Page 7 of Made for You
With a gigantic cackle, she leaned over and patted the person on the shoulder right before I caught her eye.
“Nikki! Perfect timing. Come meet Bruce.”
Because of course she was talking to Bruce Camden. And of course he was sitting there looking airbrushed and perfectly, painfully handsome while I strolled up with a chest full of disappointment and cheeks bright with humiliation.
But that was fine. What was one more instance of embarrassment after the last year, anyway?
CHAPTERFOUR
Bruce
Istood and extended a hand, bracing for contact. “It’s nice to see you again, Nikki.”
My stomach clenched as our hands slid together, a brief, business-like shake before dropping. It’d be a matter of minutes before the tingling awareness of having touched her wore off if this morning’s encounter was anything to go by.
Rosie’s brows climbed high. “You’ve met? How did I miss that?”
Nikki nodded. “Bruce came to introduce himself this morning.”
Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, and a whip of electricity lashed through the air.
When she’d answered the door last night, I’d been in problem-solving mode. Sadly, I’d been a jerk to her, but she’d seemed willing enough to accept my apology. I hated the idea of being overtly rude to anyone, even while dealing with a mild crisis, and I especially hated the idea of being discourteous to Rosie’s family.
Rosie had been there for us at some key moments this last year. The fact that she now had someone around to help her was a good thing. The fact that the person living with her happened to be the manifestation of everything I thought of as physically beautiful?
Not ideal.
This realization had hit me when I’d finally, actuallylookedat the woman this morning. I’d startled her, we’d juggled her papers and folders, and then we’d shaken hands, and everything had stopped.
Literally, it felt like the low-lying buzzing in the back of my head reminding me I wasn’t doing quite enough to establish our lives here had paused. The wind rustling in the branches of the oaks nearby had stilled, and the rotation of the earth had halted in honor of our hands meeting. Exaggeration, yes, but I couldn’t describe it any other way except to say it’d been weighty. I’d felt it in my chest like a blast at close range, jarring my insides and everything around me.
The same heady sensation snuck in and gripped me again, and though I dropped her hand a little too quickly, it lingered.
“I was a jerk last night when I was looking for you, and she was kind enough to forgive me,” I explained to Rosie.
“I can’t imagine you being a jerk, Bruce.” Rosie patted my arm and shot a significant look at Nikki.
Did she have to be so glaringly beautiful? Missing it yesterday only showed just how preoccupied I’d been last night. The auburn hair, the large light-brown eyes, the pretty blush climbing her cheeks… it made me stupid.
“It’s true. But she was very gracious.” My eyes found Nikki’s, and my gut tightened.
“You were busy, and I was a stranger. Now you know I’m not a threat.”
She fluttered her lashes, and it hit me just right.
With a chuckle, I gave her that despite it being patently false. “Fair enough.”
“Well, Bruce, honey, we’ll let you wrap up your lunch. Is Kiley joining us tonight?” Rosie looped her arm through Nikki’s as though they were about to promenade into the restaurant together.
“If it’s still okay. I’m sorry to ask two nights in a row. I can skip book club, if it’s at all—”
Rosie waved me off. “Nonsense. Of course you’re going, and of course she’s coming over.”
“Book club?” Nikki asked, and if I wasn’t mistaken, a note of interest colored her question.
“Yeah, it’s a local group of some friends. You’re welcome to come sometime, if you like reading. We meet once a month, sometimes twice, depending on what everyone has going on. It’s casual.” It was also a lifeline, and I felt nothing but relief that Rosie had insisted I go tonight. I’d canceled before, and missing it felt awful.
I wasn’t a particularly needy person. I’d been independent since I could remember. I’d left home at seventeen and never looked back—hadn’t even visited my mother for the first decade after I joined the Army straight out of high school. She’d actually told me to stay away. I’d enlisted since living near a major Army post had made that look like an easy way out, and the natural course of the job had taken me away until I’d finally ended up stationed back with EMU at Fort Liberty. When I did go back, I met Kiley, who was five at the time and the cutest little thing I’d ever seen in my life. And she was my sister.
