Page 3 of One More Time
‘Not mine,’ she clarified.
‘Oh.’Thank God.
‘This is me,’ she said, stopping. ‘But I still can’t find my keycard.’
‘Um, could it be …’ He pointed to her back pocket.
Her hand slipped into the back pocket of her shorts.
When she pulled out the golden keycard, she looked between it and Nicky, her eyes scrunched up in confusion. ‘How did you … ?’
‘Lucky guess?’
A sly smile crept across her lips. ‘Lucky?’
‘Yep,’ he replied, with a sly grin of his own.
She turned to flash the card over the lock-pad.
Nicky blurted, ‘I’d really love to catch up. Dinner, maybe?’ He tried not to sound desperate. Really, he did.
She looked down at the flowers in her hand. Exhaled slowly. Nicky could feel the ‘no’ coming. Hated it.
‘Drinks?’ he offered.
Her eyes snagged on his. He tried to read her thoughts in their variegated shades of blue.
‘Yeah, okay,’ she replied with a little smile. It was really no more than half a smile, but he’d take it.
‘Great. I’ll pick you up here at seven.’
‘Seven-thirty?’
‘Sure. Seven-thirty.’
She swiped the keycard over the pad, and the lock clicked open.
‘It’s really good to see you.’ Nicky handed her the canvas sack and brushed a finger along the back of her hand as she took it. ‘I’ll see you later?’ It sounded much more like a question than he’d intended.
‘Yeah, Nicky. I’ll see you later,’ she replied quietly.
CHAPTER THREE
LUCY
Lucy stepped into the suite and leaned her back against the door as it closed. She wasn’t sure how she’d made it down the hallway. Her legs felt like rubber bands. She didn’t know if they were about to noodle to the ground or snap back and set her running. Her heart was pounding out a death metal song against her ribcage. The things she’d been carrying all plunked to the ground, except for the shredded remnants of the paper bag. It skittered across the marble entryway ahead of her like it had a mind of its own.
She’d acted like a maniac, right? She’d been silent and weird. She should have just casually said, ‘Oh, wow! Good to see you. How’ve you been for the last lifetime?’ And then flipped her hair or put her hand on her hip or something. No big deal. Casual.
The thing was, when she’d seen Nicky Broome up close for the first time in a trillion years, it hadn’t felt casual. Not at all. It felt like getting hit by a truck.
‘Hey!’ came the bright, cheerful voice of Chloe from the living room. Lucy heard the soft clack of her daughter’s footsteps. ‘Mom!’ Chloe stepped over the paper bag and headed right for Lucy. ‘Are you okay? What happened? You’re pale as a sheet.’
Oh, you know, exploded a bag of dicks all over a ridiculously hot, world-famous rock star. Pretty sure he was checking out my ass. Made a date (or something) with him later. Just your average Sunday.
‘Nothing happened,’ Lucy sighed. ‘I’m fine. It’s just hot out there.’
If there’s one thing that Lucy had mastered in her twenty-one years of motherhood it was delivering a gentle lie. She was damn good at it.
