Mr Right Next Door. Teresa Hill

pirate ring might have been in Vienna recently. They weren’t sure. They were still checking.

       Vienna?

      Nick had lost at least a dozen lines of dialogue just thinking of it. Vienna?

      “Can’t wait to meet him—”

      “Coming here—?”

      Wait a minute. What was that?

      Had she said he was coming here?

      Her pirate/terrorist/lover boy?

      Did he make her squeal?

      “Ahhhh!” Nick closed his eyes and groaned, disgusted to even think his thoughts had gone in that direction—her and the pirate wannabe in bed, her making those sounds, him with too bad a back or shoulder or knee to even think of doing things like that with her or anyone else.

      When he opened his eyes again, he saw Darlene and one of the waitresses huddled in the corner looking at him strangely. Like they might be a little bit afraid of him.

      Couldn’t have that.

      Nick smiled his best I’m-just-an-ordinary-boring-old-guy smile, his harmless-as-can-be look.

      Darlene and the waitress didn’t appear to be buying it.

      Which meant Nick had to be more careful.

      Which meant keeping his mind on his own business was a good idea.

      Which shouldn’t be that hard.

      She was just a woman, after all.

      Nick hadn’t met a woman yet that he couldn’t handle.

      Kim sat there with her sisters, Kate and Kathie, as well as Jax’s wife, Gwen, who was very much a sister now, feeling happy as could be, as if absolutely all was right with the world. She was home. She was surrounded by her family and she was in love.

      “So…tell us everything!” Kate commanded.

      “Well, it was like all of a sudden he was all I could see, you know?”

      The three of them nodded in unison, happy, girl-talk looks on their faces.

      She was the only one of the three who was still single, the only one who’d never been in love. She’d been afraid it might never happen to her and now that it had, it was like it filled her entire body, like she was overflowing with this silly, giddy, bubbly, happy feeling. Like she couldn’t even contain it.

      She was babbling, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t even want to help it. She wanted the whole world to know! Especially her sisters.

      “Everything on the ship just got a little crazy and then there he was, right in front of me. He didn’t look scared at all. He didn’t even look surprised. He just looked like whatever happened, he could handle it, you know?”

      They all sighed appreciatively.

      “Self-confidence is just soooo sexy in a man,” Gwen said.

      Kathie nodded. “There’s just something about a man who can handle anything. One you know you can count on.”

      “Yes,” Kim said.

      More sighs all around.

      They were a bunch of happy women. Syrupy, gooey, mushy happy. It was that bad. And that good.

      “So what did he do? The pirates attacked and then what?” Kate asked.

      “He pushed me down on the deck, out of the way, because they had guns and were firing at the ship! Can you believe it?”

      “No,” they all said.

      “No one could believe it,” Kim said. “I thought it was fireworks at first or maybe a kid’s game. The crew had some great games for the kids. I kept expecting an army of five-year-olds with toy guns to come running at any minute, explaining the noise and the commotion. And then we heard the bullets bouncing off the metal of the ship and people started screaming. It was crazy.”

      “Were you really scared?” Gwen asked.

      “I don’t know. I guess so… I mean, I don’t know if I even had time to be scared. I’d just started to believe that maybe I should be scared and then…there he was.” She grinned widely. It was like her face should hurt already, from grinning so much. She was just so ridiculously happy. “He pushed me down onto the deck and told me to stay down, then he put his own body between me and the pirates, like no matter what, he wasn’t going to let them hurt me. We were on the lowest deck, not far at all from the surface of the water, right out in the open. It was the main sun deck, so it was full of space for lounge chairs and things. There was just nowhere to go for cover and he wouldn’t let me move anyway.”

      Heavy, heavy sighs.

      “Wow,” Kathie said. “I’m so glad he was there to take care of you.”

      “Me, too,” Kim said.

      What would she have done without him? Maybe gotten herself shot, that’s what.

      “He stayed with me the whole time, until the entire thing was over and told me to stay calm, that everything would be all right, that he’d take care of me. He was wonderful!”

      Nick heard that and thought he was going to puke.

       Wonderful!

      Near as they could tell, her Mr. Wonderful was on board to help the pirates board the ship, if the attack had gone just a little better. If Nick and his crew hadn’t been waiting for them. Then Mr. Wonderful would have used pretty Kim Cassidy as cover while he helped his friends board the ship.

      Nick could just see her with a gun at her head, Mr. Wonderful’s arms wrapped around her, not to shield her but to keep her from getting away while the coward used her body to protect him and the thugs he worked with.

      She’d really have thought he was something then.

      Let her try to tell herself she was in love with the jerk then!

      Of course, she didn’t know that, poor, silly, naive woman that she was.

      Why were the gorgeous ones always so…senseless when it came to men?

      He’d wanted to say stupid. He’d normally say stupid. How could women be so stupid?

      But he thought she was a nice woman, and not just because she had a great body, so he couldn’t bring himself to call her stupid. He was already worrying about how she was going to take it when her lover boy turned out to be a crook.

      He hoped he wouldn’t have to be the one to tell her, but since it was his case, he’d probably have to do the deed.

      She’d probably slap him. She’d cry. She might squeal, a really unhappy, awful squeal that wouldn’t make him think of anything like taking her to bed with him. Not that she’d be getting anywhere near him once she knew what he was doing here.

      Still, he didn’t want her to cry.

      He just wanted her to be smart and not get involved with jerks or pirates or international terrorists.

      Was that too much to ask?

      Nick watched, waited and listened as best he could as Kim chattered on.

      He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she’d said her new boyfriend was coming here…soon? Somebody had squealed again at that point in the conversation, so he just wasn’t sure.

      Maybe she’d call someone tonight and they’d have the phone tap in place and no one would squeal. Did women squeal on the phone, too? He hoped not. It was starting to make his head hurt.

      Nick had finished his meal and the lunch rush was in full force. He ordered dessert to have an excuse to stay. It seemed half the town was there and that all of them knew Kim Cassidy and wanted to know about her adventure with the pirates. They