happening now. You walked up those steps in San Francisco without fear. Even when you were exhausted, you kept going. Would someone who was a total bore do something like that?”
It was a stretch. Someone who was boring could do all kinds of things, he supposed. All he knew was that this particular woman was the complete opposite of boring to him.
“Do you think so?”
The look on her face told him that his words had landed. Instead of that tense set of her jaw she’d had a couple of minutes earlier, her expression was relaxed. She’d even sat back in her seat when, before, her posture had been stiff and upright.
“I know so.”
He wanted to say more but now wasn’t the time. As he struggled for a way to get the conversation on a more casual track, they heard a male voice coming from the direction of the entry.
“Hello, hello!”
Wait. He knew that voice. That was the voice of Justin.
“Justin and Brooke drove separately,” Charlie explained, likely noting Nicholas’s frown. “They didn’t want to pack into the van with everyone else.”
“So much for trying to look like they’re not a couple,” Nicholas commented, mostly to himself, as he stood and headed in the direction of the voice.
They didn’t have to walk all the way to the front door. Justin and Brooke came rushing in, and Brooke had a huge smile on her face. “You guys beat us here.”
Brooke said that as though they’d traveled here together, even though she knew otherwise. But that didn’t surprise Nicholas. After all, Justin had been the one who had reached out to him about putting this weekend together, and from the first call, Nicholas knew it was all a complicated matchmaking scheme. Nicholas had been all too happy to go along with it, but he was no fool. He knew what was up here.
“No caterer still.” Charlie held up the mostly empty cup of water. “There’s fruit water, though. It’s delicious.”
The fruit water didn’t impress Brooke nearly as much as it had Charlie. She glanced over at it, then looked around. “Where can I set this down?”
Brooke was carrying an overstuffed tote bag. Charlie led her into the other room, leaving Nicholas standing there with Justin.
“Thanks for arranging this, man,” Justin said. “This place is dope.”
Dope. A word Nicholas had never used. But Justin was always trying to fit in with the younger people moving into the Valley after college graduation.
“My friend gets all the credit for that. I just sent a few texts. Thanks for coming up with the idea.”
Nicholas didn’t know why he was thanking Justin. This was mostly for Justin’s own benefit and the benefit of his team. He was hoping to inject a little morale boost into his staff by bringing them all here. The mood had been lagging since the layoffs, and the meeting in the conference room had briefly helped. If Nicholas could work his magic again, maybe they could find a way to improve things permanently.
Doubtful, but Nicholas was game for helping out.
He clapped Justin’s upper arm and turned toward the room where the women had gone. “I know we don’t get to hang out as much as we used to, but I’m always here for you.”
“That’s going to change,” Justin said.
Nicholas’s eyes widened. He hoped Justin wasn’t about to reveal the reason for that change was that things weren’t going to work out with Brooke. They certainly seemed happier than ever.
“I miss doing stuff.” Justin shrugged. “Let’s pick a night every week and get together for drinks or dinner, like the old days.”
“The old days as in, like, two months ago?” Nicholas laughed.
Justin laughed, too. “Good point. Seems like a lifetime. So how about Wednesday nights? No excuses, unless we’re out of town for work. We’ll treat it like we would a client meeting—unchangeable.”
Nicholas liked the sound of that. He knew how easy it was to bump casual get-togethers when even the smallest things happened. The no-excuses approach was the only way to go.
“Deal.” Nicholas nodded.
They would have shaken on it, but there was a knock on the door behind Justin. The caterers had arrived.
23
“Could you take this outside to Nicholas?”
Brooke’s request was so obvious, she may as well have just said, “Go outside and hang out with Nicholas.” Instead, though, she’d handed Charlie a sheet of paper. Charlie didn’t look to see what was on it.
It was an hour into the welcome reception, and Charlie was restless. She couldn’t put words to why she felt