Fucking hell, Nina Elizabeth Jacobs was good. Were all younger siblings like this? Did they all come out of the womb with guilt-tripping, will-bending genes that didn’t stop working even if you lived on the other side of the world? Nick looked over at Carly, who was watching him expectantly, the late afternoon sun washing her face in warm, low light and turning loose strands of her hair into fiery gold.
“Fine, fine. I guess cocktail testing can wait.” Even though he’d love to be a little bit buzzed for what was about to happen.
“Great!” Nina chirped, not even bothering to conceal her self-satisfied smile. “I’ll text them now and pick up an extra bottle of wine on the way there, just in case. I’ll see you soon. You still remember how to get home, right?”
“Yes,” he said irritably. Though perhaps he’d conveniently forget and just keep driving down the mountain.
“Well, call me if you forget. Again.” Nina fished around in her purse and pulled out her car keys. “Carly, any dietary restrictions?”
“No, I eat anything,” Carly said distractedly, looking curiously between them. Nick groaned inwardly as he thought about how much he’d have to explain to her and how unpleasant dinner was going to be.
“Great!” Nina said again, and Nick wanted to scream at how happy she looked at the idea of the whole family being together again, when the same thought made his stomach clench and anxiety grip at his throat.
“See you soon,” he said weakly as she turned and walked up the hill towards her car.
She waved over her shoulder, keys jingling in her hand. “See you at home.”
Chapter 17
Carly waited to speak until they were both buckled into the baking-hot car, but her patience didn’t extend much further than that.
“Do you want to tell me what that was about?”
“No.” Nick turned the ignition with more force than was necessary and turned the AC up so that the vents blasted warm air into their faces. Carly lowered her window, keeping her eyes on him. His cheeks were flushed, and she was willing to bet it was more than just the heat of the stuffy car.
“Yeah, I wasn’t really asking. What’s going on? And if you tell me one more time that it’s ‘complicated,’ I swear to God.”
He leaned back in the driver’s seat, eyes closed and jaw clenched. He looked so tense, and so miserable, and she had an urge to reach over and stroke the stubbled skin along his jawline until it released. Kiss his pinked cheeks until their normal color returned.
She reached over and turned the fans down so he couldn’t pretend not to hear her. “You can tell me. Think of all the things you know about me. It can’t possibly be worse than that.” She let out a quiet chuckle, thinking of all the things he knew about her now, and could have sworn she saw the side of his mouth twitch.
“Let’s try this,” she started again. “How long’s the drive to your parents’ place?”
“About twenty minutes,” he said, almost under his breath.
“Okay, so talk until we get there, and then I won’t ask any more questions. Come on, you have to tell me what I’m walking into.”
He turned his head, looking across the front seat at her. “Do we have to go? Can’t you suddenly get sick or something? Or realize you forgot something really important in Sydney?”
She shook her head. “And piss Nina off, again? No, thank you.”
At the mention of his sister, he pressed the back of his head into the headrest and sighed at the ceiling. “For Nina.”
“For Nina,” Carly agreed. She’d watched as a series of emotions had washed over the other woman’s face, so like Nick’s in its shape and coloring. Surprise, then disappointment, frustration, hurt, and anger, all expressions she recognized after a week in Nick’s company. Except usuallyshewas the one causing them. And she’d watched as Nick told Nina the truth about Delphine, taking a breath to steel himself first, but then delivering the information without any fuss. He might still be hiding the truth from his best friend, but at least he’d told his sister.
Nick lifted his head and turned on his blinker, then pulled out of their parking spot. He was silent for a few minutes, and she thought he might simply ignore their agreement, but then he turned the car onto the highway and sighed.
“You asked me earlier if my parents were happy to let me go away for school,” he started, and she swiveled in her seat so she could look at him as he spoke. “They didn’t mind that part, but when it was time to graduate and audition for jobs overseas, they balked. They were willing to let me go as far as Sydney, but Europe or the States was too much for them. I tried to make them understand that it was the only way to find a full-time gig, but they wouldn’t listen. They wanted me to stay here and try to find dance work closer to home.”
“But you ended up in Europe.”
Nick’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. “I auditioned behind their backs. Lied to the school, told them my parents were fine with me auditioning. And when I got the offer from Munich, I accepted it without telling Mum and Dad. When I told them I’d signed the contract and the company had already sent me a plane ticket, they were furious. My dad was a primary school principal, and so it takes a lot for him to lose his temper, but when he does … it can be downright scary.” Carly watched him talk, surprised with every emerging detail that the uptight, rule-abiding Nick she knew had ever done something so rebellious.
“But there wasn’t much they could do,” he went on, sounding grim but a little proud. “I was eighteen; they couldn’t stop me from going. So, I left. Mum bought me a calling card and we talked on the phone every weekend, even though I barely got more than a few words a week out of Dad that first year. And I always told them I was fine. I had to be fine, even when … even when I wasn’t fine. Because I’d been so insistent about leaving.”
Because he’d broken their hearts when he left, Carly thought. She thought about how proud Nick was, how stubborn. She understood a little, now, why he was like this. Why he didn’t want his best friend to know his girlfriend had dumped him. And why he didn’t want to call his parents and tell them he was home. She had a sudden urge to fake sick so he could keep driving, take them all the way back to Sydney where he wouldn’t have to look all this ugly history in the face. But then she remembered the delight on Nina’s face when he agreed to dinner. Nina seemed just as stubborn as he was, but at least they were on speaking terms. If Nina was there, and she was there, together they could get Nick through one meal.
“So, that was it? You haven’t talked since?”
