Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“The conquering hero!”
The moment Nick stepped into the pub that evening, his buddy, Wes, greeted him with a smirk.
“Is that sarcasm?” Nick asked good-naturedly. “Because I’ll have you know, the Sweetbriar Starbright Scavenger Hunt is a time-honored local tradition.”
Wes laughed. “And you’re all about tradition,” he teased. “So, what’s your angle?”
“No angle,” Nick insisted. “Just helping out a friend.”
He found himself searching the pub to see if Rose had arrived yet. She’d mentioned she might stop by for a drink, and sure enough, there she was: chatting to some friends by the fire, wearing a fuzzy red sweater that made him want to run his hands over her to see the way it felt.
The way she would feel.
“Aha.”
When he turned back to Wes, his friend was giving him a knowing look. “Now I see.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” Nick said evenly. “Beer?”
“Yes, but don’t think you can change the subject so easily.” Wes trailed him to the bar, where Nick flagged down the bartender for two pints of ale. “You’re asking for trouble, there.”
“I told you, she’s just a friend,” Nick insisted.
A friend who he’d thoroughly kissed, just the other night. And come perilously close to kissing again, sprawled on the frozen ice of Black Bottom Pond.
As if reading his mind, Wes gave him a warning look. “Rose isn’t like the other women you’ve been dating. She’s part of the town. Plus, she’s just coming off that breakup. She’s delicate. Vulnerable.”
Nick chuckled. “Rose? Delicate? The woman could take you out with just a snip of her pruning shears.”
“You know what I mean.” Wes paused, looking reluctant. “I just want you to think, that’s all, before you go doing something reckless. Nobody wants to see her get hurt.”
Nick smarted, feeling the comment like an insult. “I would never hurt her.”
“Not on purpose,” Wes agreed. “You just have a habit of keeping things casual, that’s all. And Rose? She’s not a casual kind of woman.”
Nick opened his mouth to defend himself, but they were interrupted by Wes’s girlfriend, Cassie. Or rather, his wife. The two of them had eloped in secret just a couple of weeks ago, showing up at the pub one Friday night and announcing they were married.
“What have I missed?” Cassie asked, greeting Wes with a kiss.
“Nothing much,” Nick said quickly. “Just basking in glory from my win today.”
“I heard!” Cassie laughed. “It’s looking like a cutthroat competition this year. Hank’s running a book on the results, everyone wants a piece of the action.”
“And you bet on me, of course,” Nick joked.
Cassie gave a mysterious smile. “I do have three brothers in the race, too,” she pointed out. “But you and Rose certainly are the dark horses of the competition. I wouldn’t have thought she had it in her.”
“Rose is full of surprises,” Nick said truthfully, glancing over at her again. Rose looked up, and caught his eye, her smile flickering in the firelight. “I wouldn’t bet against her, not with my last dime.”
There was a snort of laughter behind them, and he turned to find Scott leaning against the bar, nursing a bottle of beer. Light beer. Imported. Nick knew he shouldn’t judge a man by his drink, but he couldn’t help it. “Something funny?” he asked, his smile cooling.
“Not at all,” Scott replied, with an infuriating grin. “But today was a fluke. Don’t expect to take home the title. Rose doesn’t have the killer instinct,” he added. “She’s far too nice for that.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.” Nick kept his voice even.
Scott gave a patronizing smile. “Of course not. She’s a sweet girl, she just doesn’t have that… Spark.”
No spark? Nick almost laughed in the man’s face. He could still feel flames from Rose’s kiss, that’s how hot the woman blazed.
“You seem awfully sure of yourself,” Nick said, narrowing his eyes. “Care to stake a wager on it?”
Scott sized him up. “Why not? Say, fifty bucks.”
“Make it a hundred.” Nick could happily have bet ten times that against this asshole, but it was the principle of the matter.
“And loser volunteers to play Santa for the holiday parade.” Scott added with a smug grin. Clearly, he’d drawn the short straw and wanted to get out of it.
“Deal.”
They shook on it, Nick’s determination growing to show this guy just how wrong he was about the contest, and Rose.
Nick ordered a basket of fries, and he took his beer to join Rose in the corner. “Do I even want to know what you and Scott were shaking hands about?” she asked, as he pulled up a chair beside her.
“Nope.” He smiled. “Just know, there’s more riding on our victory than just bragging rights. And I have no desire to be wearing a fat suit and beard on Christmas Eve.”
Rose laughed. “The feeling’s mutual.”
He sat back, regarding her curiously. “Not to sound like a broken record, but you really have to share what you saw in the man. I thought you were a woman of taste and refinement.”
“I am!” Rose said, just as the food he ordered was delivered. “Ooh, fries,” she exclaimed, grabbing a handful and dunking them in mayo and ketchup.
He grinned. Refinement indeed.
“So…?” he prompted her, taking a gulp of his beer. His friendship with Rose had never been the kind for deep confessions, but the more time he spent with her, the less sense her relationship with Scott made.
Rose ate another French fry. “He’s not always so arrogant,” she said, glancing over to where Scott was cozied up with Becca across the bar.
“He can be sweet, and thoughtful, and he’s really insecure about his writing, under all the bluster.
And when we met, it felt like… Finally there was someone who really saw me.
Growing up here, everyone’s known me forever,” she explained.
“Which is great, don’t get me wrong. I love having my friends, and all this community, but sometimes it feels like…
They all take it for granted that they know exactly who I am. ”
Nick nodded. He could understand that. When he’d inherited his family’s company, he was suddenly the boss of people who’d known him his whole life—and still treated him like he was the kid that he used to be.
“So when Scott moved here, it was like a fresh start, in a way,” Rose said with a wistful smile. “I got to get to know him as the person I am now, and that felt… Freeing. Like he really understood me.”
Nick thought about Scott’s comments by the bar. He wasn’t so sure Scott could even begin to understand Rose’s depths, but he bit his tongue. She’d thought she’d found her happily-ever-after, only to have it suddenly melt away.
He knew how that felt.
“I can see how that would be appealing,” he said instead. “We all want to be seen. Connect.”
“Or, in your case, be adored and worshipped,” Rose quipped.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt.” Nick agreed with a smile.
“I guess it seems silly now,” Rose said, glancing over to Scott. “Like it should have been obvious from the start we weren’t meant to be.”
“You had no way of knowing,” Nick said, sympathetic. “Love can make you blind, even to what’s right in front of you.”
There must have been something in his voice, because Rose studied him. “Speaking from experience, there?”
Nick paused, taking another French fry as he deliberated how much to share.
He didn’t talk much about his life back in London, and definitely not about Megan.
But Rose’s smile was open and thoughtful, and so he found himself nodding.
“I was… Engaged,” he said, at last. “Madly in love, ready to say ‘I do,’ and all that jazz. And then I found out she was cheating on me. With her personal trainer at the gym. She couldn’t even give me a better story than that,” he quipped.
“It just had to be the cliché. Hans. The strapping German triathlete. How could I compare? I can’t even compete in one event, let alone three. ”
But Rose saw through his jokes to the echo of betrayal that was still lurking in his chest. “I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching over and softly squeezing his hand. “That must have been awful.”
He nodded. That period in his life was marked with heartbreak, bad choices, and too much whiskey. He’d come out the other side, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t left its scars. “Here’s to starting over,” he said, raising his glass.
“I’ll drink to that.” Rose clinked her drink to his.
“You know, Scott wasn’t the only new guy in town,” Nick found himself adding. “You got to make a brand new first impression with me, too.”
Rose smiled and drank her wine. “That’s different. We’re friends.”
Friends.
The word sank in, and Nick realized with great reluctance that Wes and his buddies were right. Rose was different. She wasn’t a no-strings kind of woman, she deserved more than that. And if he tried to explore this unexpected chemistry between them? It would only end in tears.
Tears, or her cursing his name. Either way, Nick could see the end before it had even begun. Because he’d been there too many times to count. Oh, he could date just fine: charm, and seduce, and sweep a woman off her feet, but after that…
He had no intention of speeding head first into heartbreak again. It was safer this way, keeping everything light. Short term. There was no pressure, no expectations, no blame when they went their separate ways.
No broken hearts, making him question everything he believed in.
No wondering if he was just destined to be alone.
Nick liked his bachelor routine just fine, and he had it down to an art, these days. There was no need to go screwing it up for anyone.
“Are you planning on eating that?” Rose asked, breaking through his thoughts. She was nodding at the last French fry.
“Hmm?” He said, still distracted.
“Too slow!” Rose swiped out from under him, and beamed in victory, and for a moment, he could almost forget the warnings about why he needed to keep his distance.
To have this woman smile at him like this forever…