Page 75 of A Reclusive Heart

Instead of the 50’s memorabilia that she’d expected, it had old-fashioned dessert and candy pictures everywhere, but that’s not what took her by surprise. Not even close. It was the framed pictures, magazine covers, and newspapers articles featuring J.L. Lewis placed among the yummy-looking photos that had her swallowing hard.

“What is this?” Jamie asked distractedly as she ran her eyes over everything once again, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

“How many?” the smiling woman behind the counter asked only to have that smile turn into a frown when she glanced at Jamie. “You look familiar. Have you been here before?”

“No,” Jamie mumbled weakly.

She didn’t like attention, but normally she could deal with it. She wasn’t sure that she’d be able to do that in a place that was set up as a living shrine to her.

“Who’s the J.L. Lewis fan?” Nick asked, gesturing lazily to the large stack of books behind the cashier.

“That would be Aubrey. She’s the owner and the sweetest woman you could ever meet,” the woman said warmly.

“Is she here?” Nick asked and Jamie just barely fought back the urge to kick his shin for this betrayal. He knew how nervous overexcited fans made her. If the promise of a large dessert menu hadn’t intrigued her, she would be out of here, but it did, so she was staying.

“She’ll be here soon,” the woman said, grabbing two menus as she stepped around the counter to show them to their table.

“Could you give her my card and tell her that I would love to meet her?” Nick asked, pulling a business card out of his pocket and handed it to her.

“Of course,” she said with a warm smile, taking the card before gesturing to an oversized booth near the jukebox.

“What was that all about?” Jamie asked once she walked away.

Nick shrugged as he looked down at his menu. “Just curious to meet her, that’s all,” he said, but she wasn’t buying it. If her eyes hadn’t landed on the most enticing appetizer menu that she’d ever seen, she would have questioned him further.

“You do realize that I’m not leaving until I devour everything on this dessert menu, right?” Jamie asked as she ran her eyes over the largest dessert menu she’d ever seen. Did she just whimper?

Probably.

“I packed the aspirin, heating pad, and icepacks, so you can have whatever you want,” Nick said, surprising her, not that he was prepared for one of her sugar binges, but because he was accepting this so easily.

Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

The only other time he’d looked the other way when she’d gorged herself on sugar was right after she was released from the hospital and he had to break the news to her that her family screwed her over again.

It was enough to destroy every last lingering hope that one day they would regret the past, but…

They didn’t love her, but that was fine because she didn’t need them. She had Nick and really good friends now. Although it would have been nice to have someone to call her own, she didn’t need them.

“Do you want to start off with a shake?” Nick asked, making her stomach drop.

Oh, God...

Now, he was pushing sugar on her.

“What’s wrong, Nick?” she asked hollowly, dreading his next words.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, smiling as he reached over and took her hand in his.

“Then, why are you trying to push sugar on me?” Jamie demanded.

“I just thought you’d like a milkshake,” Nick said, linking their fingers together. “But if you don’t want one...”

“Oh, I’m getting one, buddy, and you should know that I know that you’re up to something,” Jamie said, narrowing her eyes on the man that was definitely up to something.

When he shot her a wink, she decided that she was going to make that milkshake a double and watch how he reacted. Nick Quinn was a sneaky man and as long as she remembered that she-

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