Page 28 of Falling for Nicole
“Declan,” she half chastises, half laughs. I’m sure she knows I’m trying to deflect her original point. As Dad heads back towards where we’re sat watching the twins play in Lilly’s garden, she raises her eyebrows one more time.
“Fine, yes, whatever.”
“Everything okay?” Dad asks when he sees us staring at each other.
“Yep, just giving our son here some advice.”
“Ah, I see. Son, if you need any advice when it comes to women, ask the master,” Dad says, pointing towards himself and making my mum snort out a laugh.
“Oh please,” she mutters amusedly.
“I don’t need advice about women.”
“No, from what I hear you’ve got them…nailed.” Dad smiles proudly as Mum rolls her eyes. “I should have said lov—”
“Enough,” I snap, already annoyed by their meddling.
Thankfully, Lilly and Lucas appear, carrying trays of food for everyone, and it puts pay to the earlier conversation, although Mum still spends the rest of our day together giving me a knowing side eye. She even goes to the extent of suggesting I see if Nicole is okay as the evening draws in.
My refusal thankfully puts an end to any more conversations about Nicole; instead, we enjoy our evening and barbeque in Lilly’s garden.
I have every confidence that Nicole and the others will be fine, even if it does get busy. Even still, I put my phone on loud just in case of emergencies. I spend all night hoping it’ll ring so I have to go, but it doesn’t. As much as it pains me to admit, Nicole is good at her job. Sadly, Lilly was right about me employing her, something I’m sure she’ll never let me forget.
* * *
Unfortunately when my phone does ring first thing the next morning, it’s with two of my surf instructors telling me they’re too sick to work—something about them going out last night and having dodgy seafood. I couldn’t care less about the details so I cut both conversations short as my annoyance gets the better of me. I was intending on spending time in both the shop and shack as I got some accounting sorted, but now it looks like I’ll be on the beach all day filling in for my sick instructors.
I hate that I’m pissed off with having to do the thing I love the most. It’s something that’s never happened before. Usually any excuse to grab my board and hit some waves has me running for the beach as soon as possible, but since Nicole’s arrived, I seem to be spending more and more of my time in that damn office instead of the place I love the most.
When BJ and I open up the shop a while later to start getting all the kit out, Nicole is nowhere to be seen. I shouldn’t be surprised because the shack doesn’t open for hours yet, but she’s been so keen the past few days, I was hoping she might already be here.
I do spot her a while later. She’s too far away to see me watching her as she runs across the wet sand with Bailey a few feet ahead. The morning sun lights her up as she moves elegantly across the beach in what seem to be the tiniest top and shorts.
“I think you’ve got a problem, dude,” BJ mutters behind me.
I drag my eyes away from Nicole’s curvy body and focus on him behind me. “What?” I ask when I see everything seems to be in order.
“Oh, not this. Her,” he says, nodding towards where she is. “She’s got you all kinds of fucked up. You tapped her yet?”
“She hasn’t got me anything, Benjamin.” I use his full name, hoping he’ll back the fuck off. “And don’t talk about her like that.” The amusement filling his eyes at my warning makes me regret the words instantly.
“You know she’s got a date tomorrow night, right?”
My stomach drops. “Fuck off.” He’s got to be baiting me. Who would she have met? She’s spent almost every waking hour at the shack, with me.
“Chris, the guy who comes down here at the weekends. He works for Lucas.” The surfing community is pretty small around here, so if you own a board there’s a fairly high chance I know you, and vice versa.
“Motherfucker,” I mutter under my breath. “He’s a douche.”
“Nah, he seems okay. I was chatting to him last time about…”
BJ continues telling me about Chris and hownicehe is, but I zone him out as the image of him with his hands all over Nicole makes my stomach knot and my fists clench. I don’t give a fuck how nice he is; he’s not good enough for her.
I’m really pissed off by how much the knowledge of Nicole’s impending date has affected me. By the end of the day, it’s all I can think about, and the need to march into the shack and demand she doesn’t go is getting harder and harder to contain. The only thing that stops me in the end is that she’ll want to know my reason, and like fuck am I telling her why I don’t want her to go. That could lead on to all sorts of crazy shit.
So instead of stepping foot in the shack the second I’ve got all the kit packed away from a day on the beach, I head for home. I decide it’s probably best if I’m alone to sulk. I think BJ agrees because when he announces he’s going next door for a drink, I don’t get invited.
