“Fine, you can be Catwoman and he can be Batman. How’s that?” Brandon asked, and his tone was still inquisitive, but I doubted he wanted to know what we thought of his superhero assignments. The way he glanced from Nina to me and back again suggested he was still trying to get a read on us. “Anyway, what are you two comic book characters up to?” he asked.
Nina smiled for a sliver of a second, like it escaped her lips and she had to catch it before it sprinted away from her. Then she schooled her expression, but I could read between the lines. She was keeping our little tryst a secret, and relishing, too, that we were having one.
Same here.
I reveled in our secret.
“I’m on my way to work, and Nina is too,” I said to Brandon, giving the simplest reply. “And to answer your other question, you nosy bastard, I’ve been staying with Nina for the last few nights, since my place is being painted. What’s up with you? I need to head to the car, so I don’t have long.”
“Funny, I don’t either. I have a few meetings, then I have to pack because I happen to have a plane to catch . . .” He let his voice trail off, like he had something up his sleeve.
“Where are you headed?”
He took a beat. “To Vegas, as a matter of fact. And if you play your cards right, I just might let the two of you take me out for a night on the town. How’s that for generous?”
I grinned. “That’s great that you’ll be here.”
Nina leaned in close. “We’d love that. We’d be happy to see you. You have to join us.”
“We?” Brandon’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “Are you two a we and I’m just learning now?”
The smile on her face disappeared instantly. She blushed, turning the shade of a fire engine. She pressed a hand to her cheek and stepped away from the frame, whispering, “Sorry.”
No way. No way was I going to let her feel like she had to apologize.
I told Brandon I’d be right back, then I muted the call and set down the phone on the entryway table.
I closed the distance, cupped her cheek. “Nina, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
She shook her head, like she was mad at herself. “I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have acted like we were a thing, or like we did things together.” It came out in a whisper.
I tilted my head. “But we do. We do hang out together. And we will keep doing that. You know that, don’t you?”
But her shoulders still radiated tension. Her jaw was set hard. I tucked a finger under her chin, raising her face. “We’re good. I promise.”
She let out a long gust of breath. “Please know I wasn’t trying to suggest anything. It just came out. I guess because you’ve been staying here this week, and we got into a rhythm with the dinners and everything.” She laughed, but it sounded forced. “Anyway, I know we’re not a we. We’re just friends, and it will be so fun to see Brandon as friends.”
She flashed me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, then she shoved my shoulder like a pal would do. “Go finish with Brandon. He needs you.”
I swiped my thumb over her chin. “He’s doing well. I swear. Last time I saw him, he was definitely himself again.”
“Good,” she said with a smile. “I’ve been hoping he would be.”
“But are you okay?” I pressed.
“I’m good. We’re good. I swear. I need to get ready for my client.”
But were we good? Was she? I couldn’t read her. Couldn’t tell if she was covering something up.
For the first time since we’d been friends, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. So I reverted to the other thing we were—temporary lovers. Leaning on that, I curled a hand around her head and whispered roughly, “I’ll see you tonight, and when I do, you’re going to get on your knees, just the way you want.”
A tremble seemed to vibrate across her body. Her chocolate eyes sparkled. There. I’d restored our balance by focusing on the mission—her list. The decadent, fantastic list that I was lucky enough to work on.
God bless women and their to-do-loving minds.
Grabbing the phone, I headed for the door and unmuted it, returning to Brandon.
Brandon stared, wide-eyed, like he was tapping his toe. “Oh, hi. How are you? Good to see you again. I did all my banking and taxes and emails while you were gone. So, ahem, what was that?”
“What was what?” I asked, as if I didn’t know.
His eyebrow rose. “That was, like, a minute-long conversation. On mute.” He tapped his chin, like he was deep in thought. “Gee, I wonder. Are you involved with her?”
Pushing open the stairwell, I headed for the steps so I could have this talk in private, though I didn’t intend to tell him a single thing Nina had confided in me. Well, she’d only confided in me after I’d stumbled across the treasure map to her desire. But even so, she’d shared something private, and I wasn’t about to serve it up to anyone. If Nina chose to tell her friends, that was one thing. It wasn’t my info to share.
“No, but I had something I needed to talk to her about that didn’t pertain to you. What brings you to Vegas? How long will you be in town?”
“Didn’t ‘pertain’ to me? Aren’t you fancy?”
I rolled my eyes. “Answers, man, answers.”
“I arrive Saturday morning. Last-minute meetings at the big convention in town. Didn’t expect to be going, but alas, plans change. I’ll be there for a couple of days, then I’m heading to Los Angeles for a shoot. A commercial I’m doing for a watchmaker.” Brandon was a top-notch cinematographer, working for advertisers all over the world.
“Need a place to stay here? Mine is being painted, but they should be done by then.”
“I don’t want to cramp your style. I’m sure I can find some dingy cut-rate motel off the Strip.”
I rolled my eyes. “The offer stands.”
“Merci.” His expression shifted to serious. “Listen, if you’re not involved with Nina, what do you think about me—”
“No.” One word. Sharp as a knife.
He cracked up, pointing at me, laughing his head off. “You are so busted. The way you flew off the handle was brilliant. Does she know you’re secretly in love with her?”
I bounded down the steps, scoffing at his assessment. He was wrong. Dead wrong. That feeling in my chest last night wasn’t love. It was . . . what was it? I snapped my fingers, finding the answer. Affection. Yeah, that sounded about right. Naturally I’d feel affection for a good friend. Not love. Besides, my heart was in time-out after Rose, and the clock hadn’t wound down yet. “First of all, I’m not in love with her. I’m not in anything with her. But I still don’t want you hitting on her,” I said.
“And why’s that?”
I wasn’t going to tell him the nitty-gritty, but I could still be honest. “Because you’re a layover. And she’s not that kind of girl. She’s not into hookups,” I said, confident that what Nina and I were doing was not a hookup.
We were having a moment to work through her wishes.
A bucket list was born out of need, not out of an itch to scratch.