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By the time she untangled Anna’s safety harness and extracted her from the stroller, Zack had already crawled into the narrow space between the couch and the recliner in pursuit of his ball, and got himself stuck.
Zack started howling at his predicament, and Anna began howling in sympathy. Nikki was just drawing a breath and thinking about joining them when she heard the back door open and a deep voice call, “Anybody home?”
She gritted her teeth. Seth Baxter. The Lone Repairman had finally found time to look at Laura’s broken-down dishwasher.
Why right now? she wanted to shout. Why not last week, when Laura had been at home? Or if he absolutely had to come this weekend, why couldn’t he have showed up that morning, during the fifteen-minute span when Zack and Anna had been contentedly playing with two empty boxes and a stack of plastic yogurt cups? Or last night after they’d been bathed and tucked into their cribs?
Of course, by the twins’ bedtime she’d been practically a zombie herself, with pureed peaches and baby shampoo down the front of her sweatshirt…
Not that Seth Baxter would have cared what she looked like, anyway.
In the last two years, every time she’d ever come face to face with the man, he had acted as if he found her mildly interesting—worth one long appraising survey, but nothing more. She’d come to expect that no matter what she was doing or how she was dressed, Seth would scan her with that same slightly ironic gleam in his eyes, looking her over just long enough to make her want to scream—and then, as if the sight of her bored him to tears, he would turn his attention to something else. Nikki would rather have him ignore her completely, but she supposed the chances of that happening were nil.
Of course, all things considered, she didn’t exactly blame him for inspecting her as if she were a curious breed straight out of the zoo, because that was pretty much the way she’d acted the first time they’d spent any significant time together—though his own actions hadn’t exactly won any etiquette prizes.
She sighed and reminded herself to be grateful that she didn’t run into him more often. Once every few months was bad enough.
“In the living room, Seth.” She stooped to extract Zack from his predicament.
Seth came around the corner from the kitchen. “Nikki? What are you doing here?”
She snagged the back straps of Zack’s overalls and tugged him out from under the edge of the couch. “Didn’t anybody tell you about the cruise?”
“Yeah, Steve said something. I forgot it was this weekend.” He leaned against the stubby wall which separated the living room from the dining nook, arms folded across his chest. “I wondered what they were going to do with the house apes. Zack, buddy, you’ve got to remember how to get yourself into reverse.”
Nikki finished wiping Zack’s tears and took a good look at Seth. It had been several months since she’d seen him—across a baptismal font, where he’d been holding Zack while she cradled Anna—but he matched the picture in her mind almost exactly. His dark-brown hair was sun-streaked and longer than it had been at the babies’ christening, and he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt instead of a suit. But he was every bit as tall and lean as she remembered, his eyes were just as stunningly green, and his shoulders pushed the limits of the knit shirt. And the look…yes, there it was. Half-bemused, half-fascinated, and totally wary—the same expression that always made her want to scream.
Anna stopped crying, dropped to her hands and knees, and scrambled across the carpet toward Seth. He picked her up almost absently, still looking at Nikki. “How’s it going?”
She was darned if she’d admit that a few minutes ago she’d been ready to howl along with the twins. “Great. We’re doing fine.”
“Uh-huh. How many times has Laura called?”
“From the ship? Just once, when they first got on board.”
“That’s amazing.”
“She said she’d call back, but I heard Stephen in the background reminding her this was supposed to be a vacation. Anyway, she doesn’t need to check in—she left a full list of instructions on the refrigerator door, right next to her appointment calendar.”
“Her list actually fit on the refrigerator? I’d have expected a whole volume—alphabetized and cross-indexed.”
Nikki smiled. “Maybe she just didn’t have time to write it all down. But it doesn’t take an instruction manual to know that these two need a nap right now. I was just ready to put them to bed, so don’t let me keep you from working on the dishwasher.” She stepped closer to him, close enough to feel his warmth, and held out her free arm to take Anna.
The baby had nestled into Seth’s shoulder, and she didn’t seem inclined to move. Nikki stroked the baby’s back. As her fingertips neared Seth’s forearm, braced under Anna’s bottom, Nikki felt tingles run along every nerve.
Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. You’ve touched him before.
At least…Well, she must have touched him somewhere along the way, she told herself, even if right at the moment she couldn’t remember a specific occasion. They must have shaken hands when they were introduced, for one thing—though when she stopped to think about it, she couldn’t remember actually meeting Seth. He must have just been part of the crowd, at some party back in the dark ages when Laura was dating Stephen and Nikki herself had been engaged to Thorpe. Perhaps it had been about the same time the four of them had started to make plans for a double wedding…
The dark ages, indeed.
Seth held the baby out so she could get a grip on Anna’s waist. Nikki’s hand brushed his arm, and she jerked back a little before she got hold of herself and very deliberately let her arm rest against his while he transferred the baby’s weight.
He didn’t say anything and neither did she. And it was utterly ridiculous for her to feel breathless over such a little thing. But—maybe she hadn’t ever touched him before, because she’d have remembered that kind of smoldering heat.
Nonsense, she told herself briskly.
As if they were afraid of missing something exciting, the babies did their best to fight off sleep. Ultimately they succumbed, however, and Nikki tucked them into their side-by-side cribs and tiptoed out of the room.
The house was quiet except for the catchy rhythm of a jazz tune coming from the radio in the kitchen. The front panels of the dishwasher were propped against a cabinet door, and Seth was lying on his back on the floor, peering into the dark cavity underneath the machine.
Nikki stopped in the doorway. “Have you found the problem?”
“Not yet. The drain’s not clogged, and the floats are working.”
“Is that good news?”
“Nope. I’ve eliminated the simple stuff.”
Which means he’ll be around for a while longer. Just leave him to his work and go get your briefcase, Nikki. But she didn’t move. “I’m going to make myself a cup of coffee. Want one?”
“Sure.” He slid further under the dishwasher. “How are you, Nikki? It’s been a while.”
“Since we ran into each other, you mean?” She shrugged. “Three or four months, I guess.”
“Three. It was at the christening, and you were scandalized that Laura had asked a heathen like me to be the babies’ godfather.”
Nikki didn’t bother to argue the point. Instead she stepped across him and started putting water into the coffeepot. “How’s Inga? Or was it Elsa you brought that day? I get your girlfriends all mixed up.”
Seth smiled, but he didn’t answer. Nikki wondered if that meant he’d forgotten the woman’s name, too. Quite likely, she thought. All of Seth’s girlfriends looked, sounded, and acted alike.
“How about you?” he asked. “Are you still seeing the stockbroker you brought to the christening?”
“He was a commodities trader,” Nikki corrected. “The stockbroker was before that. And no—not for a while now. There’s a banker I’m seeing at the moment.”
“What happened to the commodities trader? He was practically glued to your side that day.”
Nikki had to think about it for a moment before she remembered. “I realized that if I wanted to get a play-byplay of the day’s markets, I could watch the financial channel—and turn it off when I got tired of listening.”
He prodded at something deep under the machine. “What the…I hate working on antiques. I swear the motor’s rusted into this thing. Being second-best never did appeal to you, did it, Nikki?”
She stopped spooning coffee into the filter and turned to stare at him. “Oh, now The Lone Repairer has expanded into psychology?”
He reached into the cavity with a pair of pliers, and she heard a metallic snap. “Still touchy about the wedding, I see.”
Touchy. That was one way to put it, she supposed. “It’s been two years, Seth. I’ve put it behind me and gone on with my life. So can you just forget it?”
He shook his head. “Of course not. That was one of the great dramatic scenes of the age. I’ll never forget watching you tell Thorpe where to get off.”
She plugged the coffeepot in and pushed the button to turn it on. “Next time I break an engagement,” she said dryly, “I’ll be sure to invite you.”
“Don’t bother. Nothing could ever top that one. Thorpe’s already at the church, wearing his tux, boutonniere pinned in place, fussing with his hair and trying to cover up the signs of a really bad hangover, and you come storming into the ushers’ room wearing half a wedding dress and shrieking at him like a banshee. The costuming alone would have been worth the price of a ticket.”
“I was not shrieking. I was making a point.”
“Not that you didn’t have reason to shriek,” Seth added. “Though I still think you went a little over the top when you started yelling at me. Just because I happened to be there to hear it all—”
“You could have let me know you were there, instead of hiding behind a pillar and listening to every word I said.”
“And interrupted your train of thought while you were on a roll?” He shook his head. “You were just lucky all the rest of the ushers had stepped out for a breath of fresh air so I was the only witness.” He sat up and reached inside the machine, grunting as he tried to lift out the motor unit. “I admire you for doing that, you know.”
Nikki was startled. “For what? Calling off my wedding because the groom spent the night before the ceremony carousing with a bunch of call girls?”
“I think they’d probably prefer to be called exotic dancers.”
Nikki shrugged. “Same thing, as it turned out.”
“Anyway, that’s not the reason. I admire you for going out in front of the crowd and facing the whispers because it was Laura’s wedding day too, and you didn’t want to spoil it for her.”
Why there should be a lump in her throat was beyond Nikki’s understanding. She bit her lip. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” The motor twisted, and Nikki heard a crack from somewhere deep inside the dishwasher. “I didn’t like the sound of that,” Seth muttered. “In fact, I think I may have found the problem. Or maybe I just created a new one. That’s not my cell phone ringing, so it must be yours.”
Nikki hadn’t even heard the buzz. That in itself was an indication of how badly the man got to her, she told herself as she retrieved the phone from her briefcase. “This is Nikki Marshall.”
“Thank heaven. I thought you’d never answer.” The voice was soft, feminine, and dripping panic.
Nikki recognized it—Jen was the youngest and least experienced member of the sales staff at the realty office. Why she was apparently on duty alone was beyond Nikki’s comprehension. “What’s wrong, Jen?”
“The MacIntyres are here to make a counteroffer on the house they want to buy, and I don’t know what to do. Can you come in right away?”
With two babies asleep in the next room? It had been difficult enough to take them for a simple walk through the neighborhood. Hauling them out of bed and across town to meet with a pair of clients would be torture. Unless Seth would agree to keep an eye on them…
She looked over her shoulder and saw him putting the panels in place on the front of the dishwasher. So much for that great idea.
“Out of the question, Jen.” She ignored the woman’s protest. “Their file is in my bottom desk drawer. The client number is on the tab of the folder. Pull it up on the computer, find the offer they made last week, put in the new price, print out the form, and have them both sign it.” She glanced at her watch. “Then call the delivery service—have a courier bring the papers here, and I’ll check them over. Got it?”
Jen repeated the instructions and the address. “Okay,” she said doubtfully. “If you’re sure you can’t come in.”
“I’m sure,” Nikki said, and snapped the phone shut. When she came back into the kitchen, Seth was putting the last screw into place. “Is it all fixed?”
“Far from it. I have about fifteen pieces to replace—if the home-supply store has them.”
“Then why put it all back together now? You’ll just have to take it apart later. I don’t mind if it’s in pieces—it’s not like I’m getting ready for a dinner party tonight.”
“Because I don’t want the twins to rearrange all the pretty wires.”
“Oh. Good point. You’ll be back later, then?”
“Tomorrow sometime. I have an engagement tonight.”
“With Elsa?” She kept her voice light. “Or Inga?”
“Neither. Why?”
That figured. By now, Nikki thought, there could have been half a dozen more tall, slim blondes in and out of his life. “Seth, you don’t know the meaning of the word engagement.”
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, darling…. How many guys have you dated since Thorpe, anyway?”
“A few,” she said coolly. “Why?”
“Anybody who’s lasted more than a month?”
“I don’t think so.” She kept her voice deliberately light. “But then by your standards, a month is an eternity, so you don’t need to worry about me being fickle. I’ll see you tomorrow, if you don’t want that coffee after all.”
He shook his head. “I’ll take a rain check. You know, you look as if you could use a nap yourself, instead of caffeine.”
“I’ve got some work to do. I have a closing on Monday, and a new client coming into town—so I need to refresh my memory of the listings before I decide what to show him.”
“Him? I thought it was normally the woman who chooses the family home.”
“Usually it’s the wife who does most of the looking,” Nikki agreed. “But this guy’s single. Actually, I think he’s divorced. He’s an upper-level executive with the auto-assembly plant.”
“Now that sounds promising,” Seth said. “If you’re really lucky, maybe he’ll be like the commodities broker—and you can find out every step it takes to build a car.”
Nikki didn’t know whether she was getting used to the routine, or the twins were accepting her, or they were all just too tired to make a fuss, but everything went a little more smoothly on Sunday.
The babies had already had their nap and were in their high chairs toying with their dinner when Seth arrived. He let himself in with a cheerful hello, set a large paper bag of parts on the kitchen counter, and gave the coffeepot a speculative shake.
“If you’re hoping to have that cup of coffee you missed yesterday, you’re too late,” Nikki said. “I kept it hot for you till just a couple of hours ago, though.”
He made a face and started to take the bottom panel off the dishwasher again. “The truth is, you forgot to turn the pot off.”
Nikki put another spoonful of peas and carrots in front of Zack. With his index fingertip, he rolled a pea across the tray. Then he tried to roll a carrot chunk, and settled for smashing it into mush instead.
“How’s it going today?” Seth asked.
“We’re doing great, aren’t we, kids?”
Anna gurgled. Zack noticed remnants of carrot on his fingertip and tried to shake them off.
Seth slid under the dishwasher. “How long till Laura and Steve get home?”
“Six hours,” Nikki answered automatically. Too late, she tried to bite back the words.
Seth was grinning. “I’m surprised you don’t have it figured out down to the minute. So you want to tell me how you’re really doing?”
Nikki sighed. “I missed the courier yesterday because I was in the middle of a diaper change when he rang the doorbell. I yelled, but he couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t get there in time, so I have a counteroffer hanging in limbo because the papers are locked up in a delivery van till Monday.”
