Resisting Her Rival (3 page)

Abby frowned. “After you told him you wanted it, too, Oscar’s determined not to pick either of us. He already made that clear.” Her voice still carried a hint of accusation.

Nick ignored the hint. “Yeah, I know. He said for us to work something out between the two of us.”

She rubbed her forehead. “Could you please get to the point? I have things I need to finish.”

“My point is that we can work this out easily. There doesn’t have to be an argument between us.” He opened his arms in a ta-da motion, nearly knocking a wooden figurine with raised, outstretched arms off a nearby shelf. He righted it and then picked up the miniscule paper card that had fallen with it. “Courage?”

“It’s from Willow Tree.”

Nick knew what the line of hand-carved figurines were because his brother had given a different one to their mother last year on her birthday. “What does this one mean to you?”

“It’s personal,” she said, plucking the card from his hand without elaborating. “You said we can work it out easily. How do we do that?” Abby paused to take a sip from a glass of water. Her expression still hadn’t lost the I-don’t-trust-you look.

“I bet that I can get you to agree to a relationship—hell, you might even fall in love with me—within thirty days. If I’m right, at the end of the thirty days, I get to buy the building. If I’m wrong, you get to buy it.”

Abby’s eyes widened. “Since I already know that I have no intention of having a relationship with you, much less falling in love with you, give me one good reason why I’d agree.”

“Because at the end of the thirty days, if you’re not in love with me, I’ll tell Oscar that we’ve agreed you can buy the building. Plus, I’ll do all the renovations for you and won’t charge you anything for the labor.”

Abby raised her eyebrows and swung her legs around the side of the desk to cross them. She swiveled back and forth in the chair. “That’s an expensive risk for you.”

His gaze dropped to her legs.
She has great legs
.

She cleared her throat and put her hand on her leg.

Risk…right
… Nick shrugged. “A risk that I can take because I have no intention of losing.”

Abby opened her mouth to speak, and Nick sensed he was about to get the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-your-way-out speech. “Wait. Think it over. You can’t make enough money in thirty days to buy a more expensive building, let alone pay for renovations too.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Let me get this straight. I win, I get to buy the building, and you toss in the renovations?”

“Yes.”

“And if you win?”

“I get the building, and you and I start dating. We pick right back up where we left off in Florida,” he said in a soft voice, watching the play of emotions on her face.

She stared at him. “This is crazy.” Blinking, she looked away.

“Probably.”

Her gaze returned to his. “When I win, there are no strings attached to the renovations?” Abby asked with a trace of suspicion in her voice.

“
If
you win, agreed.” Like that was going to happen. He’d give this bet everything he had. Get to date Abby, get the building, get his reputation repaired. His business would grow. It was perfect.

“And if I lose…”

“We’ll start by going away for a weekend and take it from there.” He held out his hand, waiting for hers. “Take a chance, Abby. What do you say?”

When she slid her hand into his after a long moment, Nick swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe he’d actually talked her into agreeing. Sliding his thumb across the back of her hand, he felt the shiver that ran through her. He didn’t understand why she kept denying the awareness between them.

She quickly pulled her hand free and rose to open the office door. “You’re going to lose, Nick. Other than tangling some bedsheets, you and I have nothing in common.”

Nick stood, slowly stretching to his full height. “That’s a damn good start.” He moved to the doorway, so close that he could inhale the sweet perfume she wore. The same perfume he remembered sleepily noticing on his own skin in the early hours. “So thirty days starts today.”

She propped a hand on the doorknob and frowned. “What are we going to tell our family and friends? That we had a one-night stand and now we’re spending time together because we’re at war over a building?”

He put two of his fingers up to her lips to silence her. They felt warm against his skin, and memories dive-bombed him like hungry seagulls at the beach. “What was, is, and will be between us is no one’s business but our own. We don’t have to tell them a damn thing, and they can draw their own conclusions.”

She frowned. “My family means well, but they can be…intense.”

“I can handle intense.” He took a chance and smoothed a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail, liking the way the silkiness of it felt against his hand. He brushed the side of her face, reacquainting himself with the contours. Encouraged when she didn’t pull away, he asked, “What time are you finished here?”

“Seven.”

“I’ll meet you then.”

She didn’t look happy at the thought, but shrugged. “Okay.”

“I’ll pick you up. We’ll have dinner together.”

She folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Anything else, bossy?”

“Yeah. This.” Nick bent his head and kissed her, lightly at first, and then deciding he might as well go for broke, he deepened the kiss.

Chapter Three

That evening, Abby rubbed the back of her neck, feeling the strain from the day’s events. She’d meant to push Nick away immediately when he’d kissed her. Instead, who knows how far it would have gone had the cook not signaled his presence with a discreet cough.

She hadn’t wanted Nick to stop, even though it was the wisest course of action. Sometimes she got so damned tired of being the cautious one, but she’d learned the hard way what throwing caution to the wind could do to a heart.

However spine-tingling Nick’s kisses were, she couldn’t dare change her mind about getting involved with him. Everything about Nick pointed to him being a good man, but at some point, he’d want more than she was capable of giving.

Pressing a hand to her stomach at a memory she quickly banished, Abby opened the rear door of the diner and set out a bag of trash, then turned to grab the second bag. She’d take these to the Dumpster and then head home to—

“Abby.”

She whirled around, holding a hand up to her heart. Never mind that he’d scared her, he’d shown up.
As promised
.

He reached toward her, and Abby shook her head, holding a hand out in warning. “Don’t kiss me again, Nick.”
No matter how good it was. No matter how much I’d like that and more.

“I was reaching for the garbage bag.” He grinned. “But if that’s on your mind, it’s a good sign. Plus, you
did
kiss me back. Very enthusiastically. So much so that I thought you were leading me into a compromising situation. Had the cook not come along, my reputation might have been ruined, not that I would have minded.”

“Oh, please. Your reputation was ruined long before me.” His arm brushed against her, and Abby kept herself still, pushing away the leap of desire that sprang up whenever she was near him. Glad he couldn’t read her thoughts, she fell into step beside him as they walked toward the Dumpster. “Joke all you want, but I know a mistake when I see one. Besides, kissing you back is only a sign that I have normal urges, the same as any other woman, but I’m smart enough not to make the same mistake twice.”

“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself.” He tossed the bag high into the Dumpster, and Abby admired the way his muscles contracted as he pitched it. If only he wasn’t so damned good looking and so damned good at making love, it’d be a lot easier to be in his presence and stay unaffected.

“No, I’m positive it was a mistake. It was just an urge, nothing more.”

“Uh-huh. Tell you what, Abby, any time you need me to help you out with those normal urges, you call and I’ll come running.”

The hot summer evening rose a few degrees. “Right now, I’m so tired that the only urge I have is to get to bed.”

“So we’re on the same page.”

“I meant to sleep. Alone. And you know it.” Irritated, with him as well as herself, she stopped at the driver’s side door of her station wagon. “Let’s get this out of the way. Where do you want to go eat?”

“If you’re too tired to go out, we don’t have to.”

Surprised at his thoughtfulness, Abby said, “I am, actually. I’m dead on my feet. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.” In fact, the most restful night Abby could remember having in a long time had been the night she’d spent in Nick’s arms. She’d felt safe, protected, instinctively knowing that anyone who tried to harm her would have to get past him first. But she wasn’t about to give him that ammunition.

“How about we head to your house and I’ll cook something for you?”

Intrigued, she raised her eyebrows, assessing him, trying to ignore his wicked sexiness, but since she had eyes and hormones, that was impossible. “You cook?”

“I was raised by a single mom. She taught all of us boys how to cook. I can even shuffle stuff around to make it look like I cleaned a room.”

“Okay,” Abby said, nodding her head in reluctant agreement. “Then do you want to follow me to the house?”

He motioned to his truck. “Why don’t we ride together? You already said you were tired, and I hate the thought that you might nod off behind the wheel. I can give you a lift to the diner in the morning before I head in to my office.”

She
was
tired and didn’t feel like putting up with her temperamental car. “That’s fine, but I can use Granddaddy’s car or get one of my sisters to give me a lift in the morning.”

Abby grabbed for the driver’s side door handle on his truck at the same time he did. Realizing what she’d done, she moved her hand out from under his and said, “Sorry. I’m used to being in charge and that includes doing all the driving.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m man enough not to feel threatened by a strong woman.”

Warmth flowed through her at his words. “Sometimes I don’t feel very strong.”

“You are, though, and when you’re not, I’d be happy to help hold you up.”

“That smacks of a double meaning.”

His smile caused that little zing to happen again in places that had no business zinging. “I didn’t mean for it to.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You don’t trust me?” He put a hand across his chest.

“Oh, Nick. Of course I don’t.” Abby gave him a smile and got into the truck. As soon as she was in, Nick settled beside her, his body instantly dwarfing the space of the interior. So sexy. So close. So not a good idea.

Abby studied his profile for a second and then asked the question that had burned in her mind for months. “Why me, Nick?”

He backed up slowly and pulled out onto the road before glancing at her. “What do you mean?”

“That night in Florida. Why’d you approach me?”

“I was alone. You were alone. I thought it seemed like a good idea to share a dinner.”

Abby rolled down her window partially to get some fresh air. Sweet honeysuckle blew in, reminding her of carefree childhood summers before her parents died and she’d had to do her best to fill their shoes. “I guess I don’t understand because it’s not as if we were friends. That night, I was in Florida to see my sister during one of her brief layovers. You and I running into each other was a fluke, and I was feeling sad. That’s why I said yes to dinner. I never meant for it to go beyond that. We were simply two lonely people who happened to share a nice dinner. Then we danced. We shared too much wine. The setting was romantic and carefree. Away from our responsibilities, it was easy to lower our reservations and need each other.”

Nick stopped the truck at a traffic light, and Abby got the feeling he was choosing his words carefully.

“I disagree that what we shared was only because of loneliness and the setting. You’re a very beautiful woman. I’ve been interested in you since high school, but for some reason you never gave me the time of day.”

“Thanks to your reputation, I knew better,” Abby said.

His lips tightened, and a shadow Abby couldn’t define crossed his face.

“Okay, granted, when it came to girls, I might have been a cocky little idiot in high school, but I never would have broken your heart.”

Abby looked away, then back at Nick when he muttered a curse.

“Is that what I’m up against? My reputation? I’m not that guy anymore. People change.”

He was right. People did change. Usually not for the better. Abby pushed aside the remembered hurt. What had happened in her marriage was in the past, and she only wanted to dwell on the positives. Life was too short not to.

“You don’t believe people can change?”

“Sometimes they do, Nick, but sometimes they just make a fool of you twice.” Abby unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and climbed carefully out. Rolling her shoulders to work out a kink, she said, “My granddaddy is home. I’m not sure how he feels about you, so keep in mind that he used to box in his younger years.”

Nick joined her in front of the truck, and they walked up the porch steps. “I’m not afraid of your grandfather. Besides, if I offer him four cows for your hand in marriage, he’d jump at the chance to welcome me into the family. He’s a matchmaker if there ever was one. You’re forgetting I know how he meddled in Chad’s and Amelia’s lives to get them together.”

“True, but you’re wrong about the cows,” Abby said, pursing her lips. “He’d see you the four cows and raise you the truck.”

“My truck?” Nick rubbed his chin and then finally shook his head. “That’s a deal breaker. Sorry, but I’m gonna have to end this relationship with you. My truck has a HEMI under the hood. The wedding is officially off.”

Abby laughed, and Nick said softly, “You have a sweet laugh.”

“Stop trying to seduce me with flattery. It’s not going to work. I’m immune to you.” She inserted the key into the lock, pushing open the front door at the same time.

“Immune to me?” he asked softly behind her. “Is that a challenge?”

Abby let that go because she couldn’t afford not to. Around Nick, her nerves were wound as tight as a hopeful baseball player’s before the big draft. Her body gave clear signals that if she were to debate Nick about whether or not she wanted him, she wouldn’t win. That couldn’t happen. She couldn’t lose herself to a man. Not again.

She tossed her purse onto the sofa and called for her grandfather. Hearing a sound in the kitchen, she navigated around the side of the sofa, stopping to pick up a pillow she accidentally brushed onto the floor.

In the brightly lit kitchen, she could have sworn she saw the back door close. She looked at the curtains. The apples on the design swung back and forth before the fabric stilled. “Was someone here?”

From his seat at the table, Noah greeted Nick and then looked up at her with an innocent expression. “Why would you ask that?”

“Two coffee cups, two saucers with chocolate cake crumbs, and the door shutting kind of clued me in.”

Her grandfather nodded. “You’ve caught me in the act. I’m having a fling.”

“Oh please.” She stooped and kissed the top of his head.

“What? You think a man in his seventies can’t have a rendezvous?” Noah waggled his eyebrows.

“I suspect that was Henry.” Henry was her grandfather’s best friend. The two families had been close for many years, walking through the ups and downs of life together. Her younger sister, Amelia, had married Henry’s grandson, Chad.

“What are the two of you scheming about now?” Abby picked up the saucers and rinsed them in the sink. When she was done, she faced him, narrowing her eyes when Noah wouldn’t look at her.
Oh no
. She smelled trouble brewing, and it had her grandfather’s name all over it.

He toyed with the band on his wristwatch. “We learned our lesson about that. Convincing Chad and Amelia to get married was all the meddling we’ll ever do.”

“Whenever you tell a lie, you always wrinkle the end of your nose,” Abby said.

“I do not.” Noah touched the tip of his nose, and Abby sighed. Mischief lurked in his eyes. She could no more stop her granddaddy from meddling than she could lift Nick’s truck with one hand. Giving up for now, she motioned Nick toward the refrigerator. “I stocked up yesterday, so you’ll find plenty of stuff in there to work with.”

“What’s going on?” Noah asked, his bushy eyebrows drawing down in confusion as he watched Nick wash and dry his hands.

“Nick is going to cook dinner for me.” Abby caught the look of surprised delight on her grandfather’s face. “Don’t even think about it. Nick and I are…” Abby stopped and bit her lower lip. What were they? They weren’t friends. More like frenemies. She looked over at Nick.

He stood with his back against the counter. Over six feet of pure male hotness. She remembered him leaning against the bathroom counter in Florida with his shirt off, drops of water from his shower running slowly…

His gaze held hers for a long moment, as if he were caught in the same memory. Abby’s mouth went dry. He looked at her with the kind of interest a frenemy didn’t show.

It was Nick who finally broke the awkward silence. “Actually, Noah, there’s something we need to tell you,” he said in his sexy come-hither voice, still holding Abby’s gaze.

Abby’s eyes widened in alarm. First, because she
wanted
to come-hither and knew that would be like trying to put out a forest fire with a tablespoon of water. Bad idea. Secondly, because she was afraid he was about to tell her grandfather what had happened between the two of them. Also a bad idea. Her grandfather didn’t need any encouragement with his propensity to meddle.

Noah shifted around in his seat, leaning forward. “Go on,” he urged, cupping a hand to the outside of his ear.

Nick stroked his chin with fingers Abby knew were very, very good at stroking. “Abby seems to think you would want more than four cows for her.”

Noah blinked, then sat back and laughed, slapping a hand on his knee. When he sobered up, a speculative gleam flashed in his eyes. “So you and Abby are…”

Giving Nick a warning look, Abby did her best to nix any speculation in that realm. “We’re not anything, Granddaddy.”
Anymore
. “Nick offered to cook dinner for me. End of story.”

Abby picked up the coffee cups and put those in the sink, then reached for a cloth and started wiping off the counter. She wanted to keep her hands busy so her traitorous thoughts wouldn’t keep dragging her mind gleefully back to Nick. She’d gone over and over the events leading up to that night. She had no excuse, no defense. The only reason it had happened was because she’d wanted him, and that scared the hell out of her.

In all the time since her decision to swear off men, she’d never once let herself give in to temptation. Until Nick had come along.

“Abby,” Nick said softly, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders.

For one split second, Abby wanted nothing more than to turn around to face him, to kiss him, to let her inner wild woman trample her relationship reservations to teeny little bits.

“Abby,” Nick said again when she hadn’t moved. “You’re exhausted.” He crossed to the table and patted one of the chairs. “Sit. Please.”

Tossing aside the cloth, Abby forced her wild woman to behave and took a seat. Grateful to be off her aching feet, she slipped out of her shoes and wiggled her toes.

Like a dog with a bone, her grandfather wouldn’t let the hope of something going on between her and Nick go. “Just dinner? You’re not courting?”