“Are you sure?” he asked. “That sounds kinda drastic.”
“Very sure,” she said as she stomped up the steps to her room, slamming the door behind her.
Cecelia was so upset she didn’t know what to do. She’d been hoping that this date with Bill would turn out well. It wasn’t as if she was in love with him, but she just needed a little encouragement. She needed to feel attractive. She needed to feel that it was possible for a man to want her.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Her frustration grew at the overwhelming emotions racing through her.
A knock sounded at her bedroom door. “Cecelia,” Nick said. “Are you okay?”
She sniffed, swiping at her tears. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just fine.”
Silence followed, and she took a breath.
“You don’t sound fine. Let me buy you a burger at the Ace in the Hole. You need to get out.”
Cecelia glanced around her room and felt as if the walls were closing in around her. Maybe she should go with him. She was certainly in no mood to stay in her room all night.
“Come on. Sit down and tell me all about it,” Nick said to Cecelia after he’d finally talked her into joining him at the bar on Saturday night. “I’ll buy you a beer and a burger.”
Cecelia shot him a deadly look that might have made another man wince, but Nick had known her too long for that. “A beer isn’t going to make this better. I don’t like beer that much, anyway.”
Surprise rippled through him. “Oh, really? I wonder why I never noticed.”
“Because it would take too much effort to notice, and I’m apparently not worth the effort,” she said with a frown.
“Whoa,” he said, lifting his hand. “No need to club me. I’m on your side, remember?”
Cecelia shook her head, clearly contrite. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I’m not good company for anyone at the moment. I need to shake off this funk. Maybe I really should be making more firm plans to go back home.”
Nick hated it when Cecelia talked about moving back to Thunder Canyon. It wasn’t as if he had any romantic feelings for the woman he’d known since childhood—she was practically like his little sister—but he knew he would miss her. Sometime along the way she’d become a buddy he could count on. “Hey, my coaching offer is still open. You could just give it a try. You could end up with better-quality dates.”
“Hmm,” she said and cut her eyes at him. “Speaking of dates, why aren’t you out tonight?”
“I’ve got to be up early to help get a senior guy’s house ready for his return from a physical rehab center,” he said.
“That’s nice of you,” she said.
He shrugged, feeling a little self-conscious from the compliment. “Least I can do. You do more than your share of volunteer activities yourself,” he said. “But enough of patting ourselves on the back. Let’s talk about fixing your dating life.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Okay, you’re on. I’ll give it a try. What is it that men want, anyway?”
“Well,” Nick said, studying Cecelia for a long moment. “Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with the way you look. You’ve got all the basics covered. You got nice long brown hair and pretty eyes.”
“Need to check my teeth?” she joked.
He chuckled. “No. I’ve seen your teeth. You’ve got a nice smile. I think you need to try wearing more makeup. Lipstick. Red lipstick. Men love red lipstick.”
“Oh, that’s ridiculous. I can’t believe I’m going to get a date just because I change the color of my lips.”
He lifted his hands. “You asked. I answered. You could probably pick some up at Crawford’s General Store.”
“They don’t carry lipstick, do they? And how would you know if they did?”
“They carry a little bit of everything. If you don’t believe me, I’ll walk you over there right now and see. If they have red lipstick, then you have to put it on and come back here tonight while you’re wearing it.” He paused, calculating that he might have to give her a little dare as a push. “Unless you’re afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said, bristling. “I’ll walk over there with you tomorrow, then we’ll come back to the bar.”
“All right then,” he said, and took a sip of his beer. “It’s a deal then. You get red lipstick at the general store. Afterward, you test my theory at the Ace in the Hole.”
She hesitated a half beat, as if she didn’t know how to respond to him, then lifted her chin. “Deal on,” she said.
The next afternoon, Cecelia met Nick inside the entryway of the rooming house. He opened the door for her in gentlemanly deference and she looked at him in surprise. That made Nick realize that maybe he’d been treating her like one of the guys a bit too much. Cecelia deserved better. She really was the best woman he knew. She was the one person he felt as if he could really trust. He could be himself with her. If he weren’t so determined not to risk his own heart, she would be the kind of woman he would want. But Nick knew marriage wasn’t in the cards for him. That meant he had to help Cecelia find a man if he wanted to keep his best friend in town.
“Well, that’s new,” she muttered and led the way down the stairs.
They walked the few blocks through town to the general store, where Nick opened the door. It was a crisp fall afternoon that hinted at the chill that would soon envelop Rust Creek Falls for most of winter. Having lived in Montana his entire life, Nick was well accustomed to cold weather and snow. He also knew that some of the newer visitors, in particular the rush of women from out of town looking for men, would be hard-pressed to last the entire winter.
One thing about Cecelia was that she knew how to dress for chilly weather. The trouble was that she didn’t dress at all sexily. Nick supposed it must be hard to bare much skin when it was cold outside. Still, other women managed it, so Cecelia could, too.
“Toiletry aisle,” Cecelia murmured as they headed in the same direction. “Razors, shampoo, hand lotion. Don’t see any lipstick. Well, darn,” she said with a cheeky smile.
Determined, Nick wandered farther down the aisle. “What’s this?” he asked, pointing at a small display of cosmetics.
Cecelia walked toward him and glanced at the shelves. “Looks like nail polish. And lipstick,” she added in surprise. “But no red,” she said as if she were relieved.
Nick knelt down to the bottom shelf and picked up a plastic-wrapped tube of red lipstick. He held it toward her. “Looks like red to me.”
Cecelia groaned. “I can’t believe Crawford’s actually carries hooker-red lipstick.”
“It’s not hooker red,” he told her and pointed at the end of the tube. “Look. They call it Seduce Me Sin. That’s what you need. A little seducing and a little sin,” he said, although the sin image bothered him a little bit.
“But red is so attention-getting. It screams look-at-me. Like I’m a tart,” she complained.
“Are you already welching on our deal?”
“Not at all,” she said, clutching the lipstick as she walked toward the register.
“I’ll buy it,’ Nick said.
“Not necessary,” she said and waited for the clerk to ring up her