?”

“Yes. She’s going to BU.”

“I imagine you’re going to miss her terribly. What are you going to do with yourself?” She glanced up at him, her dark eyes thoughtful.

It occurred to him that he’d been flirting a little with Jamie. He hadn’t meant to. He’d never behaved that way in school before. Never. He took his job seriously.

“What do you mean, what am I going to do with myself?”

Jamie’s expression went from friendly to something he couldn’t put his finger on. “Well, just that you’ll feel more alone now. You’ll probably be looking for new ways to fill your new free time, that’s all.”

Maybe his behavior had given Jamie the wrong impression. He’d been hearing these questions a lot lately, and his knee-jerk reaction to single moms who asked about Emma and how he’d feel and what he’d do and how ever would he fill up his time, took over.

He didn’t want to offend her, but he had to set things straight. He looked for a balance. “Well, of course I’ll miss her, but I’m also looking forward to the next step. I love children, obviously.” He looked at her steadily then, raising an eyebrow for effect. “But I’m finished,
for good
, with raising any myself. I have definite plans — I’m actually leaving for a year, come January. I’m not looking to fill up my time here at all.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he caught Jamie’s confused expression and regretted his tone. It had come out more direct than he’d intended.

• • •

Jamie sank back into her chair. Nick’s tone had changed. He was serious and obviously sending her a message.

It took a moment to sink in, but it didn’t make sense. Had she been sending the wrong signals? Was her meaningless attraction to him obvious? It had been so long since she’d reacted to a man, maybe she’d forgotten how to hide it.

But, damn it, she hadn’t been flirting! Justin had told her the school had a family-like atmosphere, and Nick had been very friendly and familiar. She’d been following his lead.

Part of her wanted to call him an egomaniac, but he’d probably think she was offended because he’d rejected her or something. Ugh! No wonder her brother saw a troll with boobs and no hair whenever he looked at Nick.

“My life revolves around my children right now and I sometimes wonder if I’ll know what to do with myself when they no longer need me as much,” she explained, trying hard not to clench her teeth. “I only asked you about your plans because you’re about to go through that new chapter and I was curious. That was my sole reason for asking, Dr. Grey.”

Nick seemed to be at a loss for words. When she got up, he handed her a memo detailing the admissions process before offering her a quick and awkward handshake.

At the gate, Jamie turned back and looked at the school with mixed feelings. It was a perfect match for her boys, but it wasn’t a good fit for her.