Page 69 of Breaking the Ice

“I repeat, he was with you, wasn’t he?”

“It was my birthday. He probably felt sorry for me.”

“Okay, fine I give up.” Bec huffed. “What are you going to say to him when you see him at work today?”

“Nothing. I’m not going.”

“Ahh. Avoidance. Very mature.”

“I thought so.”

Nick answered the bookshop phone on its second ring. “Hello, Birdie’s, this is Nick.” There was silence on the other end. “Hello?” More silence but… he had a feeling. “Sam? Is that you?”

“I… I’m not coming in today.”

Nick sighed. He’d texted her a couple of times since last night and had almost knocked on her door this morning to check on her but had figured he’d be seeing her soon enough anyway.

Apparently not.

“You know you’re going to have to face me sooner or later.”

“Tomorrow will be soon enough.”

Nick blinked as she hung up in his ear. Okay. He could give her a day. She’d been mortified last night and was obviously stillfeeling it this morning. He on the other hand was… bemused. Over the years he had honed his sexual technique to make women scream, beg and forget their own names.

He’dnevermade one bolt from the room before it was over.

Did he want a chance to correct that? For sure. But mostly he just wanted to assure her that it was okay. That itwasn’ther fault. Not to mention he had a thousand personalized Post-it notes wrapped up in a bow.

Tomorrow. He’d give them to her tomorrow. Unfortunately, Samantha had other ideas.

“Hello, Birdie’s, this is Nick.”

“Hey…”

“Hey.”

“I won’t be in again, today.”

“Sam.”

“I’m not well… really.”

Nick gripped the phone. “We need to talk.”

“I’ll be there tomorrow, I promise.”

“You’d better be or I’m going to kick your door down and drag you here.”

Nick paced around the shop. She was five minutes late. He made himself a coffee. Ten minutes now. He picked up the phone and called her number. It went to her voicemail which beeped. “Sam, if you don’t get your ass down here in the next ten minutes I’m coming up.”

The door opened as he was putting the phone in the cradle and his eyes met hers across the space. She looked discomforted but… normal and he heaved an internal sigh of relief. He’d been worried about her.

“Nick,” she said, still standing in the doorway.

“Sam.”

There were a few more seconds of staring before she moved, entering the shop and walking briskly to the back room, avoiding eye contact as she passed him by. Nick drew in a steady breath and followed, leaning into the door frame as she stashed her bag and futzed around. She was in her usual jeans and T-shirt, her hair loose and he had to force a mental gate shut to stop thinking about how good her hair had looked fanned out on his sheets.

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