Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3)(22)

Oh no.

Oh shit.

Were we both staying here tonight?

“Hi, Victor,” Nicole said, her voice soft, her cheeks pink as she dropped her gaze from mine.

I frowned. A shy Nicole was a first for me. Maybe it was because we were in front of her dad and stepmom. Maybe it was because she was remembering what happened between us the other night. I needed to keep reminding her not to do that. I needed to keep distancing myself in that way. She was too tempting. I had to keep thinking: forbidden fruit equals death. It would have helped if I would have actually paid attention during Bible study when I was a kid.

“Nicole,” I said in greeting.

“Join us. We were just talking about you,” Will said.

“I’ll take your bag upstairs. I was going to put towels in there anyway,” Meire said, taking the bag in Nicole’s hand and excusing herself again.

“What were you talking about?” Nicole asked, taking a seat next to me.

Why next to me? It could’ve been because that was her regular seat, and as creatures of habit we were forced to always pick the same seat at the dinner table. It could’ve been because there was a setting on the table. It could’ve been because it was closest to the pancakes. It could’ve been many things, but the only one I wanted it to be was that she wanted to be near me. Beside me. And the thought that it mattered to me, because I wanted her to be as affected by me as I was by her, was f*cked up. I’d ended things the first time and this time I couldn’t afford to entertain the things circulating my thoughts half the time when she was around. I just couldn’t. She was off limits. But then she was next to me, and her scent made me want to lean in closer, and I just didn’t care. She infiltrated my thoughts in that moment, and I just didn’t care. In that moment, if her father wasn’t sitting across from us, I would have said something I wasn’t supposed to.

“I was about to tell Victor about the contract you want me to draft.”

I blinked, the pull of her presence replaced by curiosity. “What kind of contract?”

“It’s simple,” she said, keeping her voice quiet, in an almost whisper. “I agree to go with Gabe to some events, have some pictures taken, say good things about him and our marriage possibly working out to the media and he gives me the condo in New York. In addition, he will retract the lies he told the production companies I wanted to work with, stating he had been in a bad place.”

I pivoted in my seat to look at her. She wasn’t looking at me. Her face was cast down, her attention on her hands, but I knew she could feel my gaze. I knew because her cheeks were filling with a deep shade of pink, and I could tell I was making her uncomfortable. Making her feel that way wasn’t my intention, but I was indescribably uncomfortable with that request. So uncomfortable that I wanted to yank her out of her chair and take her away from the attentive eyes of her father. I swallowed back my annoyance and the arguments that lay on the tip of my tongue.

“And you’re okay with that?” I asked.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her head turned and her eyes met mine. She nodded. “I am.”

Our gazes stayed locked for a beat, or two, enough time for me to lose my train of thought as I looked into her deep-blue eyes. Enough time for me to recount the way her lips felt on mine, and the way she’d offered herself up to me. Will huffed from the other side of the table and both our heads whipped toward him. Spell broken.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Will said, looking at Nicole. “I think if you give in to these demands, you’re going to find that spending time with him may make you re-think the divorce.”

That thought alone made my heart squeeze in my chest. What the hell did I care? Why the hell did I care? I didn’t have an answer to that, but it was clear I didn’t want her going back and forth with a guy that treated her poorly.

“There’s nothing to think about, Dad. I wouldn’t have signed the papers if I even had an ounce of hope that this marriage would work,” she said.

I stayed quiet until Will addressed me and told me to draft up the agreement for her, then I excused myself from the table, took my plate to the kitchen, and went upstairs to the room Meire had put me in. It was a damn big room, with a king-sized bed and a balcony that overlooked the pool and the ocean. I stood there, thinking about the wording I would use. I’d drafted agreements for celebrities left and right without second thought. This one was going to make me lose my mind. I was startled when I heard a sniffle beside me. My head turned in the direction of the sound, but I didn’t see anybody. When I heard it again, I frowned, leaning forward in the balcony I was standing in and looking over to the one beside me. Nicole was sitting in one of the chairs with her legs propped up, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head tucked down. Was she crying?

I pushed off from where I was standing. I didn’t want to intrude on her private moment. I didn’t know how to handle her private moment. I could jump over and hug her, but that would be weird. I could knock on her door and ask her if she was okay . . . but that would be weird. I could just pretend I hadn’t heard her, but something about that option made me feel like shit. I cracked my neck, shook my arms and measured how close the balconies were. They were made so close to each other that my body wouldn’t fit in between them so I didn’t have to worry about a fall. I just had to worry about where Will and Meire were and whether or not they would see me jumping over. Fuck. What a thought. It was almost enough to stop me from doing it. Almost.