Tequila and Candy Drops: A Blueberry Springs Sweet Romance Read online

  “You got that?” Devon asked.

  Nicola scrunched her nose. “Can we just play?” If she wasn’t on Todd’s team she didn’t care if they won or lost.

  “Jill and I are going to cream everyone, so don’t worry about it,” Todd said with a smirk.

  Nicola gave him a surprised look. He was rarely competitive.

  She glanced at Jill, who was smiling and touching the base of her neck, watching Todd with pink cheeks. Was he showing off and strutting for her?

  Beside Nicola, Devon puffed up, his own competitive edge coming out loud and clear.

  Oh, great.

  “Those who talk loudest…” warned Devon.

  “Always win,” Todd replied quickly.

  Nicola laughed. “Well, prepare to be steamrolled. We’re going to crush you.”

  Devon gave her a high five and Jill and Todd began a whispered conference that worried her. She wasn’t great at poker. She knew the rules, knew Todd’s bluffs, and that was about it. The game was more about spending time with him and laughing. But if Jill was an ace like she was at paintball, Nicola’s game would be over in seconds. Humiliating.

  Frankie dealt the hands to the eight players at their table. After a few minutes the players had dwindled to four. A showdown between Todd and Jill and her and Devon.

  Nicola glared at Todd as she put down her next card. Beside her Devon sighed. “I fold.”

  “What?” She turned to him. Hadn’t he licked his bottom lip to mean he had a good hand? No, that was the eyebrow thing. Crap. Her hand sucked. That meant she had walked her way into a full-on bluff.

  Devon whispered to her loudly enough for others to hear, “Bring it home, baby.”

  Feeling self-conscious, she replied, “Sure thing, shmoopy.”

  Jill laughed, as did the watching players who’d folded earlier, but Todd just glared, his game face solidly in place.

  A few more rounds and Jill folded, leaving Nicola and Todd to face off.

  His lip twitched and she knew he had a good hand. She pushed all her chips into the middle of the table and took a sip of her beer.

  She smiled at Todd, knowing she had him confused about whether she was bluffing or not.

  “Cocky, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “No, I just know you.”

  “Do you know this?” He laid down four of a kind.

  Devon pushed away from the table, disgusted.

  Nicola spread out her cards. A straight flush—five consecutive cards—beating Todd’s hand.

  “No. Way.” Devon yanked her out of her chair, placing a fast peck on her lips before hugging her right off her feet. He turned to Todd, finger aimed at him. “In your face!”

  Todd’s expression grew hard and Nicola slipped out of Devon’s overexuberant embrace, wishing again that she’d been teamed with Todd. And secretly, that he was the one giving her a peck on the lips.

  “Good game.” Todd pushed away from the table, giving her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. She wanted to appease him, make him laugh, but wasn’t sure how. Tonight was supposed to be for him, and it felt as though it was falling apart fast.

  Frankie began shuffling the decks and Todd waved to indicate he was out of the next round. “Think I’ll get a beer,” he said.

  Nicola had never seen him quite so sore at losing before, and she watched him for a moment before kicking into hostess mode.

  “There’s more beer in the keg. I’ll get you one.”

  Frankie, ever the peacemaker, kept Todd near the table, chatting him up about the things he had in common with Devon, with himself. Nicola hustled off to get a round of drinks in hopes that a fistfight didn’t break out before she returned.

  “What’s up with them?” Mandy whispered as they made their way to the little snack and beer bar set up at the edge of the community hall’s meeting room.

  Nicola shrugged, focusing on the brown carpet underfoot instead of her friend’s questioning gaze.

  “They’re fighting over you,” Amber said knowledgeably as she joined them. “Totally saw it all from my table. Talk about sexy.”

  “They’re not fighting over me.” Nicola glanced around the room. “And I really liked your wedding, by the way. How was the honeymoon?”

  “Awesome.” Amber beamed, showing off her new ring, which Mandy oohed and ahhed over with appropriate enthusiasm.

  Around the room, almost all the women had bailed from the games already, which meant poker night was going to be a dud. That meant more planning, seeing as Nicola was going to need a new activity to fill mystery night number fourteen. Still…maybe someone could organize and run a poker night for the guys, as something separate, seeing as they at least seemed to be having fun. Other than Todd and Devon, who were still subtly facing off, arms crossed, reluctantly chatting with Frankie, who didn’t seem eager to let them go unless they buried the hatchet first.

  What was up with them? She’d never seen Todd act so bent out of shape before. And earlier, in her apartment, she’d been sure he’d been about to kiss her. But why? He wasn’t one to toy with her and he knew she wanted a relationship, and that wasn’t something he was up for. Unless he was changing like she was?

  No, that was too much to hope for. She was imagining things again.

  She cradled a bag of chips in one arm while pulling two plastic beer cups off the stack near the keg.

  “I heard you got an exclusive offer for your brownie recipe,” Amber said to Mandy.

  “What? Are you going to take it?” Nicola asked. “You’re still going to sell them in your café though, right?” She depended on those brownies. If Mandy sold them, there went her weekly chocolaty solace. And judging how things were going in her love life, she was going to need that solace aplenty.

  “He made a decent offer.” Mandy’s grin widened. “It had a lot of zeroes, but I didn’t take it.”

  “Why not?” The woman could be stinking rich right now.

  “If anyone’s going to make mega bucks off my brownies, it’s going to be me. When you have something good, you don’t give it away.” She shot a meaningful gaze in Todd’s direction.

  “Oh, no.” Nicola waved the empty cups while backing up.

  “You two love each other,” Amber said.

  “Haven’t I proved again and again that we’re just good friends and he doesn’t think of me that way?”

  “Look at him,” Amber stated impatiently. “He’s totally peeved that Devon’s into you. He’s fighting the urge to go all caveman and drag you back to his bed and claim you.”

  Nicola dragged her gaze to her best friend, looking for clues that would support Amber’s statement. He was peeved, but she didn’t for one moment believe it was because he was feeling jealous on a romantic level. He was naturally overprotective of her and didn’t like the way Devon had stepped into a role in her life that was typically reserved for himself.

  “Maybe you could use Devon’s interest,” Amber mused.

  “He’s not interested in me that way,” Nicola replied quickly, looking to Mandy for support. Mandy simply shrugged. “Speaking of which…what’s the big secret in his dating past?”

  Mandy shrugged again.

  “It’s like he’s hung up on someone,” Nicola mused. “Did he and Jill date?” Somehow Jill didn’t feel like the big secret in his past.

  Mandy nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think there’s anything there anymore. He went to school in the Carolinas and when he came back he was different.”

  “Hmm.” Nicola watched Devon, even more curious about his past than before.

  “Obviously,” Amber continued, ignoring their side conversation, “Devon being chummy with you bothers Todd. Maybe it would spur him into finally sweeping you into his arms.”

  Nicola put down the bag of chips and filled a plastic cup with beer, shaking her head. She wasn’t going to play games to convince Todd to want her. Hearts didn’t work that way—not when you were looking for forever.

  “Yup,” Amber said wist
fully. “Todd has a crush on you and doesn’t even know it.”

  Nicola couldn’t help herself; she peeked over the keg to search out signs that Todd might want her in a more-than-friends way. Her mind flashed to earlier that evening when his body had been pressed over hers, arms bracketing her face. It had felt as though he’d been ready to kiss her. That there was something more than friendship surging between them, waiting for a chance to pop to life.

  She shook her head, dismissing the memory. In the long run it didn’t matter, because even if they might be attracted to each other, they still wanted different things.

  She could go back to traveling; she knew that.

  But she also knew she wouldn’t be happy for very long. She’d get tired and want to come home to where she had more stability.

  And asking Todd to stay with her in Blueberry Springs? Well, that was like stabling a racehorse and never letting it run again. She knew she couldn’t do that. Not to the man she loved.

  * * *

  Sometimes being friends with Todd was a heady experience, one that would mess with any woman’s mind. The way he smiled at her as though she was the only other person on the group’s final test activity, a celebratory hike. The way he made everything feel simple and fun. How he made her happy, made her feel cherished. The man had her back. And her heart.

  Nicola forced herself to keep her eyes on the root-riddled dirt trail that led to a lake high above the town of Blueberry Springs, instead of sneaking looks behind her to study the way his muscles flexed as he strode up the mountain, flashing smiles whenever their eyes connected.

  Hearing someone stumble behind her, she turned, and was immediately distracted by Todd’s easy gait.

  “Hey,” he said, pausing.

  “Everyone doing all right?” she called, unable to look past Todd. He was so heart-stoppingly familiar, as well as devastatingly sexy. His thin cotton shirt was sticking to his pecs in a very distracting way in the unseasonably warm September air.

  Hearing a chorus of yeahs, Nicola spun around and continued up the trail, thumbs hooked in the shoulder straps of her backpack, which held the group’s picnic. A few moments later, she glanced back, and found Todd’s eyes quickly lifting to meet hers. It was the weirdest thing. Every time she looked at him it felt real. That was the only word to describe it. What exactly it was that felt real was still a puzzle. They’d been friends for years, gone on a billion adventures together, and yet every day lately had somehow felt different. As if something was changing or shifting.

  She shook off the feeling as she stumbled, only to find Todd’s quick hands catching her around the waist.

  “Thanks,” she huffed, stepping away from him and ignoring the zings that ripped through her at his almost intimate touch.

  She needed to keep her eyes on where her feet were going. Her friends’ ideas about Todd wanting something more with her were going to her head—that and the compounding need to have a boyfriend. These days whenever she drew close to Todd it made her insides feel like a shaken bottle of Coca-Cola. She hadn’t remembered every touch and lingering gaze while they’d been traveling, but now she did, and her mind played them over and over again like a film stuck on repeat. Had they always been so physical with each other? Or was that new? Either way, her body had noticed.

  “That,” she said, pausing to point out the mountain overlooking the highway that led out of Blueberry Springs, “is Bear’s Pass.”

  She winced as she realized everyone on the hike already knew that. Her job as a nature guide fill-in for Jen was taking over. She’d been taking groups on this hike all summer and it had become routine to stop and point things out.

  “Sorry,” she called. “Habit.”

  Todd paused, hands on his hips as he turned to take in the view. “Is that the pass you drive through to get to town?”

  She nodded. “There’s good rock climbing over there, too.”

  “Rock climbing?” he said, perking up. “Have you been?”

  “Last spring.”

  Todd looked surprised. “You got over your fear of heights?”

  She avoided telling him that Devon had sprung it on her, then dared her, his joking demeanor keeping her distracted the whole way up, then back down again.

  “We just did a small climb.”

  “I thought maybe you offered some mountain climbing, too.”

  “I’m not certified.”

  “At least not as a climber,” Todd joked.

  She laughed at him implying she was nuts, and pushed him toward a lookout point. “Shall we use Todd to test how safe the edge of the cliff is?”

  The group laughed, playing along with their joking as Todd pretended to panic, his hands latched on to hers, sending longing and need into a swirling storm inside her.

  Below them was the meadow they’d skirted earlier as they accessed the head of their current trail. It was one where Mandy and Devon often raced each other on a dirt track—as they were doing right now.

  Todd moved close to the rim and Nicola grabbed him. “I was only kidding. There’s an unstable undercut.”

  “Afraid I may fall to my untimely death?”

  “Yes.” She hated when he got like this, playing the daredevil. He wasn’t as bad as Devon, though, who was currently taking a shortcut across the scrub in an attempt to beat his sister. His car, which was no match for her 4x4, cratered with a crunch she could hear all the way up the mountain. She gasped, releasing Todd.

  “What?” he asked, concerned.

  “Looks like Devon needs to get his car fixed again,” someone said from behind them.

  Below, Mandy reached the finish line, then got out to do a little dance and wiggle her butt in her brother’s direction. Devon leaned out of his car, waving her over.

  “You look relieved,” Todd noted.

  Nicola nodded. “Probably no stitches this time.” She ushered him away from the edge. “Come on, let’s finish the hike.”

  She led the group up the last incline before the lake, feeling Todd’s eyes on her back the entire way.

  “What?” she asked finally. She fell back to walk beside him.

  “You honestly don’t have a thing for him?” There was so much doubt in Todd’s voice she could have bottled it.

  “Devon? Why would I?”

  “Because he lives for action and adventure.”

  “A good reason not to be into him, I should think.” She’d be worried about him every time he went out the door.

  “I thought you liked that.”

  She shrugged, noncommittal. She didn’t want to bash Devon. He was a good friend, even though they weren’t a romantic match and she much preferred Todd’s form of adventure over Devon’s.

  Todd grew silent. After a while he asked, “So Blueberry Springs is home now?”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  He teased her lightly about going soft and adopting twenty cats and five kids. “You’ll be like this guy I know at work who has no life anymore. He never goes anywhere because he adopted all these children.”

  “And?” She put her hands on her hips, giving him a daring look.

  “And, actually, it’s actually kinda cool. Some of those kids have some pretty serious health issues and stuff.” Todd tossed off the heaviness of the subject, diving back into teasing. “But you? You already have a dog and a goldfish. Next comes a dozen rugrats. Can I buy you a muumuu, Miss Nic?”

  She turned to him as they reached their final destination, a small glacier-fed lake. “If you don’t shut your yap, I’m going to push you in,” she threatened.

  “Try it,” he said, moving fast. He grabbed her wrists, angling her so she was suddenly the one on the edge of the lakeshore.

  “Help!” She giggled, loving that he didn’t seem worried about her overreacting to him getting close or physical. In fact, he seemed to be initiating contact more lately, something that made her feel special, since he wasn’t that way with everyone. Plus his strength was a turn-on. How he could gently overpow
er her, yet allow her to still call the shots.

  He began angling her even closer to the frigid water.

  “Don’t you dare!”

  “Dare, did you say?”

  Oh, no. The two of them used to play Truth or Dare as teens. It had often led to him taking crazy dares and her opting for revealing a lot of truth.

  “I dare you not to.”

  He turned to the group. “What do you say?”

  “Toss her in!” Scott and Amber hollered.

  “No! It’s cold!” Nicola laughed.

  “See?” Todd said, his eyes alight with mischief. “She’s giggling. It means she wants me to throw her in.”

  “Only if you come with me.”

  “Are you kidding? That’s glacier-fed. A smart guide told me that.”

  Her friends came to help with the struggle, although she wasn’t sure if it was to save her or ensure she was dropped into the freezing lake. When they got too close, Todd shifted suddenly, protecting her. He held her against him, angling the two of them away as the rowdy group tumbled into the water, splashing and shrieking. Before long they were the only two on dry land.

  “Chickens!” someone called, following up the name calling with clucking sounds.

  “She has a high-tech chip that can’t get wet.” Todd lightly rapped his knuckles against the side of Nicola’s head. “She’s actually a robot.”

  She brushed him off, worried that everyone might be developing hypothermia in the icy water. It was mild today, but still cooler than it had been a month ago. “Can you guys feel your legs?”

  “Stop worrying,” Todd said. “They’re having fun.”

  “I know, but it’s a long hike back to the trailhead in wet clothes.”

  “You’re worrying.” He carefully tucked her against his side so they could watch everyone hoot and splash. “They’re adults. This is the spontaneity you were looking for.”

  She refocused on her friends. It was true. They were all smiling, having a blast. Creating memories. Strengthening already strong friendships. She was succeeding with her plans.