Heart and Sole (5 page)

Chapter Five

They switched drivers somewhere in Virginia, although Maddie had to practically pry Nick’s hands off the wheel to get him to surrender it. Why he’d been so insistent, she had no idea, but when he started to bounce his left knee and hum Beatles music loudly and out of tune to stay awake, there was no way she was going to let him drive eight hours straight.

Ahead, open highway rolled and stretched surrounded by green, tree-covered mountains. It was almost as interesting as the six-foot-plus, luscious-man-scenery dozing beside her.

Sleep did something to a man. Especially
this
man, and whatever that was, she felt it clear down to her toes. Softened the edges, released the tension that normally held his jaw and brow taut. Watching his face assume a peaceful expression was mesmerizing…and dangerous.

A sign should read
Wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing. Danger!

As if sensing her perusal, Nick startled and bolted upright in his seat. “Where are we?”

“Whoa there.” She reached out to place her hand on his arm. Muscles tensed and flexed beneath her touch. The man was seriously on edge. It surprised Maddie how he could appear so calm on the outside, yet his insides were wound tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

She glanced at her dashboard GPS and tried to sound cheery. “We’ll be there in only five more hours.”

He sighed.

“We don’t need to make small talk. If you’d like, we could invent more rules.”

He burst out laughing. A low, spontaneous rumble. It sort of jarred her. The fact that she’d caused it made her feel strangely pleased.

“How about we stop for a burger instead?” he asked.

The idea of sinking her teeth into a warm juicy burger made her stomach tremble with anticipation. She’d been eating an awful lot of peanut butter after tossing so much of her own money at the company this past year.

She paused as an old memory surfaced. “Remember the picnic we took to Spiders’ Cove that one summer?”

Nick crossed his arms like maybe he was trying to hold the memories back, but cracked a smile. “With a name like that, we should’ve known better.”

Madison waved her hand dismissively in the air. “Oh, we were young and adventurous. Hey, didn’t you need antibiotics for those spider bites on your butt?”

“Ten days’ worth.”

“All that sneaking around wasn’t worth it, huh?” She shouldn’t have said that. She didn’t need reassurance or proof that he’d once loved her.

He paused so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer.

“It was worth it.”

Darned if her stupid heart didn’t do a flip-flop. Maddie’s face flamed with fire, and she forced herself to concentrate on driving.

“Once my grandfather and your grandmother got wind of us dating, they did everything imaginable to stop us.” He stared out the window, deep in thought.

“But we didn’t listen, did we?”

They fell into silence. The ghost of old memories cast a pall Maddie was eager to erase. But this time she couldn’t find a ready quip to shrug it off.

He seemed to sense the change in her mood. “Life’s a lot different than it was then.”

He wasn’t kidding. She thought of her job, her dad, the impossible task ahead of her at the end of this road trip. Definitely not the carefree youth she’d remembered.

“We were both idealistic,” Nick said. “Believed we could conquer the world. We didn’t understand that life has a way of changing your dreams.”

“I still believe in dreams.”

“What might those be?”

Well, number one on her dream list was to enter her sexiest, sleekest, most glittery shoe design in Bergdorf’s national
Get Your Shoe in the Door
competition. Grand Prize was a one-year contract to appear in Bergdorf’s store—and a whole lot of attention. Just what Kingston Shoes needed.

Maddie knew she was really, really good at drawing shoes. Translating that into 3-D was another story. But she wasn’t about to tell Nick any of that. “One of them is to end the feud. It’s gone on long enough, and too many people have been hurt.”

“You always were an idealist. A fifty-year-old feud is not going to dissolve into thin air just because you want to get everyone on the same page.”

He was too grounded in reality, too cynical and jaded. She mourned the hopeful, optimistic boy he once was. That person was far more likeable.

The rain whooshed down again in avalanching sheets, and Maddie white-knuckled the wheel. The clatter of the rain hitting the car roof pitched to a deafening roar.

“Maybe we should pull over?” Nick yelled over the din.

Maddie nodded and hit the flashers. She searched through the suddenly foggy windows for a spot to pull over, but the shoulder of the road was filled with a river of rushing water.

She didn’t see the scattered pieces of metal in the road until it was too late. The car rumbled over the obstacles, then spun out on the wet road as one or more tires popped and blew out.

Maddie gripped the wheel hard. She managed to right the car and steer it to the side before it skittered along the gravel to a bumpy stop. The rear end of the Lexus smacked up against an iron guardrail, the only barrier between them and a pitching gully below. Suddenly the only sound was the rain that hammered the car like a volley of fireworks.

And Maddie’s gasps for breath.

Calm down, calm down
. She didn’t want him to see her vulnerable.

“Are you okay?” Nick didn’t wait for her answer. He reached over and closed his hands lightly around her arms, gently squeezing up and down, checking for something…injury, sprains, breaks?

His bright eyes lit with concern. “Maddie, say something.”

“I—I don’t know what just happened—”
Don’t blather.

Nick craned his head to see out the back, but the car windows were covered with ice-like sheets of rain, blurring everything outside into fuzzy hues of gray.

“It looked like some kind of metal scraps scattered in the road,” she finally said. “I—I didn’t see them till too late. I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever it was, you couldn’t have avoided it.”

She was trembling, her tough demeanor all but crumbled. She bit down hard on her lip and blinked back tears.
Please, God, not in front of him
.

He rubbed her arms up and down, as if he wanted to ease her anxiety. She didn’t dare meet his eyes for fear she’d do something really stupid like melt into his big embrace and hold on for dear life. His touch felt frighteningly good, firm yet amazingly gentle.

“It’s okay,” he said in a calm, low voice. “We’re all right. That’s all that matters.”

Tears leaked down her cheeks, and she swiped them away.

“It’s just a car,” Nick said gently.

“I’ve got to check the damage.” She placed her hand on the door handle.

A strong but firm hand held her back. “Oh, no, you don’t. We’re staying right here and calling for help.”

His commanding tone half irked her, but the other half was unbearably relieved he took charge.

“Are you hurt?” she asked.

“Honey, it takes more than a tumble on the side of the road to rough me up. How about you?”

That little twang was back, and it shot an excruciating sense of comfort through her. His left hand had moved automatically to her shoulder and began massaging, rubbing her tense muscles, ironing out the tension that had accumulated in her neck and upper back. “Fine. Just a little shaken up,” she said.

A moment ago she had actively disliked him, but his magic fingers and soothing tone changed her mind. He was kind and gentle, and his touch both soothed and excited her. She was just a second away from leaning into him and begging for more when he removed his hand to tap his phone.

Maddie looked around as best she could in the growing dusk, struggling to get it together. All she could see in the blur of the raindrops and the oncoming darkness were trees and mountains and highway. She tried to recall the last real exit she’d seen with gas and food and lodging, but it was so far back she couldn’t even remember.

A sharp expletive cut the tense air and made her jump.

“What is it?” she asked.

“No service. Let me see your phone.”

She dug it out of her purse and passed it to him.

Another expletive. “We’re out in the boonies with no reception.”

Just to make things worse, her stomach growled.

Nick tapped his watch. “Maybe the highway patrol will find us. Have you got a handkerchief?”

She stared at him like he’d just walked out of the Old South, and cracked a slow smile. “Um, I must have left my hankie in my reticule,” she said in her best Charleston accent.

“Sarcasm’s back. You must be okay.” In one quick movement, Nick peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it to her. “Here you go, ma’am.”

Maddie caught the shirt and stifled a gasp. It was warm from his body heat and she could smell
him
, a heady mix of spicy cologne and his own particular scent, familiar and intoxicating. She had to restrain herself from holding it to her face and taking a whiff before she rolled down her window enough to stick out the shirt. Rain pelted the window and sprayed her arms and face before she could seal it closed.

Now he was sitting there shirtless, checking his phone. His muscles were perfectly honed, smooth hills of contour wrapped in a tanned, lean package.
Spectacular
. No wonder every female in Philly wanted him. Dear God, she was getting turned on in the middle of a roadside emergency. This had to stop.

The space was too confined, the heavy curtain of rain making the space too intimate and private. Fantasies circled her mind of peeling off more layers of clothing and going at it with reckless abandonment. Here in moonshine country, who would even find them? “This is all my fault,” she said.

He made a
tsking
sound, gave her a contemplative look. “You haven’t changed at all.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Taking on everyone’s burdens. Blaming yourself for things not in your control. Don’t you ever ease up on yourself?”

She shrugged. “Old habits, I guess.” Old habits of screwing up that she just couldn’t shake no matter how hard she tried. Her inability to pick a decent job, for one. She’d finally done it, landed a job she loved, and now she had to give it all up to captain a sinking ship, an effort that would surely end in disaster. And she’d never get that job back.

“I appreciate that you didn’t blame me.”

Their eyes caught and held, like a slow motion pause. Awareness danced and crackled in the air between them. She remembered an easier time when they would’ve stayed and steamed up the windows.

She tore her gaze away, focused on the wet world outside. “We need to get out and walk, don’t we?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned widely, his perfectly straight teeth gleaming white in the fast-approaching dark. “‘Cause no one on this back-ass country road is ever gonna find us if we don’t.”

Chapter Six

“There hasn’t been a car on the road for a half hour,” Maddie said a while later, her tennis shoes making squishing sounds as she walked. “My pants are soaked through and I have a wedgie.”

“Looks like that’s not all that’s soaked through.” Nick cracked a smile as Maddie glanced down and quickly crossed her arms.

“At least
I
have a shirt on,” she said.

“I would too if you hadn’t locked the keys in the car.” She looked upset, so he changed his tone. “Let’s just keep walking. It’s getting dark.”

Suddenly, in the distance, headlights shone. Maddie ran out onto the road, waving her arms and shouting.

Nick ran out behind her and tried to subdue her enthusiasm by batting down her hands. “Be careful,” he said. “What if it’s someone we don’t want to stop?”

“Nick, we’re going to die from walking all night in the soaking rain. Sometimes you’ve got to plunge in and take a chance.”

“You’re too trusting.”

“And you’re too suspicious.” She pointed to the side of the car, which read
Monmouth Crossing Police
. “See? We’re saved!”

She linked her arm through Nick’s elbow and did a happy dance as he grumbled and cast her a wary look. The car pulled up, revealing a massive man behind the wheel, with a long black beard and mustache and a hoop earring in one ear. He looked like Hagrid in a cop uniform. Or the leader of a Harley gang.

“Can you help us, Officer?” Maddie approached the window. “Our tires blew out, and we don’t have cell service.”

The cop put on his flashers and got out. He was at least six feet four. His right arm was tattooed with the word
Rosalie
and a large rose. “Let me see your IDs.” His eyes roamed up and down Maddie’s drenched body, and Nick didn’t like that one bit.

Nick stepped forward, putting himself in front of her like a shield. “We locked our wallets in the car by accident.”

“That right?” the officer said with a drawl.

“We just need a ride to a hotel for the night,” Nick said.

“I’m happy to give y’all a ride into town. But the nearest Red Roof is sixty miles up the road.”

Nick raked a hand through his hair. “Are there other options for lodging?”

With one phone call, he could summon his private pilot. In a couple of hours, they could be in a five-star hotel with a view of the Caribbean Sea sharing a fluffy white bed with five hundred thread count sheets and a dozen pillows of different density levels. He’d tug down her warm, plush robe to ply his hands through all her tense, aching muscles…

“Maybe at the pastor’s. You married? Or just shackin’ up?” Officer Hagrid flicked his gaze up and down, assessing their moral fiber.

“Oh, no, we’re not—” Maddie began to answer.

“We’re married.
Just
married, in fact.” Nick grabbed Maddie by the waist and pulled her close, shooting her what he hoped was a smitten smile. For one delicious moment, her taut, cold nipples rubbed up against his chest, sending a cascade of heat rocketing through him. “On the way home to North Carolina.”

“Where in North Carolina?”

“A place called Buckleberry Bend.”

The officer’s bushy brows rose up in interest. “They got that big berry festival every year.”

“It’s this weekend,” Maddie said. “They’ve got berry pie, berry wine, berry jams and jellies…”

“Mulberry jam. A friend of mine brought me some jars a couple years back. Best I ever tasted.”

“I’ll make sure I send you some, Officer…” She glanced at his badge. “Jenkins.”

The officer plucked out a cell phone from his breast pocket, under his shiny silver badge that read Filbert Jenkins, Monmouth P.D.

“Y’all hop in the back while I make this call.”

Maddie slid with Nick into the back of the cruiser, which held the odor of stale beer and sweat. “Why did you tell him we were married?” she hissed.

“I didn’t like the way he was eyeballing you.”

“I can’t help it if I look like a coed in a wet T-shirt contest.”

His eyes hovered over her chest, taking in perky breasts, each a perfectly sized handful. He forced his gaze back to her face, knowing he had to stop registering pure-lusty-guy look. “If I had my shirt…” He waved his hand over his chest. “I’d give it to you.”

Maddie’s eyes lingered over his bare torso. He saw her swallow nervously and was strangely pleased at his effect on her. “I’m sure Officer Jenkins will do his duty and take care of us despite the fact that we look a little sketch,” she said.

“How is it that you can trust a complete stranger within five minutes, yet you’ve known me forever and don’t trust me at all?”

“He’s a police officer, Nick. And don’t even talk to me about trusting you.”

She was right. He’d walked out on her after their last night together, hadn’t returned her calls, and had heavy investments in her family’s company. She’d have to be seriously crazy to trust him. And yet, he wished he could tell her he would always have her back, would never abandon her to the elements. Would protect her with his life if Officer What’s-His-Name decided to get fresh.

Maybe she noticed something in his expression. Or the fact that he’d gone quiet. Her big blue eyes softened for an instant, then she looked away. “I’m talking about how you’re a guy and maybe you’d take advantage of the situation.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Trust me, darlin’, that’s the last thing on my mind.”

“It wasn’t a year ago.”

He stabbed a finger in the air at her. “
That
was mutual.”

“It’s also never happening again, just to set the record straight.”

“Not even thinking about it.”

Visions of that white, bright imaginary hotel room came to mind. A spa tub big enough for two. Bubbles…in the water
and
in their champagne glasses. He’d slowly massage her back until all the tension was wrung out of her, and she went soft against him. Then he’d brush kisses down her neck and shoulder, gently gather up the orbs of her breasts and carefully kiss each one. As the steam crept up from the lilac-scented water, he’d work his magic until she arched her back and cried out his name on a moan.

“Nick. Nick!” Maddie was shaking him. “Officer Jenkins says his mother’s got room for us.”

Officer Jenkins placed his large, menacing face against the bars, sending what was left of Nick’s fantasy fleeing. “I’ll send for a tow truck to bring your car into town and the garage can work on fixing your tires tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank you.” Maddie clasped her hands together in a gesture of relief.

“Mama lives in a double-wide just out of town. My aunt’s visiting with her Airstream, but tonight she’s at my grandma’s so you can stay there. It’s small, just one bed, but it should be adequate.”

Maddie frowned. “An Airstream?”

“One of those shiny aluminum trailer-campers,” Nick said. The phrase
one bed
lingered in his mind. Fine for his fantasies, but in reality, something to be avoided at all costs.

“Silver bullet, canned ham, toaster-on-wheels,” Officer Jenkins said.

“Oh,” Maddie said. “Well, we’re grateful, and we appreciate the hospitality.”

“Can I talk to you, honey?” Nick asked, tugging her by the elbow. “Excuse us for a minute, Officer.”

“Please tell me you are not thinking about refusing this offer,” Maddie whispered.

“I think if I can get to where there’s cell service, I can get us better accommodations.” Maybe not the Caribbean island, but at least two rooms.

“No.”

“Maddie, he wants us to stay in his aunt’s camper.” In a single bed. That was
not
happening.

“He’s being kind. We can’t be rude.”

“I’m allergic to cats. If they have cats—”

“You’re—wait—you’re afraid.”

He stiffened. “I am not afraid.”

“Nervous then.”

“Definitely not nervous.”

“I hope you’re not upset because this isn’t a five-star offer. Surely you—”

“
No.
It’s not that. I—”

“You what?”

Oh, shit.

She left him struggling with words and walked over to the cop car. “We just wanted to say thank you, Officer.”

“Yes, thanks,” Nick said from behind her because he had no choice. “We’re grateful.”

Grateful they’d be warm and dry, yes. Grateful he’d be trapped for an entire night in a tiny camper next to a sexy woman he still wanted more than food or a warm shower…not so much.

…

Doris Jenkins barreled toward them in a bright hibiscus-print moo-moo, arms open wide. “Poor things,” she crooned. “Y’all must be exhausted. I started a little fire, and I’ve got weenies roasting.”

Nick’s brows rose a little—maybe he was a food snob too—but Maddie was starving and thankful to be saved from sleeping in soggy underwear on the side of an abandoned road.

The fire flickered, casting them in a ring of light, beyond which Maddie could make out faint outlines of other trailer homes. A picket fence edged a tidy flower garden scattered with lawn ornaments. She made out a few spinning propeller flowers, a painted wooden cutout of a woman bending over with petticoats in view, and a solar-powered gazing ball that cast a green glow. All colorful and interesting, like their hostess.

The meal was rounded out by pork ‘n’ beans, and when she found out dessert was s’mores, she nearly kissed Doris’s flashy pink Crocs. Nick, looking relaxed for once, stretched out in an aluminum lawn chair and stuck his bare feet close to the fire. How unfair that a man could look so sexy roasting hot dogs.

“Are you married, Doris?” Maddie noticed a gold band on her left hand.

“Filbert Senior passed on two years ago.” She waved her hands dismissively. “Now, don’t go feeling sorry. Everyone should be so lucky. We had forty wonderful years.”

Maddie instantly thought about her parents, who’d been married around thirty. Her father’s stroke had certainly thrown a wrench in the gears of life. But her mom still brought him fresh coffee every morning, and a homemade dessert every night, which they shared as they sat together in the rehab hospital. Although for the first few weeks, her father could barely chew, and for another few, her mother had to feed him every bite.

That was love.

Maddie feared she would never find it herself. She always chose the wrong guy, someone she thought she could trust but who broke her heart anyway. Maybe it was her nature. Believing men were essentially good, like her dad, when they were immature, self-centered scoundrels who only wanted one thing.

She looked over at Nick. Heartbreaker Number One in all his handsome, robust glory.

“I do love me a good love story,” Doris said. The fire was finally warming Maddie’s damp feet. Doris had lent her a sweatshirt that said
Monmouth Bears Baseball 1999
and listed the players on the back. They had intimidating names like
Fireball Jenkins
and
Gargantua Jones
. “That’s my favorite pastime. Reading romance novels from the library. Filbert Junior used to make fun of me, ’til he fell in love himself. Now he doesn’t laugh.” She sandwiched a roasted marshmallow between two graham crackers and handed it to Maddie. “I love to hear couple stories. Tell me yours.”

Guilt stopped her from sinking into the chocolaty gooeyness of the s’more. Maddie couldn’t concoct a lie for someone who had been only kind to them.

Doris looked from her to Nick, waiting expectantly. To Maddie’s surprise, Nick sat forward, clasped his hands together, and chimed right in.

“Maddie and I met the first day of kindergarten. I fell in love with her at first sight, her little freckly face and that curly hair done up in pigtails with red ribbons. Went home that day and told my grandpa I had a girlfriend.”

The s’more stuck in Maddie’s throat, and she almost choked.
Red ribbons
. To match the red and white checked dress she’d picked out with her mom for her very first day of school. It had been her favorite. How on earth had he remembered?

The fire cast flickering light that caught a touch of gold in Nick’s otherwise nearly black hair. It carved out and accentuated the strong planes and shadows of his face. He was as smoking hot as the fire.

A far cry from the little boy with the gelled-down cowlick who held her hand during song time and sent her a cut-out valentine attached to a snack-size piece of Hershey bar melted from his sweaty little fist.

Maddie remembered something else. “When his family and mine found out we wanted to be friends, they made it clear it was not to be. And the next year they redistricted the school system and Nick got sent to another school.” Nick’s grandfather took over as manager of a competing shoe store one town over but never left the tiny home he owned across the tracks.

“Oh my stars, a Romeo-and-Juliet story. My favorite!” Doris popped another couple of marshmallows on a stick. “So why weren’t you allowed to be friends? That seems cruel.”

Nick gave a soft snort, his gaze distant in the fire. Even from where she sat, Maddie could see the fire glitter in his dark, daredevil eyes. He was a beautiful man, but she was not going to let this story get to her. No way.

“Longstanding feud between the Kingstons and the Holters.”

“Over money?” Doris asked. “It always comes down to money, doesn’t it? Or a failed love. Or both.”

Nick turned his gaze onto Maddie. It seemed to echo everything she was feeling—regret over the past and time lost to them forever. Words said, choices made, that could never be undone.

Anger seeped into her like the chill she felt from being damp for hours. Why had they allowed that damn feud so much power over their own lives? It wasn’t their fight or their problem. They were just the innocent victims.

Maddie broke the silence. “Nick’s great-grandfather and mine were apprentices under famous shoemakers in England who began a business together after World War II. They moved it to North Carolina back in the ’50s and our grandfathers took it over in the ’60s. I really don’t know what drove them apart.” She nodded toward Nick. “Do you?”

Nick shrugged.

“You must finish the story.” Doris poked another couple of marshmallows onto a stick. “Tell me how you got your families back together.”