Chapter 4 Nicole #2
But he stayed close enough that she could catch the unmistakable lilt of a woman’s voice on the other end.
Cameron’s voice dropped, almost a murmur. She caught fragments and a sense of concern. “…yeah, I know…soon…” and then, more clearly, “…I’d better come back, just to be safe. No, no, it’s fine.”
He returned a minute later, stuffing the phone into his pocket. His easy grin was gone, replaced by tension. “I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to go.”
Nicole blinked. “Oh. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, but, uh, something came up.” He was already half-turned, seeming restless. “I’ll see you tomorrow? Meet at base around eleven or twelve? I’m not working but I’ll be there. Just show up and we’ll take a few runs.”
So, it wasn’t another date. And he was ditching her for…whoever just called.
“Uh…sure,” she said, the response just as vague.
“Sorry! Bye!” With a quick wave, he jogged down the sidewalk, disappearing into the crowd before Nicole could gather her thoughts.
She stared after him, hot chocolate cooling in her hands. What just happened?
Pulling her jacket tighter, she stood and started back toward Sugarfall. Maybe Gracie would be back by now.
Nicole needed her cousin’s voice of reason—someone to tell her whether she’d just imagined the chemistry, or whether Cameron was too good to be true, and what to do when one got dumped in the middle of a first date.
Nicole slipped into Sugarfall by way of the back door, getting hit by the warmth of the kitchen and a rush of butter and vanilla and heat. Gracie stood at the far counter with her sleeves pushed to her elbows, coaxing glossy ribbons of white over a tray of her famous cream puffs.
She glanced up, her golden brown eyes widening, her strawberry blond hair pulled back in a tight pony tail.
“What are you doing here, Nic? Aren’t you supposed to be on a date? I was hoping it would go through dinner.”
Nicole made a face that probably needed no translation.
“Oh, no. What happened? Hang on. You deserve one of these.” She grabbed two of the prettiest pastries and swept them onto a plate. “Come on.”
They wove out to the front, where the bakery patrons had thinned to an afternoon lull. Nicole followed her cousin across the black-and-white checked floor to a two-top by the window.
Gracie wiped it, and set down the plate. “I’ll grab napkins and—what are we feeling? Coffee? Tea? Something stronger that I’m not licensed to serve?”
“A tea, I guess,” she said glumly. “I just had hot chocolate.”
Gracie returned with two thick mugs, strings from the bags hanging out the side. She sat and angled her chair toward Nicole, all attention. “Okay. Talk.”
Nicole looked around. “You didn’t bring Benny back here after camp? How was it?”
“He’s home with Red. It was good, I guess.”
“Did he make a friend?” Nicole asked.
Gracie rolled her eyes. “Quite the opposite. A darling little girl who just might be smarter than Benny is threatening to win the end-of-camp talent show where each kid shows off tricks that their dog learned. So he doesn’t have a friend, but a sworn enemy.”
“Oh, no.” Nicole pressed her hands to her cheeks. “That’s not what we wanted.”
Gracie smiled, waving off the problem. “Forget camp. How was your date and why is it over already? Didn’t you guys meet here like an hour or two ago?”
Nicole nodded, eyeing the cream puff, but not hungry. “The ‘date,’ if you could call it that, was amazing. That’s the problem.”
Gracie gave a confused look. “’Kay. Elaborate.”
She did, sharing the whole date—such as it was.
As expected, Gracie listened intently without a single interruption, a trait she dearly loved in her cousin.
After she finished, Nicole looked down at the cream puff, but only saw the look in Cameron’s eyes when he took off and left her on a park bench.
“So, he just…disappeared?” Gracie asked, processing it all.
Nicole broke off a piece of the pastry, watching Gracie’s signature cream ooze out, but she really had no appetite.
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I have ears—there was definitely a woman’s voice on that call.”
“It must have been work,” Gracie said. “Patrol gets called in last-minute, right?”
“Why not tell me that?”
“Maybe his mother needed him and he was embarrassed to admit he runs when she calls?”
Nicole laughed. “Not likely, since his mother is on a cruise to Mexico.”
“Oh. Well…” Gracie frowned, thinking. “He’s a firefighter. Maybe there was an emergency.”
“He only works summer and fall, but even if that were true, why not just tell me that? I’d have understood.”
Gracie shook her head, as stumped as Nicole. “Well, eat that. You’ll feel better. Although…” She chuckled. “I was told today by a very handsome man that they are ‘deadly.’”
Nicole took a bite and moaned. “Then this is how I want to go.”
As she ate, Gracie looked around the bakery thoughtfully. “Maybe he was nervous around you.”
Nicole nearly choked on her cream puff. “Try again.”
“I’m serious. Take it from an introvert. Nerves scramble brains. People say the wrong thing or forget common courtesies. Don’t write him off because of one confusing exit.”
“The man saves lives, skis fearlessly, and probably doesn’t know the meaning of the word nervous.” Nicole took a lick of cream that actually should be illegal just as her phone buzzed in the pocket of her jacket, a tiny, traitorous leap of hope jumping inside her.
She pulled it out and stared at the screen.
“Oh.”
“What?” Gracie leaned, looking down.
“It’s him. He wrote, ‘I’m sorry for leaving so fast. That was not my style, I swear. Got called in to an almost emergency, but all is well. Ski tomorrow?’” She sighed, surprised at how relieved the text made her.
Gracie looked smug. “Told ya.”
“What’s an ‘almost’ emergency?” Nicole asked.
“Just accept his apology and give him another chance, Nic.”
“And ski?” She lifted both brows because Gracie knew how much that terrified her, even though she’d made huge progress the past few weeks.
“You did it to save Copper,” Gracie reminded her. “This time do it for you. He’ll take care of you.”
She knew that was true, so she typed back her response to Cameron without giving herself too much time to think about it.
Glad everything’s okay. Yes to tomorrow. She added a ski emoji, which was probably dorky, but so was dumping her in the middle of their date.
“You’re doing it?” Gracie asked, delighted. “Way to go!”
“I’m giving him—and the slopes—a shot,” Nicole said as she hit Send. Then, because her heart needed a different subject, she tipped her head. “How handsome?”
“Excuse me?”
Nicole grinned around her next bite. “The guy who called these deadly. You said he was handsome.”
“Did I?” Her color deepened around her sweet smattering of freckles, which wasn’t unusual. Gracie blushed as easily as she breathed.
“Yes. Tell me about him,” Nicole demanded.
“Oh, nothing to tell,” she said.
Nicole finished the last bite and dabbed at her lips with a napkin, eyeing her cousin. “Why don’t you date?”
“Date?” Gracie scoffed, maybe a little too hard.
“Yeah. You’re so quick to tell me to give Cameron a chance and ski, of all insane things, but I never hear you talk about anyone.”
“Because I’m a single mom of a ten-year-old, Nic. And I’m married to my business. Also, I live with my geriatric grandfather. Can you imagine if I invited someone in for a nightcap? They’d end up playing Monopoly with Red.”
Nicole snorted. “Not only would they lose, they’d be subjected to his opinions on everything. But,”—she pointed at Gracie—“there are worse ways to spend an evening and the right guy would know that.”
Gracie shrugged, her dark amber gaze distant as she looked away.
“Why not?” Nicole pressed. “I mean, if I can ski, you can date.”
She shook her head. “I have a kid who needs me and a business that consumes me, and by the end of the day I want pajamas and the Great British Baking Show, not a meet-cute. I mean, I could, but I’d rather not.”
“Do you know who you sound like?”
“Someone who knows what they want?”
“You sound exactly like Benny when you ask him to make friends. ‘I could but I’d rather not,’” Nicole mimicked Benny perfectly.
Gracie cracked up. “Well, that’s humbling. And so true I could scream. Genes are strong, I guess.”
“If you want him to make a friend that much, maybe he feels the same way about you having a man in your life.”
“He’s ten,” Gracie insisted.
“He’s Benny,” Nicole shot back. “Ten going on fifty-three with a brain that works overtime. Don’t you think his feelings are as advanced as his IQ? Don’t you think he’d love a role model who wasn’t born during World War Two?”
“Of course I do,” Gracie admitted with a sigh. “The deadly guy? He was another parent at camp.”
“Oh, so married.”
She smiled. “Actually, he referred to himself as a single dad.”
“Mmm? Hopeful. More details, please.”
“His name is Marshall with a little spitfire of a daughter who gave Benny a run for his money in the brains and ’tude department, and he likes my cream puffs.”
Nicole raised a brow. “Are you sure that’s not a euphemism for something else?”
Gracie chuckled. “He saw the logo on my van and they usually are the first thing everyone mentions. They’re not nearly as good as my Linzer tarts, but cream puffs get all the PR.”
“So, he’s single, cute, and has good taste in pastries. What are you waiting for?”
“Um…Benny to go to college?” she said on a laugh. “No, seriously, I’m not the outgoing person you are, Nic. And this guy was a tad out of my league, if I’m being honest.”
“Out of your league?” Nicole drew back. “Are you kidding? You are gorgeous and own this amazing business and are the best mother. He’d be so lucky to take you out.” Nicole reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I’m serious.”
“Thanks.” Gracie looked around again. “Maybe I’ll take him a cream puff at the end of camp.”
“Or tomorrow.”
“Don’t rush me.” Gracie smiled as Nicole’s phone buzzed again. “Is that him?”
She glanced down. “Yep. He says, ‘Promise I’ll explain tomorrow. Wasn’t trying to be rude. Can’t wait to tackle every double black D. JK!’”
Gracie pointed at her. “I like a man with a sense of humor,” she said. “Plus, he obviously is telling you he respects your fears and he’s wallowing in guilt for what he did.”
“You got all that out of one text?”
Gracie laughed. “So, you’re going skiing with a cute boy.”
“How do you know he’s cute?”
“I blush, but you glow.” She winked. “I want every detail afterwards.”
“You’ll get them,” Nicole promised, leaning in. “If you ask the single dad on a date.”
“Me? Ask him? Are you kidding?”
“Hey, I’m going on a ski date,” she reminded Gracie. “If I can do that, then you can at least give a man a cream puff and throw your phone number in the box.”
“He knows where to find me.”
Nicole leaned in, knowing her always reticent cousin often needed a good push down the slopes of life. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Gracie gave the saddest smile. “I fall in love, get my heart smashed, and you have to pick up the pieces. Again.”
“I was only eighteen when you went through that with Sam,” Nicole said, remembering the dark days after her cousin’s unexpected pregnancy and subsequent heartbreak.
“You were there for me, though, even though your own parents were getting a divorce and you were starting college.” Gracie reached over the table and put her hand on Nicole’s. “I don’t know where I’d be without you, Nic.”
Touched, Nicole squeezed her hand, then grinned. “I do love irony,” she said. “We send Benny to camp to find a friend…and you meet your one true love?”
Gracie pushed back to stand. “Girl, you watch too many rom-coms and I have to go bake.”
“Make an extra cream puff.”
“I will,” Gracie said with a smile. “And let’s hope we don’t both wipe out.”
“Amen to that, sweet cuz.”