Needing Nicole (The Cantrelle Family Trilogy Book 2) (16 page)

Nicole tilted her head back and gave him a dazzling smile. “That’s it! You’ve really got it now!”

She sounded so happy, she made him feel good. He tightened his hold on her, pulling her closer. Her hair smelled sweet and fragrant, like summer roses. He could feel the softness of her breasts pressed against his chest, the firm muscles of her back where he held her, and the brush of her thighs against his as they glided across the floor.

All around them other couples swayed and swirled to the seductive, lilting music, but Jack was so lost in the sensations generated by dancing with Nicole, he was almost oblivious to anything else. When the song ended, he didn’t want to let her go.

The next number was much faster, but after a couple of stumbling efforts, Jack found he was able to master the footwork. It helped that Nicole didn’t try to teach him anything too fancy.

“You’re a natural-born dancer, Jack,” she said, eyes sparkling. “Isn’t this fun?”

He had to admit it was. But it was also a kind of agony for him. Because the longer they danced, the more he wanted her. One part of him savored the delicious friction, the permitted intimacy. Another part of him knew this was just going to make things harder for him when the inevitable parting came.

This weekend had shown him something—something he hadn’t known before. Nicole Cantrelle was not a woman he would easily forget. If he could forget her at all.

* * *

“So, little sister,” said Denise. “Just how serious is this relationship?”

Nicole’s eyes moved from Denise, to Laura, to Alice. All three women were eagerly waiting for her answer. The band was taking a break, and the men had disappeared in the direction of the bar. “It’s not really a relationship,” she hedged.

“Looks like a relationship to me,” Denise insisted. “How about you two? What do you think?”

“I’ll never believe the two of you are just friends,” Laura said.

“Not the way he looks at you,” Alice added.

“Not to mention the way you look at him,” Denise said pointedly.

Alice chuckled. “I saw how the two of you were dancing. Why, you couldn’t have fit a postage stamp between you on that last dance. And Jack looked positively blissful!”

“Actually, I think the word is besotted,” Laura said, her blue eyes dancing.

“Come on, tell all,” Denise said.

Nicole could feel herself blushing. “Okay, I’ll admit I’m very attracted to him.”

“We already figured that out,” said Alice. She sipped from her glass of soda.

“And I know he’s attracted to me...”

“Yes, go on...” Denise prompted, dark eyes full of devilry.

“But you all heard what he said during Thanksgiving dinner. He loves his work. He’d never give it up to marry and settle down somewhere. So. . ." She drew circles in the condensation made by her glass of soda.

“There’s no future in it,” Denise finished. All the merriment disappeared from her eyes.

Nicole nodded. She looked at her sister, then at her sisters-in-law. There was sympathy and understanding in all three pairs of eyes.

“If what you feel for Jack is just a physical attraction, you’ll get over it,” Alice said.

Nicole didn’t answer, because just then the men returned, but for the rest of the evening she kept thinking about Alice’s words. If only this were just a physical attraction, she thought, how much simpler life would be. She almost wished she could stop time, because she knew when she and Jack returned to New Orleans, she would have to make some choices.

And she already knew that no matter what her choice was, she would end up miserable.

Sunday morning Nicole and Aimee went to Mass with Nicole’s mother, but her father said he wanted to stay home and talk to Jack. All through Mass Nicole worried about what her father might say. Surely he wasn’t going to ask Jack his intentions? She could hardly wait to get home.

But when she and her mother got back to the house, both Réne and Jack were sitting companionably in the living room, and she couldn’t just blurt out something like, “Okay, what were you two talking about?”

She resigned herself to waiting until she and Jack were in the car on their way back to New Orleans.

In the meantime, she worried and grew more and more impatient to be off, but Arlette wouldn’t be hurried. First she insisted on packing up leftover turkey and dressing. “Your papa and I, we can’t eat all this food, you know?”

“But Mama, with Aimee staying here until Christmas,” Nicole protested, “there’s only me to eat it!”

“There’s Jack, too,” Arlette said, a knowing twinkle in her eyes.

Nicole slanted a glance at Jack, wondering if he’d heard, but if he had, he was pretending he hadn’t.

Then, with the plastic containers of turkey and dressing safely iced down at the bottom of a plastic cooler, Arlette said, “There’s still room in here for some of my gumbo.” She pulled out another plastic container.

“No, Mama, no. I’ll never eat all this.”

“Freeze it, then.”

“Why don’t you freeze it?”

“Me? I can make this anytime. You, you can’t cook! You need some good food, you know?”

Nicole rolled her eyes. She knew from experience it wouldn’t do any good to argue with her determined mother.

After Arlette had packed the container of gumbo, she looked at the remaining space thoughtfully. The next thing Nicole knew, there was a foil-wrapped portion of boudin sausage and a plastic bag full of cookies filling up the rest of the cooler. Good Lord. She had enough food for a dozen meals in there.

Finally the Geo was packed. And then it was time to say goodbye. Suddenly Nicole was reluctant to go. Although she’d made arrangements to leave Aimee with her parents months ago, it suddenly hit her that the four weeks until Christmas was a very long time. She and Aimee had never been separated for more than one night since Aimee’s birth. If Margaret and Caldwell hadn’t had plans to leave for Australia to spend the holidays with their daughter, Nicole might have changed her mind and taken Aimee home with her.

Nicole said her goodbyes to everyone else, then held out her arms to Aimee. Aimee came willingly enough, but as Nicole held her and kissed her several times, Aimee squirmed to be free.

“ ’Bye, Mommy,” she said cheerfully, not a tear in sight.

Ten minutes later, Nicole and Jack were finally off. Nicole knew it was silly, but she had a lump in her throat when she and Jack pulled out of the driveway. Even though a part of her was excited about the prospect of time to herself and the opportunity to be alone with Jack, she already missed Aimee.

“Feeling a little teary-eyed?” Jack said softly.

“Uh-huh.” Nicole blinked. It would be ridiculous to cry.

“It’s not too late to change your mind. We can turn back and get her.”

Nicole gave a shaky sigh. “No. I’m okay. Besides, I
can’t
change my mind. I won’t have anyone to sit with Aimee after next week. Margaret and Caldwell are going to Australia for the month of December.”

“The month will go quickly,” Jack said.

“Oh, I know. It’s just that we haven’t been apart before. She hasn’t
wanted
to leave me before.” That was it. That’s why Nicole felt so funny. Aimee had wanted to stay with her grandparents. She’d preferred staying in Patinville to being with Nicole. Nicole bit her bottom lip. Aimee was growing up.

She felt Jack’s hand cover hers. She looked at him.

He smiled, his blue eyes tender.

Her heart twisted at his expression. He cared about her; she could see it in his eyes.

After a minute, he removed his hand. “While you were at church, your father asked me about Elise.”

In a flurry of packing the car and saying goodbye to Aimee, Nicole had completely forgotten about wanting to know what her father and Jack had talked about.

“He said he’d been thinking about what you’d told him, and his curiosity was aroused. Anyway, I told him everything I knew.”

Nicole chuckled. “I was afraid he might have been asking you your intentions toward me.”

Jack smiled. “He probably wanted to.”

“So are you satisfied now that Papa doesn’t know anything?”

“Actually, your father said he’d make some phone calls, ask around, see if he could find out anything for me.”

Nicole digested this information. “Really? That’s funny, because when I talked to Papa he said he knew everyone in our family, down to third and fourth cousins, and there was no one who could have been Elise.”

“That may be, but he told me he’d call if he uncovered anything.”

“Call you?”

“No. I told him to call you. I said you’d know how to get in touch with me.”

Nicole wanted to ask whether he’d still be in New Orleans or whether he’d be back in Houston, but she was afraid to. For the rest of the way home they listened to music or chatted about her family. They avoided the topic of their relationship. Nicole was glad. Although she’d told Jack they’d talk, she wasn’t sure she was ready. Obviously, he wasn’t either.

They arrived in New Orleans at four-thirty in the afternoon. By the time they’d unloaded her car and carried everything into the cottage, it was almost five o’clock and the winter dusk had settled in, casting amethyst shadows everywhere.

Nicole opened the garage door, and they switched the cars. As she climbed out of her car and closed up the garage again, Jack pulled back into the driveway. He cut the engine and the lights and climbed out of his car.

As he walked toward her, Nicole’s heart began to pound. She’d been dreading this moment. She turned away, began walking toward her cottage. She didn’t turn around, but she heard him following her.

Wordlessly, she opened her front door. He came in behind her.

“Nicole—”

“Jack—”

They both spoke at once. She laughed self-consciously.

“You go first,” he said.

“No, you go first.”

He nodded, his gaze resting on her face. He wasn’t smiling. “Okay. I’ve been thinking.”

“Yes. I have, too.”

“I’m going to drive back to Houston early tomorrow morning.”

Nicole’s heart plummeted. She could feel the blood draining from her face.
Please, God. Help me be strong. I don’t want him to see how much I care.

“I need to talk to my boss in person. I’ve decided I want more time off.”

Nicole held her breath. Did he mean?...

“I owe Jenny. She’s never asked me for much, and the least I can do is follow this mystery through to the end.”

He did mean it. He was planning to come back! Hope combined with happiness made her feel almost giddy.

“Besides,” he said, his voice dropping to a husky whisper, “we have some unfinished business.”

Nicole wasn’t sure who moved first. All she knew, in the next second, was that she was in his arms, and he was kissing her, and her entire being felt as if someone were shooting off fireworks inside her.

She also knew that if Jack wanted to, she was going to let him stay the night.

But he didn’t ask.

When the kiss ended, he gently pulled back, holding her lightly by her shoulders. Voice tight with emotion, he said, “While I’m gone, do some thinking, okay?”

Nicole understood without him spelling it out that what he meant was,
do some thinking about us.

She nodded.

He squeezed her shoulders, dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose and whispered, “I’ll call you when I get back. Thanks for the weekend. It was great.”

That had been three days ago.

Now it was Wednesday evening, and Nicole still hadn’t heard from Jack. She’d had a terrible three days. She missed him, and she missed Aimee. Terribly. She couldn’t remember what she’d done with herself before she’d had Aimee. She called her parents’ home so many times that her mother finally lost her temper.

“Nicole, don’ you think I know how to take care of a child? I had four of my own, you know!”

“Sorry, Mama. I just miss her.”

“Well, she’s gonna grow up some day, you know? The trouble with you is, you need a husband and a few more children.”

Nicole knew her mother was right. She knew she was being ridiculous. She also knew if Jack had stayed in town, she probably wouldn’t have felt quite so abandoned. She wished he’d come back to New Orleans. The waiting was hard on her nerves.

She should have gone to aerobics tonight, but she’d been afraid Jack would call, and she wouldn’t be home to get the call. So instead of going, she’d sat on the couch and stared at the phone.

She’d also ruined her manicure, she thought ruefully, staring at her chipped fingernail polish. Sighing, disgusted with herself, she looked at her watch. Nine o’clock. If he was going to call, she was sure he’d call by ten.

The phone rang.

Nicole vaulted off the couch and raced to the phone.

“Hello?” Her heart was going like a trip-hammer.

“Nicole?”

Her heart plunged. It wasn’t Jack. It was her Uncle Justin. “Uncle Justin?” Even though she was disappointed, she smiled. “Uncle Justin, how are you? Oh, it’s so nice to hear your voice!”

“It’s always good to hear you, too,
chere.
Your Aunt Lisette and I, we miss you.” His voice, rich with a pronounced French accent and more formal than her father’s, rolled across the wire.

“I was thinking about you the other day, thinking I should call you,” Nicole said. “What’s going on? Is everything all right?”

“Yes,
chere,
everything, it is fine. I am keeping busy, as usual, doing some charity work at the agency and tending my garden. You know how I am.”

“Yes.” Her uncle was one of the most generous, kind-hearted men she’d ever known. “And Aunt Lisette?”

“She’s busy, too, with the Ladies Guild and her volunteer work at the Center.” He cleared his throat.
“Chere,
the reason I called you, your papa, he called me yesterday. He told me about this young man who followed you home one day.”

Nicole frowned. “Oh?”

“Yes. He told me what this young man wanted. About the young woman he’s looking for.”

Uneasy about the sober note that had crept into her uncle’s voice, Nicole waited quietly.

“Nicole,
chere,
I would like to talk to this young man.”