Family by Design

“Who’s dying?” a voice said from behind Nick.

Becca wanted to answer that she was. Nick brought back too many memories. And she wouldn’t accept favors from him.

“Becca had a flat,” Raylene explained as she moved to greet her husband.

Nick stepped back to let Jeff pass, and the two men exchanged greetings. “I found her on the side of the road about five miles from town,” Nick explained when Jeff had given his wife a brief kiss. “I’ll have Tony take care of it. No reason for you to do it. He can drop her car at her place when it’s done.”

“But—” Becca said, hoping to find another way.

“I told you it wasn’t a problem,” Nick insisted. “Tony has plenty of help.”

“You’ll have to take him up on the offer,” Jeff said. “I have to go to the—”

“Dentist,” Nick and Becca said in unison.

“All I need to know is where she lives,” Nick went on, turning to look at her and obviously expecting an answer.

Becca had her reasons for not telling him. It would bring the past into the present. But in spite of that, it was clear that she couldn’t refuse his offer, no matter how badly she wanted to.

“The old Watkins place,” she said.

Nick was silent for a moment. “The old Watkins place?”

“Yes.”

“The one west of town?”

“You remember where it is, don’t you? About seven miles west on Morgan Creek Road. Or do you need directions?”

Nick shook his head. “Yeah. I mean, no, I don’t need directions. I remember where it is.”

While Raylene and Jeff excused themselves, Becca wondered what memories the area held for him. Were they the same as hers? Teenagers still took advantage of the double row of hedge trees on the road that ran past her house, providing seclusion for stolen kisses. And other things. She and Nick had spent more than a few nights there, before he had taken her home, talking, dreaming and…

“If it’s too far—” she began, wishing the memories away.

“No. It’s no trouble. I just—I didn’t know you lived there. I thought you lived here in town. That’s all.”

He remembered. And she needed him not to know that she did, too. “It’s nice sometimes not to have close neighbors,” she said, trying for a smile. “There’s more…privacy.”

“Yeah, I guess there is.” He stood looking at her for a moment, and then reached into his pocket. “Do you need the key to your house?”

“Oh! I’d forgotten you had it with the car key. But Raylene has an extra. She can let me in.”

“Okay, then.” He shifted from one foot to the other, as if he had something else to say. “I’ll make sure Tony gets the tire fixed first thing in the morning. You might need to go somewhere.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure. Good night.”

“Good night, Nick.”

She watched as he turned and started down the steps. He was almost to his truck when she remembered his jacket. “Wait!” she called to him. “You forgot something.” She ran to grab his jacket from a chair in the kitchen and hurried outside with it.

Nick sat waiting in his truck with the motor running. When she reached it, he rolled down his window. “You’ll need it on the way home tonight,” he said when she held it out to him. “Give it to Tony or whoever brings your car back tomorrow.”

Sensing that it wouldn’t do any good to argue, she nodded. As she watched him back out of the driveway, she shivered and quickly reminded herself that the past was over. And Nick Morelli didn’t have a place in her present—or her future.

Chapter Two

Nick gathered what patience he had left, while his brother finished the oil change on Becca’s car. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Lowering the hood of the older model Lexus, which had seen better days, Tony looked up at him. “I figured you knew.”

“No. How could I?” He hadn’t had much sleep the night before. Learning that Becca was living in the old Watkins place had been a blow. The old Victorian house had always been a favorite of his. Since he was a kid, he had wanted it for his own, but he’d never dreamed it ever would be. Not even when he had shared his dream with Becca, all those years ago.

When the opportunity to buy the house from Mrs. Watkins had presented itself three months ago, in the midst of his decision to move his construction company from Denver to Katyville, he’d jumped at the chance. She had told him there was someone living there, and he’d had his attorney take the necessary legal steps to remedy the situation and keep the transaction anonymous by sending a notice to vacate under his corporate name to the tenant. He’d been generous, giving the tenant more than the usual amount of time to move before he would start the planned renovations on the house.

Had planned.

“She’s all ready, Nick.”

Nick jerked his head up to see Tony wiping his hands on a rag. “Send the bill to her husband,” he said and turned to leave.

“Becca’s husband? I don’t know—Hey! Where are you going?”

“I have work to do,” Nick called to him from halfway across the garage. “Have Mike deliver it as soon as he can.”

Running into Becca the night before had been a surprise he could have done without. Now that he knew her car had been taken care of, he could get back to feeling guilty about making her move with a sick baby, as if that was something he had anything to do with and as if he didn’t need to be overseeing the transition of his construction company.

“Mike is gone today,” Tony called after him. “And Travis won’t be here for another twenty minutes. You’ll have to take it yourself.”

Halfway to the bay door, Nick stopped and looked back. “Not me.”

Tony gave him a slow grin. “She still getting under your skin?”

“You’re crazy,” Nick replied and continued on his way.

“She won’t have a car if you don’t take it to her.”

Nick gritted his teeth. The last thing he wanted to do was see Becca again. He hadn’t been able to forget the come-hither look in her eyes or her sexy pout when she’d opened Raylene’s door the night before. Even knowing it hadn’t been for him and was only a joke, the thought of it still did things to him he didn’t like happening.

“Nick, she and her husband—”

“Okay!” He took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll take her car out there and Travis can pick me up as soon as he gets here.”

Fifteen minutes later, after enduring Tony’s devilish grin while he backed the car out of the garage bay, Nick slowed Becca’s car as he approached her house. His house, he reminded himself, looking for signs of life. He had driven by once to check out the house since he’d returned to Katyville, but hadn’t seen anyone outside. Too busy adjusting to the slower pace of small-town life and getting his company set up, he hadn’t inquired about his tenants. He hadn’t cared, knowing his attorney had taken care of everything. But it hadn’t been taken care of, he reminded himself. Not yet, anyway.

Determined to get this over with as soon as possible, Nick parked the car in the gravel driveway and got out, concentrating on the house and what would need to be done before he could start the renovations to bring it back to its once-glorious condition.