Sweet Nothings Read Free Page A

to the store window behind her that matched the decor of the van. “I wanted to wait until the van was ready. Eat your cupcake, Nick.” She eyed the dessert he hadn’t yet tasted. “You’ll make my customers think it isn’t any good.”
    He did as instructed, biting into the decadent cake, then shot her a look as his taste buds took hold. It was amazing. She laughed out loud again, and he couldn’t help but catch sight as several of the men who were in line turned to watch her, as well. That’s when he realized that nearly all the customers were men. One guess as to what had pulled them outside.
    “So tell me what brings you back so soon,” she said. “Visiting Cody, I assume?”
    He nodded and took another bite, pretty sure some of the pink icing had landed on his nose. Wiping at himself with a napkin, he swallowed and said, “I’m actually hoping to open a branch of my company here. And yeah, I want to spend time with Cody and the twins. So I took a few weeks—four, maybe six—to come check it out, see what I could get going.”
    Captivating eyes, the color of storm clouds on a late-summer day, widened. “That’s a long visit. You staying with Cody?”
    Nick nodded and thought about the cramped one-bedroom that wasn’t big enough for one of them, much less two. Wanting to set a good example for their teenagers, Cody and Lee Ann had agreed to maintain separate residences until they married. “Until the real estate agent can find me something else. She’d had a place lined up but I just found out that it fell through.”
    Joanie gave him a teasing shake of her head. “You’re going to be walking all over each other.”
    “Tell me about it. When Boss is there, we practically have to shuffle to the side just to walk through the same room.” His brother had a Great Dane who was as big as them. Boss stayed with Lee Ann and the girls most of the time now, but when Nick had visited before Christmas, it had been the two of them and the dog, all in the five-hundred-square-foot space. Not comfortable.
    “So you just up and came here for a few weeks?” she asked. Her features took on an interesting gleam as she studied him. “Feels like a big change for somebody like you.”
    Nick raised his eyebrows. “People change. Didn’t you own a salon two months ago?”
    A gorgeous smile stole across her face. “Yes, but that’s me. It’s who I am. I flip businesses and move on. I never stick to one thing for long.” She reached out and swiped a bit of frosting from his cupcake. “I wouldn’t think you’d be comfortable not having your routine around. Weeks in a new place without so much as a place to stay?” She shook her head, making tsking noises with her teasing. “Seems out of character.”
    The comment felt insulting, maybe because it was so true. This quick move was very much unlike him. He was used to his life. He liked it. He’d worked hard for it.
    But he wanted to get to know his family.
    Opening a new office wasn’t unheard of. He already had one just outside of Jackson and another in Columbia. But yeah, normally he moved a little slower before hanging a shingle. Took a longer time researching. He made sure he had all the facts, and then he pounced. Then he wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.
    He wasn’t about to tell Joanie she’d pegged him so quickly, though. “You’ve met me for all of one day, sweetness. Not sure you could know from that what does and doesn’t fit me.”
    She snorted then, her glorious laughter once again pulling the other men’s attention, and he had the urge to step in between them and her. Before he could, she reached up and wiped at his nose—yes, he’d beenwearing pink icing—and he couldn’t help but turn a smug look to all eyes watching them. He may be wearing icing, but the hottie in the go-go boots who smelled like cherry pie had just touched him .
    “I met you for only one day, yes,” she began as she wiped her fingers off on one of his