“Yes. You do. You need things there. Your things.”
His lips curve and he says, “You’re my thing. But I’ll take some stuff anyway.”
“I’ll help you,” I say, and for the next few minutes, I busy myself gathering items for his suitcase, and packing up the few items I want to carry back and forth with me. Once we’re done, we load up the car.
And then for the first time all week, Nick and I leave in one car, him behind the wheel of the BMW. By the time we get to the courtroom, my palms are sweaty. “Relax, Faith,” Nick says, after opening my car door and helping me to my feet. “I’m an arrogant bastard for a reason. I’m good. Really damn good and we’re going to win today.”
“But we’ve talked about this. But what if someone is angry you got me out of this nightmare and they lash out at you? What if I’m the reason—”
“Stop,” he says, his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t start fretting over me. I pack a big punch. Anyone who comes at me is going to feel a hell of a lot of pain and they know it. I got this, sweetheart, and I got you. Okay?”
“Yes. Yes, okay.” I flatten my hand on his lapel. “Youarea bad ass.”
He rewards me with a curve of his delicious mouth. “You inspire me.”
I manage a laugh. “I’m not sure that is the way a woman wants to inspire a man.”
“If a woman doesn’t inspire her man, he’s not her man. Now. Come see me in action.”
Literally thirty minutes later, Nick and I step out of the courtroom, and the bank has approved the buyout, I’ve inherited the winery, and Nick has shut down every attempt my bank made to stop it from happening. “I don’t believe it,” I say, as soon as we’re in the car. “It’s done.”
“You doubted me?”
“No. I did not doubt you.”
“Sounds like you doubted me.” He leans over and kisses me. “And that, I do believe, earns that sweet little ass of yours a spanking.”
“Hmmm. Promise?”
“Oh yeah, sweetheart. I promise.” He settles back in his seat. “Let’s go to Sonoma.”
A few minutes later, we’re on the road, and life is good. Almost too good to be true.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Faith
“We’re here, sweetheart.”
I blink and open my eyes. “Nick?”
“Yes, sweetheart.Nick. You fell asleep. We’re home.”
I blink again. “Home?”
“Sonoma.”
“We are?”
He strokes my hair. “Yes.” He smiles. “Weare.”
I sit up and look around to find we’re parked in the driveway of my house. And instead of the warmth and happiness “home” should create, there is an instant ball of nerves in my belly made better by only one thing: Nick. “We,” I say, glancing over at him, “because we’re really doing this thing, right?”
“We’ve been really doing this since the moment we met.”
He leans over and cups my head in that way he does and kisses my forehead. “Come on. Let’s go inside and get settled. And I vote for taking you out to lunch and a trip to the grocery store or I’ll starve this weekend.” He grabs his jacket from the back seat, where he’d apparently put it during the drive, and then exits the car. I grab my purse from the floorboard, where I’d left it when we’d gone into the courthouse. Slipping it over my shoulder, I exit the car and join Nick at the trunk and the minute I’m beside him, the intimacy between us seems to take on a living, breathing, life of its own. It thickens the air, wraps around us like a warm, soft blanket that I want to snuggle inside of and never leave.
He opens the trunk and pulls the two suitcases out before shutting it again. And then, together we roll the suitcases toward the house. “I’ll get them the rest of the way,” Nick says when we reach the stairs leading to the porch.