Julianna Morris - The Hometown Hero Returns

Embarrassment warmed Nicki’s cheeks as she gazed between the siblings. They were dealing with a serious problem, and she’d let an old resentment get the better of her. Resentment based on insecurity.

Involuntarily, she glanced down. She’d put on a loose cotton dress, suitable to the unseasonable late May heat. It wasn’t stylish, but at least it wasn’t as bad as her clothes used to be. Perhaps she ought to do something about the way she dressed. Yet as soon as the thought formed, she pushed it away. It felt too much like hoping to catch Luke’s attention, though they weren’t likely to meet again. Besides, she wasn’t the kind of woman that a man like Luke wanted. His kind of woman was beautiful and sophisticated and sexually confident, while she was anything but those things.

“I’m sorry, Nicki,” Sherrie said. “I shouldn’t have interrupted, but it was just like hearing you guys fight in the old days.”

“That’s all right.” Nicki smiled. She’d enjoyed visiting with Sherrie when they were kids, though Nicki’s father hadn’t wanted her to be friends with anyone, saying it would distract her from schoolwork. But Sherrie had been nice, when her brother wasn’t, and they’d often gone down to the hospital cafeteria to talk. “I’m sorry about your grandfather. I admire him so much. Is there anything I can do to help?”

It was an offer she meant with all her heart. John McCade had inspired her to pursue a career different from what her authoritarian father wanted. The professor could never know how much his warmth and small kindnesses had meant to a lonely girl who’d never felt as if she belonged.

“Well, we—”

“No,” Luke interjected quickly. “We don’t need any help.”

Both women ignored him.

“Anything you could do would be wonderful,” Sherrie said. “It’s been tough trying to keep things together here. What brings you over today?”

“I’m returning a painting Professor McCade accidentally sold to me at a yard sale,” Nicki explained. “I teach art history at the college, but I also do appraisal work for several museums. So, when I discovered it was such a fine piece, I couldn’t possibly keep it.” She shot a look at Luke, daring him to say something sarcastic.

“This is Great-grandmother Helena,” Sherrie said, examining the portrait. She gave her brother a worried look. “We’ll have to have everything in the house inventoried. We have no idea how valuable Granddad’s collection might be. At the very least it should be insured until we decide what to do.”

Luke nodded. “I’ll look into it.”

Sherrie brightened. “Maybe Nicki could inventory the collection for us. She’d be perfect for the job.”

“Uh…no, Sherrie. That is, we couldn’t possibly impose.”

Nicki lifted her chin. “I did offer to help,” she said stiffly, at the same time wishing desperately that it was Sherrie who was staying in Divine, instead of Luke.

“Why?” he asked with characteristic bluntness. “You don’t owe us anything.”

“I don’t owe you anything, that’s for sure,” Nicki snapped. “But Professor McCade is different. He’s…well…I became interested in art when he started coming to the high school as a guest lecturer. Of course, in the beginning I enjoyed it because that kind of thing drove my father crazy. That is, I started acting interested because it drove him nuts. He wanted me to be a scientist or something else he considered really impressive.”

Luke stared at her.

“Um, that isn’t my point,” Nicki muttered. Her brain had short-circuited. Something about Luke’s dark hair and eyes and long, powerful body had a chemical effect on her. Back in school she used to feel like a shrimp next to him—a yellow-topped pixie in bad clothes and an even worse haircut. Her entire childhood had been one bad-hair day.

“What is the point?” he asked impatiently.

“Professor McCade always seemed so happy and I thought it was because he was so passionate about art. Of course, now I know it was mostly because he loved his wife so much and they had such a great marr—”

“Nicki. Please get to the point.” He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a stern look.

“Your grandfather inspired me,” she said. “I told my father I was taking an evening math course at the college under a program for advanced students, but I was really taking one of Professor McCade’s art history classes. I know I shouldn’t have lied….” Her voice trailed and she blushed again.

Luke watched, still fascinated by the way color spread across Nicki’s cheeks. He couldn’t imagine the women he knew in Chicago getting embarrassed by anything, much less the memory of a harmless white lie they’d told in high school. For that matter, he couldn’t imagine any grown woman blushing. Maybe it was a trick of Nicki’s fair Scandinavian skin.

“Well, anyway,” she said, the pink of her blush deepening, “it was because of Professor McCade that I went backpacking through Europe and saw such wonderful paintings and architecture in Italy and other places. He probably doesn’t know it, but he changed my life.”

Luke sighed, understanding a little better. Someone like Nicki would never keep something valuable she hadn’t paid full price for, not when it belonged to someone she admired so much.

His world didn’t allow for Nicki’s brand of idealism. And he could never have returned to Divine to live, the way she’d done. After graduation all he’d wanted was to prove to the town he wasn’t a loser…that he wasn’t like those guys who became big and important in high school, then turned into bullies on the local police force as they tried to relive “the old days.”

He even felt like a bully now for taunting Nicki over the past. It was hell coming home, especially with old feelings sitting around like land mines waiting to explode. You thought you were a responsible adult and then bam, you reverted to acting like a two-year-old.

Obviously, having her around wasn’t a good idea. He’d been trying to manage his business long distance, while at the same time caring for his grandfather, and didn’t have time for distractions. Especially distractions like Nicki. She might be annoying, but she was also cute, smart and sexy.

Sexy?

He frowned.

That was odd.

How he could think Nicki was sexy when she was wearing a shapeless dress and had her obstinate nose up in the air was beyond him. But there was something different about her—a freshness that was undeniably appealing. The women in his circles seemed perpetually bored with life.

“I really don’t think it would work out,” he said.

“Of course it would work.” Sherrie sounded exasperated. “If Nicki is willing to tackle the job, then we’d have someone who we know is honest and competent.” Then she gave Nicki a worried look. “Except you’d have to go into the attic. Granddad put a lot of stuff up there after Grams died, and I don’t know how many spiders and mice might be lurking in the shadows.”

Nicki restrained a shudder. Mice didn’t bother her, but she could imagine what pragmatic Luke would say if he knew how much she disliked anything with more than four legs.

“N-no problem,” Nicki said quietly and less firmly than she would have liked.

Luke shook his head. “No, Sherrie.”

“Yes.”

Brother and sister glared at each other and a twinge of envy went through Nicki. They might disagree, but they were plainly fond of each other.

“Besides, Nicki could talk to Granddad about art,” Sherrie argued. “It might help him. We’ve tried everything else, why not this?”

Uncertainty flickered across Luke’s face. It was the first time Nicki had ever seen super-confident Luke McCade look unsure of himself. His unshakable confidence was one of the most irritating things about him. Even lying in a hospital bed with one leg suspended lamely in the air he’d managed to be cocky.

And heart-stoppingly handsome.

It was Luke who’d made her really aware of the opposite sex—not that she’d known what to do about it. She’d stayed ignorant until she’d met Gregory “Butch” Saunders in graduate school. It was too bad that for the second time in her life she’d fallen in love with the wrong man. Only that time she married the wrong man—someone who expected her to just look the other way when he cheated. She sometimes wondered if Butch had picked a not-so-gorgeous wife in her because he thought she’d be so grateful for a husband that she wouldn’t object to his indiscretions.

“We don’t want to impose,” Luke said finally.

Nicki’s eyes narrowed.

She didn’t want to be around Luke any longer than necessary—and part of her hoped he’d talk Sherrie out of the appraisal—but you helped a neighbor because you cared, and because it was the right thing to do.

Someone like Luke wouldn’t understand that.

He’d always wanted to make it big. First he’d planned to be a famous football player, then, after his accident, it was all about making a million dollars by the time he was thirty—something he’d accomplished numerous times over according to the newspaper and Divine’s inescapable grapevine.

“It’s no imposition. I’d love to help,” she repeated, trying to sound sincere. She did want to help, she’d just prefer helping when Luke was out of town. “I wouldn’t have offered if I hadn’t meant it.” She almost said something about men with cash registers for souls not understanding old-fashioned neighborliness, then decided it would be too rude.

Really, for his grandfather’s sake somebody ought to save Luke from himself. Not her, of course, but somebody.

“That’s terrific,” Sherrie said. “You’re hired.”

Nicki shook her head. “Not hired. I’m not teaching this summer, so I have plenty of free time. And it’s a privilege to do something for Professor McCade. I’ll come back in the morning, if that sounds all right.”

“No.” The word burst from Luke and they both looked at him. “That is, go ahead and start tomorrow, but we’ll pay you.”

Nicki gave Luke a smile she hoped would drive him crazy. “No thanks. I’ve already been on the McCade payroll once, and I don’t care for the working conditions.”

He glowered at the reminder of their adolescent encounters. Or maybe it was just his stubborn pride. She didn’t know why Luke had resented her so much, or why he’d alternated his resentment with killer smiles, blinding charm and invitations to “warm up” his hospital bed. She did know that every time she’d refused, or kissed him and drawn back again, he’d gotten more outrageous…and his sarcasm had gained a sharper edge.

But they weren’t teenagers any longer, and she wasn’t the same uncertain girl who’d found herself in a situation she couldn’t handle. She was twenty-nine years old. She’d gotten a doctorate by the time she was twenty-one. She had been married and divorced from the worst philanderer on the planet. She knew Luke could only turn her world upside down again if she let him.

And she had no intention of letting him do any such thing.

“Drat,” Nicki muttered as she rang the McCade doorbell.

She’d told him she would be here at nine this morning and it was nearly a quarter past. As a rule, she was never late. But her neighbor had come down sick and needed some groceries, so she’d run to the store first.

“You’re late,” Luke growled as he opened the front door.

Normally she’d apologize, but this was Luke, and it wasn’t a good idea to let him get the best of her. “Then I guess you’ll have to dock my pay.”