Chapter 23
Nolan showed up by the coffeehouse for his morning date with Annie slightly crabby. He’d been back home in his workshop basement, locked safely away from the fearless nephew foursome, working on his new bedside table, today cutting pieces for the drawer. He wasn’t the world’s most gifted cabinetmaker, but he loved the work, the precision of measuring and cutting, the smell and feel of the wood, the satisfaction of working with his hands. He’d forgotten the way he could lose himself in the pleasure of the job. Why couldn’t work be that way all the time?
Some aspects of returning to regular full-time work at the security firm appealed to him— he wasn’t the type to be happy dithering around for the rest of his life—but losing the freedom to create wasn’t one of them.
A woman carrying a whipped-cream-topped beverage bumped his arm. Not Annie.
Fifteen minutes earlier, he’d been absorbed in the work, totally unaware of time passing, when Maria called down asking him to move his car. One glance at his watch and he’d used language his discipline-happy father would have locked him in the garage for. Nolan resented the interruption, wasn’t looking forward to the date—Candace had blocked out any interest in Annie—and he hated being late.
Another quick look around, half-afraid he wouldn’t recognize Annie since he’d been slightly out of his mind the night they met, Nolan was relieved to see a familiar auburn head smiling from a table upstairs by the iron railing. He waved, pointed to the counter to show he’d be getting a drink, and ordered a plain black French Roast.
Up the stairs to the mezzanine level, most tables taken by students and adults chatting or glued to laptops, he climbed the next flight to the balcony seating which ran across the back of the building and gave an expansive view of the shop and the lake through the arched windows.
“Hi, Nolan.” She offered her hand and another smile, even warmer than the first.
Her fingers were cool, her grip firm, her yellow top low-cut, her black skirt short.
Nolan took the seat opposite, wishing he were still in his basement. Life was confusing enough right now. He’d convinced Candace to stay on a few more days for her safety, as well as for his own sake, and he didn’t regret the pressure he’d put on her. But now that she was staying… should he bother trying to get closer when she’d be moving away in only a few days?
He didn’t like that she’d had such a powerful impact on him in such a short time. Something was unnatural about this. Obsession was too strong a word. Infatuation? Something didn’t feel right. Or at least nothing like any infatuation that had taken him over before.
“How are you feeling, Nolan?”
He smiled, uneasy at the way Annie lingered over his name. “Much better. How’s Phil the human drugstore?”
“In trouble.”
“With you?”
“With the police since the party.” She rolled her eyes. “With me, for weeks longer. We went out casually for a few months, but he started getting really intense and possessive and I broke it off.”
“Smart move.”
“He hasn’t seen it that way. I met him on the rebound and should have known better.” She shrugged, used her napkin to mop up a drop of spilled coffee. “I generally date a pretty laid-back type, because that’s how I am.”
“Ah.” Nolan, too, though he didn’t want to say so and leave that connection hanging between them. If he’d met Annie for coffee like this without having met Candace, he’d be excited at the prospect of getting to know this poised, beautiful woman. On the surface, she seemed much more his type. But Candace had his brain and heart in an illogical stranglehold.
Based on what? Maybe that was what bugged him. He’d had a few one-night stands with women he was attracted to superficially, but they’d never unsettled him like this. Women he liked on a deeper level he usually tried to get to know before they hit the bedroom.
Candace occupied a nebulous middle ground. He was wildly attracted, but they’d never sat down and had a lengthy conversation. It was all chemistry between them, plus this odd challenge he felt around her, wanting to overcome her prickly resistance, to arouse in the clear light of day the passionate nature he glimpsed on the fog of that first night together, to get into her mind and find out what went on there.
They needed to relax one night in the kitchen with a bottle of wine. Or go out somewhere casually, without Michelle there to start the bickering. He might find out they were completely incompatible, which would make his life a lot easier when she left. If not… He didn’t want to think about if not.
“So I suppose you’re wondering why I asked you out.”
He blinked. Whoa. “Not to get to know me?”
“Oh.” Annie put down her coffee, which he noticed was straight up like his. He liked women who drank coffee the way coffee was meant to be, not clogged with fat and sugar and whatever other candyland stuff they did to it at places like this. He’d already noticed and approved that Candace liked hers black, too. “Yes, I’d like to get to know you, as well. I really enjoyed talking to you at the party, before you…”
“Did involuntary drugs?”
“Right. That.” She laughed. She was beautiful, laughing, showing extra-white teeth, swinging extra-red hair.
He might as well have been gay for all it did for him. “Why did you invite me out?”
She leaned forward and put her clasped hands on the table, light brown eyes enhanced by mascara-thick lashes looking squarely into his. Direct and businesslike. He liked that in a woman, too. “I found out some very interesting things about you from Michael.”
“Like?” He knew. How many times had he had this conversation? Most recently with Candace.
“About your…Family,”
“Yeah.” He sipped his coffee, but acid had already started churning in his stomach and he didn’t need more. Money again. Damn stuff. If it wasn’t his family heritage and extremely convenient, he’d be tempted to get rid of it. But then, of course, it was easy for him to say; he’d always had plenty.
“And that the head of your foundation is leaving.”
“Have you been talking to John?”
She smiled politely, clearly not about to be interrupted. “And that you have a lot more affinity than he did and could take the foundation in a different direction if you were in charge.”