“I’m serious, Nolan.” Carmela took a step forward.
“If she wants to see me so badly why isn’t she here?”
“I didn’t say she wanted to see you.”
Wait. What?
He shook his head. “Then why would I go see her?”
Once again her eyes met his, her stare like a slap. “I told Lizzie you were nothing special. That you were like all the rest, just out for a good time. She thought you were different. She thought you actually cared.”
“We had a two-week thing.”
“You messed her up, Forte,” Carmela said, turning her back on him now. “If you have any decency in you at all, you need to go see her.”
The woman’s parting had him right back in hell, longing for what he couldn’t have.
Chapter Three
When Carmela asked if she could take Stella with her to run errands Saturday morning, Lizzie didn’t think twice. Her friend had taken ownership of the baby like a second parent, was as fiercely protective as any parent would be and was happier just having Stella around. She also knew that sometimes Lizzie needed a little alone time at home.
Time to clean her bathroom, in preparation for maybe taking a bubble bath afterward. Time to pay bills, or answer emails, without having an ear to the monitor and a fifty-fifty chance of being interrupted.
Time to answer the door when the bell rang just fifteen minutes after Carmela had left. She only had an hour or so, was in sweats and the T-shirt she’d pulled on to clean, and wasn’t happy about the interruption.
Scouring pad in hand, blowing upward to move the stray hairs that had fallen from the clip holding up the knot on the top of her head, she looked through the peephole. And froze.
Tremors struck the hand that had automatically reached for the knob. Nolan was staring right at her and she had to remind herself that he couldn’t see her.
But, oh, God, she could see him. That thick dark brown hair that had a tendency to curl just a bit, the jaw that really did jut with strength, the little bit of stubble. If she closed her eyes, which she was doing, she could still feel the rasp of his face against her skin.
Her lids shot open. He was still there. In black jeans and a red plaid button-down shirt visible through the open front of his leather jacket.
Her knees felt like she should sit down. The rest of her hummed with a peculiar energy she’d only ever felt once before in her life. For two weeks the year before.
The warm look in his dark brown gaze made her feel like he was focused right on her. Made her wish he was.
No.
She turned away. There was no law that said she had to open her door just because someone rang the bell. No way for him to know she was in there.
Carmela had taken her car. It had been easier than moving the car seat.
Car seat!
Nolan knew where she lived.
He was in town for two weeks.
Chances were if he wanted to see her—and he must since he was outside her door—then he’d come back if she didn’t answer.
And when he did come back, chances were also good that if he found Lizzie home, Stella would be there, too.
She had to get rid of him now.
Nolan stood outside Lizzie’s door, wanting this over and done with. Standing outside the door of his greatest temptation was not how he’d envisioned spending his Saturday morning. Carmela had said that she’d make sure Lizzie was home. And that she would not be. She was giving them time alone.
Why, he had no idea.