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“Not yet, but it’s only early.” She leans in toward me. “I’m starting to think my ex-husband may have been right when he told me this was a crazy idea.”
“I think your ex-husband is an idiot. It’s only the first day, Nia. Give it time.”
She sighs. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was expecting—a crazy rush of customers. That’s never going to happen on the first day. It’s just…”
Nia breaks off and sighs again.
“You worked hard? I get it. It was the same with the garage. It took us a little while to build up a steady clientele, but they did come eventually. I have no doubt that’s what will happen here.”
“Thanks for the reassurance. I needed to hear that today.”
“Nee, where do you keep the—” A woman who looks nearly identical to Nia steps out of the store and immediately stops talking the moment she locks eyes on me.
It’s disconcerting, so I shift slightly on my feet under the scrutiny.
“Well, hello there.” She gives me a full once over with her eyes and then nudges Nia. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Nia mouths ‘sorry’ then says, “This is Jared. Jared, this is my cousin, Simone.”
That explains the resemblance. It doesn’t explain why Simone is looking at me like all her prayers have been answered.
“It’s nice to meet you, Simone,” I say, not sure if I mean it or not. “We’d better head off. The park’s waiting.”
“Right,” Nia says. “Thanks for stopping over.”
I wave this off and start back across the road with my son. As soon as I hit the curb on the opposite side of the road, I hear footsteps. When I turn, I see Nia jogging over to us. I can’t stop my eyes from straying over her face as she comes closer and I try to ignore the tingle of anticipation that races through me.
When she reaches us, she says, “I’m sorry about Sim. She’s harmless, really.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“No, but I do need to say sorry for the other day.” She eyes Cooper who is watching the whole exchange with interest. “I put you in an awkward position,” she says quietly.
Shit. This is not a conversation I expected to have with her, and certainly not with my son at my side, but with hindsight, I should have. Nia strikes me as a person who doesn’t let things fester.
“It’s me who is sorry. You tried to do a nice thing and I acted crazy.”
“I understand why you did.” I’m not sure she does, but I don’t call her on it. “Let’s just start again, okay?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
I’d like it more than I care to admit.
She obviously does too, because she beams at me. “Right then. I better get back to the shop.”
“Yeah. Later, Nia.”
“Bye, Nee Nee,” Cooper says, scrunching his fingers open and closed in an attempt at waving.
I watch her melt a little at my son and then she says, “Bye, Cooper.” Her gaze comes to me and her eyes are sharper, more heated. “Bye, Jared.”
Then she turns and jogs back across the street, her summer dress swirling around her dark thighs. Holy shit, my cock stirs as I watch her retreating back, and that scares the shit out of me. It’s the first time since Robyn died that I’ve had a physical response to a woman.
Shit.
