could see it from five feet away. She didn’t want to be part of this—didn’t feel a part of this. And Nick, more than anyone else in the room, understood. So without saying a word, he got up, took her hand and tugged her toward his table.
She resisted. “What...”
“Come on, it’ll be okay,” he whispered as he pulled her down to sit beside him. “I’ll tell you who I recognize, you tell me who you recognize and we’ll get through this together.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide, her mouth trembling. Looking for a moment like a trapped deer, she seemed on the verge of fleeing. She appeared unable to deal with something as innocuous—yet painful—as a neighborhood gathering.
“It’s okay,” he repeated. “You can do it.”
It took a few more seconds, but that panicked look slowly began to fade from her eyes. As family friends and neighbors greeted her, he felt her begin to relax beside him. She even chatted a little, smiling at people she hadn’t seen in years.
Everything went fine. Right up until the minute some old lady from the block clapped her hands together, then pinched Izzie’s cheek. “Oh, you’re a beautiful couple!” she exclaimed. “At last you’ve got your man, Isabella Natale. All those years and you’ve finally landed him!”
Everyone fell silent, immediately turning in their direction. Especially Gloria. And Nick’s parents.
“Shit,” Izzie mumbled under her breath. Her face turned as red as a glass of the chianti Pop loved so much.
Nick put a hand on her leg under the table. But she pushed it off. And with a quick goodbye to her sister and the family—and a glare at Nick—she strode across the restaurant and stalked out the front door, not looking back. Not even once.
* * *
OVER THE NEXT couple of days, Izzie gradually began to lose her mind. Began? Heck, she’d been losing her mind since the night she’d toppled onto a table full of cookies and Nick Santori had landed on top of her. The man had been consuming her for years. This week, however, he was on track to win the gold medal in the Let’s Drive Izzie Crazy games.
After her failed seduction attempt at Leather and Lace, he’d avoided her as much as he could when on the job. They hadn’t been alone at all the rest of Saturday night, or when they’d both worked again Sunday. Just as well. She was still ticked about what had happened at the restaurant that afternoon.
He did take his job seriously, making sure she went nowhere alone. But he hadn’t been alone with her for one minute. It was as if he feared “Rose” would make another move on him the first chance she got, and was making sure she didn’t get the chance.
Grr...men. So untrusting.
But if Nick was frustrating her with his aloofness at the club by night, he was absolutely killing her by day. He’d come by several times in the past few days, popping into the bakery for a muffin and a coffee. Every time he was all cute and sweet and sexy. So different from the dark, brooding guy at the club that she’d have thought they were two different people.
She honestly didn’t know which man appealed to her more. Probably whichever one she happened to be with at the time. Funny...he knew her as two different women. And while his name was Nick either way, she knew him as two different men, too.
Both of them were messing with her head. She’d been making all kinds of stupid mistakes at the bakery today—like using peppermint extract instead of almond in a batch of cookies.
Giving up in the kitchen since she had several hours before the restaurant orders had to be delivered, she decided to do some paperwork before closing. It was well after lunch, she was working alone but could hear the bell if anyone came in.
But even that didn’t go well. She’d added up a column on a deposit slip four times and still hadn’t gotten it right. She was tempted to call Bridget to ask her cousin to straighten out her books. But judging by the conversation they’d had earlier in the day, Bridget had finally worked up the nerve to ask her shaggy-haired used-car salesman out. And Izzie didn’t want to do anything to distract her.
Izzie just wished she had a distraction. Because she couldn’t get Nick out of her head. He’d invaded her life. No, both her lives. When he stared at her across the