Tangling With Ty

“Uh-huh.” Taylor lifted an eyebrow. “And half your kitchen is still in boxes on the floor.”

“That’s because Suzanne keeps bringing me food so I haven’t had to cook.” Nicole smiled at Suzanne. “Thanks, by the way.”

Suzanne smiled back. “Should I stop? Would that make you stay? If you had to settle in here?”

“Stay? But…” She looked back and forth between them. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You sure about that?” Taylor stood, came closer. “Because I still have your rental app, which clearly states you haven’t stayed in one place for longer than a few months. We’re coming up on that mark now. Is it nearly time to move on? You’ve got a few people who care here, and I can tell it’s unnerving you.” She nodded as she studied Nicole far too closely. “Yeah,” she murmured. “Nearly time to move on, isn’t it?”

Nicole crossed her arms. “So I haven’t lived in one spot for long, so what? Lots of people suffer from wanderlust and besides, I’ve had my job for a good long while, and that’s not going to change. That’s got to count as stability.”

Suzanne’s smile was sad. “I don’t think it’s really wanderlust affecting you, Nicole. I think it’s fear of letting people close. I know, because before I met and fell in love with Ryan, I was the same way. Never really let people in.”

Nicole turned to Taylor. “We have a vow of singlehood, have you forgotten? I’m pretty certain that means never letting people in.”

“It means you don’t put a diamond on the ring finger of your left hand. But you sure as hell can do just about everything else, and should.” Taylor tipped her head to the side and studied Nicole until she squirmed. “You know we love you, right? And I think you feel something for us back.”

“Well, mostly for Suzanne because she cooks for me,” Nicole said, trying to tease past the sudden lump in her throat. She never quite knew what to do with emotion, with easy affection such as she was being offered.

“And I know you feel something for Ty-”

“Actually, what I feel mostly right now is irritation.”

Taylor lifted a brow. “Are you saying you don’t like him?”

“Well, I-”

“It was all over your face when he got hurt, Nicole.”

“Because I’m a doctor! I hate to see anyone hurt, including a know-it-all Irishman.”

“You were beside yourself because it was the know-it-all Irishman,” Taylor pointed out. “So much so that you even forgot your training. That was huge, you panicking like that. Huge and very unlike you.”

“You even took a day off,” Suzanne so helpfully reminded her. “Remember?”

“How could she forget?” Taylor grinned. “She discovered soap operas and cheesy old classic reruns. And she allowed herself to feel, to care. Didn’t you, Nicole?”

What Nicole remembered most was the simple pleasure of that day. Sitting, for a change. And yes, watching TV. But most of all, she remembered the sight of Ty in her bed. Remembered thinking she could get used to that.

“Or was it so good you scared yourself?” Suzanne asked quietly.

“You guys have far too much time to think, you know that?” Nicole hugged herself, feeling…naked. “Yes, I care. Okay? I care about a lot of stuff.”

“How about Ty?”

“Yes, fine, Ty. Should I say it louder? I care for Ty! I care for him a lot.” She lowered her voice to a soft sigh. “So much that it terrifies me, and diving back into work was all I had. Happy now?”

Ty stood in the front doorway, eyes on Nicole, smile grim. “I’m a lot of things, actually.”

Nicole nearly swallowed her tongue. When the hell had he shown up? “Ty, I-”

“I don’t have much experience with happy,” he continued. “But terrified?” He pondered that. “Definitely. I’m definitely terrified, Nicole.”

Suzanne put her hand on his arm and gave him a gentle squeeze. “It gets easier.”

“What does?”

“Why, love of course.” She smiled into his shocked face and reached for Taylor. “We’ll just leave the two of you alone-”

“No!” Nicole softened her voice with effort. Her heart was pounding. Her palms damp. She wanted to start running like hell and never stop. Love? Who’d said anything about love? For God’s sake, couldn’t one lust for someone without the L-word coming into play? “Taylor-”

Taylor just laughed at Nicole’s face. “Oh, sweetie, if you could see your expression. Well, girlfriend, you’ve been too busy for too long, you never learned to slow down and take it all in. Now it’s happened without your permission, hasn’t it? And you haven’t a clue what to do with it. Poor baby.” She grabbed Nicole’s face and gave her a smacking kiss. “Good news, Super Girl. You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”

Okay, maybe Nicole had only recently realized what she was missing in her life. Maybe she’d only recently understood that life wasn’t all work and no play, but she still hadn’t reconciled it all, she still didn’t know how to get more for herself, or how to…

How to face Ty, the man she’d foolishly thought maybe, possibly, hopefully could be the one.

He wasn’t the one. He wouldn’t ever want to be the one.

And he’d heard her shout how she felt about him. God. Talk about humiliation. “Taylor-”

But they were gone. Leaving her alone with Ty, who was looking at her with an expression she supposed mirrored her own terror. “Well.” She tried to smile. “My day is complete.”

He blew out a breath and looked at her. Really looked at her. “Something else is wrong,” he said.

“Besides you being here?”

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, a little cross that he could see through everything and find the lingering unease over the Dr. Watts scene. “It’s just that work sucked and now-”

“Did that asshole try something again?”

She stared at him, a little shocked by his deep tone of instant rage. For her. “Everything is going to be fine in that department.”

“Sure?”

His voice was every bit as low and gravely and sexy as she remembered, and she remembered plenty. “Very.”

He drew another deep breath as if struggling for patience.

She knew the feeling. “So why are you here anyway?” she asked, more than a little defensively, crossing her arms.

“I have a job here.”

“Oh, yeah.” Now she felt just stupid. Of course he had a job here. What did she think, that he’d come to see her? How ridiculous that would be, how-

“I’ll just get to it,” he said, and turned to the door.

Only he slammed it shut while still on the inside, closing them inside the apartment together.

Alone.

11

TY LOOKED at Nicole, who stood there seeming a little confused.

Good, that made two of them.

“What are you doing?” she asked warily when he came close. “I thought you were going to go do what you had to.”

“I am.” He wrapped his hands around her upper arms and hauled her up to her toes so he could get a good look into the face he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.

She gasped. “But…I thought you meant work. You had to get to work.”