Chapter 6
6
Nick
I looked up from under the hood of the car I was working on and spotted Nora walking across the town square.
Again.
True to her word, after dropping her off yesterday and heading back to my garage, I’d watched all day as she visited store after store, looking more dejected after each visit.
Not that I’d been watching her all day. Not like that.
It was just jarring. To look up and see her there when it felt like she’d been gone for so long. It was like looking at a ghost. Or a memory. But that was her, stomping across the square in jeans and a tight purple sweater and muttering to herself.
I’d forgotten how beautiful she was. Dark hair that fell just around her shoulders, always a little wavy like it had a life of its own. Cute little pug nose dotted with freckles from growing up along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
And her eyes. Dark rich brown that would cut right through a man’s bullshit.
She wasn’t the girl I knew. This version of Nora was grown up, heartbroken and life sick. The essence of her – of joy and amusement and delight – that typically danced around her like fireflies on a hot summer night, seemed faded.
This version of Nora didn’t skip or hop when she was excited. She didn’t laugh like the world was the funniest thing ever. There wasn’t a smile curving the corners of her mouth. She wasn’t making everyone around her brighter and better just because she was there.
That’s what I remembered most about her and what I missed when she was gone. How she used to make me feel. Like I was infected with her joy. Happier because she was happy around me. I couldn’t acknowledge it to myself, not until she’d left for college, then France. I’d been addicted to that feeling.
I’d counted on it like I did Birdie’s unwavering faith and Antony’s steady guidance.
Now, after all these years, I could look up and see her walking across town like she’d never left. But she’d changed.
Had been changed by some asshole con man who had stolen her joy.
Although, I’d taken the first crack at it, hadn’t I?
I never thought about the night she showed up at my place. It was a memory I’d shut away, like all my bad memories. Not because I’d been embarrassed for her or myself, but because of that one thing she’d said that stuck in my chest like a fucking meat cleaver.
We’re in love, Nick. We have been…forever.
It’s not that I believed it to be true, not in the way she meant it, but I should have had more respect for the bond we had always shared. I should have let her down easy, instead of acting like an idiot.
Because we were two others, who had found our families, there had always been this weird…connection.
It had been there the moment Antony had dropped me off at Roy and Vanessa’s because they were the only certified foster parents in Calico Cove. And Nora had been there to greet me.
She’d been a kid, a baby really, and somehow she’d seen me for exactly who I was, a lost fucking soul. Nora had walked up to me, taken my hand, blinked those big brown eyes at me and said it was okay. We would play together. It was the first time I felt like someone looked right at me and didn’t flinch.
My mom left me. My dad beat the shit out of me. Antony and Birdie worried and felt responsible for me. But Nora, she’d just wanted someone to play dolls with her. So I did. And it had been the most normal part of my life back then. The most normal part of my life for years.
Maybe I should have said some of those things on that night, explained to her that it wasn’t a romantic love, but a…I don’t know.
Another kind of love.
Maybe she would have forgiven me sooner instead of shutting me out of her life for six years, if I’d been kinder and less dismissive.
“That face looks like woman problems.”
I jumped at the sound of the voice behind me and hit my head on the raised car hood. “Geezus fuck, Wyatt! What the hell are you doing sneaking up on me?”
I eased out from under the hood and glared at my…Wyatt. My…brother. Fuck. I could not get used to that word. He wore sweatpants and Timberland boots and a long-sleeved thermal henley that gave him a mountain man look. The beard helped. Honestly, if you didn’t know the guy, you’d avoid him on the street. Dude was kind of scary.
But he’d attached himself to me in a way that made zero sense. The guy had a brother. He had a hot fucking wife he was madly in love with. He’d probably have a million kids soon. Why was the guy trying so hard to get me to be his family?
“Not sneaking. Standing. Your shop’s open.” He pointed at the big open bays.
“Don’t you have a home you need to get back to?”
I knew about his retirement. Had seen it on ESPN. But he still had to have a home in some other part of the country.
“Nope. Truth is, I’m thinking of checking out Calico Cove for a future home.”
“Why?” I asked, exasperated. First his brother Liam moves here for the summer only to fall in love with Calico Cove and buy a place, and now Wyatt, too? How many Locke brothers did one town need?
“My family is here,” he said simply. “Syd doesn’t have any of her own, so we’re thinking the east coast instead of the west coast.”
Family. This fucking guy.
“Free country,” I said, not rising to the bait.
“Yep. So who’s the girl?” he asked with a chin nod in the direction of Nora, who was just now pulling open the door of Petite III.
She couldn’t boil water, so I knew she wasn’t planning on cooking. A waitressing job made sense. Jolie’s place was always packed year round as people from out of town came to taste her cooking.
I glared at Wyatt as I reached for a rag to wipe the grease from my hands. “We call them women now.”
“Sorry, couldn’t tell from here how old she is.”
“Old enough,” I muttered. Not eighteen anymore. A whole different person than the girl I’d known. Someone who had lived in Paris, made a fortune, lost a fortune. Gotten played. Gotten…
Do. Not. Go. There.
“What do you want, Wyatt?”
“I was hoping you could hook me up with a rental. I want to check out the area, look at some property. Liam said you keep a few spare cars in the shop to rent.”
“You can’t borrow one of your brother’s cars?” I asked, forcing myself not to watch Petite III’s door. An early departure would not be a good sign, but if she was in there longer, maybe she was getting interviewed.
Wyatt scowled. “You don’t know my brother very well, yet. Asshole was never one for sharing. Ever.”
I had no idea if that was true or not. Or if this was just an excuse so Wyatt could stop at the garage. The guy was relentless trying to get to know me. Whatever. If I gave him the keys to a car, he’d leave. Which was all I wanted.
If he left, then maybe I could catch Nora leaving Petite. See how she made out. Maybe I could take her to Pappas for breakfast or something. We used to do that all the time. She’d stop by the garage and tell me it was time to take a break. We’d either hit Birdie’s truck or Pappas. I’d sit across from her while she selected only the crispiest fries from our shared order and listen to her as she told some story. About her friends, her siblings, her mom and dad. The story would be some stupid thing, but she’d make it funny. Or dramatic. Nora was a gifted story teller, which made her rise on social media totally logical.
It had been so easy between us back then.
So totally fucking innocent too.
Nora had never once, God, it hurt to think the word, but she’d never tried to seduce me. Show off her body or twist her finger in her hair or talk about anything remotely suggestive, like some women did to get a man to think about sex.
Because it was not hard to get a man to think about sex.
But until she was eighteen, Nora had never pulled any of that flirty shit.
Which was what made her showing up at my place such a shock. I hadn’t seen it coming…her crush on me.
Why was I dwelling on this? I didn’t need to go back to that night. I never went there. It was just because she was home and I…
“Are you having some kind of stroke or something?” Wyatt asked, leaning down to look at my face.
I shook myself loose from the thoughts of her and that night. “No. I’m not. I’m just weighing the consequences of giving you one of my cars.”
“You know who you sound like?” Wyatt asked with a smile that told me exactly who I sounded like.
“Don’t-”
“Liam. Just like Liam. You weren’t good at sharing when you were a kid either, were you?”
“I didn’t have anything to share,” I said and walked back to the office.
“How many cars does this place hold?” Wyatt asked, following me.
“Why do you care?” I asked.
“Because it’s impressive what you’ve done here and I just want to know about it,” Wyatt said like it was no big deal. Honestly, the guy had a way of making me feel like the asshole.
“The garage can hold three cars. The lot can hold up to another fifteen.”
“And you live upstairs?” Wyatt asked and I nodded. We walked past the parts I kept stored in the back.
“Convenient,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of me or not.
I opened the door to the office and turned on the light. I immediately wanted to turn it off again and go back to ignoring the unholy mess.
“Holy fuck,” Wyatt grunted. “This is your office?”
“Shut up, man. I’m a little behind.”
Wyatt walked around me to the desk which was overflowing with billing that I just couldn’t get to.
Which translated to Didn’t want to get to, because billing sucked and I hated it.
“A little behind? Dude, that looks like an entire season behind. How do you make any money if none of the bills go out?”
“I’m not a stud hockey player, but I do okay.”
The truth was, I raked in money. Being the only competent mechanic for a large population that liked their old trucks and new EVs, I had more business then I could handle and more money than I knew what to do with. It was something I planned to talk to Antony about when he and Birdie got back from the west coast. They were overseeing the restaurant this fall but would be home for the holidays.
Maybe it was time to start thinking about buying a house, investing in the stock market, shit like that.
Wyatt grunted. “I’m not a stud hockey player anymore either. That’s my brother. But I know a mess when I see one. You need help.”
Wyatt reached to push a file folder that had slipped into the old office chair back onto the stack on the desk.
“Don’t,” I cried, but it was too late. The entire pile of bills and invoices and accounting bullshit started sliding to the floor.
“Jesus,” he said, and with the reflexes and giant wingspan of a professional athlete, he grabbed the whole mountain slide and stopped it from landing on the floor. “Nick,” he said and I thought about turning off the light and leaving him in the office.
It would be funny.
It would be the kind of thing Liam would do to him.
The kind of shit brothers pulled on each other.
Yeah, as soon as the thought entered my head I got rid of it and pulled some of the files out of his arms and stacked them back on the desk. He took what was left and stacked them on the floor.
“Honestly, Nick. You need help in here.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I opened the second drawer from the bottom, and pulled out a set of keys. I tossed the set to him and wasn’t surprised that he picked the key chain out of the air. “It’s a 97 Chevy truck with a ton of miles, but she runs just fine.”
“She?”
“All my cars are women. That one is Betty.”
Wyatt smirked.
“Which one is named after the girl, sorry, the woman, you couldn’t take your eyes off earlier?”
See, this. This was why I did not want brothers in my life.
I gave him my best scowl, but Wyatt only tilted his bearded face back and laughed.
“Brother, you can’t out glare me. I am the king of glares. I was just asking a question based on an observation.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Nora is the daughter of the foster family who originally took me in when I showed up in Calico Cove.”
“I thought the Renards took you in,” Wyatt said with a frown.
“They adopted me, but when I first showed up I needed to stay with a family that was already certified to foster. That was the Barnes. Nora isn’t…” I wasn’t sure why I hesitated. Nora’s lineage was no secret. It just felt like I was sharing something with him. Something personal. Something that mattered. And everything about Nora mattered to me. “Nora isn’t Roy and Vanessa’s biological child. Roy had a cousin who overdosed and he was her closest relative, so he took Nora in.”
“Oh, man. Sorry to hear that. That’s a tough break.” Something in Wyatt’s voice, the sincere sympathy, or empathy, I didn’t know, but it put a crack in me.
“Nora was just a baby,” I continued, when I hadn’t meant to. “She doesn’t remember her mother at all. Roy and Vanessa are the only parents she’s ever known. And they’re good people.”
“Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Remember Mom. At all.”
There were times I thought I did. Hazy feelings of someone softer than my father, but nothing substantial. I shook my head. “No. I was too young when she left.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought maybe you’d have an impression of her, a sense.”
I scoffed. “My first sense of things was being fucking hungry.”
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say that. I did not share that part of my life with anyone. I certainly wasn’t sharing it with someone who was committed to feeling guilty about something he had absolutely no control over.
“Nick-”
I put up my hand to cut him off. “Don’t. I don’t talk about the past. You want to show up in town and tell me you’re looking for a place to live? Fine. I’ve got no particular beef with you. Calico Cove is a nice town because people around here mind their own business.”
That wasn’t true at all. This town loved being in each other’s business. But I was trying to keep this man – who was determined to be a brother – at arm’s length.
He looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he took a deep breath and nodded. Which frankly, in the limited way I knew Wyatt Locke, was a major win for me. I almost felt bad.
“Okay,” he finally said. “I get it. But I’m not done trying to get to know you. I don’t give up easily.”
Get to know me? I snorted. “Good luck with that.”
I led him out of the bay to the side lot where I kept my loaner cars. I pointed out the old Chevy truck.
“You sure it runs?” He asked.
“You scared of rust?” I asked. Because Betty had a lot of rust, but she ran just fine. “Call me if you have trouble.”
He grunted, which I was pretty sure meant “you’ll be hearing from me soon, then.” And climbed into the driver’s side. “Hey,” he pointed over my head to the town square. “There goes your friend. She looks happier now. Must have gotten some good news.”
I turned right around. Wyatt and Betty totally forgotten.
Nora – with her happy back. She was smiling and speed-walking through the square, around people and past dogs, joy trailing her like fairy dust because that’s how she used to move through the world. Like there wasn’t enough time to get it all done. All the living and trying things and telling stories and laughing.
So yes, it was good news.
“Bring the truck back in one piece or you pay for it,” I told him over my shoulder and jogged over to intercept Nora at the far end of the square.
“Hey, Nor,” I called out.
She stopped and smiled at me. A whole smile. A Nora smile, like I hadn’t seen in years. Like I was the sun and moon and Christmas and all good things in her universe rolled into one. My friend, that smile said. You are my best friend.
The breath locked in my chest and my heart stuttered over a full beat.
I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten how that smile made me feel.
She made me feel seen. Like I never had before or since.
And then…it was gone. Like she reeled herself in. Checked all her impulses. Replaced joy with politeness. As if she suddenly realized where she was and who I was and how I’d broken her heart.
It gutted me.
She’s the one who wanted to pretend that night never happened, but it didn’t look like she was doing it. “Hi Nick,” she said, cool and casual, like I was a friend she never really liked.
“You look happy.”
Her smile flashed again. “I got a job. At Petite III.”
“You’re going to do videos for her?” I asked, because it made the most sense. She could talk about how Jolie’s French food stacked up against the food she’d actually had in France. It was kind of an awesome idea.
“No,” Nora frowned. “I mean, it’s what she wanted at the beginning, but I told her I was done with media influencing.”
“She offered you something else?”
“Sort of. I mean. I kind of…talked her into it.” That smile on her face was starting to fade.
“That’s good,” I said, because I couldn’t stand to see any more smiles fade from her face.
“It is good,” she said, throwing her shoulders back. “Jolie’s been looking to add another seating during the off season to keep her profit margins up, so she needs another host. And the best part is, I can use a little of my French since the entire menu is Nouveau French cuisine.”
I’d eaten at Petite plenty of times. I had no idea what Nouveau French cuisine was, I only knew I’d liked everything I’d ever had there.
Petite was my go-to place when I wanted to impress a date and it worked because I usually got laid after. I considered the last time I’d been there. It had been months.
Stephanie? Sarah? Susan?
Oh shit, I hated that. Hated that I’d forgotten the name of a woman I’d had sex with. She wasn’t local. I’d met her at a bar three towns over, because meeting women outside of Calico Cove was easier. Fewer eyes on me. Less pressure.
Of course, it didn’t stop anyone from asking me when I was going to settle down and get married. Have kids.
I’d stopped going to therapy a long time ago, something that Antony thought was shortsighted of me, but the last few sessions had revolved around my inability to form meaningful attachments to women that might result in a long-term relationship.
My answers were always the same:
I’m busy with the garage.
Owning my own business takes up most of my time and energy.
I won’t settle down until the business is more established.
I just haven’t met the right person.
They were all totally legitimate answers, but my therapist didn’t buy any of it. He kept pressing me to dig deeper, ask more of myself. So I did the only rational thing and I stopped going.
“That’s great,” I said in response to her good news. “Let’s celebrate. I’ll take you to Pappas for breakfast.”
“Uh…”
“You don’t have an excuse,” I pointed out wryly. “Normal Nick and Nora used to go for breakfast all the time. Normal Nick and Nora ate breakfast and talked about shit.”
She huffed. “No, Normal Nora talked about shit and Normal Nick sat across from her wolfing down scrambled eggs.”
“I could do eggs,” I said.
“I’m sure. Fine. You can tell me about your early morning customer.” She nodded with her chin over my shoulder. I turned around and saw Wyatt waving from the Chevy.
“He’s checking out the area,” I said, more thoughtfully than I realized. What would it mean if both he and Liam settled into Calico Cove? There would be no escaping them. It’s not like they were easy to ignore.
“Checking out the area because he’s interested in moving here?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe. You said eggs and now I’m hungry. Let’s go.”
“Hungry is your constant state of being, but I just happen to feel the same. Being gainfully employed creates an appetite.”
We walked the short distance across town to Pappas. Madame Za and her nurse spent an hour every day at the bench where she used to read fortunes. She mostly fed the birds and chatted with people walking by. She was a Calico Cove fixture.
“Oh. Nick and Nora together again.” Madame Za said as we got close. The wind blew one of her scarves over her face and she pulled it out of the way. Her eyes were still lined with heavy eyeliner. Next to me, Nora flinched. I had a half memory of Nora being mad about a fortune Madame Za gave her a million years ago. It was all bullshit if you asked me, but no one ever did.
“Hello Madame Za,” I said. I had to stop and kiss her papery cheek because Birdie was practically a daughter to her and I looked out for her when Birdie and Antony were on the west coast. “You good?”
“It does my heart so good to see you two together again. Honestly, the energy of the whole town felt wrong when you two weren’t speaking with each other.”
“Who says we weren’t speaking with each other?” Nora asked and Madame Za shot her a look.
“Now that you’re together again, everything feels different, doesn’t it?” She asked.
“Feels the same to me,” I said, and side-stepped her.
She grabbed my arm and when I turned, her smile was gone. She shook her head and chills ran down my spine.
“What you want has always been right in front of you,” she whispered as I pulled my arm free.
“Uh, thanks Madame Za,” I said and I pushed us forward.
We reached the diner and I stepped in front of Nora to open the door. Lola, as always, was behind the counter.
“Baby!” Lola called and came around the corner. “I heard you were home. Come, give me a hug.”
“Hi, Aunt Lola,” Nora said as she hugged her aunt.
“Lola, you’re going to squeeze her to death,” I warned.
“It wouldn’t be the worst way to go out,” Nora said, her face in Lola’s hair. “She always smells like the beach.”
“Excuse me, my baby is home from France and I’m going to spoil her,” Lola said. “Also, you need to come out to the house. Jackson and the boys are going to want to catch up too.”
The boys, her cousins Connor and Jon.
“Sure. Absolutely.” There was a tic in Nora’s cheek. It was small but I saw it. This was bothering her.
“Okay, take a booth. Nick, I know what you want. Nora, bagel and cream cheese?”
“No, I’ll have what Nick’s having.”
“My bagels don’t compare to fancy baguettes, huh?” Lola teased. “Eggs it is.”
We took our usual booth and I slid in opposite her.
“Okay, talk,” I said.
“Like on demand? Am I just supposed to perform for you? Make up stories out of thin air?” The sun came through the big windows and covered her in warm bright light that made her glow. It sparkled in her hair and in her eyes and I sat back and enjoyed her.
“No, you’re supposed to tell me why you don’t want to go over to your aunt’s and see your cousins. Lola and Jackson are your second family.” A server dropped off ice water and we both took sips.
“Of course I want to see them.”
“You have a tell, Nor. I know when you’re lying.”
She spun her glass in careful circles. “I’m not lying. I’m hedging. It’s totally different.”
“Talk,” I said again.
She leaned back against the booth, her shoulders slumped. “It’s not exactly easy to be back here, you know. Every time I run into someone, I know they’re dying to ask about what happened. Dying to ask how I could have been so stupid. Humiliations galore.”
“Nor, these people love you. No one is judging.”
She was saved from having to answer when Lola appeared with two plates, piled high with fluffy scrambled eggs, bacon and a side of whole wheat toast.
“Enjoy,” she crooned before heading over to another table.
“Okay, that’s a lot of food,” Nora said, looking down at her plate. “I keep forgetting how big American breakfasts are.”
“You didn’t have to order it,” I said, lifting a fork to my mouth. I was trying to push her to answer me honestly.
“I’m re-assimilating. Lola wasn’t far off. Eating any bread in the States is a little painful. I’m not saying this about all things, but when it comes to bread, the French just do it better.”
“You didn’t have to come home,” I said.
“Wrong,” she corrected me, with a little bite in her voice. “Financially, emotionally and in every other way, I needed to come home.”
“Okay, so let’s do it then.”
“Do what?” she asked, looking confused.
I pointed a piece of bacon at her. “Get it out of the way. You do it once with me, then it won’t be so hard with the next person.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Nick, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Tell me the story,” I said, I wiped my hands and pushed my plate out of the way. “Not the glossed over version. The real one. Tell me how you could have been so stupid.”