you don’t know whether I’m going to hit you or hug you.”
“Well, you weren’t exactly happy with me the last time we talked to each other,” Anna said with a weak smile.
Nicole smiled back, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. Anna began to relax. There was the friend she’d known and loved since she was five years old. Somehow they’d sort everything out, it would all be okay. The waiter arrived with chicken Caesar salads for them both, and after he’d gone, Anna gave her friend a good hard look.
“How are you, really?” Anna asked.
Nicole was a little thinner than before, and her face was taut with tension.
“I’m doing okay. Things are … complicated right now.”
“You’re telling me. Why on earth did you go to work for Nate Hunter? Your father is beside himself.”
“Pissed him off, huh?” Nicole said, with her characteristic cheek, before a look of regret shadowed her expressive eyes.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“How is he? Someone told me they’d seen him the other day but that he wasn’t looking so good. It made me worry about him and it’s not like I can just pick up the phone and call him to ask how he is.”
“He’s doing okay. This whole upset has slowed him down a bit, but—and I’m sure you probably don’t want to hear this—Judd is picking up the reins pretty capably.”
“Figures. The golden child. Even though I was always there, and he wasn’t, I could never measure up to him, you know.” Nicole’s mouth twisted into a bitter line.
“Your father loves you, Nicole.”
“I know, but it’s not the same. I could never fill the hole that Judd left, and now he’s back.”
Anna’s heart twisted. She was sure that that wasn’t the case. Charles loved both of his children—he’d just gotten in such a habit of being strict with Nicole that he didn’t know how to show it. Still, she knew how much it had to hurt to see Charles lavish the affection on Judd that Nicole had always craved for herself.
“So you won’t be coming back to us anytime soon?”
Nicole gave her a haunted look and shook her head. “I … I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can. Your home is with us, your career was with us. Come back, please?”
“No, it’s not that simple. Not anymore.”
“Why? What is it?”
Nicole shook her head again. “I can’t talk about it just now. Maybe later, who knows? I just wanted to see you again and to say sorry for the horrible things I said before. I was upset and I needed someone to blame. Unfortunately, you were it.”
“So are we all good now?”
“Yeah, we are. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
They finished the rest of their lunch while discussing anything and everything other than work, or men. For some reason Nicole was cagey about the questions Anna started to ask her about Nate Hunter, and Anna certainly wasn’t prepared to talk about her feelings for Nicole’s brother to her face. It was easier to skirt over those issues and just skim the basics. By the time she had to head back to work, Anna felt so much better for having been able to spend some time with Nicole.
“I’m glad you emailed me,” Anna said, standing and giving her friend a hug as their lunch together drew to an end.
“I’m glad you’re still talking to me. I don’t deserve you, you know.”
“Of course you do, and more,” Anna replied. “I’ll settle the bill, okay? Next time will be your turn.”
“Are you sure?”
“That there’ll be a next time? Of course there will.”
“Not that, silly.” Nicole laughed.
Anna felt a sense of relief that she’d finally brought a smile to her friend’s face, a smile that, however briefly, dispelled the tension that had been there. She watched Nicole head out the restaurant before she went to the cashier to settle their account. To her surprise, it had already been paid.
“There must be some mistake,” she said.
“No, there’s no mistake,” said an all too familiar voice from behind her. “I figured it was worth the price of lunch to find out what you were up to.”
Judd caught her elbow in a firm hold and guided her out the door toward the car park.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, hating the panic in her voice.
“More to the point, what are you doing here?”
“Nicole asked to see me for lunch, that’s all.”
“All? Seems kind of interesting that the week we lose a considerable amount of business to Jackson Importers you should meet her for lunch. Are you sure you weren’t discussing anything else, like the Californian wineries on our list, for example?”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of doing anything of the sort.” Indignation fueled her to add, “I don’t know where you managed to form this incredibly low opinion of me, and I really don’t care, but don’t keep bringing your insinuations to my face. They are, without exception, wrong.”
“So why were you together?”
“We’re friends. We’ve been friends for most of our lives. Did we need a reason?”
“I understood that your friendship was pretty much severed over me.”
“Don’t rate your effect on people so highly. As I said, we’ve known each other a very long time. It would take far more than someone like you to destroy that. Look, if you feel that strongly that you can’t believe me, why don’t you just fire me? In fact, forget that. I quit. I can’t work for someone who doesn’t even begin to know the meaning of the word trust.”
Anna pulled her arm free of his hand and headed for her car. She was shaking with anger to think that he could even begin to imagine that she’d do anything to deliberately sabotage Wilson Wines. It would be like slitting her throat, both professionally and personally.
She heard his footfall behind her and she dug in her handbag for her car keys, desperate to get away from him. She wouldn’t let him know how much his words today had hurt, just like she hadn’t shown him how his belief that she and Charles had been lovers had also cut her.
“Anna, wait!” he called.
But she didn’t want to wait. She wanted distance and she wanted it now, before he saw the sheen of tears that now glazed her eyes. Damn it, where were those keys? Long, warm fingers closed over her hand as she finally extracted
