Charmed (Contemporary Romance) Read Free Page B

It was a perfect match for her boys, but it wasn’t a good fit for her.
    His warning had been uncalled for and ridiculous, especially when he’d been so charming just moments before. To Jamie it was one more reminder that too many people hid their true selves. Nick had just unmasked himself sooner than most.

Chapter Two
    Claire walked in just as Nick was putting Jamie Sullivan’s paperwork away. “How’d it go?”
    “It … was a strange interview.” He’d behaved badly and he was disappointed in himself, but he was at a loss as to what to do about it. Would she go through the admissions process? “It turns out she’s Viera’s sister.”
    “Justin Viera? Your college ice hockey nemesis?” Claire rolled her eyes at him.
    “High school, too. How can you forget?”
    “Isn’t he in your old-timers league now?” Claire asked.
    “It’s not an old-timers league, it’s a master’s league. And we’re not officially a league yet.” He kept quiet for a while.
    “What’s on your mind?”
    “Getting older,” Nick confessed. “You know, all through high school and college, I can’t think of a game where Viera and I didn’t get into a fight. There he was, always standing in the way. Whether it was a winning streak for our team, or a personal record I was working so hard to break …
    “He was relentless. He just wouldn’t let it happen. I was always in his way, too, and then we had to see each other around town. I think it’s safe to say the hate was mutual.” Nick tapped his pencil to his chin, considering their more recent history.
    “But somewhere along the way I actually began respecting the guy. Probably around the time I moved back, and we both started teams here. We were both so intent on still playing, even though our lives were focused on other, more important things. It seems like under different circumstances, we might’ve been friends.”
    He didn’t add that he would’ve also known Jamie better and he wouldn’t have treated her the way he’d just treated her. He still had no idea why those words had come out of his mouth without going through a filter first.
    He broke from his reverie to look at the silver-haired woman who was like a mother to him. “It’s just funny what age can do to you.”
    Claire stared at him for a long moment before getting up, walking over, and giving him a firm whack over the head with a rolled up stack of papers. “You’re all of thirty-seven and you’re telling me? That is funny.”
    • • •
    Later that night, Jamie tucked her boys into bed and looked forward to a little alone time.
    “Mommy, can you tell me the story about Autumn Falls?” Timmy asked.
    “Not again,” Michael groaned. “That’s such a girlie story.”
    “It is not! It’s a true story, and it’s got an Indian war guy in it and magic and everything.”
    Jamie turned their night light on, switched the overhead light off, and sat on the corner of Timmy’s bed. “All right, one more time,” she agreed, watching Michael put a pillow over his head. “It’s called the legend of Autumn Falls because nobody has been able to prove it really happened.”
    “No! Start with once upon a time,” Timmy instructed.
    “Okay.” Jamie cleared her throat to find her best storyteller voice. “Once upon a time, an indebted and embattled duke fled from England to the New World in search of fortune. He became very rich with a cashmere mill he started right here in our little town. He then got married and had a child. His daughter was born among gold, orange, and fiery red leaves on a mid-fall day, and he named her Autumn.
    “One night, when the adventurous and impulsive duchess turned ten, she snuck away to climb Drizzle Mountain. As she climbed, two stars collided in the heavens above. The spectacular light blinded the duchess, and she almost fell off a ridge, but a young Mohican Indian saved her.
    “The years passed, and Autumn and her Mohican continued to live parallel lives. So close,