Chapter 30

“I know.” She fell onto a stool opposite Candace and scrubbed at her hair in frustration. “I really wanted to fall in love with Nolan. But he’s just so, I don’t know…Boring.”

Candace was so flabbergasted, she couldn’t even speak.

“He’s so vanilla. I like spice, I like danger, I like—”

“Idiots.”

“I know.” Michelle slumped mournfully onto the counter. “But I don’t know how to stop. I tried to want Nolan, I really did. It’s just not in me.”

“Sledge was, though, apparently.”

“Ha, ha. And speaking of into, if you ask me, Nolan is way into you. So what hope did I have anyway?”

Candace shrugged. Even her hair was blushing.

Michelle looked at her curiously. “A bottle and a half of wine missing. You have fun last night?”

Now even her eyeballs were blushing.

Michelle grinned unexpectedly. “Honey, if you weren’t going to Rosehill, I’d say you and Nolan were perfect for each other.”

Candace tried to breathe calming breaths through a massive adrenaline rush. “Because I’m boring, too?”

“You know what I mean. He’s a great guy. And even though I want to kill you most of the time, you’re a great person, too.” She groaned and bonked her head down again on the counter. “Me, I give up. I’m doomed to have a miserable, horrible love life.”

“With Sledge?”

Michelle laughed bitterly. “He won’t call again. I know his type.”

Candace said nothing. She did, too, thanks to her sister.

“So.” Michelle turned to send her a sly look. “Did anything go on last night?”

“Not…really.”

“But something did?” Michelle actually looked hopeful.

“Sort of. I wasn’t really going to do anything until I knew for sure whether the two of you were together, but he said you were out with—”

“It’s okay, Candace.” She hauled herself upright, reached for Candace’s arm and squeezed. “Don’t worry, seriously. It was pretty obvious nothing was going to happen between us. All I could do was force myself to flirt and he obviously wasn’t responding at all, so the whole thing was kind of torturous.”

Candace let out her relief on a long breath. “Okay.”

“Hmm.” Michelle got a distinctly calculating gleam in her eye. “So now that’s all out on the table…”

“Ye-e-s?”

Michelle’s grin turned wicked. “There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from going for it before you leave.”

Which pretty much summed up Candace’s take on the situation, too.

Her sister was right, and it scared her to death.

______________

“Come on, Nick.”

“You are not getting me onto one of those things.”

“Nick.” Michelle grabbed his elbow to stop him from walking away.

They were standing in June Park, by the Park Paddleboat Company. Out on the calm waters of the tree-lined lagoon, bobbing next to the narrow wooden pier, were hydro-bikes, available to be rented, twenty dollars for half an hour. Who could resist?

Apparently Nick.

“C’mon, we have enough time before we have to go back to work.”

“You told me you wanted to go by the lake for lunch today. Not on it.”

“I know, but this would be much more fun. We can rent one of the tandem ones and do it together.”

They were both wearing shorts, thanks to the new casual clothes policy for summertime that their boss Mr.

Maniscotto actually unbent far enough to allow. To Michelle’s surprise, Nick looked really good in his shorts; it was first time she’d seen him wearing them. She’d assumed he’d have pale stick legs, but that was, ahem, not the case at all. He looked solidly in shape. And now that she was looking, his shoulders were broader than she had noticed before, and were those pectoral muscles pushing against the material of his T-shirt? “Do you work out, Nick?”

He glared at her. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“Darn it.” She laughed, more startled than amused. Never occurred to her to flatter him. She just wanted to know, because if you ignored his helmet hair and the fact that his shorts were rust red brown and his shirt blue-and-orange-striped, he actually looked hot. Michelle would make sure to parade him by Jenny when they got back to the office in case she ever managed to ditch her horrible boyfriend and Nick broke up with Emma.

“Then do it for me.”

“You won’t stop whining until I give in, will you?”

“Nope.” She smiled cheerfully and pulled him to the rental counter. “Give in to your fate.”

He sighed heavily. “I’m doomed.”

“Look at it this way. If it’s wonderful, you can bring Emma and she’ll think you’re the greatest for suggesting something so fun. If it’s horrible, you won’t have risked pissing her off. I can be your test case.”

“That is such girl logic.”

“Hey, I’m a girl.” She requested a tandem bike from the friendly man behind the counter and dug out her wallet.

Nick nudged her with his shoulder. “I’ll pay.”

“No way. I’m forcing you. I’ll do it.” She whipped out her twenty dollars before he got his and surrendered her driver’s license for collateral, then handed Nick his bright orange life vest, which he put on scowling good-naturedly.