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“Is something wrong?” he asked, glancing from her tablet to her face again.
Surely something was amiss. The fact was obvious from the look on her face—the lines of concentration, the frown. How endearing she looked, probably worried over some shopping problem she faced today. Nick wondered at the workings of the feminine mind. The smallest things threw them.
Amanda tapped her pencil against her bottom lip. Nick shifted in his chair.
“I might be able to help,” he offered, dragging his gaze away from her mouth.
She laid her pencil aside. “Do you know anything about concrete?”
He stilled, then leaned back. “Concrete?”
“Yes, concrete. It’s used in construction to form—”
“I know what concrete is.” He looked down at her tablet. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’m going to erect a building.”
His frowned. “You’re going to do what?”
“Erect a building.”
Nick just stared at her, not sure he’d understood her correctly.
“I’m going to erect a building,” Amanda said again. “Erect. A. Building. Erect. Are you understanding this?”
“I assure you, I have firsthand knowledge of erec—never mind.” Nick drew in a breath. “Why are you…putting up a building?”
“It’s a long story,” Amanda said, picking up her pencil again, “and not a very interesting one, really.”
The servant came into the room and served Nick his breakfast. He picked up his fork and bit into the eggs.
“Go ahead. Tell me. I’d like to hear all about it,” Nick said. “Are you building a flower shop? A dress shop, maybe? Or one of those hat places where women like to wile away the afternoon?”
“I’m building a refuge for women with children who’ve been abandoned by their husbands.”
Nick froze, staring at her. He knew he should say something, but couldn’t think of a darned thing. Anyway, it was almost impossible to speak with his foot buried so deeply in his mouth.
“All is well. All is going as planned,” Constance announced as she breezed into the breakfast room. “Today I’m going to—”
“I have to go, Mother,” Nick said, rising from his chair, glad to be interrupted before he made an even bigger fool of himself in front of Amanda—though he didn’t know how that would be possible.
“But don’t you want to hear about the wedding plans?” Constance asked, as if she couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t. “The florist is coming over today—”
“I’ll hear about it later,” Nick promised, tossing his napkin onto his plate.
“Oh, well, all right.” Constance turned to Amanda. “We’ll have such fun today. After the florist leaves, the dressmaker will be by for a final fitting.”
“Oh, yes…” Amanda smiled bravely. “Won’t that be fun?”
“Has Cecilia showed you her trousseau yet?”
“Actually, she has. Last night,” Amanda said.
“Well, you’ll want to see it again,” Constance declared. “We’ll do that this afternoon.”
“Lovely…”
The change in Amanda that Constance seemed not to notice didn’t escape Nick. Right before his eyes Amanda appeared to wilt. Her shoulders slumped. Beneath her brave facade he caught a fleeting grimace of distaste.
Was it possible that she was as tired of hearing about Cecilia’s wedding as he was?
He decided to take a chance.
“Actually, Mother,” Nick said, “I’ve already offered to show Amanda around the city this morning.”
Amanda’s gaze came up quickly and landed on him with such gratitude that he thought she might launch herself into his arms.
“Really?” Constance said, clearly disappointed.
Nick looked down at Amanda. “Unless you want to change your mind and stay here today?”
Now she looked as if she might throttle him.
“No!” She jumped from her chair, then forced a smile. “I mean, no. I couldn’t go back on my word after you so generously offered your time.”
“Well, perhaps if you hurry back?” Constance suggested.
“Can’t promise,” Nick said. He cupped Amanda’s elbow and the two of them hurried out of the room.
“Remember there’s the rehearsal tonight,” Constance called. “And supper.”
“Don’t worry, Mother, I’ll be there.” Nick led Amanda through the house to the foyer, stopping at the foot of the grand staircase. “Get your things.”
“You’re serious?” she asked, a little breathless. “You’ll really get me out of this house today?”
“Sure.”
Amanda gave him a saucy little grin. “You, Nick Hastings, are my new best friend.” She turned, hiked up her dress and sprinted up the stairs.
Nick watched her, trying to remember why he’d avoided going to San Francisco for so many years.
He wondered, too, how he was going to keep Amanda Van Patton from going back.
Chapter Five
Amanda dashed into her bedchamber. “I need a hat!”
“What’s got you all fired up?” Dolly asked.
“I’m going out,” Amanda said, crossing to the closet. “With Nick.”
“Oh, my word. I knew it,” Dolly declared, pushing ahead of her and opening the closet door.
Amanda stilled. “It’s nothing like that. He’s simply taking me out to see the city. That’s all.”
Dolly nodded wisely as she pulled down a hatbox from the shelf. “That’s all? Uh-huh. Sure it is.”
Amanda pried off the top and lifted out the wide-brimmed hat, decorated with flowers and bows. She hurried to the mirror over the dresser and pinned it in place.
“Is this the same Mr. Nick that you intended to keep your distance from not an hour ago?” Dolly asked.
Amanda glanced at the maid’s reflection in the mirror. “He’s just being a kind host, that’s all.”
Dolly studied her for a minute, then nodded slowly. “All right. I reckon you know what you’re doing. Besides, can’t say that I blame you, good-looking as he is.”
Amanda checked herself in the mirror one last time, then scooped up her handbag and headed for the door.
“You just watch yourself,” Dolly called.
The sobering words rang in Amanda’s head as she stepped into the hallway. Dolly was right. Nick had hurt her once before. Hurt her deeply, so deeply that some of the pain still lived with her today, all these years later.
“You sure you want to do this?” Dolly asked, walking to the doorway.
Amanda considered the question. Perhaps she should tell Nick that she’d changed her mind and didn’t want to go with him today.
Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
“I’ll be fine,” she declared.
Still, the idea caused her stomach to knot as she walked down the hallway. But the alternative meant spending the day with Cecilia and Constance, discussing the wedding. Amanda couldn’t bear that.
Nor could she bear standing at the window watching Nick drive away without her.
“Be cautious,” Amanda mumbled aloud as she reached the top of the staircase. She could do this, she told herself. She could spend the day with Nick without letting her feelings run away with her. She’d keep herself in check.
Somehow.
Amanda heard footsteps behind her in the hallway and, fearing it was Cecilia or Constance with a dire wedding crisis, hurried down the steps. At the bottom, she stopped. Nick wasn’t there.
Had he already gone? What if he’d changed his mind and left without her?
A cold shiver passed through her. Old memories popped into her mind. Feelings of being young, newly arrived at her aunt and uncle’s mansion. Not fitting in. Not being as worthy as everyone around her. Not being good enough…for Nick.
Amanda gave herself a shake, pushed her chin up and crossed the foyer. Of course she was good enough. Now. She hadn’t been back then, when she was little more than a child, uncomfortable in her new life. But she’d learned how to conduct herself, and she did, in fact, fit in quite nicely.
She opened the front door and stepped out into the bright morning sunlight. The Hastingses’ carriage waited at the foot of the steps and Nick stood beside it. Amanda felt her heart lurch, seeing him there waiting for her.
And because he looked so tall and handsome, Amanda’s own words of warning sped through her mind again. Be cautious.
“All set?” Nick asked.
She stopped beside him. “Thank you for masterminding my escape today.”
He smiled. “What are best friends for?”
Warmth rushed up Amanda’s arm as she lay her fingers in his palm and accepted his assistance into the carriage. He climbed in after her and took the opposite seat.
When the carriage swung out of the driveway and onto West Adams Boulevard, Amanda sat back and tried to relax. It wasn’t easy with Nick so close and her heart beating faster than normal.
“It’s quite lovely here,” Amanda said, peering at the passing neighborhood from beneath her wide-brimmed hat.
The West Adams district had become as famous as New York’s Fifth Avenue, and Nob Hill, where Amanda’s uncle made their home. Wide, tree-lined boulevards, wrought-iron and stone fences fronted the magnificent homes of some of the finest families in the city. Here, standards were set by people of affluence and wealth.
“My parents selected the site and designed the house,” Nick said. “Father died shortly after construction began.”
“He never got to live here?”
“No.” Nick smiled gently. “But the house makes us all think of him.”
Amanda turned back for a last glance at the Hastingses’ home. A three-story structure with scrollwork and gingerbread, a witch’s cap and onion dome, the house was painted ivory with deep blue and maroon trim. It was a grand home, and a fine legacy left by Nick’s father.
“Don’t you want to know where we’re going?” Nick asked.
“Not really,” Amanda said, and smiled. “I trust you.”
“Now you’ve really put me on the spot,” Nick replied, and gave her the same devilish smile she’d seen earlier.
That smile wound its way through Amanda and settled around her heart. If Nick got much more handsome, or smiled at her again, she didn’t know how she’d bear it.
Maybe she shouldn’t have come with him today, she thought again. Regardless of how dreadful another day of wedding preparations sounded, perhaps she should have stayed at the house and endured it, somehow. She’d come to Los Angeles with the intention of keeping her distance from Nick, knowing it was best for her. Dolly had been right to remind her of that. Now here she sat, facing a day alone with him.
Once more, Amanda cautioned herself to stay on guard, lest she lose herself completely in Nick’s green eyes.
They rode in silence for a while, and that seemed to suit Amanda, Nick noted. He studied her face, turned toward the window so she could watch the passing scenery. Unlike so many other women, she didn’t chatter about this or that, or feel the necessity to fill every moment with conversation.
Usually, that would have pleased Nick. Having lived with females his whole life, he thought that, in general, they talked too much. But now, with Amanda, it made him wonder what she was thinking.
Certainly, it wasn’t anything remotely related to what he was thinking.
“Amanda, you’re really very—”
Pretty, he’d intended to say. But when she turned to him and he saw that look of tired expectation on her face, it occurred to him that people probably told her she was pretty all the time—because she was. Nick didn’t want to be like everyone else.
“Smart,” Nick said. “You’re really very smart.”
She smiled then, a genuine, heartfelt smile that Nick was sure she seldom shared with anyone. He was inordinately pleased that he’d elicited it from her.
“The way you took care of that problem with Cecilia this morning,” he continued. “You were the only one who seemed to have a handle on the situation.”
