Chapter 5
NICK
We’d obviously interrupted a private conversation. Gabi casually averted her eyes as we approached. Summer grinned as her gaze wandered down to the unbuttoned top of my shirt. Cara smiled at Mason and pretended she hadn’t noticed me.
“Summer, Gabi, you remember Nick. Cara, I wanted to introduce you to a very good friend of mine, Nick Roman. Nick, Cara Spenser.”
“Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand to me first.
When we shook, her grip was firm and her gaze was steady.
It was brief and business-like, and she dropped my hand and eye contact quickly.
She had a pretty good poker face, but I made her uncomfortable.
I wondered if I reminded her of her ex. Or if she had a general distrust of strange men.
Or, shit, if she thought I’d asked Mason to introduce us so I could hit on her.
Mason seemed to pick up on the same vibe, because he spoke quickly. “Nick, here, has a business proposition for you, Cara.”
“Oh?” She smiled at me. Once again, it only reached her lips, not her eyes. “Are you in the market for some art?”
“Not exactly.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s about the drive you’re making.”
She glanced between Mason and me, her smile gone and her eyes slightly narrowed. This wasn’t going well.
“I overheard you mention driving east all by yourself,” Mason said. He held up his hands as if presenting me. “Nick needs to head east as well. I thought this might be a great solution for both of you.”
“Isn’t your car a manual shift?” Summer asked me. “Cara can’t drive a stick shift.”
Cara blushed, which could have meant so many things, so I put it out of my mind. And I didn’t follow up with the obvious question about how Summer knew details about my car. Cara seemed uneasy and I needed to get her on board.
“It is a manual, but I’m happy to split the driving in your car,” I told Cara.
“And I’d cover all the costs. Gas, meals, lodging.
Separate rooms, of course.” Dumbass. Adding that last bit only insinuated that the thought of a shared room had crossed my mind.
“A trip that long can be tough on a car,” I added, still trying to impress her.
“I’m pretty handy and I’ll bring my toolbox along, just in case. ”
Summer nudged Cara’s ribs. “Hear that? He’s good with his hands.”
I ignored Summer’s innuendo and pretended not to notice Cara’s cheeks turning pink.
“And offering to cover the costs,” Gabi repeated. “That’s a great deal.”
Cara, who’d said approximately ten words to me thus far, remained silent.
“I can vouch for him,” Mason said. “He’s a perfect gentleman.”
“Boo,” Summer said. She was not helping my cause.
“I know this is sudden,” I said. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have about me. I work for the ATF, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Retired from the military. No criminal record. Mason’s friend.”
Cara widened her eyes. “Impressive.”
I relaxed my shoulders. Things were improving.
“But...” She started, then stopped.
Oh shit.
Cara shook her head. “I have to say no.”
Well, hell. There went a perfectly good plan. I’d have to scramble to figure out an alternative. But that was just a logistics problem. For some reason, losing the possibility of her company on the trip was more disappointing than the plan failing.
“Why not?” Gabi asked. “This sounds like a really good idea to me.”
“Sounds amazing to me,” Summer added.
“No need to explain,” I said, watching Cara as I spoke. “No is a complete sentence.”
“Thank you,” she said. For a moment, we held each other’s gaze and everything else faded away.
But the real world, where Cara and I were never going to be a thing, still existed, and it only took me a few seconds to remember that. I glanced away from her.
“I have to start the trivia game in a few minutes,” I told Mason. I smiled at each of the other two women. “Team Power Puff, good luck.”
As I left them, I felt someone watching me. Probably Summer, but maybe Cara, too. I didn’t hate the idea of her appreciating the view while I walked away. Which made me a fucking idiot for wanting someone I couldn’t have, and her a wise woman for turning down a cross-country trip with an old lech.