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The heat in her cheeks intensified.
“It is good to see you. I mean that,” Nick said softly.
Seeing her, yes. He wouldn’t mind seeing a lot more of her. She was buttoned up to the neck in a prissy little purple blouse that hid far more than it revealed. Far cry from what she’d been wearing the last time she’d practically accosted him.
He’d always remembered her in that little blue tank top and the cut off shorts that had revealed far, far too much of Robin.
This schoolmarm getup was the exact opposite of that.
Did she realize how that tempted a man, too? His fingers itched to hit those tiny buttons and just yank them off forever. See what that silky smooth skin looked like beneath. To touch that skin…
Having her in his office, thirty feet away from his own desk? That was going to prove problematic. Unless… “So what have you been up to over the last twenty years? Married, sixteen kids?”
Please let her say she had a six-foot-seven former linebacker husband just waiting for her to get home. Someone who’d kick Nick’s ass for the thoughts he was having right now.Someone who’d bring her lunch every day just so he could glower at Nick and Chandler and make certain they were behaving around the temptress that was Robin Patton.
That might be enough to have Nick behaving. Maybe.
She gave a soft smile. She looked so…shy. Robin had never been shy with him before. “I was married, but he passed away. I have three kids, though. Nine-year-old twin boys, and a little girl. She’s two and a half—but going on thirty-five. She looks just like my sister.”
He had never imagined her having kids. In his head, she was still the almost girl she’d been back then. The one who had tempted and tormented him and had him breaking out in a sweat.
He’d always wondered what happened to the girl she had been. “What are their names?”
“Philip and Wesley and Rebecca. We call her Becky.”
He saw the pain there, and he reacted to the familiar names—her sister, her brother-in-law, and Wesley had been her grandfather’s name. The grandfather she and her sister had adored. Before he could stop himself, he cupped her cheek in one hand.
Her skin was just as smooth as it had been twenty years ago.
Traces of the girl remained, but…Robin was all grown up now. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Right in front of him. Widowed.
Every male cell of him was standing on alert, shouting Robin! It’s Robin! Grab hold now!
Like they’d been waiting for her all along.
“I’m sorry about your sister, honey.”Losing her sister Becky in a car accident five years ago had been devastating for all of them. Nick had feared his brother would never recover.
“Yeah, me, too.”
He was half afraid she’d start crying. That had sheer panic going through him. “But you are home for good now?”
She nodded, a tentative smile on her lips. “I think so. Thank you for the job. I really needed it.”
“Thank you. We needed someone we can trust in here. I’m trying to get things up and running so I can kick Chandler to the curb.”Then it would just be him and Robin in the office every day. Together.
Working side by side. Almost touching.
Well, his office was down the hall, but it was close enough.
He was never going to survive this.
Startled blue eyes met his now. “Why would you do that?”
“It’s no secret around the family. He wants a restaurant of his own, but was already committed to taking over here before I convinced him to let me buy in. I’m going to take over here and shove him off the ledge. The whole family is scheming to get him moving on his restaurant. He’s a bit risk averse, that nephew of mine.”
“Aren’t we all?” She stepped back firmly.
Nick really didn’t want to let her get too far away.
