Jim hadn’t been too thrilled at first with the lack of grass and flowers, but he’d grown to appreciate the garden’s unique beauty and serenity.
Jim picked up Sarah’s bags without her asking and started heading along the curved path towards the front porch, putting paid to her earlier plan to sneak in unnoticed through the garages.
To be honest, Sarah still wished she looked better for Nick’s first sight of her. It would have been rewarding to see the surprised look on his face.
Sighing, she grabbed her carry-all from the passenger seat, locked the car and hurried after Jim, who by then had dropped her bags by the front door and rung the doorbell.
‘I do have keys,’ she said, and was fishing through her bag in search of them when the door was wrenched open.
Not by Flora—but by Nick.
If ever Sarah was glad she was wearing sunglasses it was at that moment.
Not because of Nick’s reaction to her, but because of her reaction to him.
She’d been so caught up with worrying about her own appearance that she’d forgotten just how devastatingly attractive she found him, especially when he was wearing as little as he was wearing today: just board shorts and a sleeveless white surf top, the colour highlighting his beautifully bronzed skin.
Sarah’s thankfully hidden gaze travelled hungrily down his body then up again before fixing on his mouth.
If Nick’s black eyes hadn’t been so hard, and his other features strongly masculine, his mouth might have made him into a pretty boy. Both his lips were full and sensual, curving around a mouthful of flashing white teeth, their perfection courtesy of the top-flight dentist her father had taken him to as soon as he’d been let out of prison.
If Sarah had any criticism, it was of his hair, which she believed he kept far too short. Still, the buzz-cut style did give him an intimidating look that probably worked well for him in the business world.
‘Well, hello, stranger,’ he said, his dark eyes sweeping down to her sneakered feet, then up again.
Not a hint of admiration in his expression, however, or even surprise. No reaction at all. Zilch.
His lack of reaction—she’d been expecting some sort of compliment—exasperated Sarah. What did she have to do to make the man notice her, damn it?
‘Thanks, Jim,’ he said, bending to pick up her bags. ‘I’ll take these now.’
‘Yes, thanks, Jim,’ Sarah managed to echo through clenched teeth.
Jim nodded, then moved off, by which time Nick had picked up her luggage and turned to carry it inside.
Sarah wanted to hit him. Instead, she gritted her teeth even harder.
Suddenly, she couldn’t wait to turn twenty-five. The sooner she got Nick out of her life, the better. He was like a thorn in her side, niggling away at her. How could she have what she wanted most in life—which was children of her own—if he was always there, spoiling things for her? How could she feel completely happy when she kept comparing every man she dated to him?
Out of sight would be out of mind. Hopefully.
Sarah closed the front door after her, smothering a sigh when she saw Nick heading for the stairs with her cases.
‘I can take those up,’ she said, desperately needing a few minutes away from the man to regain her composure.
As much as Sarah had subconsciously always known that nothing would ever come of her secret feelings for Nick, finally facing the futility of her fantasies was a soul-shattering experience.
He hadn’t even noticed that she’d lost weight!
All that work. For nothing!
‘It’s no trouble,’ he threw over his shoulder as he continued on up the stairs with the bags.
Sarah gritted her teeth, and hurried up the stairs after him. ‘Why aren’t you at golf?’
‘I wanted the opportunity to talk to you,’ he tossed back at her. ‘Privately.’
‘About what?’
He didn’t answer her, instead charging on ahead with her bags.
‘About what, Nick?’ she repeated when she caught up, frustrated by his lack of reply.
He ground to a halt on the top landing, dropped her bags then turned to face her.
‘Flora, for one thing.’
‘What about her? She’s not ill, is she?’
‘No, but she can’t do what she used to do. She gets very tired. This last year, I’ve had to hire a home-cleaning service to come in twice a week to do all the heavy cleaning for her.’
‘I didn’t realise.’
‘If you came home occasionally,’ Nick pointed out drily, ‘you might have noticed.’
It was a fair comment, evoking a large dose of guilt. Sarah recognised she’d been very self-obsessed this past year. But she’d been on a mission. A futile mission, as it turned out.
‘I … I’ve been very busy,’ she said by way of an excuse.
‘With the new boyfriend, I take it?’ came his next comment, this one quite sarcastic.
Sarah bristled. ‘I have a right to a social life,’ she retorted, taking off her sunglasses so that she could glare at him. ‘You have one.’
‘Indeed. But it doesn’t take over my whole existence.’
His critical tone was so typical of Nick when it came to her having a boyfriend, his condemning attitude often sparking a reckless rebellion in her that had her running off at the mouth.
Today was no exception.
‘Derek and I are very much in love. Something you could never identify with. When people are truly in love they want to spend every minute of every day with them.’
‘I’m surprised you came home today at all, then,’ he countered quite sharply. ‘Or will your lover be dropping by later?’
Sarah flushed. ‘Derek’s working today.’
‘Doing what?’
‘He owns a gym.’
‘Aah. That explains it.’
‘Explains what?’
‘Your new shape.’
So he had noticed! ‘You say that like there’s something wrong with it.’
‘You looked fine the way you were.’
Sarah’s mouth dropped open. ‘You have to be joking! I was getting fat!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
Sarah rolled her eyes. Either the man was blind, or he cared about her so little that he’d never really looked at her before.
‘Maybe you just didn’t notice.’
Nick gave an offhand shrug. ‘Maybe I didn’t. Still, I suppose it’s not up to me to tell you what to do.’
‘I’m glad you’ve finally realised that!’
‘Meaning?’
‘I couldn’t count the number of times you’ve interfered in my life, and my relationships. Every time I brought a boyfriend home in the past, you went out of your way to make him feel stupid. And me to boot.’
‘I was only doing what your father asked me to do, Sarah. Which was to protect