Page 52 of Take Me Tender

“Nikki, come here.”

This time she followed Cassandra’s direction. She headed toward the klatch of knitters and they made a place for her so she could see what was on the table. “It’s a page proof,” Jay said, coming up behind her. “For next month’s dead-tree version of NYFM.”

It wasn’t glossy like a magazine page, but the layout and the font were the same as she’d seen in NYFM. The headline read, “In Search of the Perfect Woman.” Her photo ran beneath it, something taken at that restaurant opening because she was wearing Cassandra’s eye-popping dress. Next to her picture was one of Jay. Stamped over his face, the words “TAKEN” in red.

Taken. Taken. In print!

“I was getting desperate to find you, Nikki,” he said, his breath stirring her hair.

Desperate? Jay Buchanan desperate over a woman?

“I was counting on this to flush you out.”

He’d listed a cash reward for tips leading to her…oh, God…leading to her marriage to him.

Taken?

Desperate?

Marriage?

The blood drained from her face, then filled back up, leaving her flushed and hot. Nikki’s heart felt weightless as she slowly, slowly turned to confront Jay. This man had been desperate to find her the last four weeks and now she could see each lonely hour on his face. Jay Buchanan, this beautiful, golden, worried-looking man wanted her. Wanted her. Her heart bobbed around in her chest as disbelief gave way to effervescent delight.

Taken.

Marriage.

…And a reward?

She had bills piling up, despite her emergency surgery fund, and Oomfaa, who’d tipped Jay off to her whereabouts, got paid exorbitant sums per movie.

Nikki licked her lips. “What would it take for me to get that reward?”

The look of apprehension on his face fled. Suddenly, smug replaced the tired lines. She should hate it—no, she shouldn’t. Because smug and arrogant and confident were as much Jay Buchanan as everything he knew about her. It would be a challenge to keep him on his toes, but really, who else had what it required to do it? From the beginning, it had been her noble—no, holy—purpose.

“You know what it will take, baby. Accept me. Accept and believe and trust that I love you. That I will for the rest of our lives.”

Oh. Yeah. He did know her.

She looked at the knitters surrounding her, noticing how closely they stood to each other, at how closely they stood to her in her time of need. New friends. Cassandra, her eyes tearing up, rubbed Nikki’s shoulder in that maternal way she had, and to Nikki, it was the touch of her own mother, of all mothers.

And so it wasn’t just the love she saw on Jay’s face, but the strength she gained from her teary-eyed sister, as well as the others who stood around her, that provided her with the ultimate courage. She remembered thinking about telling Fern that some women gave too much of themselves to be with a man. And then there was her, who always gave too little in order to protect herself. With the feminine support she felt from this small crowd, maybe she could give everything, and trust her heart, like her body had always trusted Jay.

“I want to take care of you, Nikki,” he said, his voice gentle. “I love you.”

Heartbreaking. Heart-mending. He’d done the first and was accomplishing the second. He’d healed so much of her.

“I—” she started. But love was the expected word, and in her case, not really the most important one. She’d share it with him later, privately, when there was nothing between them but skin. Now she counted on him to know her well enough—and, oh, he did—to realize how momentous her next words really were. She held out her hand to him, because being the one to reach out at this moment seemed important, too. “I need you, Jay.”

Tears stung her eyes. When his fingers closed over hers, so strong, so male, so understanding, Nikki cried.

Epilogue

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, PLAYWRIGHT AND POET

Three weeks later…

Nikki sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Cassandra at Malibu & Ewe, in expectation of another blowout crowd. After the public resolution of her romance with Jay during Knitters’ Night, Tuesday evenings in the shop were more popular than ever. It didn’t seem possible that they’d find a way to top that spectacle, though.

She frowned down at the yarn and needles in her lap. “Are you sure about this? Do you really think I’m ready?”

Cassandra nudged her good knee with her own. “More important, do you think you’re ready?”

“Well, it’s not a boyfriend sweater. And for a fiancé, everyone says the curse doesn’t apply.”

“You should probably take off your ring anyway, in case it gets caught in the yarn. I’ll sacrifice and wear the big rock for you tonight.”

“Um, no.” Nikki laughed and looked down at her left finger. It was kind of a big rock, but Jay had picked it because he said he wanted to weigh her down in case she tried running from him again.

That so wasn’t going to happen.

She’d started a new trend and given him an engagement ring, too. No sense in putting off reinforcing that “taken” status, was there? Without hesitation, he’d agreed that what was good for the goose was good for the gander.

God, she loved the man.

“You’re going all teary again,” Cassandra warned. “Do I have to break out the Kleenex box?”

“No—”

But she was already pressing something into her hand. It was white and soft, and threaded with a thin, pink satin ribbon. “A garter!” Nikki said, recognizing the lacy band. “You knit a garter.”

“It’s never too early to start on the traditions.”

Delighted with the pretty thing, Nikki impulsively leaned over and kissed the other woman’s cheek. The tears were in Cassandra’s eyes now.

The bells on the door rang out. They both quickly looked over, maybe equally eager to keep these new emotions in check. The long-legged stranger walking into the shop provided quite the distraction.

She wore expensive clothes. Nikki didn’t recognize designers, but she did recognize wealth, and this woman was dressed like authentic big bucks. Her pants outfit wasn’t the usual eclectic, casual Malibu chic, but something more classic. The woman herself was a classic. It was hard to determine her age, not with her caramel-colored hair sleekly pulled back at her nape to reveal a pair of diamond earrings that were tasteful but glittered as expensively as the rest of her.

She hesitated a few feet into the shop, then came a bit closer to Nikki and Cassandra. Close enough to reveal the color of her eyes. Blue and green.

Beside her, Cassandra stiffened. Then she popped from the couch cushions like a jack-in-the-box. “Hello, hello,” she said. “Welcome. I’m Cassandra Riley, the owner of Malibu & Ewe.”

“Hello.” The blue and green–eyed woman gave a small smile and then her gaze shifted past Cassandra to Nikki.

Cassandra noticed the direction of her gaze. She half-turned. “And this is Nikki, Nikki Carmichael, my—” Her voice broke, and her face flushed.

“Her sister,” Nikki finished for Cassandra. She smiled for both the women, but her gaze was fixed on the blue and green eyes that she usually only saw in her own mirror. “We’re sisters.”

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