Page 52 of One Hot Rumor

"That's okay." I watch his face while he steers the car around a corner onto a quaint street lined with various kinds of businesses—a solicitor's office, an estate agent's office, an antiques shop, and more. "Why do you feel like you're not as good as your family?"

He winces just a touch, but I can't tell if it's discomfort or simply because he's concentrating on parking the car along the street. Parallel parking makes me nervous, but I wouldn't have thought Nick would feel that way. He's confident, and if not fearless, at least willing to take risks like going back to school at forty years old. So that expression is probably discomfort about my questions.

"We're here," he says and climbs out of the car.

Before I can open my door, he rushes around to my side and opens it for me. He even offers me his hand to help me climb out.

"Thank you, Nick," I say. "You really are an old-fashioned gentleman."

"You're confusing me with Richard. I'm the man who put his 'big feet' on your desk and flirted with you shamelessly."

"Sure, but I'm the woman who literally ripped the shirt off your body."

A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth but doesn't quite form. "Sometimes I don't know why you're here with me. A summer affair doesn't obligate you to meet my family."

"Who said it's a summer affair? We're dating, Nick, remember?"

He lifts his shoulders in a halfhearted shrug.

I want to talk about this more, to make him feel better. Seeing him anxious and full of… Well, it's not quite self-loathing. But he does have some self-esteem issues.

"Do you want to go inside?" he asks, waving toward the building behind us.

"Yes, of course." I finally turn to look at the building, and I can't help smiling. "Nick's Nirvana? No wonder everyone thinks you give happy endings here."

"It's a day spa, not a brothel."

"Sorry, I was making a joke. A bad one, apparently." I slip my hand into his. "Show me your baby."

"You're wanting me to hold a mirror up to your face?"

Snarky, flirtatious Nick is back. I'm glad for that, but I still need to convince him to talk to me, seriously talk to me, about why he thinks his brother and his parents are more worthy of admiration than he is.

I bump my shoulder into him. "Show me your business, Nick. That's your baby."

"No, it's my livelihood."

He pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and leads me to the front door of the spa. The words Nick's Nirvana are painted on the door in an elaborate, sprawling script. The same words appear on the big sign above our heads, the one affixed to the building. Both signs also list some of the services offered here—deep tissue massage, sports massage, underwater massage, steam rooms, facials, acupuncture, and Reiki. The signs also say "and so much more." Could that be what convinced people Nick is a gigolo? The horrible woman who started the rumor set things in motion, but then townspeople's imaginations took over and they wondered what the "and so much more" means.

That's no excuse, though. Ruining a man's life is unforgivable.

But this village looks like such a nice place.

Nick unlocks the door and ushers me inside.

The walls are painted in soothing shades of light blue and yellow accented with pale rose and soft green. Images of leaves and flower petals form a border along the tops of the walls and snake down here and there as if they're reaching out to the chairs positioned beneath them. We walk past the front desk and through a doorway into a hall.

"These are the relaxation suites," Nick tells me. "I'd first thought to call them treatment rooms, but that didn't sound welcoming."

"Yeah, 'relaxation suites' is nicer."

"Each room has a specific purpose." He points to doorways as we pass them. "That's a Reiki suite. There's a massage room that can be used for any type of massage, except underwater. We have a special place for that."

While I follow Nick and listen to his explanations of each suite's purpose, I become more and more convinced that he is just as intelligent, accomplished, and determined as his brother and his parents. Nick has created a thriving business that offers all kinds of options in an environment that's designed to soothe. Upstairs, I see even more relaxation suites.

Nick leads me into his office. "This is where I do all the bloody annoying paperwork and accounting rubbish."

"You call it rubbish, but everything you've shown me and told me proves that you are an impressive businessman. You built this place from the ground up and made it successful."

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