He didn’t mind that. They sat on opposite sides of the table.
Nina began to tell him about the events that led to her abandoning her identity. She told him about her job, the unexpected promotion, and what her coworkers thought of her. Joe found himself growing angry on her behalf, especially when she revealed that her father had indeed organized the promotion for her. Didn’t anyone see the hardworking Nina who didn’t ask for any favors?
“So you just decided to stop off in Hartley?” he asked.
“Not exactly. Hartley happened because of a duck.”
He blinked at her. “A duck?”
“Yeah, a duck. I was driving around a corner and there it was right in the middle of the road. I swerved to avoid it and landed my car in water in some disused quarry.”
Joe caught his breath. He knew that quarry. The water was deep and dangerous. That explained the duckweed he’d seen in her hair the day they met. Thank God she’d survived. He made to reach for her hand but stopped himself.
“All I had was my phone,” Nina continued. “It seemed fate was giving me a chance to be someone else, someone ordinary. So I swapped my clothes for some I found on a clothesline and walked into town, where you mistook me for someone else.”
So much had happened since that first day they’d met.
“I don’t think you’ll ever be ordinary.”
She made a moue with her lips. “How is everyone in Hartley?”
“Good. I donated the clothes you left back to the thrift store. Mrs. Stewart was very sorry to hear you’d left. She wanted you to know that the charity stall made a huge profit, thanks to some French dresses.”
Her eyes grew misty, and she seemed to choke up.
He scrubbed a hand across his face as his heart began to beat faster. He’d come all this way to bare his soul to Nina, and even though she obviously didn’t share his sentiments, he was going to tell her anyway, because he had to get it off his chest, and what did he have to lose, anyway, if she was leaving tomorrow?
“Nina, I didn’t come here only to apologize. I came here to…to…” He shifted in his seat, aware that he was suddenly perspiring with stress.
She sat up, tense, her eyes glued on him. “Yes, Joe?” she whispered, and the husky uncertainty in her voice gave him the final spurt of courage he needed.
“I came here to tell you how I feel about you.” His throat constricted, and for a moment he was unable to talk. Nina’s face tightened; she seemed to be holding her breath.
“I love you, Nina.” The words rushed out of him in a flood. He blinked; she blinked.
“I’m sorry, can you say that again, please?” Tiny dots of pink appeared in her cheeks.
“I’m in love with you,” he slowly pronounced, his heart booming with each word. What a relief to let it out. All week the truth had been building up in him, and finally he could let it go like an avalanche.
The dots of pink spread across her cheeks. She looked so adorable, so beautiful. But he wouldn’t allow himself to reach out and hold her hands because he knew she didn’t feel the same way. He wasn’t going to let this become heavy and awkward. He’d treat it like some harmless fun.
“Yeah, it’s hilarious, isn’t it?” he said as a slow smile widened her lips and her eyes began to dance. “Me, the ‘no relationships’ guy, falling for a girl in just a few weeks. But don’t worry. I’m not here to ask you to run away with me or anything.”
Her gorgeous smile stuttered away. “But…why not?”
He faked a nonchalant shrug. “Because I know you have other priorities. I know you’re leaving for Palm Springs tomorrow.” The relief he’d felt at unburdening himself faded away. Why did he love the one woman he couldn’t have? Why did he love her despite knowing what she was doing?
“Oh.” Nina looked down at her hands, all the light in her face dimming.
He ached for her. “Nina,” he said urgently. “Don’t go to Palm Springs. Don’t work for your father. You deserve better than that. Go somewhere else, find another job, change your name if you have to. I know you, Nina Summers. You can succeed on your own. You don’t need to stick with your dad.”
She stared at him with dazed eyes. “But I have to. So that you can—”
“Have to?” He frowned at her. “Why? What does he have over you?” Then, the truth dawned sickeningly on him. “Wait. Are you going to Palm Springs in exchange for your dad not hounding me to sell anymore?”
She nodded, quiet, and Joe wanted to explode.
“How can he do that to you? And why the hell are you letting him! You’re not afraid of him. Why don’t you tell him to shove it?”
He was quivering with outrage, but she just sat there, big eyes fixed on him. “You can’t guess why, Joe?” A nervous smile tweaked at her lips.
He stared at her, too afraid to move as another truth hit him. “Oh my God. You love me, too.”
“Yes, you big dope,” she choked out.
The truth shone from her eyes, filling him with light. Tentative, afraid he was imagining this, he reached both hands across the table, and she met him halfway and curled her fingers around his. Her fingers were cold and trembling, but the love glowing in her face was hot and strong.
“I am a dope,” he said. “When your dad told me you were still working for him, I thought that meant you condoned his bullying tactics.”
She shook her head vehemently. “I was furious with him, and I told him exactly how I felt. You need to know that Perry worked on his own to put the squeeze on the banks and use your grandmother as leverage. But that doesn’t excuse my dad. And he wouldn’t stop pursuing you unless I agreed to continue working for him.”
She sighed in resignation, and the soft sound nearly tore Joe in two. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you work for him.”
“But I want your B&B to succeed. And I don’t want a megaresort spoiling Hartley.” She shrugged. “Besides, I only agreed to the Palm Springs job. It’ll be six months, tops.”
But he knew she was just putting on a brave front. “You’ll hate it. You hate it already. Admit it.”
She played with his fingers, and every touch sent warmth spinning through his veins. He gazed at her with growing awe. This spunky, sassy, sexy woman was in love with him, and even if their future was uncertain, one thing was clear. Before daybreak tomorrow they would find a quiet room to be alone, where they would forget about their problems and make love until they both couldn’t move.
Desire simmered in him as he eyed the outline of her breasts beneath the delicate silk. It had been too long since he’d felt her body sliding against his…
“Joe, pay attention.” Nina squeezed his fingers. “Stop staring at my breasts.”
He grinned at her. “I can’t help it.”
She wriggled in her seat, and he knew she was getting aroused, too. “I might have a solution to our problem.”
Do you live close by? he wanted to quip, but instead he nodded. “Yes?”
“You need a chunk of money to get your B&B up and running. I just happen to have some spare cash to invest. Seems like a no-brainer to me.”
He instantly drew his hands away from hers. “No way. I’m not taking money from you. Nope. Not gonna happen.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m not giving you the money, I’m investing it. Big difference.”
He sat back, still stunned by her offer. “But why?”
“Don’t you get it, Joe? I want to come back and settle for good in Hartley.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I really do. I want to build this bed-and-breakfast with you. I want it to be the best for miles around. I want to work until my muscles ache, and then I want to go home to your house and make love to you until your muscles ache, too. And I want to drink beer at the Comet with Vince and eat Sarah’s yummy food and visit your nonna and yak with Mrs. Stewart and jump into the sea with you every now and then.”
It sounded like a dream. An impossible dream, but boy, did he want to believe in it.
“Won’t you get bored?”
“Not if you wear those fancy pink rubber gloves every once in a while.”
“I’m serious,” he said, despite holding back a chuckle at the memory of the day they met. “Won’t you miss your city life, your friends and family?”
She shrugged lightly. “I’ll want to visit them, sure. So what?”
She made everything sound so easy and right and doable. If he let his imagination run free, he could see them working together as partners, relaxing as friends, pleasuring each other as lovers. In the near future he could even see himself getting down on one knee and asking her to marry him. Nina was the only woman he could imagine in his life, taking over his life.
He had to trust in her love. Had to risk his heart, everything, if he wanted her. And God, how he wanted her.
He stood and rounded the table to stand beside her, hands held out to her. “We’ll have to draw up a watertight agreement.”
An irresistible smile spread across her face as she clasped his hands and rose to stand in front of him. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. She’d called him sweetheart. He felt ten feet tall.