That was the only way his night was going to go better.
Three
“I need a new charm.”
A surprising number of shoppers were at the center on a Sunday. Then again, so many of the banking guys worked all weekend and they needed a little something to take home to the girlfriend to make it up to them. The female analysts generally shopped for a special something for themselves to celebrate their latest deal. And then there were the regulars like Stella, who came in and selected a bead as a reminder of something lurid she’d done the night before.
“It’s been what, a fortnight for you?” Nina immediately went to her locked cabinets—Stella spent.
“I’m very selective.” Stella answered archly.
“I know you are.”
“But I must confess,” Stella winked. “I need two.”
“You don’t,” Nina gaped, holding the key mid-air as her forty-something favorite customer sashayed across the smooth wooden floor. “Really?”
“Really do,” Stella purred with a wink, her pink lipstick a wide slash as she smiled. “A very nice pair of beads, please. It’s your lucky day.”
Nina chuckled. She was paid on commission, so yes, she wanted to sell Stella another charm or two, but it was why Stella collected them that had her so tickled. “Did you want linked charms because you had them at the same time? Twins, perhaps?”
“I haven’t been that lucky yet.” Stella eyed the sparkling jewels with deliberate, discerning care. “And nor have you.” She turned a displeased glance at Nina’s bare arms. “You don’t wear one at all. That better not mean what I think it might.”
“We don’t all wear charms as mementoes of the men we’ve been with,” Nina said dryly. Her own chain would be pretty dismal if she did.
“You ought to start,” Stella said as she picked out two studded beads and held them up to the light to inspect them.
Nina laughed and shook her head. “I’m not collecting trophies yet.” She was in restorative mode still. But honestly, the moment this morning was too good not to share with Stella. “Though I did window shop this morning.”
“Really?” Stella spun around, impossibly perkier and all fox-eyes.
“Beautiful.” It was good to admit it to someone—given she’d spent two hours of her shift replaying the moment in her head. “Just—beautiful.”
“Where?”
“Would you believe the Tube?” Nina turned back to pull more trays from the drawer.
“Nina darling,” Stella said, drawling her disapproval. “The likelihood of seeing him again?”
“It might happen. We’re creatures of habit, right?” Nina shrugged, not admitting that she’d seen the beautiful creature almost every day the last fortnight. “The most amazing eyes.” She fished in the tray of charms. “Like this.” She held up a blue topaz studded charm—the color as clear as his irises.
“You can’t get a charm for just looking,” Stella admonished. “And why were you only looking at his eyes?” She walked away to look in another cabinet. “What about the rest of him?”
“Oh, the body matched,” Nina said as she carefully put the charm back into the velvet-lined case. “Better than Beckham’s. That tall, lean-but-muscled type.”
“Jeans?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Nina straightened another of the beads that had slipped in the display tray.
“Dark hair? Dangerous smile? Foreign air? Gray tee?”
“Yeah,” Nina said. She frowned over her tray, amazed at the detail in Stella’s guesswork. “How’d you know that?”
“I was wrong about the likelihood.” Stella laughed.
Nina turned to look at her crazy customer and found Stella standing in the middle of the shop, a foot away from—
Oh hell.
Her vital organs froze in mid-vital movement—her heart held just above a beat, her half-inflated lungs seized, and her useless brain just blanked completely.
He was in her store. Right in the middle of it, next to Stella and her foxy-eyes. Tall and gorgeous and watching Nina and from the roguish expression on his face, he’d heard every incriminating word.
Wince, wince, wince.
“Oh, yes,” Stella said, winking as she walked out of the shop. “That blue would be perfect. Blue, silver. And steel.”
Nina forced herself to swallow, hoping to kick-start the rest of her system.
“Have I cost you a sale?” he asked with concern that was far, far too kind and eyes that were far, far too amused.
She drew a sharp breath. “It’s fine.” Nina quickly shut the drawer of beads and locked them away. “I’m sure she’ll be back.” Stella came in with wicked regularity. “How can I help you?”
She welded on her best Shop Assistant Smile, determined not to be disappointed, but he looked too at home in this haven for romantics. “I’m used to helping men with their purchases for their girlfriends, wives, lovers, mothers…” she trailed off and sucked up some more stoicism to get through. “Some buy for all those women at once.” Yeah, some of the guys even admitted they were there buying for both wife and girlfriend. They were the ones who asked for a bulk discount.
“I only have the mother and she’s not in England at the moment,” he answered, his attention riveted to her, that breathtaking half-smile not fading any.
Nina had to clear her throat from the army of frogs threatening to invade. “So you wanted to get her a bracelet?”
“No.”
Right. Nina’s heart clattered as her brain began to work overtime on reasons why he was here. But the one she most wanted to believe just couldn’t be real. Maybe she was hallucinating? Was he really walking toward her with that smile and those stunning, sparkling eyes?
“So what did you want?” Ugh, the frogs had attacked and she was all raspy.
“I was thinking about tonight.” He calmly walked over to the cabinet where she still stood frozen—her limbs had yet to recover muscle-power.
She gnawed on her lower lip, holding back the nervous questions so near the surface. Couldn’t she fake some cool?
“Do you think you can get out of your prior engagement?” he asked.
Nina breathed out a shard of old, cold pain.
