A Kiss, A Dance & A Diamond

Watching his family, Kieran couldn’t help but reflect on all he had lost. He’d loved being a father and missed Christian so much he ached inside. And he missed being a husband. And then, as always, the ache was replaced by a feeling of betrayal and rage so intense he had to take a couple of long breaths to stop the sensation taking hold.

“Everything all right?”

Liam’s voice. His brother knew him better than anyone. “Yeah, fine.”

“You look tired.”

“I did a double shift at the hospital,” he said casually.

“And then had a date with Nicola Radici.”

And just like that, his hold of the situation spectacularly fell apart because two feminine sets of startled eyes immediately zoomed in on him. Kayla’s eyes were as wide as saucers. His mother looked at him with a kind of delighted shock. He had to backpedal—and fast.

“It wasn’t a date.”

Thankfully, a couple of orders of pancakes arrived just then, but Kieran knew he wasn’t about to be let off the hook so easily.

“I’ve always liked Nicola,” Gwen said quietly. “She’s a sweet girl. She’s helped out on the hospital committee a few times, you know. She’s so good at organizing things. I might stop by the restaurant today and see if she’d like to help me with the latest fundraiser. And the way she’s taken to caring for her nephews when her brother was killed...really, such a sweet girl.”

“You said that already,” he muttered, feigning interest in the food his mother placed in front of him.

Liam chuckled, and Kieran scowled in his direction. Just because his brother had found his happily-ever-after with Kayla, it didn’t mean that everyone else would. Kieran had believed he’d had it once...until it blew up in his face. He wasn’t about to go down that road again in a hurry.

He picked up his fork. “Stop reading anything into it. She hates me, remember?”

“That’s true,” Kayla said and smiled. “She does.”

Liam chuckled. “It’s a double-edged sword, though, don’t you think?”

Kieran stared at his pancakes, feeling heat rise up his chest and throat and then hit him squarely in the face. He didn’t want anyone speculating about him and Nicola. Because there was no him and Nicola. Not now. Not ever again. And, when he glanced at his mother, he saw that she was still smiling, still watching him with a curious regard that spoke volumes. He knew that look. It was a matchmaking face.

I’m so screwed.

* * *

Tour groups were usually Nicola’s favorite. They were generally cheerful, always finished their meals and tipped big. But today she was too tired to handle the exuberant crowd. Her limbs felt heavy with a kind of odd lethargy that had everything to do with the fact she’d barely managed to get any sleep the night before. Really, how was she supposed to sleep when Kieran was spread out on her couch directly below her bed? If she’d had any sense, she would have woken him up and sent him packing. But the kindness he’d shown toward Marco was impossible to discount. And she wasn’t a mean-spirited person—even toward the man she hated most in the world.

Okay...so maybe that was a stretch.

It wasn’t exactly hate. It was...it was anger and resentment and a whole lot of bone-deep, heart-wrenching hurt. The way he’d ended their relationship still stung. The pity she’d endured from her friends and the humiliation she’d experienced had been almost impossible to bear. In the end, escaping to college in California had been a lifeline. And, for a while, falling in love with Carl had been a lifeline, too. After Kieran, Nicola wasn’t sure she could have those feelings again. Sure, she’d dated in college and had had a couple of short-term boyfriends, but no one had really touched her heart until she met Carl. And then, once she was in love and believed she’d finally get her fairy-tale ending, the so-called man of her dreams simply turned out to be another man who didn’t want her.

As she stacked the dishwasher with pizza trays, she checked the time. Two o’clock. The lunch crowd had thinned out, and there was only one couple remaining at one of the booth tables. Her father was slowly shoveling the coals in the fire pit at the other end of the kitchen, while Marco did some reading in the small office off the kitchen. Josie, one of the two waitresses working that day, came through the swing doors carrying a tray of glassware.