One Night of Passion: The Night that Changed Everything / Champagne with a Celebrity / At the French Baron's Bidding. Kate HardyЧитать онлайн книгу.
over at nine to start work. She knew what he was thinking: it was always possible she would stop for a snack midmorning. He wouldn’t want to miss that.
There was no sign in the kitchen that Nick had eaten before he’d left. It was just the way she’d left it yesterday—as if he’d never been here, as if it had all been a dream.
It hadn’t been a dream. Perhaps, though, Edie thought, it was a wake-up call.
Maybe Mona was right. Now that her hormones had been reawakened, maybe it was time for her to stop sitting at home and waiting for the right man to appear in her life. After the disastrous end to her relationship with Kyle, she hadn’t sat home and moped. She’d gone back to the university where, a few months later, she’d met Ben.
He’d been the right man, just as clearly as Kyle had been the wrong one.
Maybe, now it was time to do that again. She had loved Ben, but she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone. Ben wouldn’t have wanted her to. So if Nick Savas was the wrong man, it was up to her to find the right one.
He’d done her a favor.
She kept telling herself that.
She even acted on it. When Derek Saito, a local English teacher, called that morning to ask if Mona would come and talk to the drama class when school started, she didn’t just take down the information and promise to check with Mona and call him back. She actually chatted with him.
Derek was Ronan’s age. They’d been in the same class in school. They’d been surfing buddies and had played tennis together. He’d been Ben’s friend, too. And she remembered well how kind he’d been to her after Ben’s death. Now, after she caught him up on what Ronan was up to, he asked about her.
“I’m all right,” she said. “Working hard.”
“Too hard, I’d guess.” Derek knew her well. “As usual.”
Every other time Edie had disagreed. But today she said, “You could be right. I need to get out more.”
There was a pause, as if Derek hadn’t been expecting that. But then he said, “So, want to go out with me?” There was a quick pause, then he said, “I’m not hitting on you, Edie. Not yet,” he qualified. “Ben was too good a friend. But there’s a concert on campus Friday night. Old-timers. Couple of eighties rock groups. Pure nostalgia … if you’re interested?”
It sounded like fun. And Derek was a friend. She doubted he’d ever be more than that, but why not go? What was there to stay home for?
“I’m interested,” she said. “Yes.”
“Great!” There was a sudden spike of enthusiasm in his voice. “Dinner first?”
“I could cook,” Edie offered.
“No. We’ll grab a burger or something. I’ll pick you up at six.”
“Shall I meet you at the restaurant? You wouldn’t have to come all the way out here.” Derek lived in town. The university was several miles on the other side.
“I’ll pick you up. My pleasure,” he said. “See you then.”
But the moment Edie hung up, she sat there a moment thinking, What have I done?
“Nothing,” she said out loud with all the firmness she could muster. “You’re going out with a friend. You’re getting a life. Mona will be proud,” she added wryly.
Speaking of whom, she had a few words to say to her mother. So she picked up the phone again and tried to ring Mona. Again she got no answer.
She’d already tried twice this morning, right after she’d come into the office. There had been no answer then, either, so apparently Mona was still out of range.
She supposed Nick had sent her an email to say he had decided not to do the renovations. Serve her right, Edie thought, for all her meddling.
But a part of her felt a little bereft because the adobe wouldn’t be salvaged. Going back over there with Nick had reminded her that once upon a time it had been a nice house, that she had made lots of good memories there. She had hoped to make more with Ben, though, to be honest she wasn’t sure that ever would have happened. She’d thought that maybe when they’d come back from Fiji they could have fixed it up as a vacation house, even though they’d probably live elsewhere close to wherever Ben worked—somewhere right on the water.
Now none of it would happen.
Life was what happened when you were making other plans. She thought it was John Lennon who had said that. But Mona said it, too. Her mother was just a fount of wisdom these days, Edie thought grimly.
At least she had made a plan. She was going to a concert with Derek on Friday. And this afternoon she was going to finish doing the filing she’d intended to do yesterday when Nick Savas had been the “life” that had interrupted her plans.
The phone rang. Edie picked it up. “Edie Daley.”
“Hey,” a gruff masculine voice she hadn’t expect to hear ever again said into her ear, “can you meet me at the adobe with your key? I’ve got tools and a truckload of roofing tiles to unload.”
SHE was still an annoyingly attractive woman, even when she stood there, hands on her hips, watching him back a truck down to the adobe, with her mouth opening and closing like a fish.
Nick gave her a wave and a cheerful grin through the open window as he passed. “Thanks.”
If she replied, he didn’t hear her. He didn’t see her mouth move, either, but he was focused on getting the truck as close to the house as he could. When he had, he flicked off the engine and hopped out.
Edie was still standing in the yard. “What are you doing?” she demanded as he walked toward her.
“Going to start with the roof. Figured while I was in town, I’d see if I could get what I needed.” He shrugged and spread his hands. “I did.”
He couldn’t get all of the tiles he would need. But he got all they had at the moment with more on order. By the time they arrived he would be ready for them. In the meantime he had to finish pulling the rest of the old roof off.
“You left,” Edie said.
“No. I went into town. Had to file permits, pick up materials.” He gave her his best sunny smile.
She still had her hands on her hips. “I thought you’d changed your mind and gone.”
He’d considered it. Half the night, which he’d spent either restlessly prowling the house or swimming laps in the damn pool to take the edge off his frustration, he’d thought about cutting his losses, packing his bags and hitting the road.
God knew he had plenty of other jobs he could be working on. He had commitments lined up for the next two years. He’d had to do some serious shuffling to fit Mona’s little ranch house in.
Which was why he was staying, he told himself. He’d said he would. But in fact he hadn’t told Mona yet. She was unreachable—off somewhere at the ends of the earth in Southeast Asia shooting a film. She wouldn’t even know he’d changed his mind until he was gone.
But he didn’t go—wasn’t going—because of the expressions on Edie’s face when she’d walked around the old adobe yesterday afternoon. He’d been examining the walls, the roof, the foundation. But even more, he’d been studying Edie.
Her face was such a mixture of wistfulness, yearning, happiness and sadness as she’d drifted through the rooms, run her fingers over the woodwork, stood staring out the windows, that he’d spent far less time going over the bones of the house and far more time watching her.
And