For The Love Of Nick

12

COOPER’S CORNER WAS nestled in the heart of the rolling hills of the North Berkshires. Just as Nick promised, it was a picturesque rural village, classic New England in character. One main street, lined with tiny, historic shops, mom-and-pop stores and an ice-cream parlor on the corner.

“Mayberry, USA,” Danielle said with a smile as they drove through.

“Just don’t let the locals hear you say that,” Nick warned, giving her a return smile that made her insides turn to mush. “They think they’re originals.”

Character and charm abounded in the town. The shady old streets were lined with wide, heavy trees that looked as though they’d been there for generations. The sidewalks were rough and bumpy from the gnarled roots of the trees and the antique store-fronts were all painted with once bright colors long since faded from exposure. The sun gave everything a glow, and for a moment, Danielle’s breath caught as she felt that glow reach all the way to the depths of her soul.

She felt peaceful here. Safe.

But that was silly, she knew nothing about this town, nothing about the people, nothing at all except she wasn’t nearly far enough away from her humble beginnings to suit her.

They drove through Cooper’s Corner and up a hill, turning into a long, curved driveway where a hanging wood sign beckoned them to Twin Oaks Bed-and-Breakfast.

“This is it,” Nick said, taking the last corner.

Ahead lay the inn; a renovated farmhouse, huge and sprawling, surrounded by a magnificent green, hilly setting overlooking the sleepy village below. Danielle just looked at it, her heart in her throat. This was a place to get connected, get grounded. Recharge her batteries. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, feeling silly for being so moved.

“My great-uncle, Warren Cooper, built it in 1875. Quite a legacy, these 160 acres.”

They’d decided to leave Sadie in the truck until the introductions were over. Getting out, Nick shook his head in wonder, staring up at the house. “I can’t believe all they’ve done to it since I last saw it. It’s amazing. You should have seen how rundown the property was just six months ago.”

“It’s…” Comfy, was all she could think.

“Yeah.” He slipped his hand in hers, just as the front door opened. A woman came out, shading her eyes with her hand to see them better.

Danielle’s heart pounded, her pulse raced. This was it. The beginning of the end. From here she’d go see Laura Lyn, Sadie’s breeder, and then it would be over.

Nick would leave.

She’d told herself she’d wanted him to, but she’d lied. Watching him walk away was going to be the most difficult thing she’d ever done.

“Nick!” The woman cried, and, laughing aloud, she ran down the steps and threw herself at him. She was in her early thirties, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and covered in dried paint of various colors. “Tell me you brought news of civilization, real civilization.”

“I told you after a week in the boondocks you’d go crazy,” Nick said, hugging her. “But admit it, you love it here.”

She pulled back and grinned. “I love it here.”

“So you’re good?”

“I’m better than good.” She nodded politely at Danielle. “Hello.”

“Maureen,” Nick said, reaching to pull Danielle closer. “This is Danielle. My…”

When he didn’t finish, Danielle looked at him.

He was looking at her with an unreadable expression that suddenly scared her. Was he going to tell Maureen the truth after he’d promised he wouldn’t? No, she didn’t really believe that, not for a second, but she did believe there was something wrong because he was looking at her as if he was really, really sorry, and she didn’t understand.

“She’s my fiancée,” Nick said, and Danielle gasped.

He simply grinned as if her reaction was perfectly normal. “She’s still not used to hearing it, though. We’re here in the Berkshires to surprise her relatives.”

With a squeal, Maureen hugged him tight again. Over his cousin’s head, Nick looked right at Danielle, who was so shocked a light breeze could have knocked her on her butt.

“Fiancée?” she mouthed.

“I know I didn’t call ahead,” Nick said to Maureen, eyes locked on Danielle. “We know you’re not really quite ready for guests and we’ve got a big dog, but we were hoping-”

“Of course you can stay here.” She pulled back to kiss him full on the mouth. “I’ll just go get a room ready! It’s still a bit of a mess inside, painting and such, and there are no services yet-”

“No problem,” Nick assured her. “We don’t need much.”

“Oh, Nick! This is so exciting! I can’t wait to tell everyone-”

“About that,” Nick said quickly, grabbing her before she could run off. “We’re sort of hoping to keep it a secret, just for a little bit longer.”

Her smile fell. “A secret?”

“Please?”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She let out a long sigh and gave in. “For you, okay. Just don’t make me keep it for long because this is just too good. Engaged! Imagine that.” Without warning, she turned and hugged Danielle. “I don’t know how you caught him, honey, but I’m so glad.”

Well. Danielle stood there, feeling stupid, her arms fluttering uselessly behind Maureen for a moment before she awkwardly hugged her back.

“Welcome to the family!” Maureen said with such warmth Danielle was overcome with regret and guilt, which only multiplied when Maureen went inside.

“Fiancée?” she said to Nick in disbelief as they went to get Sadie out of the truck.

“I couldn’t figure out how to tell her the truth and keep her out of it. She’d want to help.”

“Oh.”

“And you don’t want help.”

“Right.” She needed to remember that.

“It won’t be for long.”

She needed to remember that, too. Promising herself that she would, she locked her weak knees together, wrapped Sadie’s leash around her wrist and started forward.

DANIELLE MOVED to the window of the room she and Nick had been given and stared down at the steep, green rolling hills beyond, trying not to think.

One room, one bed.

Wondering how this had happened did her no good. Nick had happened to her. By now she’d expected to be on her own, fighting panic, certainly, but well on her way to a new life that included no one and nothing but herself and Sadie.

But she hadn’t shaken Nick. Hadn’t been able to make herself do it, because hour by hour, minute by minute in his company, laughing, talking, running…it was all an experience she’d never forget. With each passing second, she knew it would only be harder to walk away in the end.

And there would be an end, there was always an end.

But the look on his face as he’d told Maureen they were going to get married… She knew it had only been a story he’d had to tell, but he’d looked so fierce, so protective, so…perfectly content to be claiming her as his.

An act, she reminded herself and her racing heart. An act, and a very good one. Maureen and Clint had been warm and kind. Maureen had insisted she think of herself at home here, offering to share meals, and even her car if Danielle needed it.

Which made her feel even worse. She was betraying their trust by not telling the truth, but she could not reveal the truth.

“I’m sorry about the room situation.”

She didn’t turn and look at him, the man who’d rescued her more than once now, the man who’d somehow wormed his way into her heart. “I thought you were visiting with your cousins.”

“Just reinforcing the story.”

“Ah, yes. The story.” She felt him come up right behind her, so close she could feel his breath in her hair.

“Maureen knows me well,” he said. “She wouldn’t have bought me not sleeping with my fiancée.”

Danielle swiveled to face him, their bodies not touching, and yet heat shimmered between them just the same.

Did he feel it?

She looked into his dark green eyes, heated and full of affection, and thought maybe he did. She forced a smile. “She sure did look surprised at the engagement part.”

Nick’s mouth twisted into a wry grin. “Let’s just say I’ve never been one to…inspire commitment.”

“I’m sure they’ll understand when you leave. We’ll tell them you have responsibilities to cover for your sisters, and that I-”

“I’m not leaving, Danielle.”

She swallowed hard. “Of course you’re leaving. You have to. You’ll go back, and I’ll just go up the highway to talk to the breeder I got Sadie from, and then…” Her mouth was so dry she couldn’t have swallowed to save her life. “And then I’m on my way.”

“I want to go with you to the breeder.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I know.” He set one hand on the sill behind her, surrounding her with his body. “You’re tough,” he said gently. “Resilient and strong. You can handle whatever comes your way, I’ve seen that. I get that.” His other hand slid into her hand. “I’m staying for me, not you. I want to know that it comes out all right for you in the end.”

It rarely came out all right for her in the end, but this time…this time, she hoped, would be different.

God, please, let it be different.

He was looking at her in the way that made her insides tremble, and because she was weakening, she pushed away from him, nearly tripping over the sleeping Sadie.

“How does she sleep like that?” he asked in amazement, looking down at the dog, flat on her back, four paws straight up in the air, mouth open, emitting a soft snore every few seconds. He stepped over the comatose thing and moved through the country-casual room, past the four-poster pine bed to Danielle. “So…when do we leave?”

She searched his gaze, for what, she didn’t know. Pity? Regret? Anything that would make it easy for pride to flare, to shove him away.

But he only smiled, patient as ever.

“And after we do this last thing together?” she asked. “Then you’ll go? Back to your life?”

“You’re in an awful hurry to get rid of me.”

“You’ll go?”

His smile slowly faded. “If you get your answers, I’ll go.”

“Okay,” she said softly, grabbing her backpack. “Then now is as good a time as any.”

LAURA LYN MILLER, of Miller Show Dogs, wasn’t home. There was a clipboard attached to her front door for visitors, and given the dates of the notes left for her, she hadn’t been home all week.

“She’s at a show,” Danielle said in a neutral voice that didn’t come close to fooling Nick.

She was despondent-he could hear it, he could see it-and for the first time in a very long time, he felt completely helpless.

Because she wanted him to go, damn it, and get the hell out of her way.

But he couldn’t walk away from her until he knew she was okay. That after only a handful of days he was afraid there was far more to it than that could be his own private hell.

“All I need are her records,” Danielle said, still staring at the front door which wouldn’t be opening to her. “Proving I was in Sadie’s life from the beginning, with my own money. I paid for most of the vaccinations and food and everything else needed, and since Laura Lyn and I stayed in touch at shows, she could be a witness to that fact.”

“She’ll be back.” Nick took her back to the truck. “And so will we.”

Danielle was quiet until they were on the road, heading back to the inn. “She’ll be gone another week, if she’s on the show circuit that I think she’s on. And actually…”

He wasn’t going to like this. “And actually?”

“She’s not too far from here.”

“But Ted might go there looking for you.”

“It’s likely.” Voice tight, she stared out the window.

“So we wait.”

“I wait. You can’t just hang here for a week.”

Right. He had a life.

Cooper’s Corner came into view, the pretty little village that never failed to draw him in. Small, personal. Unique. Danielle drew him in, just as this place did, he thought, turning into Twin Oaks B &B.

Danielle got out of the truck before he could come around. “I’m going to take Sadie for a walk in the woods.”

Alone. That was crystal clear.

Well, good. He’d practice being alone again, too. He watched her go, watched her hold on to Sadie’s leash as if the dog was all she had in the entire world.

What about me, he wanted to call after her, but that was pathetic so he headed around to the back of the house, to where he could go be alone and mull. Maybe even talk to Maureen.

He’d asked her to run Ted through the system, discreetly, without explaining why he’d asked such a thing. Nick hoped like hell she came up with something. Anything. If so, combined with the threatening e-mail, Danielle’s testimony on how he’d treated Sadie, and anything else he could find, it hopefully would be enough to turn things in Danielle’s favor.

Danielle, who was currently walking away from him as fast as she could.

On the back deck, which spread the entire length of the house, sat two young, bubbly, laughing women, whom he recognized as Maureen’s cleaning crew.

They grinned at him. “On a break,” the redheaded one called out cheerfully, having unfastened all but one button of her sleeveless blouse so that she could tie it between her very generous breasts.

The other had rolled her biking shorts up to nearly pornographic heights, and since she lay on her belly in a lounge, he had an unobstructed view of a very curvy, very nearly exposed bottom. From over her shoulder, she smiled. “Care to join us?”

“Uh…” Definitely, there was something wrong with him that he hesitated, glanced back over his own shoulder for one last sight of Danielle.

But she was long gone.

And damn it, so was any libido he might have had.

That it was possible for her to have so completely stolen all his lustful urges in such a short time was truly terrifying, and he turned back to the women, staring at their bodies, determined to get his own to react.

Not a twinge.

No getting around it. What he wanted, what he craved, was one slender, sweetly sexy, misty-eyed Danielle.

Only problem was-and here was another first-she didn’t want him back.

He knew he had decent looks. That wasn’t ego talking, but fact. He also knew he hadn’t been bad in bed. The way she’d clutched at him, staring into his eyes with sweet, sexy, wondrous surprise, as if no one had ever made her feel like that before, told him that.

It hadn’t been his company, either, because no matter what she pretended, she liked him, he could see it in her eyes, taste it in her kiss.

And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she trusted him. She’d trusted him with the truth, she’d trusted him to be with her. She’d trusted him to help her.

She hadn’t let anyone else do any of those things.

But she didn’t want to trust him. Didn’t want to let him in.

And without that, they had nothing.

Little Buxom Redhead wriggled on the lounge, getting herself comfortable while watching him from beneath lowered lashes to make sure he was catching it all.

“Sorry, ladies,” he said, knowing he was truly certifiable. But the niggling in the back of his mind had turned to a full instinctive awareness of trouble, and his instincts were never wrong. Without another look at the women, he pivoted and followed Danielle.

She wasn’t on the trail. She wasn’t in the gardens. She wasn’t anywhere.

She was gone.