With only a day before he had to leave again, Nick packed the day full.
He was running in to download interview notes when Susan stopped him. She said, “comb your hair. Tuck your shirt in.”
“When did you turn into my mother?”
She got up and pulled out a comb from her purse then efficiently dragged it through his hair, acting exactly like a mother. “There’s a woman in your office. I don’t want you looking like a homeless person.”
“There’s a woman in my office?” She never put people in his office to wait. This one must be special. “Do I know her?”
“How do I know? Go in there and find out.”
He walked in and felt his balance sway. He saw her legs first. Long, sexy legs wearing low heels. Her black skirt had ridden up a little on her thigh. Nice muscle tone there.
“Hello,” he said. He didn't know what else to say.
She turned her head and smiled at him. He felt blinded by the dazzle. “Hello.”
Her short blonde hair was styled, her makeup perfect, and she wore business clothes rather than beach wear, but she still looked like his Kate.
He wanted to go over there and kiss her senseless, then drag her out of here and straight to his place, but she’d shown up at his office and he supposed he should find out what she wanted.
“How can I help you?”
“I understand you can find missing people.”
“It’s one of my areas of expertise,” he agreed.
“I want you to find a man for me.”
“A man. What kind of man?”
“I met this man on the beach, in Carlsbad. He came for a lesson and, well, we hit it off.”
“You did.”
She smiled that secret sexy smile that reminded him of late mornings and rumpled sheets. “Oh, yeah. And then he disappeared.”
“And why do you want to find him?”
She held his gaze with her own. “I need to tell him something. I need to tell him that I’m in love with him.”
“I see.” He walked over so he was standing right in front of her. “Perhaps I could take you somewhere more private and we could discuss this case in more depth.”
“I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”
She got up and threw herself in his arms. “Oh, Nick, I’ve missed you so much.”
He kissed her, held her to him. Feeling every part of her match up with every part of him.
“You were right,” she said. “I hadn’t even told my friends I wasn’t getting married. I was in limbo. Stuck there. But after you left, I went back to LA. I met Marlene.”
He pulled her away and looked down at her face. “You did what?”
“It’s a long story, but a good one. Anyway, Ted and I talked and we confronted our parents together and that part was awful, but they now know we’re not getting married and I made a list and I’ve called all my friends. I told my mother I’d help her cancel the caterers and everything. We’ve got most of that done.” She took a deep breath. “And now I’m free.”
“And here.”
“I needed to see you and tell you in person.”
Once the news sank in that she was in love with him, he had time to think about what else she’d said. “How did you find Marlene?”
The imp of mischief he’d glimpsed the first time he saw her was alive in her eyes. “I hired that PI who was following me in Carlsbad.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know why he never gave the Carnarvons pictures of us, would you?”
“Because I told him I’d pay him extra if he didn't. He found me and I went back to LA. That’s really what they wanted.”
As they walked out, he said to his assistant, “Susan, I will be out for the rest of the day.” And then he winked at her.
Behind Kate’s back, she gave him the two thumbs up sign.
Much later, when he and Kate had spent a few much-needed hours in his bed, he said, “How long are you staying?”
“I thought I’d stay a few days and look around. I haven’t been to Seattle for years.”
“How would you like to go on a little trip with me?”
“How little?”
“I need to go to Catalina Island. I’m leaving tomorrow.”
“Weren’t we just there?”
He kissed her because she was the most kissable woman he’d ever known. “Yes. Want to go back?”
She climbed on top of him and kissed him back. “I do.”
Chapter Nineteen