Then Gauge had left. And Nina and Kevin had become engaged.
While she wasn’t one for gossip—well, not much, anyway—Heidi hadn’t been able to ignore the rumors surrounding her bosses. While there were several versions of the story, all of them centered around one theme: a steamy love triangle.
Was it true? Heidi didn’t know and wouldn’t allow herself to ask. But she’d be lying if she said that questioning glances like the one Kevin had just given Nina after her innocent remarks about Kyle didn’t make her wonder every now and again.
And just the other day, after a run-in with the new manager of BMC’s music department, which Gauge had once overseen, she’d absently said to Nina, “I miss Gauge.”
Her friend had gotten a faraway look and whispered, “Me, too.”
Now, Nina took a deep pull from her beer bottle. “Tell me again why you refused the ring.”
“Would you stop already?” Heidi laughed.
“Okay. Then tell me about this idea of how you want your life to unfold.”
“It’s a plan.”
“Excuse me. Plan.” Nina gave her a sidelong glance. “And Jesse’s proposal before the appointed time sent everything into a tailspin.”
Heidi sighed. “I know. It sounds stupid, doesn’t it? I mean, most women would be thrilled to be proposed to at all. Much less by a hot guy like Jesse.”
“Yes, well, you’re not most women. You and Jesse have been a couple for, like, forever. And you’ve always seen yourself getting engaged…when?”
“You know when.” Heidi held the cold bottle against the side of her face to cool her heated skin. “When I get my MBA. What’s so wrong with that?”
“Which is when?”
“Since I’m taking summer classes now, I’m hoping for early next year.”
“So, let me get this straight.When did Jesse propose?”
“Last week.”
“So he popped the question a whole six months before your idea of when you thought he should propose and you turned him down?”
Heidi was affronted. “I didn’t turn him down. I just told him to ask me next year.”
Nina counted off on her fingers. “First there’s the proposal after you’ve graduated. Preferably on the night you accept your diploma. Then there’s a one-year-to-the-date wedding at St. Pat’s. And nine months after that, your first child…” Nina tucked her short, neat, blond hair behind her ear. “You know, you really can’t plan stuff like that, Heidi.”
“Why not?”
Nina shrugged and sipped her beer. “I know that everything’s gone according to plan so far. And that there’s no reason to think it won’t now…” Her words trailed off and she got that faraway look again.
“But?” Heidi asked quietly, feeling oddly sober.
Nina blinked and smiled softly. “But sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way you expect it to.”
“Talking about me again?”
Heidi looked up into Jesse’s handsome face, returning his kiss with gusto. “Always.”
He pulled up a chair next to her while Kyle did the same on the opposite side of the table. Heidi met his gaze briefly and felt heat suffuse her from the top of her head down to the tip of her toes. She’d avoided looking directly at him since their little…encounter earlier at the house. It wasn’t every day someone who wasn’t her boyfriend saw her naked.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to see. An apology, maybe? Or perhaps even a knowing smirk?
Instead Kyle wore an expression she couldn’t quite define. And for the span of a millisecond she felt the type of electricity she’d experienced only one other time in her life: the day she’d met Jesse.
She blinked, shocked to find herself suddenly breathless.
“So what did you guys think of the game?” Jesse asked, flexing his right biceps. “Did we rock or what?”
Everyone shouted a response either pro or con as Heidi quickly looked away from Kyle.
She was relieved that when she glanced back, Kyle was no longer looking at her but at the waitress putting a fresh bowl of peanuts on the table.
“Pity the man who has to sing his own praises,” he said.
“And praise the man who doesn’t have to,” Kevin agreed.
The table erupted into laughter.
Heidi picked up her beer bottle and drained half the contents, feeling strangely as though she’d just grabbed a live wire.
And she hadn’t a clue how to let go…
Chapter 2
Chapter KEEP THINGS LIGHT. Keep things safe.
Kyle repeated the words in his mind three days later as he climbed out of his car in the parking lot of BMC, the bookstore/music center/café where Heidiworked. He shaded his eyes, spotting Heidi’s old Sunfire convertible parked a couple of rows up. Good, she was working. That meant that he could talk to her in the safe environment of her workplace, safe being a relative term.
At any rate, he was sure there would be little risk of seeing her naked here. Itwas hard enough being with her and Jesse in public without imagining her sans clothes.
Which made what hewas about to ask doubly difficult.
“Oh, for God’s sake, she’s just a woman. More than that, she’s your best friend’s girl. Get over it.”
But no matter how stridently he censured himself, he knew that the attraction he felt for Heidi far surpassed coveting his buddy’s girlfriend. From the moment he’d ridden into Fantasy and had finally met Heidi, he’d known he was in trouble.
And he had done everything in his power to fight the unwanted feelings.
“Kyle?”
He pulled his gaze from Heidi’s car to find himself looking at Heidi herself. She was wearing her work apron, the white fabric snug against her slender frame. It was as if she’d emerged from his thoughts, looking somehow out of place in the parking lot.
He realized he hadn’t said anything yet and managed a simple, “Hey.”
She walked in his direction. “What are you doing here?”
He squinted at her.
“Trying to expand your horizons by buying a book?”
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, but still wore his tie. “Actually, I heard the clam chowder was pretty good here.”
Her smile eclipsed the sun. “The best, considering I’m the one who makes it.”
“You going somewhere?”
She glanced over her shoulder and then at her watch. “Yeah. I thought I’d get a few errands out of the way during my break.”
“I was hoping we could talk.”
Now that hadn’t come out quite the way he’d wanted. It almost sounded like what he had to say was personal. While it was, it wasn’t the kind of “personal” that should have inspired the wary look on her beautiful face.
She checked her watch again. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t have the time. I only have fifteen minutes