Page 4 of Seeking Happily Ever After

“What can I get you? Something sweet, I hope?” She lowered her eyelids and wiggled her eyebrows.

“Sorry.” Nick shook his head. “I was daydreaming for a minute.”

“About me, I hope?”

“Always.” He couldn’t help but return the innocent flirting. “And those sweet buns of yours.” Georgia was one of those women who made it easy to flirt with them. She was bubbly and fun, and every morning when he dragged his exhausted self into her bakery, she was there with a smile and a coffee. Two of his favorite things.

They exchanged a few more minutes of banter while Nick placed his standard order, adding an extra coffee and bun for Charlotte, an addition that earned him an extra eyebrow raise and a glance in Charlotte’s direction. There was a question in Georgia’s eye, but Nick didn’t rise to the bait.

If he was ever ready to date again, Georgia should be an obvious candidate. She was easygoing, fun, flirty, and cute. She owned her own business and as far as Nick knew, she had her life together and was in a good place. On paper, she seemed like a perfect choice for dating. But something was missing. Something he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

He accepted his order and paid, leaving a generous tip the way he always did. When she gave him a wink as a thank-you, he returned it with one of his own before taking the tray and turning around.

The moment Nick saw Charlotte and Amelia together, a giant smile crossed his face again and once more the warmth in his gut bloomed. Seeing her with Amelia stirred up all kinds of really good feelings he didn’t have any real experience with, and more importantly, whatever was missing when he looked at Georgia fell perfectly into place when he looked at Charlotte.

ChapterTwo

“Come on,Jeremy. It’ll be fun.”

Charlotte flopped on her baby brother’s couch and clutched at the bright-red throw pillow she didn’t recognize. It screamed of a female touch. For sure, Jeremy’s fiancée Bella Burton, who was away most of the time in LA shooting her debut breakout movie,Bombshell, had given it to him.

“No way.” He grabbed two beers out of the fridge and turned around as Charlotte tossed the pillow at him. It bounced off his chest to the floor. “Hey. Bella gave me that.”

“I figured.” She laughed. “No way would you have decorative pillows in your man space.”

Jeremy handed her a beer, grabbed the pillow, and sat across from her on his couch. “What can I say?” He shrugged. “She makes my life better in all the ways.”

“That’s the truth.” Not that Jeremy wasn’t an awesome guy before Bella came along into his life, but Charlotte had to admit that the almost crazy-famous woman had brought a new spark into her brother’s world. He’d just officially become Glacier Falls’ new fire chief and now, newly engaged to Bella, Charlotte’s little brother seemed to finally have it all together.

Now it was her turn.

“Just think,” she said. “With me living here, I could bring even more female influences into your life. It would be—”

“No.”

“Jer! Come on. I can’t stay at Mom and Dad’s. They’re…”

She didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Not really. They were awesome. The best parents she could ask for, that much was very true. They’d been nothing but supportive of everything she’d ever done. When she wanted to go to interior design school instead of business college, they hadn’t blinked. When she decided to sell everything and move to the other side of the country, they were encouraging. And most importantly, when Jeremy had arranged with a fire chief in Halifax to get her safely home back to Glacier Falls and away from Billy before his control became more extreme because she was terrified of him, they’d accepted her back into her childhood home with open arms and no questions asked. Even though she knew her mother was dying to know what had happened and how her strong, capable, confident daughter could have succumbed to such a man.

“They’re great,” she finished lamely.

“But they’re Mom and Dad,” Jeremy said. “I get it.”

She took a sip of her beer and made a face. It had been awhile since she’d had a beer. It wasn’t bad, just different. She tried again, and Jeremy laughed.

“I understandwhyyou want to move in here,” he said. “But you know you can’t.”

“You’re here alone most of the time,” Charlotte protested. “And that’s if you’re not in LA with Bella while she’s shooting. I could take care of your place, make sure it’s lived in.”

He laughed and shook his head. “I have no doubt you’d take very good care of my place, but it’s not going to be long before Bella’s done shooting and then she’ll be back here a lot more.”

Charlotte didn’t bother bringing up the fact that Bella would still be gone a lot. With publicity tours, new roles, a recording deal, and more and more opportunities that were popping up for her all the time, there was no doubt that Bella would be very busy and away from Glacier Falls for long periods of time. But Jeremy knew that. He didn’t need his older sister bringing it up again. Besides, Char had to admit, the couple was handling the distance really well. If anyone could manage the balance, it would be Jeremy and Bella. She also knew that asking Jeremy to move in to his place was a total long shot, and she didn’t blame him at all for saying no.

She’d expected it.

He gave her a look over his beer bottle, while he took a long pull, and she sighed, resigned.

“I know. I know. I’ll figure something else out.”

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