Page 6

“Pick up dry cleaning tomorrow. Call the locksmith to look at the back door lock. We’re almost out of soy milk. Wait. Was it soy milk or tofu? Or was it fruit snacks?”

Nicolette paused on the sidewalk as she tried to remember everything that had been on her to-do list.

A list she’d taken time to make and then promptly forgot on the kitchen counter.

With Clara gone on another of her seemingly endless business trips, the task of remembering important things fell to Nicolette.

She didn’t own a car.

There wasn’t need for one.

She had a bike she rode around for most of the year, and if the weather was iffy or too chilly, she took one of the public transportation options provided by the city.

She tended to use the buses and the ferry the most.

The only time she borrowed Clara’s car was when she had a number of errands to run in a row.

What she needed now was all close enough to the house for her to walk to without issue. That was another perk of living in the historic district of Savannah.

The night was perfect and there were a large number of people out and about, as was normally the case in the area.

When she’d been on Congress Street, there had been even more people because of the live music provided at a local hotspot.

Not to mention a restaurant super popular with the tourists was in the area as well.

She was a fan of their signature cocktail.

It was nearly impossible for her to avoid smiling as she walked down another street on her way to the bakery.

She tended to avoid this particular route after hours because it housed a fair number of the small parking areas for the businesses.

That meant most of the view on the walk was of cars.

Not people.

And she loved to people watch.

As she came upon the square, her smile grew wider when she spotted a man standing out on the brick walkway, playing his guitar and singing.

He was handsome with his ear-length dark brown hair and dimpled chin.

He glanced up at her and winked before stepping in her direction and continuing to sing.

He had a great voice.

Deep, smooth, and very sexy.

As he stepped into an area that was lit better, he glanced from beneath thick lashes and for a second, Nicolette thought his eyes went from a deep blue to jet black.

When she looked at him harder she saw she was mistaken. His eyes were royal blue.

Strange.

She could have sworn they’d flashed to black.

With a shake of her head, she continued down the street.

The bakery was only a block away, and then she’d just have a few blocks after that before she was home.

She and Clara had never gotten around to watching the chick flick that Nicolette had picked up, so she fully intended to set time aside later to dive into it.

She’d even picked up her favorite pita chips and hummus dip on her way home. Combined with her famed gray drink, it would be a party only she could fully appreciate.

Clara would have dropped dead without a sea of greasy food and loads of sugar at the ready.

Not to mention, she’d have spent the evening mocking the cupcakes Nicolette was heading to get.

The kids were so excited about the celebration all set to happen in the morning.

So was she.

She added a little skip to her step and then glanced around, wondering who might have seen her.

She caught sight of a tall, built man standing off in the distance, part of his body hidden by one of the massive live oaks that dotted the area.

His hair hung over his shoulder in a long, thick blond braid.

That wasn’t something she saw on a lot of men. Setting aside the fact the man seemed to be well over six feet tall, the hair and his incredibly fit body made him difficult to overlook.

There was no denying he was a fifteen-out-of-ten kind of guy.

He had his arms crossed over his substantial chest.

The sleeves of his light gray T-shirt looked to only barely be able to contain him.

He stepped out more from behind the tree.

When she got a look at all of him, she changed her vote to a twenty out of ten.

There was a scar just above his right eye that was noticeable even from a distance.

It didn’t take away from how handsome he was.

That being said, there was something about him she couldn’t put her finger on.

Something not right.

He saw her watching him, and the edge of his mouth pulled upward. As she began to return the smile, a flutter started in her stomach, making her feel dizzy and somewhat sick. For the briefest of moments she could have sworn that the man’s eyes changed colors. That they went from green to amber.

The guitar guy stopped playing and singing.

Nicolette glanced back to see the man with the guitar observing the guy with the long blond braid. The two were a respectable distance from one another, but that didn’t seem to stop the swell of testosterone that came off them in waves.

Her inner voice screamed at her to move along. To stop staring and just keep doing what she’d been doing. She obeyed.

Nicolette quickened her pace and was just shy of moving from a walk to a run. Within a few short minutes, she was at the bakery and safely inside. She looked out of the front window but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

She laughed softly to herself. “I totally let my imagination run wild again.”

“I do that all the time,”

said the young man near the counter. His shirt indicated he worked for the bakery. “What can I do for you?”

“Order for Henebury,”

she returned.

He paused and then cleared his throat. “Ah, you’re the one who made the interesting request. We did our best.”

She waited as he went in the back for her order. When he came out, he had a box with the bakery’s logo printed on the top. His expression was guarded, as if he was afraid of her response. He set the box on the counter and opened it.

Nicolette peeked inside. The cupcakes were magnificent. “I love them! They look so good.”

“Don’t taste them. I made that mistake,”

he said in a barely there voice. She caught it all the same.

“That bad?”

“We’re used to special orders and make a lot of stuff for people with allergies. But we’ve never had a list of so many things to avoid in one order before. What are these for again?”

“My class of preschoolers,”

she returned, beaming at the sight of the final product.

“Poor kids.”

He cleared his throat again, and then rang up her order. He put a finger up for her to wait a second and vanished into the back again. He came out with a lone cupcake that matched the others. “I almost forgot. Here’s one for you to try first. You know, before you subject the kids to them.”

With a laugh, she took the cupcake and shook her head. The cupcakes couldn’t taste that bad. Could they? She took a bite. They tasted just fine to her.

The guy behind the counter had a small paper cup of water waiting for her, as if he’d expected she’d need it. With a wave of a hand, she smiled. “I’m fine. These turned out great.”

His eyes widened.

The bell to the bakery chimed as the door opened. Nicolette paid little mind to it as she settled up with the man and then turned to leave.

There, standing before her, was the man who had been playing guitar in the square. He was minus the guitar. He looked past her and to the guy at the counter. “Hey, Ernie.”

The guy at the register grinned and gave a small wave. “How’s it going tonight, Wheeler?”

Wheeler offered a smile that made Nicolette wonder why she’d felt the need to practically run from the square. Sure, he was a big guy, but he didn’t feel like a threat to her. And she was a pretty good judge of character.

“Coffee?”

asked Ernie.

“Yep,”

said Wheeler, his attention moving to Nicolette. “Hello. Didn’t I just see you back in the square?”

She nodded. “You did.”

He kept smiling but his gaze went to the front window. While his facial features didn’t betray his supposed pleasant mood, the pulse of power that seemed to come off him did. It wasn’t directed at Nicolette or Ernie. No. The man who had seemed so carefree when he’d been singing stared out into the night like a man on the hunt.

He faced her, and the power that had come from him stopped in an instant. “What do you have there?”

“Cupcakes,”

she replied and went to walk around him to get to the door.

Reaching out, he took hold of her upper arm ever so gently. The act made her breath catch. She locked gazes with him—and for a moment, she could have sworn again that black flecks appeared in his royal-blue eyes. Like what she’d thought she’d seen earlier.

“It’s getting late. You want to head home quickly. You don’t have any more stops to make,” he said.

“Actually, I need to get soy milk,”

she blurted. “I think. Maybe I don’t. I can’t remember if it was that or tofu. Could have been fruit snacks. Grr, I should have remembered all this when I got the darn hummus.”

His brow creased, and he squared his large shoulders. “No. You want to go straight home.”

“Everything all right, Wheeler?”

asked Ernie.

Wheeler kept hold of Nicolette’s arm but looked at Ernie. “There is nothing to see here. Go on about your business.”

Ernie didn’t so much as question the command. He just walked off and began to wipe down counters towards the back of the bakery like nothing was out of the ordinary and people told him what to do daily. Maybe in his world it was normal. In Nicolette’s, it wasn’t.

Her attention went to Wheeler’s hand that was still wrapped around her upper arm. “Excuse me.”

He released her arm quickly and gave her a questioning look before sighing. “He could have told me you were immune.”

“What?”

“Sorry about that. I just, well, I saw that guy watching you, and I was worried. Just wanted to be sure you got home okay.”

She continued to eye him.

He put his hands up slowly. “I’m friends with Cody.”

Nicolette groaned. “Let me guess, he told you not to let me near any men.”

Wheeler chuckled. “Something like that. He’s a good guy. Worries a lot about you and Clara.”

“You know Clara?”

she asked, surprised that Clara had never mentioned the man before. He seemed to be her friend’s type.

“Sort of. It’s hard to explain,”

he returned. “Can you do me a favor and maybe forgo any more errands tonight?”

She stood there for a long, tense moment, wondering why it was so important to the man that she head home.

She nearly opened her mouth to ask as much when something deep down told her to trust him and do as he’d asked.

She nodded. “I can.”

He winked. “Thanks.”

“Can you do me a favor and stop bossing Ernie around?”

she asked.

Wheeler licked his lips and smiled. “I can.”