Page 23 of Falling for Nicole
The morning starts off pretty quiet. A few of the nosey locals appear with their free coffee voucher and spend as little as possible just so they can tell everyone they’d been and checked the place out. As it warms up outside and the beach starts to fill, more and more customers begin to flood in. I’m leaning against the doorway to the back room when Lilly attempts to manoeuvre her double buggy through the front door.
“A little help?” she calls over to me when she sees I’m watching her. “Looks like things are going well.”
“So far so good. Are you staying for lunch?”
“No, I need to get these two back. As soon as they wake up, they’re going to want food. I do need a favour, though.”
“The last favour you asked resulted in me employing Nicole. What is it this time? You want me to move her in with me?”
“Something like that.”
“What?”
“Calm down. It’s not quite like that.”
“Follow me, then.”
“Wow, what happened in here?” Lilly asks the second she steps into my office.
“Nicole happened.” As I glance over the room, all I can see is the image of her bent down under the desk. It’s like it’s burned onto my bloody eyeballs.
“Repeat after me,thank you Lilly for suggesting I employ Nicole. You were right, she’s perfect.”
“Hmm…perfect might be pushing it.”
“Whatever, listen—” I let out a huge breath as I lean against my desk, waiting for her to spit it out. “Nicole’s fallen in love with a house but it’s a bit out of her price range—”
“What the hell has this got to do with me? I’m not buying her a bloody house. Do you think I’m made of fucking money?”
“No, I don’t want you to buy her a house. It’s up with the estate agent Georgia works for. I was wondering if you could…”
“If I could convince her to let it go cheaper,” I finish for her.
“Yeah, something like that. You do her enough…favours,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Plus, the place is seriously run down, so it shouldn’t be hard to get some money off.”
I was planning on cutting things off with Georgia. She was getting too clingy as it was, and then Nicole appeared and fucked up my head. The last thing I want to do right now is hook up with her, but Lilly’s pleading face pulls at my heartstrings.
“Which one? I’m not promising I can do anything.”
“Oh, come on. I may be your sister, but I’m not immune to hearing the gossip. The girls around here would do just about anything if they get the chance to be on the right end of your tongue.”
My mouth drops open as I stare at her. Lucas has done wonders for my shy little sister, although I really don’t need details about what that might have involved. “Jesus, Lills.”
“What? It’s true, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what the girls say,” I say, trying to sound innocent. In reality, I know exactly what they say about me, and usually I’d be proud of it but suddenly it seems nothing but sleazy.
“Whatever. But you’ll try?”
“Yes, I’ll try.”
“Here, it’s this one,” she says, handing me a folded piece of paper. “I need to get going before these two scream bloody murder. We’ll be down this evening—save us a good table.”
“You got it.”
When we emerge from the office, the place is packed. There are waitresses flitting around either delivering lunch to customers or clearing tables as fast as they can so more people can sit down. I glance over at Nicole, who’s stood by the entrance welcoming people, and the second our eyes connect, I can’t help a wide smile spreading across my face. I’d hate to admit it to Lilly, but I think she was right making me employ Nicole.
Reluctantly, I pull my phone from my pocket and shoot Georgia a message about meeting up this afternoon before what I’m hoping is going to be the evening rush.
Her reply comes almost instantly, and I can only presume the two emojis that suggest sex is her agreeing to meet. My eyes meet the stunning green of Nicole’s again, and the thought of even seeing Georgia feels wrong. I’ll see if I can get her to do me this favour, and then it’s over between us.
The shack gets busier than I could have ever imagined as the sun continues to shine that afternoon. With everyone run off their feet, I end up bussing tables and completely forget about meeting Georgia until she turns up, clearly fresh from the beach if her tiny bikini is anything to go by.
I watch the interaction between her and Nicole, and I can sense the tension radiating off Nicole from here. When she turns to point me out across the bar, her eyes are hard and her face is set in a scowl. She’s really not happy.
Georgia immediately saunters towards me, turning every male head in the place as she moves. I get it, she’s hot, but unfortunately her allure has worn off for me.
“You wanted to see me?” she purrs.
“Let’s go to the office.” She smiles at me before looking back over her shoulder. I follow her gaze and see Nicole giving us both a death stare. If only she knew I was doing this for her.
