Home to Laura

chapter FOURTEEN



THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY AFTERNOON, Laura got a call from Salem Pearce.

“We’ve been playing all morning and it’s two o’clock and coach is still pushing us.” He sounded winded. “We’re starving. Nick said he’ll pay for lunch. Can you bring over a bunch of sandwiches and cold drinks?”

“Sure. You want dessert, too? I’ve got cookies.”

“Yeah! There are ten players, coach and Emily, Ruby and Mort.”

“Got it. See you soon.”

She turned to the two women she’d hired, Gayle and Norma. The Gems, she called them, because they could do no wrong. They made her life so much easier.

“We need sandwiches for—” she glanced at the notes she’d taken “—fourteen people. Ten of them are hungry teenage boys.”

The Gems laughed and immediately started slicing and buttering bread and pulling cold cuts out of the fridge.

“Tilly, can you pack a couple of dozen cookies? I’ll get cold drinks.”

Fifteen minutes later, Laura packed her car and drove to the high school.

Planning to get help carrying in the food, she entered the gym and stopped just inside the door.

Nick and Salem were facing off, running from one end of the court to the other. Tall men, their long legs ate up the length of the court in a few strides.

Nick dribbled the ball toward the net, rose in a long twisting arc and dropped the ball in, turning the sport into a graceful ballet.

She remembered how often Gabe had wanted to attend Nick’s games and how she’d never objected. She used to sit holding one man’s hand while she lusted after the beautiful athlete that Nick was on the court.

Salem laughed, grabbed the ball and dribbled to the other end of the court, Nick hot on his heels and jumping to block the ball as Salem made a shot toward the basket.

Nick Jordan. Poetry in motion.

The attraction she felt for the man exploded inside of her, wouldn’t be denied.

Why did he have to come back to Accord? Why did he have to decide to build here? Why did he wreak havoc with all of her best intentions? Where this man was concerned, her brain was mush, and her body a quivering mess.

His daughter approached from the stands.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her tone unfriendly. Rude.

Lusting after your father.

“I’m delivering lunch. If you want any, learn how to be polite.” She didn’t need the kid’s sass. Her life was stressful enough at the moment.

Salem ran over. When she asked for his help to carry in the food, her smile felt shaky.

Nick ran past her to help. She caught a whiff of sweat and it didn’t bother her one bit. The man was too real, too tempting and too here. Why hadn’t he stayed away, like a former lover ought?

* * *

AFTER EVERYONE ATE and the garbage was piled into boxes for Laura to dispose of, she sat down on a bleacher and watched the rest of the practice.

Nick’s boss came and sat beside her.

“That was a great feast,” he said.

Laura laughed. “It was only sandwiches.”

“I’ve eaten in the best restaurants, but I haven’t enjoyed any of those meals as much as I enjoyed this one.”

About to make a smart crack, Laura halted. He was serious. She smiled. “Thank you.”

He tapped her arm. “It’s the love you put into your food and your business that makes it successful.”

“I do love the work,” she conceded.

“Do you love Nick?”

The question threw her. “I—” She didn’t know how to answer it, especially not when it was being asked by a stranger.

“He’s a man worth loving, if only the right woman would.”

Laura cocked her head and studied Mort. “He used to be married to your daughter. Why would you try to promote a romance for him with another woman?”

“Because I believe in acting on what is right, and a romance, a future, between the two of you would be right.”

“But—”

He didn’t wait to hear her objections, but squeezed her arm and went back to sit with the girls, leaving Laura with dreams and wishful thinking.

She shook herself back to reality. No way was anything more happening with Nick. He didn’t want the baby she was carrying.

These days, they were more than civil with each other, and some of their conversations had been downright excellent, but Laura and her baby were a package deal that Nick Jordan just didn’t want.

* * *

AFTER PRACTICE, NICK LEFT the change room in fresh clothes. He usually didn’t shower here, but he had today. It had been a long practice.

When Laura had shown up with lunch, he’d tried to ignore her. Ha! Might as well try to ignore the sun, or oxygen.

His cell phone rang.

He checked caller ID. Davis Fuller.

“What’s up, Davis?”

“Nick, I’ve got a problem here. My dad’s going to need long-term care and my mom has to go into a home. I’m scrambling to find places for them. I need to put her house to rights and get it on the market. When are you heading back to Seattle?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Damn. Is there any way you can postpone? I’m going to be here another three, four weeks. Are you your own boss? Is your vacation flexible?”

Nick thought about everything that would be waiting for him back at the office.

Salem slapped him on the back as he passed on his way to his car.

The camaraderie with these boys, the fun of the sport, the pleasure of waking up to do this every second day, had changed him.

He actually resented that he had to go back to work. Wasn’t that a kicker? What was happening to him here in this town? Had it changed so much since his childhood? Were the cosmetic changes on Main Street more than skin deep?

“Let me see what I can work out and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, Nick.”

“Emily,” he called.

She came running from the stands. “What’s wrong?”

“You want to stay here for another three or four weeks?”

She broke out into a broad grin. “Really? Yeah!” Her smile slipped. “But where will you be?”

“Here with you. Davis needs me to coach b-ball for another few weeks. I won’t have as much time to spend with you as these past two weeks, though. I’m going to set up an office in the B and B, I’ll get Rachel to come to town, and I’ll have a lot of work to catch up on, but I’ll still be at Ty’s in the evenings.”

“Okay.” Her joy was tempered by distrust. She was afraid that once Rachel arrived with her father’s work, he would have zero time with her. Nick knew that was exactly what he’d done to her before.

But not this time.

She told Ruby what was happening and they laughed and high-fived.

Mort came over and shook his hand. “Good coaching, and good idea to stay on longer.”

They walked to the sheriff’s office, where Nick found Ty doing paperwork.

“How would you feel about me, Mort and Emily staying with you longer than originally planned?”

“It would be great.” He smiled at Ruby. “Ruby was blue this morning because Emily was leaving tomorrow. Weren’t you, honey? So, what’s up, Nick?”

Nick outlined what was happening and how he planned to bring his work to Accord, so he could stay longer and coach.

After he left Ty’s office, he called Rachel and asked her to come to Accord along with whatever needed his immediate attention. “The earlier tomorrow, the better.”

He stopped at the B and B and arranged to rent the top floor. The small suite would serve as an office and the second bedroom as Rachel’s to sleep in.

Emily was silent as they walked to the car. He wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and squeezed.

“I’ll still be here for you. I promise.”

* * *

THE SUMMER LEAGUE’S first game was held in Accord in the high school auditorium a week later, on Tuesday evening.

To Nick’s surprise, the stands were packed with parents and friends. Standing room only.

Laura came in and sat in the front row, looking about as beautiful as a Madonna.

Lord, did the woman take beauty pills?

Was he the only one who saw what a stunner she was?

When she saw him watching her, she sent him a thumbs-up. That one afternoon spent talking about and listening to music had been a truce of sorts. When he saw her in town, there wasn’t the animosity there had been, and that was a good thing. She needed to stay calm for the baby.

What animosity there was came from Emily. No matter how much he tried to convince her that the baby wouldn’t change their relationship, she remained sulky about it. He didn’t blame her. Mistakes were hard to fix. He and Emily had been mending bridges, but Nick still had a long way to go.

He turned his attention to the game. It started with a bang, with the opposing team scoring a three from behind the three-point line in the first couple of minutes.

The home team rallied and the game became a nail-biter. Nick yelled and cajoled from the sidelines. Salem, his star player, shot the winning basket with a slam dunk.

The crowd went wild.

Nick ran onto the court and the players converged in the middle and piled onto each other.

No business deal, no building completion, no contract signed, had ever felt as good as this. He’d forgotten about the high of a sports win.

The team gathered at the Springs Family restaurant afterward for milk shakes and burgers and fries. Most of the parents and spectators were there, too.

Nick couldn’t sit still. He wandered the restaurant, shaking hands with parents and talking up the players. The sense of pleasure, of being part of a community, was something he’d never experienced here as a kid. Why not?

He thought about it. Usually he avoided introspection, hadn’t really had much time for it in his life, but since returning to Accord he found he could no longer avoid the issues he’d lived with in childhood.

In fact, he didn’t want to.

Above all else these days, he wanted the truth.

Could a town change? He didn’t think so. Individuals changed, not entire towns.

Was he friendlier now than when he was a kid? Maybe. Probably. Yes, definitely.

If truth was so important to him then he had to admit his responsibility in how the town had seen him. It had stemmed from how he’d seen himself.

Because of the hand-me-downs he’d worn and the terrible feeling of being normal to the townspeople when he was so special at home, he’d carried a chip on his shoulder the size of the Grand Canyon.

He’d caused many of his problems in town when he was a kid. He was sure of it.

He spotted Gabe and Callie squeezed into a table in the corner. Nick walked over. He needed confirmation, needed to know that he was on the right track.

“Great game,” Gabe said.

“That was more exciting than professional sports,” Callie added.

“It’s certainly more immediate,” Nick agreed. “Gabe, I need to ask you something.”

“Sure.”

“Was I a bit of a prick when we were kids?”

Gabe almost laughed, but caught himself. “You sure you want me to answer that honestly?”

Nick laughed. “I think you just did, didn’t you?”

“You sure you want to go down this road?” Gabe dropped his napkin onto his empty plate.

Gabe’s tone worried Nick, but he nodded anyway. “Yeah. There are a lot of things I didn’t understand when I was a kid that I want to know about now. I had a chip on my shoulder, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. You carried it everywhere you went, because we were poor. It made you combative when you were small and then later, in high school, standoffish.”

What Nick had been thinking was true. He’d never understood that he’d brought his problems onto himself.

“The only time you seemed to get past that,” Gabe continued, “was when you played basketball.”

Yeah, he remembered everything feeling good when he played. The world would melt away and there was only running, reaching, striving for those magical baskets.

“Thanks,” he said simply. “I appreciate your honesty, Gabe.”

“Anytime.”

Nick walked away, unsure what to do with what he’d just learned about himself, how to right old wrongs or to become a better man, but certain that self-awareness was worth something.