day for me out of pity. “It’s okay. You don’t have to take me out. Honestly, I’ll be fine here. You’ve got a whole shelf full of books.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. You can read a book another time.”
Guilt faced off with my inner hussy. Guess which won?
“Only if you’re sure.”
“I’ll be back in two hours. Make sure you’re ready.”
What on earth should I wear? I’d only brought casual clothes. No way did I think I’d have to go out anywhere but the grocery store. I took a shower, dried my hair as tidily as I could, and eventually settled on a pair of jeans that fit reasonably well and a pink V-neck top. Shoes were a problem—my beat-up Converse would have to do.
True to his word, Nick arrived back in the Porsche almost exactly two hours later, and I hopped into the passenger side.
“Where are we off to?”
“I thought we’d get some lunch first.” He grinned at me, and my heart skipped. “Then I’ve got a surprise planned for afterwards.”
A surprise?
Uh-oh. I wasn’t so keen on those. Last time Billy decided to surprise me, he’d taken me to a party at an all-you-can-eat barbecue place then forced himself on me in the parking lot. What would Nick come up with?
We ate lunch in a little restaurant overlooking the sea, sitting outside on the terrace. As I settled back onto the squashy cushions, I felt strangely relaxed, with nothing to do but watch the boats sailing by on the horizon as Nick quickly checked his emails. Then a lady walking to the next table got distracted as she stared at Nick, tripped, and spilled a glass of wine down my top.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” She leapt for a napkin and knocked into a glass of water, which sloshed over Nick. “I-I-I…”
She stared at his wet crotch, clearly unsure whether to blot or run.
“How about helping my friend?” He grabbed the napkin from her and passed it to me.
“I’m fine, really.”
Quite honestly, the less she tried to assist, the better.
The woman backed away and was swiftly replaced by waiters bearing towels and fresh drinks. My top hadn’t gone see-through, thank goodness, although Nick’s stain was in a slightly embarrassing place.
“So much for a quiet lunch,” he muttered when things calmed down.
“Do you want to leave?”
“No, it’ll dry.”
“At least it was only white wine that ended up over me. If it had been red, people might have thought you were having lunch with an assassin or something.”
His eyes flicked up at me. “Yeah, crazy thought. What do you want to eat?”
I chose fresh tilapia while Nick had the chicken. We managed to get through the meal without further incident, and the waiter even brought us a complimentary dessert. Not that I ate much of mine. My size had weighed on my mind a lot lately, and I didn’t want my waistline to expand.
I snuck a look at the front of Nick’s pants as we walked out to the car, purely to check on the stain, you understand. Okay, so I may have made a quick estimation of size, but what girl wouldn’t? Wow. Anyhow, the damp patch had faded to a dull grey, barely noticeable on the denim.
“Almost dry,” Nick said.
Dammit! He’d caught me looking.
“Uh, the same. Where are we going?”
“You’ll find out when we get there.”
“Will there be other people around? I smell like an alcoholic.”
“Only one other guy, and he won’t care.”
One other guy? I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or apprehensive.
Half an hour later, we pulled into a parking garage underneath an office building. I caught a glimpse of the sign on the outside: Blackwood Security. Why were we here?
“The elevator’s in the far corner,” Nick said after he helped me out of the car, one hand on the small of my back as he guided me in the right direction.
I shivered at the contact. Why had he brought me to an office? Did he know someone who worked here? As the elevator doors closed, he inserted a key-card into a slot and pressed the button for the roof.
“The roof?”
He smiled, and those killer dimples popped out. “Wait and see.”
Twenty seconds ticked by slowly until the doors opened again.
“A helicopter?” I gasped.
It sat just a few feet away, a uniformed pilot standing by its side.
Nick grinned at me. “Surprise.”
He paused to shake the pilot’s hand.
“Afternoon, Mr. Goldman. She’s all fuelled up and ready to go.”
I’d only been on a plane three times