Page 24 of Act of Brotherhood
“Pick up dry cleaning tomorrow.Call the locksmith to look at the back door lock. We’re almost out of soy milk. Wait. Was it soy milk or tofu? Or was it fruit snacks?” Nicolette paused on the sidewalk as she tried to remember everything that had been on her to-do list. A list she’d taken time to make and then promptly forgot on the kitchen counter.
With Clara gone on another of her seemingly endless business trips, the task of remembering important things fell to Nicolette. She didn’t own a car. There wasn’t need for one. She had a bike she rode around for most of the year, and if the weather was iffy or too chilly, she took one of the public transportation options provided by the city. She tended to use the buses and the ferry the most. The only time she borrowed Clara’s car was when she had a number of errands to run in a row. What she needed now was all close enough to the house for her to walk to without issue. That was another perk of living in the historic district of Savannah.
The night was perfect and there were a large number of people out and about, as was normally the case in the area. When she’d been on Congress Street, there had been even more people because of the live music provided at a local hotspot. Not to mention a restaurant super popular with the tourists was in the area as well. She was a fan of their signature cocktail.
It was nearly impossible for her to avoid smiling as she walked down another street on her way to the bakery. She tended to avoid this particular route after hours because it housed a fair number of the small parking areas for the businesses. That meant most of the view on the walk was of cars. Not people. And she loved to people watch.
As she came upon the square, her smile grew wider when she spotted a man standing out on the brick walkway, playing his guitar and singing.
He was handsome with his ear-length dark brown hair and dimpled chin. He glanced up at her and winked before stepping in her direction and continuing to sing. He had a great voice. Deep, smooth, and very sexy.
As he stepped into an area that was lit better, he glanced from beneath thick lashes and for a second, Nicolette thought his eyes went from a deep blue to jet black.
When she looked at him harder she saw she was mistaken. His eyes were royal blue.
Strange.
She could have sworn they’d flashed to black.
With a shake of her head, she continued down the street. The bakery was only a block away, and then she’d just have a few blocks after that before she was home. She and Clara had never gotten around to watching the chick flick that Nicolette had picked up, so she fully intended to set time aside later to dive into it. She’d even picked up her favorite pita chips and hummus dip on her way home. Combined with her famed gray drink, it would be a party only she could fully appreciate.
Clara would have dropped dead without a sea of greasy food and loads of sugar at the ready. Not to mention, she’d have spent the evening mocking the cupcakes Nicolette was heading to get. The kids were so excited about the celebration all set to happen in the morning. So was she.
She added a little skip to her step and then glanced around, wondering who might have seen her. She caught sight of a tall, built man standing off in the distance, part of his body hidden by one of the massive live oaks that dotted the area. His hair hung over his shoulder in a long, thick blond braid. That wasn’t something she saw on a lot of men. Setting aside the fact the man seemed to be well over six feet tall, the hair and his incredibly fit body made him difficult to overlook.
There was no denying he was a fifteen-out-of-ten kind of guy. He had his arms crossed over his substantial chest. The sleeves of his light gray T-shirt looked to only barely be able to contain him. He stepped out more from behind the tree.
When she got a look at all of him, she changed her vote to a twenty out of ten. There was a scar just above his right eye that was noticeable even from a distance. It didn’t take away from how handsome he was.
That being said, there was something about him she couldn’t put her finger on.
Something not right.
He saw her watching him, and the edge of his mouth pulled upward. As she began to return the smile, a flutter started in her stomach, making her feel dizzy and somewhat sick. For the briefest of moments she could have sworn that the man’s eyes changed colors. That they went from green to amber.
The guitar guy stopped playing and singing.
Nicolette glanced back to see the man with the guitar observing the guy with the long blond braid. The two were a respectable distance from one another, but that didn’t seem to stop the swell of testosterone that came off them in waves.
Her inner voice screamed at her to move along. To stop staring and just keep doing what she’d been doing. She obeyed.
Nicolette quickened her pace and was just shy of moving from a walk to a run. Within a few short minutes, she was at the bakery and safely inside. She looked out of the front window but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
She laughed softly to herself. “I totally let my imagination run wild again.”
“I do that all the time,” said the young man near the counter. His shirt indicated he worked for the bakery. “What can I do for you?”
“Order for Henebury,” she returned.
He paused and then cleared his throat. “Ah, you’re the one who made the interesting request. We did our best.”
She waited as he went in the back for her order. When he came out, he had a box with the bakery’s logo printed on the top. His expression was guarded, as if he was afraid of her response. He set the box on the counter and opened it.
Nicolette peeked inside. The cupcakes were magnificent. “I love them! They look so good.”
“Don’t taste them. I made that mistake,” he said in a barely there voice. She caught it all the same.
“That bad?”
