The Morning After Read online

  9

  A FEW HOURS LATER, ERIN threw back her head and laughed, which prompted a sigh of relief from Nikki. Thank God Erin seemed to be enjoying herself. And she hadn’t seemed to catch on when they’d accidentally run into Max, one of Tess’s exes, and his friend. Of course, they were always running into Tess’s exes.

  For once, though, Erin had taken the encounter in stride. In fact, she and Ryan, the friend, seemed to be hitting it off.

  “I can’t believe how easy this has been.” Tess leaned toward Nikki and spoke into her ear just loud enough for Nikki to hear over the hubbub of the bar and grill. “Why didn’t we try this before?”

  “I don’t know, but when was the last time you saw her smile like that?”

  Tess shrugged, then turned as Ramon stopped by the table. It always impressed Nikki how Tess’s current lovers didn’t seem to mind the never-ceasing presence of her minions. It seemed a little ironic that Dylan’s lost love no longer walked this earth but Nikki burned with jealousy for the woman.

  She gritted her teeth against a wave of longing. Dylan still hadn’t called or made any attempt to see her. Had Sophie been wrong? It seemed he was truly gone from her life.

  “Hey, Nikki, why so down?” Max touched her arm.

  The look of concern on his face tightened her throat. She swallowed and forced a smile. “Nothing. I’m good.”

  “I heard you had a new man.”

  “Had being the operative word there.”

  He frowned slightly. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Hey, you two don’t mind if we step out for a little fresh air? Ramon wants to show us his new car,” Tess said.

  Nikki shrugged. “Sure, go on. I’ll hold down the fort.” After they’d all left, she turned to Max. “Not interested in Ramon’s car?”

  “When I can have you all to myself?”

  “Me and my sour mood.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “Tell me something. How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “End things with my sister but…not.”

  A smile curved his lips. “Tess has a gift.”

  “So it seems. I don’t see how she does it. I mean, how does she let go? How does she go from lover to friend like that?”

  “I don’t know. The time was right and it was all straight.”

  Just like Maggie. “I know. Still…was it real for you?”

  “Our relationship?”

  She nodded. Maybe it hurt so badly with Dylan because he was meant to be more than someone she healed.

  “About the most real relationship I’ve ever had. I’ve never known anything like it.” A smile curved his lips. “She opened me up somehow—helped me dig deeper. I’ve been with several women since Tess, none for very long, but each rocked me like when I was with your sister. Tess gave me that.”

  Nikki sat back in her chair, a feeling of defeat pressing down on her. Maybe she was defective. Her gift seemed to have manifested differently from her mother’s or her sister’s. It wasn’t supposed to hurt like this.

  “Hey, here they come.” He nodded to the two couples—and indeed they were both couples at this point, with Erin’s and Ryan’s arms twined around each other—heading toward them.

  “They look good together,” Max said, indicating Erin and Ryan.

  “Yes, thanks for helping to hook them up. She appears to be happy.”

  “What are you two saying about me?” Erin asked as Ryan held her chair for her.

  “I’ll never tell.” Nikki straightened and pasted on another smile.

  Did Erin have the gift? She’d had a few low-key relationships, but nothing that stuck in Nikki’s mind. Was Erin able to move from lover to lover with the same ease Tess had mastered?

  Everyone settled again at the table and Nikki did her best to relax and try to enjoy herself. Twice she jumped at the musical notes of a cell phone, but her own phone sat mutely in her bag.

  Who was she kidding? Dylan wasn’t going to call. The sooner she accepted that and got on with her life, the better.

  “Hey.” Erin leaned across the table. “I’m sorry I didn’t come see your house.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, really, I’d like to see it…if it’s still okay.”

  “Sure. I’d like that. I’ll call the agent tomorrow and make the arrangements.”

  Had she been relegated to the role of buyer in Dylan’s life? Would her only contact with him now be regarding a land transaction?

  She sipped her drink. Laughter and excited chatter floated around her. At least her sisters were enjoying the evening. She pretended to enjoy herself even as gloom pressed down around her.

  Was Dylan truly healed? She glanced around the pub. Several men made eye contact and perked up immediately. It seemed she hadn’t lost her touch. With just one look she could have any one of them by her side.

  Was she a one-night wonder once more?

  “Hey, you going to get that?” Tess asked.

  Nikki started at the musical summons of her cell phone. She pawed through her bag, then held the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Nikki?”

  “Yes?” Her heart thudded as she rose and moved toward the door, one finger pressed to her other ear as she tried to hear.

  “It’s Dylan. I know I ducked out on you the other morning and I’m sorry for that. I’ll understand if you don’t want anything to do with me now, but I…I need to see you.”

  THUNDER BOOMED. DARKNESS surrounded him and rain slashed his face. The squeal of tires reverberated in surreal tones through the night. He reached out, grasping thin air as his throat closed on his scream.

  He stood helpless as the car skidded in slow motion, then slammed into the power pole, the boom of impact rising over the turbulence of the storm. His heart pounding, he ran toward the vehicle. Live cables fell from above, spraying sparks all around him. He froze as one of the lines dropped perilously close.

  Then he was moving, pressing his hands to the glass of the driver’s window, desperately peering inside. He yanked on the door handle, but the collision had bent the frame.

  A bolt of lightning lit the sky, illuminating the figure in the car. The air bag had failed to deploy. Nikki lay lifeless and broken across the steering wheel.

  His chest seized and he screamed.

  “Dylan, wake up.” Her soft voice floated over him.

  Slowly he surfaced from the nightmare, the horror of it clinging to him. He blinked her face into view. Nikki bent over him, vibrant and alive, her eyes filled with concern.

  “It was just a dream,” she soothed with her voice and her touch.

  He turned his face into her palm and breathed in the clean scent of her while his heart galloped with dread.

  “You want to talk about it?” She shifted beside him. He resisted the urge to sweep her into his arms, to lose himself once more in her magical charms.

  “You dreamed about it…the accident?” she asked.

  He pushed away from her, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “What do you know about that?”

  “That you once loved deeply and you lost her to a terrible accident.”

  “Who— It was Evelyn. She had no business telling you.”

  “She meant no harm.”

  He turned to face her, steeling himself against the sight of her. “Stay away from her.”

  “Look, I can handle Evelyn.”

  “I don’t want you to handle her. I don’t want you anywhere near her. We agreed to keep all personal stuff out of this.”

  “Why?” Her voice caught. “I know we made a deal, but I want to help. I can’t do that if you don’t talk to me.”

  The sweet tone of her words tempted him. His chest tightened as he met her gaze. The softness of her eyes melted some of his resolve. He inhaled, then blew out the breath in a rush. “She was amazing. You would have liked her.”

  Nikki didn’t comment, just listened, her expression inten
t. She smoothed her hand along his arm and the warmth spread through him.

  “I was in boarding schools since I was old enough for my parents to ship me off. I barely remember a time when I lived at home. Kathy and Steven were my family. As we grew older, well…Kathy was my home. She was all I ever needed.”

  He was silent for a long moment, drifting through the memories: the first time he saw her, with her pigtails and clenched fists; the night they first declared their love; how she squirmed and laughed when he kissed the hollow of her back, then begged him to do it again.

  “She was like a kid with her love of life, her exuberance. Steven, my first boarding school roommate, he hated that he’d met her first but she ended up with me.” He shook his head. “Now he’s the married one, the happy one.”

  He fell again into silence, a small sense of wonder filling him. He could talk about her and it didn’t hurt. He let his gaze travel over Nikki. “I’m sorry, that’s probably the last thing you want to hear about.”

  Tears shimmered in her eyes and he froze. What an oaf. He’d upset her.

  But she smiled and touched him then, and he became lost again in the magic of her.

  NIKKI HUMMED SOFTLY AS SHE scrubbed for surgery the next morning. She’d listened, the way Sophie advised, and Dylan had opened up to her. Sophie had been right about so many things.

  Could she be right about Nikki finding happiness?

  Dylan had come back to her. And this time it felt more like a beginning than an end. He’d been more tender than ever, waking her early and making sweet love to her before they started the day.

  He’d made her promise to return tonight. How could she refuse? She’d been there for him last night and he’d talked about Kathy.

  Maybe now he’d start to let her go.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Nikki asked as she nearly stumbled over Tess, who stood in the hall with her ear pressed to Erin’s bedroom door that Saturday night.

  “Shush.” Tess waved her on and continued her intent eavesdropping.

  “No way.” Nikki grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the hall. “That is so rude.” A loud thump sounded from Erin’s room. Nikki glanced back in spite of herself. “What’s going on in there?”

  “Lots of moaning and groaning and these cooing—”

  “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. It is none of our business.”

  “Sure it is. If not for us, she wouldn’t be in there with that hottie, Ryan.”

  “That does not give you the right to listen at her door.”

  “But they’ve been in there since Tuesday night. That’s four days. I don’t think either of them has stepped a foot out of that room the entire time. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t.”

  “Since Tuesday?”

  “Yeah. If they keep this up much longer, they may come close to breaking my personal record.”

  “Really?” Nikki’s surprise increased. “And exactly what is that record? No, never mind. I don’t think I really want to know.”

  “Remember that cruise I took with Lewis Baker last year? The one where we sailed to— Hell, I don’t remember where we sailed. I hardly saw the outside of the cabin once we left the port.”

  Nikki frowned. Which one of the many men who had passed through her sister’s life in the past year had been Lewis? It wasn’t as if Nikki kept a scorecard. “You mean the redhead with the great buns?”

  Tess rolled her eyes. “People kept asking if we were brother and sister. What a bunch of sickos. We were practically joined at the hip, if not lip-locked whenever we were in public. He used to say he wanted the world to know I was his. He loved public displays and really liked having sex in risky places. While we were on that cruise—”

  “Too much information.” Nikki shook her head. “I think I remember him. Was that over the Fourth of July weekend?”

  “We left on Wednesday and got back Monday.” Tess wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  “You…the entire time?” Nikki asked, amazed in spite of herself.

  “Five and a half days.”

  Before Nikki could reply, Erin’s door scraped open and their youngest sister stumbled into the hall. She shut the door quickly behind her, then straightened and smoothed down her hair when she spotted them. The attempt did little to tame the wild mass of blond curls framing her flushed face. “What are you two up to?”

  Tess swaggered back like an offended sailor, puffing her chest out and fisting her hands on her hips. “Why do you always think we’re up to something?”

  “Because you always are.”

  Nikki stepped between them before sparks began to fly. She glanced at the closed door. “So everything going okay?”

  Erin’s eyes flashed. “Of course everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t everything be fine?”

  “No reason.” Nikki frowned. “Just asking.”

  “Well, everything is absolutely dandy. I’m just going to get…to get us something to drink.”

  “So that is Ryan you’re hoarding away in there?” Tess tried to peer past her.

  “Of course it’s Ryan. Who else would I have back there? Unlike some people, I’m a one-man-at-a-time kind of girl—”

  “And what does that mean?” Tess glared threateningly at her younger sister.

  Nikki gripped Tess’s arm. “Look, why don’t we all get some nice cool lemonade?”

  Farther up the hall, Tess’s door scraped open and Ramon leaned out. “You girls having a party?”

  “Hey, who drank all the lemonade?” Max stood at the end of the hall holding an empty pitcher.

  Stefan moved in beside Max. “Did someone say something about a party?”

  Erin gestured toward the men. “Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?”

  “What exactly is your problem, Erin? Just when I think you’re loosening up and learning to enjoy yourself—”

  “Tess. Erin. Let’s not do this. It’s late. We should all get some sleep,” Nikki said. When had life here turned into such a circus?

  Erin stepped up to Max and snatched the pitcher from him. “I’ll take this, thank you.”

  “Hey, want me to fill that up with something else for you? I think there was some orange juice.” He gestured toward the kitchen, but Erin had already turned away. Without saying another word, she disappeared into her room, shutting the door behind her.

  “She attacked me. Did you see that?” Tess asked. “I’m not imagining it.”

  “Come to bed, my sweet.” Ramon reached for her and, thankfully, she went to him. “Let me hold you. I want to tell you about the time I fell in love with this beautiful redhead.”

  He pulled Tess into the room with him, murmuring softly to her as the door closed behind them.

  For a moment Nikki stood in the darkened hall. Max and Stef had gone into the living room, where, from the sound of it, they were watching late-night reruns of a reality show. She leaned against the wall as the moaning began again in Erin’s room and muffled laughter sounded through Tess’s bedroom wall.

  Even as a pang of envy gripped her, Nikki couldn’t help wondering. Things just weren’t like the old days anymore. It seemed that the more men they had in their lives, the further apart the three of them grew. Though Erin had asked to see the house, they hadn’t been able to work out a time between their schedules. Sadness settled over Nikki.

  Had the three of them outgrown each other?

  10

  “IT’S NATURAL THAT THE three of you should each find your own way.” Thomas blew out a puff of smoke from the pipe he’d favored for years.

  Nikki always knew when he was taking a break by the smell of tobacco that circled his work area. Thomas was as fond of sitting down for a long smoke and contemplating the intricacies of life as he was of tinkering in his workshop. She’d woken up in a funk that Sunday. Unable to shake it all day, she’d gone for a late-afternoon drive, ending up at his house.

  “I guess you’re right. I never thought about it before. It’s kind of sad
.”

  “You’ll each get caught up in your own lives. Knowing you girls, you’ll still be close, but just like you’ll learn to let go of the men in your life, you’ll learn to let go of your sisters in a way.”

  She nodded. Was Thomas right? Erin was already spending so much time away from them. And Tess…well, it was always hard to tell what Tess might do. She was so much like their mother. “I guess. Maggie never stayed in one place for more than a few months. She painted and she loved. It seemed she threw herself into a new painting each time she took a new lover. Then one day she’d announce that she was done with her latest masterpiece. That usually coincided with the end of the affair. Though I never liked it, I did get used to it.”

  “Do you ever miss her?”

  She glanced up at him and frowned. “Who? Maggie?”

  “Yes, your mother. Do you miss her?”

  Nikki sat back and frowned some more. Did she miss Maggie? “I never thought about it.”

  “Missing someone isn’t something you have to think about. It just happens. Either you do or you don’t.”

  She stared for a moment at the small fan behind him that made a feeble attempt to stir the heavy air. “You know we never got along so well. All my memories of her are of us fighting or of her being disappointed in me—or me in her. I think it’s more like relief when she isn’t around.”

  His gaze fixed on her, keen and probing. “Even now that you’re grown?”

  She shrugged. “Well…I think with recent revelations I understand her a little better, so maybe that means we’d get along. She isn’t around much to tell.”

  “But she will be. She always comes back. Do you think the two of you might stand a chance then?”

  Years of resentment rose in her, swirling in a confusion with her honest desire to get to know the woman who had raised her. “She’s never been much of a mother figure—thank God for you and Sophie—but maybe it would be nice to have a peaceful relationship with her.”

  “The problem is you’re every bit as hardheaded as she is.” He paused to savor his pipe, then said, “She’d like to start fresh with you—with all of you girls.”