He ran his thumb across his fingertips remembering how close he’d come to kissing her yesterday. Clearly a dozen days of keeping his distance had done nothing to kill his attraction. Like that was a surprise.
But wouldn’t acting on his desire make him no better than Karl Tischel and the other creeps? Worse actually, since a week ago he’d been telling her he didn’t trust her. She deserved more respect than that.
“This is one of our prime corner units,” Nikko was saying as he unlocked the door. “The natural lighting is out of this world.”
Patience let out a small gasp as they stepped inside. “This place is amazing!” A poker-faced negotiator, she was not.
She was right, though. The condo was nice. Hardwood floors, tons of windows.
“The open floor plan makes this a great place for entertaining,” Nikko told them.
Stuart was more entertained by the sparkle in Patience’s eyes as she ran a hand across the top of the kitchen island. “Everything is so clean and new.”
“Top-of-the-line, too,” Nikko told her. “The cabinets are solid cherry.”
“There’s a double oven! And a wine cooler.” She smiled at Stuart. “Piper would go crazy if she saw this place.”
“You need to check out the terrace. Wraps around the whole unit. Gives you another two hundred square feet. And the best part is, you don’t have to share with the other tenants.” The realtor slid open one of the window panels and stepped outside. “Check out this view,” he said to Patience.
Stuart guided Patience out into the hot, humid air, resisting the urge to place his hand against the small of her back. The way her shirt fluttered when she walked suggested the material was light and thin. If he touched her back, he’d feel straight through to her skin and that would open up far too many problems.
“Great view, huh?”
It was nice; you could see Boston Common in the distance.
“Bet it’s great at night,” Patience remarked.
“Oh, at night it’s spectacular,” Nikko said. “There’s another door that leads out here from the master bedroom. You think the kitchen was a nice setup, wait till you see the bathroom. My own bathroom isn’t this fancy.”
The sales patter continued while Nikko led him back into the condo and down the hall. Stuart didn’t listen. A sales pitch was a sales pitch. All he wanted was a place to sleep that accrued a good return on investment.
Damn, but he’d grown jaded.
Once upon a time, he might have hunted for a home instead of an investment. When he was younger. Someplace like what he remembered sharing with his parents.
Of course, maybe things would be different if he were condo shopping with someone. Someone whose eyes sparkled with excitement.
The bathroom was impressive. Designer vanities, giant sunken tub in thecorner. “Beat’s Ana’s claw-foot tub, doesn’t it?” he said to Patience.
There was no answer.
“I think she stayed on the terrace,” Nikko remarked.
Indeed, when Stuart stepped through the bedroom slider, he found her in the same place as before, her attention fixed on some faraway point.
He had to stop and grab the railing as desire rolled through him. Why was keeping his distance a bad idea again?
It wasn’t until he walked closer that he saw the sadness behind the faraway gaze. “Everything all right?”
“Great,” she replied. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
He settled in next to her. “You tell me. You looked a million miles away.”
“I was thinking how you could fit my old apartment into this place’s living room.”
“It’s the lack of furniture. Makes the space seem bigger.”
“No, our apartment was that small.”
There was regret in her voice that didn’t belong. “Bet it was easy to clean,” he teased.
He got the smile he was hoping for. “Didn’t take long, for sure.”
Nor, Stuart bet, did the apartment ever feel empty and cold. “And, you had your sister.”
“True. I’d pick small over losing her in a second, even if she did take over the bathroom when she hit high school. There was only one electrical plug that could handle a blow-dryer,” she said when he chuckled. “For four years, I was lucky to get my hair dried in time for work.”
Patience would never believe him, but he envied her. Her closeness with her sister, that is. Despite everything the two of them had endured, they’d always had each other to cling to. He wished he had that kind of support. Sure, he had Ana, but their closeness hadn’t really developed until he came east for law school. Before that...well, no wonder Gloria was able to charm him blind.
Looking to the ground, he concentrated on plowing little piles of grit and dirt with his shoe. “My grandfather’s house was big,” after a moment. “It actually had wings.”
“You mean like in west wing, east wing—that sort of thing?”
“Uh-huh.” Though his attention remained on the ground, he imagined her eyes widening. “There were literally days when I wouldn’t see Grandpa Theodore even though we were in the same house.”
“Not at all?”
“Not unless I went looking for him.” Attempts that were met with varying degrees of success.
“I’m sorry.”
No, he didn’t want her sympathy any more than she did. “He was...busy,” he said too, to steal her word.
Patience slid her hand to the left until their fingers aligned, her little finger flush with his. “I understand.”
Yeah, she did, thought Stuart, but then he’d known as much for a while. Same way he knew that as lonely as his teenage years had been, they were a cakewalk compared to hers.
He itched to cover her hand with his and entwine their fingers. Would she pull away if he did?
“The view is irresistible, isn’t it?” Nikko stepped onto the terrace, making the decision for him. The realtor waved his phone. “Sorry. My wife couldn’t find the air pump. Don’t know why—the thing’s right in the center of the garage.”
“Are you telling this guy he needs to buy?” Nikko asked Patience.
She laughed. “I think that’s up to him.”
“Maybe, but I did bring you here for input. What do you think?”
“I think this is the most amazing apartment I’ve ever seen outside of Ana’s brownstone.”
“Those brownstones are great, but they come with their headaches. Like parking. Brownstones don’t come with parking,” Nikko said. “And did you see the cedar closet in the laundry area? Solid cedar, not veneer. A moth would need a drill to get at your winter wardrobe. To put something like that in custom would cost you a fortune.”
As opposed to spending a fortune on a condominium that already had one. Stuart was about to reply when he realized Nikko had been directing his remarks to Patience. He was assuming it would be her wardrobe hanging in the cedar closet.
Patience, staying here. The idea didn’t strike him nearly as improbable as it should. On the contrary, the longing from earlier reared again, tendrils spreading up and across his chest. He hadn’t realized until just now that when he left Ana’s brownstone, he would be leaving Patience behind. Strange as it seemed, he’d grown used to sharing a space with her. He would miss her presence. That’s what the ache in his chest was all about. He was going to miss having company.
“All I’m saying is that most people would have at least slept on the decision,” Patience said when they got back to the brownstone.
“I don’t know why you’re so surprised. You said yourself the place was amazing.”
“It is. But I didn’t mean for you to whip out your checkbook and write a down payment.” Last thing she wanted was the responsibility of having influenced his decision. Picking up Nigel’s dish, she headed to the cupboard. “How do you know there isn’t someplace better out there?” she asked, pulling out a can of Salmon Delight.
“There might be, and if I were looking for the perfect apartment, that would be important, but I’m not. This place is close to my office, and a good investment. I had pretty much made up my mind to buy if the space was halfway decent.”
If that was so, why invite her?
“I really did want a second opinion,” he replied when she asked. “If both of us liked the space, then I knew the condo was a winner.”
“Oh, sure, because I’ve so much experience buying luxury property. You do realize when I said it was the most amazing place outside of the brownstone that it was also the only other high-end place I’ve ever looked at.”
“You sell yourself short. You zoned right in on the areas I wanted an opinion on. The laundry room, the kitchen, the living space.”
All the cleaning woman areas of expertise. She winced and tried to take the compliment the way he meant. “The kitchen was nice.”
“So I could tell by the way your eyes lit up.” Okay, now she was blushing. He was studying her eyes?
“Here I thought I was being so calm and sophisticated.”
“You were being yourself, which—before you make a comment—is exactly what I wanted. You’ll argue otherwise, but you’re not very good when it comes to hiding your thoughts.”