“Would you like me to take her?” Stephanie asked.
“Would you mind? I always stand outside the door, feeling like some kind of weirdo while I wait.” He grinned in that lopsided manner that had once seared right into her heart.
Nikki placed her hand trustfully in Stephanie’s. She chattered about her favorite things to eat while they wound their way to the back of the restaurant.
When Stephanie spoke to people she knew, they smiled at her and invariably glanced toward the booth where Nick sat. Heat seeped into her cheeks. In a small town, memories were long. The townsfolk would recall that she and Nick had once been inseparable. She’d thought they would one day be a family….
When she and Nikki returned to the table, she found Nick talking to a friend in the next booth about the soccer season and how it was going. He finished and stood to let his niece back into her seat.
“We can use another player on the team,” he mentioned. “Doogie might be interested. We practice three afternoons a week and play on Saturday afternoon over at the high school.”
“He can’t. Doogie is on restriction the rest of the month.” She spoke calmly in the face of Nick’s frowning perusal. “That’s another ten days.”
“Maybe later,” Nick put in easily.
“Is Doogie being punished?” Nikki wanted to know.
“Yes. He did something he wasn’t supposed to, and now he’s grounded.” She avoided Nick’s eyes.
Their order arrived, the house specialty burgers for Nick and his niece, a salad with a grilled chicken sandwich for her.
“Hmm, maybe we’d better put something over that pretty dress,” Nick mused. “We wouldn’t want to get mustard on it. How about my handkerchief?”
“Okay,” Nikki said agreeably. She let him tuck a white hankie under her chin. “This was my Easter dress.”
“It’s very nice,” Stephanie said.
“Mom and I saw the Easter Bunny at the store.” She clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled. “You know something? It wasn’t him. It was a man pretending to be the Easter Bunny.” With an indignant huff, she confided, “He had glasses. Everybody knows rabbits don’t need glasses. They eat lots of carrots.”
Nick and Stephanie laughed at the end of this charming tale, told with great earnestness and a precise knowledge of the Easter Bunny and his ways.
Stephanie’s laughter died when she found Nick’s narrowed gaze on her. Hungry eyes. Her breath strangled in her throat. She couldn’t breathe or think or tear her gaze away.
“Pass the ketchup, please,” Nikki said, breaking into the turbulent moment.
Nick glanced away from her and passed the bottle over. When he looked at Stephanie again, she went hazy with relief. She’d been mistaken in what he was thinking. He was utterly calm, as cool as shaved ice, the way he normally was…except for that one incident in Amy’s kitchen.
“It’s going to be a hot summer, it seems,” she said. “The news said the high temperatures last week set a new record.” A blush crawled up her neck. Brilliant conversation.
“Yeah, I heard the same on TV this morning. I hope it isn’t true. We don’t need that problem this summer.”
“Are you expecting others?”
“The highway will be resurfaced down to Denver next month. It’ll slow traffic. The tourists will get grouchy. There’ll be some fender benders because of it and probably some fist fights.” He gave a snort of laughter. “Business as usual.”
“Do we still have more crime in the summer than in the winter?” she asked. She missed knowing the details of life around her, she realized. Being a cop’s wife, she used to know everything that happened in the county.
“Yes, mostly vandalism. Some petty stealing. In cow country, you get rustling, but we haven’t had anything major in a couple of years. No murders or grand larceny.”
“Have there been any bank robberies?” Nikki asked.
“Not lately,” he said with a grin at her avid interest. “The last big thing was the break-in at the summer house where that diamond necklace was taken. That was a couple of years ago.” Nick saw Steph’s eyes darken and could have kicked himself. Clay had been killed during a robbery at a quick market right after that. “The county is pretty quiet.”
She ducked her head over her plate and ate busily. Nick sighed internally. He knew Steph had been horrified and embarrassed at her son’s brush with the law. There was no need to embarrass her further with talk of crime.
He cut Nikki’s hamburger into quarters, saw that she had ketchup for her fries, then added some to his own plate. Across from him, Stephanie ate without enthusiasm. If it had been left to her, he thought, she’d have chosen not to sit with him.
They’d managed to avoid each other for most of the years since he’d returned from college, as much as one could in a place that size. Until last Christmas, they’d managed to be polite, cordial even.
When they’d split up, he remembered, she’d acted as if she’d been the hurt party and he the guilty culprit. She’d never forgiven him for distrusting her, but with the rumors of her infidelity confirmed, what did she expect? He’d waited for her to explain, to make him see how she could let another man hold her, but she hadn’t.
The memory rekindled his anger. He tamped it down. Their time together had been a lifetime ago.
A kid two tables over banged a spoon on the high chair tray. He wanted to go over and arrest the parents for letting him disturb the peace. “Did you sell out of everything in the store this week?” he asked.
“Nearly.”
“Amy said it was one of the best weeks you’d ever had.”
“It was. I was nervous about some new jewelry we’d ordered, but it went over very well.”
“Those earrings you’re wearing are real pretty. Were they part of the new stuff?”
The earrings looked like tiny sunbursts hanging from her ears. When she reached up and touched one, he remembered what it had been like to be able to kiss her right below the filigree of gold. He shut that thought off pronto.
“Yes. We ordered from a company in Reno. Their designer, a Native American named Jackson Firebird, did them. He’s getting quite a reputation.”
Nick couldn’t keep his eyes off her mouth and the tiny mole near it. Each word hit him like a caress, reminding him of things he’d forced himself to forget. When she talked about her ideas for expanding the shop, she actually became animated, something that hadn’t happened in his presence for years.
Stephanie, he realized, was very much like his sister, Dina, a CPA with her own business in Denver. Dina had just had a new daughter, which was why he’d gone down and picked up Nikki for the weekend. He’d figured Nikki needed some extra attention and Dina needed all the rest she could get. Besides, he liked kids, had always figured on having a passel of ’em.
With this woman.
He set his jaw and focused on the conversation. The anger faded somewhat as he listened. Steph had sound business sense. A modern woman with a mind of her own.
Clay, he suddenly remembered, hadn’t liked his wife working. He’d resented the success of the shop. Nick had counseled him to accept and encourage Stephanie’s interest in the store, knowing from talking to Dina that women sometimes needed more than a husband and a family to keep them occupied.
“If you need an accountant or an attorney,” he told her, “I’ve