Diving In (30 page)

Diane took another sip. “I needed more.”

“Have as much as you like,” Nicki said. “I can’t handle any more caffeine today.”

“I’m familiar with the concept,” Diane said, “but must admit I’ve never experienced it for myself.”

Brand turned to Nicki. “So, you and Ansel go way back, I hear?”

Nicki smiled politely, glancing at Ansel. “We met in college. He was visiting Rachel. I’m friends with her.”

“Ah,” Brand said, as if she’d illuminated a mystery. He didn’t elaborate.

Nicki decided it was his turn to face the spotlight. “What brings you to Maui?”

Brand walked over to an armchair near the balcony and sat down. He faced Nicki, but his eyes kept darting to Diane, who’d climbed up on a stool at the breakfast counter. “When I heard Diane was here, I couldn’t resist. She and I go way back, too.”

“Unfortunately,” Diane said, rotating on the seat with the mug at her lips.

“I didn’t realize she’d just lost her job,” Brand continued. “Maybe she’ll have the time to show me around the island. I’ve never been here. Except on business.”

“Sorry,” Diane said. “Busy.”

Brand smiled. “Aren’t you always?”

Diane slid off the stool, went into the kitchen, and put her mug in the sink. “Nice seeing you again, Nicki. I’ve got to get going. Thanks for the coffee.” With a wave, she walked out. The door banged behind her.

Brand stood. “I’d better go, too. I pushed our appointment with the electrical guy to the day after tomorrow,” he told Ansel. “I’ll send you an email with the new time.”

“What electrical guy?” Ansel asked.

“We need better outlets in the break room. The ones there aren’t up to code.”

“Can’t that wait until we close?”

Brand strode over to the door. “We have to line up all the labor now. These guys schedule months in advance.” He nodded to Nicki as he pulled open the door. “Nice meeting you. I mean that sincerely.” And then he was gone.

“Why’s he glad to meet me?” Nicki asked Ansel. She had a funny feeling he meant it.

“Just being polite. He’s never glad,” Ansel said.

“I bet he’d be glad if Diane stuck her tongue in his mouth.”

“I’m not sure glad’s the word.” Ansel came over, put an arm around her waist, and kissed his way across her face to her mouth. “Elated?” He licked her lower lip from corner to corner. “Ecstatic?”

“Think she ever will?”

“Never.” He hauled her against him and kissed her hard.

Nicki didn’t buy it. “She’s letting him stay there.”

“She’s just being nice.”

“Really?”

“Okay, maybe she’s doing it as a favor to me. So you and I can be together.” He untied the sash of her robe.

“That’s quite a present, especially since she lost her job.”

“I totally agree.” One hand slipped between her legs, the other over her ass. His tongue slipped between her teeth and licked the inside of her mouth.

She pushed him against the wall, giving as good as she got, dropping another conversation that never had a chance as long as they were within ten miles of each other.

Chapter 25

T
HE
NEXT
DAY
, N
ICKI
WOKE
up alone. She had to open her eyes to remember where she was. She brought her phone to her face to look up the time, date, and day of the week. Unlike the school year, when her life was doled out by the minute with bells, streams of students, parents, and principals. Then she couldn’t even pee unless she added it to her schedule: between third and fourth period, and she had to jog, because the adult restrooms were on the other side of campus.

But that wasn’t what her life was like today. Her phone told her it was Thursday, the twenty-eighth of June, just before nine. She was in Maui. She’d been sleeping with Ansel Jury-Jarski. He would be leaving soon but hadn’t said when. Miles would be getting married in less than three weeks.

The phone didn’t tell her all of that; she remembered it on her own. It did tell her another thing, though: Betty wanted her to call her.

She sank back into the messy bed and tapped Betty’s green-haired snapshot in the corner of her screen. While it rang, she reminded herself to wash the sheets as soon as she got up. Sleeping alone didn’t put the same demands on the linens as what she and Ansel had been doing.

“Miles and Lucy think you’re coming to the reception,” Betty said when she picked up. “I was helping them order the food and drinks.”

Nicki sat up. “No. I told him I couldn’t make it. I can’t afford the plane ticket back just for the day.”

“He bought you a ticket,” Betty said. “He had points on his credit card, he said.”

Nicki jumped out of bed. “No.”

“He really wants you there.”

Two years earlier, Nicki had sat in the bleachers at the youth center clubhouse, just to watch Miles teach badminton to a dozen football players from the high school. Bouncing around the huge males, the birdie looked like a mosquito. The rackets seemed smaller than their hands. It had made her laugh so hard, she’d had to leave, and as she waited at the bus stop, she’d realized how hard she’d fallen for him. She’d decided at that moment that Miles was the only man for her.

A decision that was getting harder to comprehend. Miles was wonderful, of course, but he’d never once given her the kind of melting, hungry look he’d lavished on his fiancée; the kind of look that made you feel like the most beautiful woman on earth; the kind of look Ansel gave her when…

Whenever. These days, when
did
n’t he look at her that way?

She dragged her thoughts back to Miles. “Why? Why would he want me there?”

“Don’t get excited. Lucy’s uncomfortable about the guest list. She wants to balance it out.”

“I’m not excited, damn it. I’m angry. Why would he pressure me to humiliate myself like that?”

“He wouldn’t if he thought that’s how you felt about it. Be grateful he doesn’t,” Betty said.

“Why would he need me? He’s got plenty of friends. Is Lucy really that popular that he needs to pressure the unwilling to balance out
his
side?”

“Oh, Lucy only has a few friends. Small family. It’s the adults they need. Right now the reception guest list has an average age of fifteen.”

Nicki’s heart pinched. She let out a breath. “He invited all the kids from the clubhouse.”

“Yeah. Lucy even encouraged him. That’s where they’re throwing the party.”

“So, he wants me to
chaperone
.” Nicki ground out the word. “Because I’m a teacher, I bet. No wonder he wants to pay for my ticket. It’s a commercial transaction.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist—if you’re wearing any, which I doubt, given what you’ve been up to, you floozie,” Betty said. “He’s a popular guy. He knows dozens of people who don’t need airfare who’d come to the reception. He wants you because you’re friends. Really close friends, remember?”

“I’m not going.”

“What’s your excuse going to be this time?”

“I’m too busy having sex with somebody who lo—” Nicki stopped herself.

“Hula? Rich dude does hula?”

Who loves me.
No, no. Don’t get stupid. This was just a fling. All they did was eat, swim, and have sex. A pleasurable enough lifestyle, but hardly the foundation for true love. “Who likes to have sex with me,” she finished.

“I’m sure Miles would’ve liked to have sex with you, too, if he’d ever known you were interested.”

“He was dating somebody else.”

“And now he’s marrying Lucy. You snooze, you—”

“I’m not going to his wedding.”

“Not even I got invited to that. This is just the party. They’re going to elope somewhere.”

Nicki ran a hand through her hair. Of course she couldn’t go to a wedding; swimming in the pool had given her split ends. And her skin was peeling from the sun.

Elope? Somewhere?
 

“When?” Nicki asked.

“They’re not saying. His friend the billionaire is threatening to crash it, no matter where it is.”

“Then, for all we know, they’ve already gotten married,” Nicki said. “Miles could already be married.” She sat on the bed, staring at nothing.

“Could be.”

“I’m over him.” Nicki looked at her feet. The nail polish had chipped. The remaining red splotches made her toes look like a lawn mower had run over them.

“Then you can go to this thing without getting upset. Bring your roommate. I’m curious to see him.” Betty cleared her throat. “And Jaynette would like to meet you.”

Nicki managed a smile. “The breakup didn’t work out?”

“She thinks I’m kidding. What do I have to do to convince her?”

“Tell her what you want,” Nicki said. “If she dumps you, it’s win-win.”

“I’ll tell them you’ll think about it,” Betty said.

“No.”

Silence. Betty had hung up.

Damn.

Nicki bent over, put her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, and stared at a palm tree outside her balcony. They had palms in northern California, but they weren’t like these. These made her feel like she was on the other side of the earth.

She couldn’t go. She couldn’t watch everyone celebrate Miles choosing somebody else. Why should she put herself through that?

“Nicki.”

She looked up. Ansel stood between the sliding doors to the balcony. He had a sheet slung over his shoulders and a patio cushion under one arm.

“Hi.” Smiling, she got to her feet. “I didn’t know you were here.”

He didn’t move. “Who’s Miles?”

* * *

Ansel didn’t think of himself as a controlling guy. He’d never understood possessiveness; it didn’t mesh with his naturally generous nature.

But when he’d heard Nicki talking—in a voice he’d never heard, angry and passionate—about another man, he’d wanted to rush into the room and demand an explanation.

Which he’d just done.

Nicki’s smile disappeared. “You were listening?”

“I couldn’t help it. You woke me up. I was sleeping right there.” He pointed past the curtains to the balcony.

She looked past him, her face unusually blank. “Insomnia again?”

“Yeah.” He noticed she wasn’t answering his question. His stomach turned over. “Is he your ex? This Miles guy?”

“No, just a friend,” she said. “He’s getting married in a few weeks. I can’t make the wedding.”

He waited for her to say more.

“Just a friend?” he asked finally.

“Yes.”

“You seemed pretty upset.”

“My friend—the one I was just talking to, Betty—was giving me a hard time about not going.”

He picked up her phone, where she’d left it on the nightstand. “You said you were over him. Those were your words.”

She closed her eyes. Ducked her head.

“Just friends?” he repeated.

“We never touched each other.”

It gave him a tight, uneasy feeling to realize he didn’t know her at all. This woman he’d been sleeping with, a woman he’d met years ago, a friend of his sister’s—she was still a stranger. “If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Saw that coming.”

She looked up and smiled faintly. “I’m sorry. Do you really want to know? It’s kind of”—she paused—“embarrassing.”

“Yeah, I’d like to know. I’m nosy that way.” He walked over and sat on the bed next to her, patting his knees as if he were enjoying himself. “Tell me everything.”

“There really isn’t anything to tell.”

“Which is why it’s embarrassing,” he said.

“Look,” she said. And then didn’t say anything else.

He was suddenly furious. How could he know so little about her? He’d just told Brand he was in love. He’d said it to himself. It was just him being ridiculous again—impulsively, blindly jumping off a cliff. “Was it recent, this thing that wasn’t anything?”

“I haven’t seen him in months. Maybe once since the school year started. We knew each other through work. He teaches an after-school sports program at a clubhouse he founded. Some of my students go there.”

“Was there a time you saw him more often?”

She let out a long breath. “I suppose. All right, yes. We used to go to the movies, dinner, that sort of thing, maybe once or twice a month.”

“But he never touched you.”

“No, I told you. It wasn’t like th—”

“Did you want him to?”

She stood and ran her hands through her hair, breathing too loudly. “I can’t talk about this.”

“He’s getting married. Was that when—”

“Am I being indicted before the grand jury here? What’s with all the questions?”

“That’s it, isn’t it? You stopped seeing him because he got engaged.”

“Yes! Obviously! That’s life.”

He felt some slimy, unpleasant sensation come over him like a cape, tied around his throat, choking him. He thought it was anger, because she was lying to him about this guy and wouldn’t admit it. Then he realized it was jealousy. He was flaming green with it.
 

“You were in love with him.” He crossed his arms over his chest to stop himself from reaching out to her. This wasn’t the time, but he felt the urge to confirm he could touch her. “Still are, it sounds like,” he added.

She closed her eyes for a moment. Then she looked at him. “I thought he was perfect for me. It turned out he wasn’t. I mean, obviously. I’ve moved on. I don’t—”

She shook her head and walked past him to tidy up the bed.

He waited. “What?” he asked finally.

“I don’t think about him anymore. I don’t want to think about him. I’ve got a life to live.” She punched the pillow into place, giving him a tight smile over her shoulder. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?”

“Not by choice.”

She stopped making the bed, turned, and stared at him. “Are you jealous?”

“What does he look like?” He was nuts. What was he doing? He wanted to stop but couldn’t. He
had
to know everything about this guy.

“You’re creeping me out. I have other male friends. I work with men. Are you going to demand to know about them?”

“Are you in love with any of them?”

She gave him a hard stare. “No.”