Chapter 20

Candace peeked at Michelle to see her reaction at the same time Michelle peeked at her. Then both shrugged comically, which made them both cover their mouths to keep from giggling.

“Thanks. Yeah, um, I enjoyed meeting you, too.”

Candace lifted her eyebrows. Michelle mouthed, I’ll bet. Nolan rolled his eyes and turned his back on both of them, which started the giggling again. His fault they were listening, because his large and magnificent body was blocking the exit.

“Tomorrow…” His voice dropped. “I’m free then, yes.”

The giggles stopped. Michelle suddenly found her lack of manicure fascinating. Candace examined the floor for traces of dirt. Of course there wasn’t any because she’d cleaned like a maniac all day. She wasn’t going to be jealous. If Nolan wanted to go out with this— Her eyes jerked to his broad back. Wait! Annie? The woman he’d been trying to pick up at the party? The woman he mistook Candace for that night? In bed? She was going to be jealous.

“Okay, see you then.” He hung up and turned, glancing first at Candace, then at Michelle. “Well.”

“Ah.”

“So…”

“I didn’t thank you for dinner, Nolan.” Michelle launched herself at him for a long hug, ostensibly to prove Annie had a lower priority than she did. Candace quietly left the room to avoid watching the lingering full-frontal contact and trudged upstairs carrying even more jealousy, which she needed to dump out the window. Michelle, Annie, Nolan…She had more important things to do than moon over a man she wouldn’t know much longer. Like decide what to do about her trip.

There was no point staying here any longer. Nolan was exactly what Michelle needed, and Candace needed to be in Rosehill to help Gran and Grandad through the hurricane. But to avoid heavy traffic in the Langford area she couldn’t leave too early, and that would cut down the miles she could cover tomorrow, not a good thing if she planned to make the drive in two days. She didn’t want to arrive too late Monday or, God forbid, have to spend another night on the road and show up only hours ahead of the hurricane.

But wait. She stopped in front of her room door. Another option which would solve traffic and timing problems was to get up after a few hours of sleep and leave tonight. She’d stoke herself up with coffee, get more than halfway to Rosehill by tomorrow evening, then to Langford by Monday afternoon, in plenty of time to help prepare for the hurricane and ride out the storm. Leaving silently would ensure no awkward goodbyes with Nolan.

Michelle wouldn’t object. She’d be relieved to be rid of her sister, at least on some level. A phone rang somewhere in the house and Michelle’s voice rang clearly all the way from downstairs, too bright and too loud. “Oh! Hi. Um. Wow! Hi. Hang on.”

Footsteps, running upstairs. Michelle, flushed and agitated, giving Candace a distracted and guilty smile as she passed into her bedroom, closing the door firmly, practically in Candace’s face. Was that the “dreaded” phone call? Candace’s stomach turned sick with instinct. More man trouble? With Nolan right here under her nose?

Candace shouldn’t jump to conclusions, especially not again so soon. Michelle said she’d changed. Maybe she really had. She trudged into her room and packed her bag, feeling sick and hollow.

Sick with nagging uncertainly over her sister’s behavior, but also because she was packing to leave Quinley again. Before dinner, over drinks at the Café, they’d run into Lucy Vola, a friend of Candace’s from high school who’d shared Candace’s passion for photography, and who hadn’t sold out to practicality in her career but had a studio on North Avenue with her business-partner boyfriend. Seeing her and having a lengthy catch-up chat about the business and about mutual friends and acquaintances reminded Candace not only of her disappointed hopes of a career in photography, but also of all the roots she’d put down here.

But she supposed it was normal to be anxious about moving. Starting over would be hard anywhere. And she could do better about keeping photography as a hobby once she was in Rosehill. Somehow she’d let that side of her slip when she moved to Drakoria.

She undressed, grumpy and ill at ease, and pulled on her camisole and girl boxers. No sleeping pill tonight, not when she’d be getting up again so soon, which meant she’d sleep badly. Especially if she started thinking— okay, she was already thinking it—about how tomorrow night this would be Nolan’s room again, and he’d sleep in the bed she was about to climb into.

Would he think about her? Every night? For weeks or only a few days? Would Michelle sneak in one night and claim her new territory, replacing their drugged, indistinct memories with vividly erotic new ones? Probably. And when she did, Candace was going to be the dutiful saintly sister and be happy for her.

She slipped out into the hall and toward the bathroom, doubled back abruptly to get a shirt or other cover-up, then rolled her eyes and turned back again. Nolan was still downstairs. He wouldn’t— The bathroom door swung open.

Not downstairs. Here. Tall and masculine, looking her over thoroughly. “What a nice bedtime surprise.”

Oh, God. Candace took a step back, as if distance would make her outfit more conservative, and folded her arms over her chest. “I thought you were downstairs.”

“I’m not.”

Right. Just because she hadn’t heard him clumping up, yelling, “I’m coming up the stairs now, make sure you’re decent,” she assumed the coast was clear? She was definitely not firing on all cylinders. Too much on her mind.

“Need the bathroom?”

She stared at his feet for lack of anywhere else she could bear to look, and tried to gather her exploded wits. “Uh. Yeah. Thanks.”

“How much?”

Her gaze shot up. “What?”

“How much do you need to use it?” His eyes sparked mischief. “What’s it worth to you?”

“Nolan…”

“Because I think I might charge a small fee to get out of the way. With you looking like that—” he took a step toward her “—I’m not sure I can let you off easily. I might have to—”

Michelle’s door flew open; she burst out, then froze at the sight of her sister in underwear and Nolan standing very close to her. “Oh. Um. Hi, guys.”

Candace felt her face turn hot. “I’m about to use the bathroom.”

“Well.” Michelle nodded rapidly, her expression strangely distant. “That sounds great.”