Page 61 of Win Some Love Some
11
Nora
“Ineed a raise,” I announced.
Nick looked up from the engine he was tinkering with and glared at me. The bay doors were open. Calico Cove was turning into that picture postcard of a Fall day. For the first time since coming home, it felt like anything was possible.
“You’ve been here a week.”
Like that was an excuse. “At Petite III, I used to get tips.”
“You mean when you weren’t breaking toes.”
I huffed. “It’s not for me. Well, technically it is, but it’s for a noble cause.”
I stood next to him peering down into the guts of the Honda he was working on. Something I’d done a countless times growing up with Nicky.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at a tube thing.
He laughed. “I’ve told you a million times. The transmission.”
“What’s that?” I pointed at a fan thing.
“I would think since all the times you’ve stood beside me just like this, you might have picked up a few things.”
“You’d think,” I said. He ducked out from under the hood and wiped his hands on the rag tucked into the pocket of his coveralls. “What do you need the money for?”
“I’ve got Terry’s wedding coming up and I’m prepared. Dress, gift. I’m good to go. But then Julie’s wedding is the following week, so I need a new dress.”
“Just wear the same dress,” he grunted and picked up a wrench from the tool cart beside him and went back under the hood. I had no choice but to go with him.
“Quel horreur!I can’t do that. Terry and Julie are both high school friends. Which means it’s going to be the same group of people at both weddings. Of course, I’ll repeat one of the dresses for Samantha’s wedding, but I need at least two.”
Nick straightened up and so did I. For a second he blinked, as if realizing the same thing I was. That we have stood like this, leaning over car guts, together, for most of our lives.
But not for the last six years.
I should have stepped away. Put some distance between us.
Instead, I felt his body heat where he nearly brushed my shoulder. I caught the smell of his soap just beneath the grease and gasoline of the garage. I looked up at his familiar face, his beautiful, plush mouth, that obscenely full upper lip all set in stern lines.
Grumpy. Stern. Always…always in control.
I couldn’t look him in the eye. Not really, not fully. Not since I’d been back.
It was like that vampire curse thing. I didn’t want to be enthralled. I didn’t want to look into his somber eyes and sink into that old feeling. Like he was my home.
I could have sworn I was over him. But that pull he had over me was still there. This, I told myself, was why I shouldn’t havepromised to go back to normal with him. This is why I should have kept my distance. Because what I felt for him was always stronger than my pride.
But, for the first time since I’d been home, he was looking at me the same way I was looking at him. Carefully. Like we’d forgotten and were scared to remember.
“I’ll buy you a dress then,” he said, stepping back and breaking the spell. I took a deep breath like a wave had spun me around and I was reaching the surface at the last possible moment.
“You can’t buy me a dress,” I told him. “That’s charity. I need to earn the money.”
He shrugged. “Fine, I’ll give you a dollar more an hour. Will that work?”
“Now I feel funny for asking.”
