Nicole sat behind her desk when Connor came in the next morning. He gave her a big smile. There was a twinkle in his eyes she’d never seen before. “Good morning, Nicole.”
“Good morning, Connor.” She returned his smile. She was sure her eyes sparkled, too.
He moved to the desk. “Any special messages?”
She handed him a couple of pink slips. “I don’t think there’s anything pressing except maybe Mr. Rogers. He’s still complaining about his roof.”
He laughed, knowing this was going to be their inside joke from now on. They were the only two who knew there was no Mr. Rogers and no roof problem. He was flipping through the pink slips when one caught his eye.
Across the message section she had written. “To my best friend, I’ll always remember last night.”
He looked as if he was going to reach for her, but before he could, Paul came into the front office. “Good morning, brother. Hello, Nicole.”
“Good morning, Paul.”
Connor nodded at him, folded the pink slip with the personal message, and put it in his pocket. “What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you a minute.”
“Sure.” Connor followed his brother down the hall.
Nicole busied herself catching up with the work she’d left undone yesterday afternoon. She wanted to get through it as fast as she could because there was some research she wanted to do on the computer. She’d gotten the idea when she’d reached home and climbed into her bed last night and couldn’t go to sleep. If she could pull this off, she knew Connor would stop blaming himself for the deaths of his wife and children.
It was almost ten o’clock when the front door opened and a man came in carrying a large arrangement of mixed flowers.
“Nicole Lynch?”
“Yes.”
“Somebody wanted to make your day.” He set the flowers on her desk.
“Oh, they’re beautiful.”
The delivery man nodded and started out the door. Elsie was coming in at the same time. “Watch it,” she snapped at him.
The man ignored her.
She came in flinging her hair back. “Well, well, somebody has a boyfriend,” she said looking at the flowers. “Who’re they from?”
“I was just getting ready to look.” Nicole reached for the card.
“I’ll look for you.” Elsie snatched the card. “Let’s see who has a...”
“Elsie! How rude.” Connor walked into the office and took the card from her and gave it to Nicole. “Don’t you know better than to grab someone’s personal message like that?”
“Well, darling. I just wanted to tell Nicole who they were from. I wasn’t being rude.”
Nicole looked at her card and smiled. “If you must know, Elsie, they’re from my best friend.”
“See, darling,” Elsie said to Connor. “It wouldn’t matter at all if I read the card. It wasn’t a passionate love note or anything.”
“What are you doing here this morning?” Connor asked.
“Well, my love, since you didn’t take me to breakfast Monday or to dinner last night, I thought I’d pop in and take you out for brunch this morning. I knew you wouldn’t say no this time.”
“Well, Elsie, I am saying no. I don’t want to go to brunch with you.”
“Why not?” Her voice raised an octave.
“For one thing, I don’t have the time. I have to go out of town for a few days and I have a lot to do.”
“Where are you going?”
“It’s business, Elsie.”
“Can I go with you?” She turned her head to the side and batted her eyes at him. “You could then mix business and pleasure.”
“No, thanks.”
“Why the hell not? Most men would jump at the chance to take me out of town on a business trip.”
“I’m not most men, Elsie.”
“I know that, darling.” She tried to lower her voice. “I’m just anxious for us to get together and have a little fun. No strings attached at this time unless you want them to be. We can talk about strings later.”
“I’m not interested, Elsie.”
“Why do you mean, you’re not interested?” She almost screamed the words.
“Just what I said,” Connor said quietly.
Paul came into the front office. “What’s going on?”
“Your brother just turned down the offer of his life, that’s what’s going on,” Elsie snapped. She did lower her voice.
“What offer?”
“I asked him if I could go out of town with him and he said no. Can you believe that? He said no. I didn’t believe any man could possibly turn down a chance to spend a romantic trip out of town with me, and your stupid brother just did it.”
“Elsie, I told you last night Connor wasn’t interested in a relationship with you.”
“I didn’t believe you then and I don’t believe you now.” She turned to Connor and without warning she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately.
He took her arms and pulled her off him. “Don’t do that, Elsie.”
Nicole saw Conner glance at her. She looked down at her desk and smothered a giggle.
Elsie said. “Now, after that kiss, tell me you’re not interested in me. I can make you forget all your guilt over your dead wife. One night with me and—”
A dark look covered Connor’s face. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but no, Elsie. Kiss or no kiss, I’m not interested in you and I never will be. Why don’t you go to the club and spend time with the men who hang out there? You might find someone who would succumb to your charms. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
Nobody expected it when Elsie reached out and slapped Connor. Nicole jumped with the sharp crack of the contact and Paul’s mouth came open. Connor made a fist, but kept his hands at his side.
“Get out of here, Elsie,” he said between his teeth.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell when I offer myself to you again,” she screamed and ran out the door.
For a minute nobody spoke. Then Paul said, “Don’t blame me. I can’t help it if she’s Erline’s evil twin.”
Nicole turned to her computer without saying a word. She bit her lip to keep from laughing.
Connor walked over to her desk. “I came in here to give you this.” He handed her an envelope. “I didn’t know we were going to have a knock-down when I got here.”
Nicole took the envelope. “Thank you.” She still couldn’t look at him.
Paul asked, “Nicole, if you go to the bank, will you take a deposit for me?”
“Of course. Which bank?”
“Georgia State. Is that out of your way?”
“No. I need to open a checking account and if that’s where you bank, I’ll open it there.” She was still avoiding Connor’s eyes. “If it’s okay, I want to go on a quick errand while I’m out.”
“That’s fine. I’ll bring you the deposit.” Paul disappeared down the hall.
Nicole finally looked up at Connor. “Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful.” She grinned at him.
“I’m glad you like them.” He reached out and touched her cheek.
She grasped his hand, kissed it quickly, and let it drop. “When will you be leaving on your business trip?”
“Probably Sunday and I’ll only be gone a couple of days. I’m going to Savannah.”
Paul came back into the room. “Here you go, Nicole.” He looked at them. “Connor, do you think you’ll need help in Savannah?”
“I think I can handle it.”
Paul nodded. “Come on back to your office. I have some files you need to look over.”
“I think I’ll go on to the bank now. I need some fresh air,” Nicole said. “I’ll put the answering machine on.”
The brothers both grinned and nodded at her. As she stood to leave, Connor leaned over and whispered in her ear, “She doesn’t kiss nearly as good as you.”
* * * *
It was almost four in the afternoon on Friday when Paul came into the front office. “I’m calling it a day, Nicole. If anyone calls, unless it’s an emergency, put to my voice mail.”
She nodded. “Have a nice weekend, Paul.”
“You too. I’ll see you Wednesday.” He went out the door.
Nicole turned back to her computer then stopped. It dawned on her Paul had said he’d see her on Wednesday. Was he leaving town too? He did say something about Connor needing help in Savannah. Maybe they’d decided they both needed to go and instead of leaving Sunday, they were going next week.
She was typing up a policy when Connor came out of his office. He clicked off the hall light and stopped at her desk.
“Are you leaving early too?” she asked.
“I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” She smiled at him. “I hope you have a productive trip to Savannah.”
“Me too, but there is one way it can be more productive.” He leaned on her desk.
“How’s that?”
“Will you go with me?”
“Where do you want me to go with you?”
He chuckled. “I’m talking about Savannah, Nicole. Will you go on this trip with me?”
“Uh...”
“I cleared it with Paul, and I’m sure Dad won’t mind. He’ll be back tonight. That’s why I have to go to Savannah. I’m going to finish up what he started.”
“But...I don’t have any clothes...and I...”
“We’ll go shopping and get you some clothes.”
“When?”
“Right now.”
“I can’t just. I mean...”
“Please, Nicole.” He reached out and took her hand. “I need you there on Monday at the meeting. I haven’t handled anything this big since the accident. If you’re there, I know I can pull it off.”
She dropped her head and thought for a minute. He waited.
Finally, she said, “I need to get some things. I’ll go shopping Saturday, and I guess I can be ready by Sunday.”
“We’re not going Sunday. I need to relax before the meeting. We’re going tomorrow.”
“But tomorrow’s Saturday.” Nicole was completely confused.
“I know. Savannah is a wonderful place to explore and to relax. I thought we could do that together.” He smiled at her. “Paul thought it was a good idea, too.”
“But, Connor, I’ll have to make arrangements with Lita. I promised to help her go through some of her husband’s files, and I need to go shopping.”
“I’ve already called Lita. I told her I was going to ask you to dinner, and then I told her I was taking you shopping.”
Nicole shook her head. “You’ve taken care of everything, haven’t you?”
“Not really. I thought you should be the one to tell her you were going to Savannah. That is if you’ll go with me. It all hinges on your answer. I’m not pressuring you, but I’d love to have you with me. There are still things I want to talk to you about.”
She looked at him and saw his eyes searching hers. “How can I say no to that?” she whispered.
He smiled. “Then save your work, turn off your computer, and switch the phones to the answering machine. I want to go shopping with my best friend, then take her to dinner, then maybe shop some more.”
She did as he said. Taking her purse from the bottom drawer, she asked, “What about my flowers? I want to take my flowers home.”
“Okay. We’ll drop them at your house. Lita can enjoy them this weekend.”