Crossing the Line Part One (A Novella) (2 page)

"Pour me a glass." Addie's long black hair
fell down her back in a straight waterfall, her make-up light.
"Teaching third graders can be stressful. I'll be gray by the time
I'm your age."

Victoria lifted a brow, poured the wine into
two wine glasses. "Mom always taught us that more wine equaled less
gray."

Addie lifted the wine in a toast. "That she
did."

The wine warmed her throat and stomach after
she sipped. "Thanks for picking up the girls."

"You know you don't have to thank me for
that. I love spending time with them."

Victoria moved to the fridge, trying to
decide what to make for dinner. "I met with Dad and the contractor
today."

"How did it go? Did they say how long it
would take for your posh new office to be done?" Addie smiled and
slid onto a stool. "What are you cooking?"

She pulled a mix of chicken stir-fry she'd
frozen a few weeks ago, held up the bag for Addie. "The contractor
is going to draw the designs and blueprints first. Then he'll meet
with me and let me know how long it'll take. Did Dad tell you who
it was?" She looked at Addie, saw the question on her face, knew
Addie didn't know. Addie had the worst poker face. "He's a freakin'
hottie." She turned the fan on above the stove, then fanned
herself.

"Tell me more." Addie laughed. "You haven't
blushed like this since you met dick face."

"Addie." Victoria nodded toward the living
room, where the girls argued about who would bowl first on the
Wii.

Addie shrugged. "Sorry, but they aren't
paying attention to us. Why did you ask if Dad told me?"

"It was embarrassing. He got a phone call
from Mom when Nick walked in--"

"Nick is a sexy name."

Victoria tried not to laugh at that. "Shut
up. Anyway, we could both tell our parents were setting us up."

"He didn't spook about that?"

Victoria moved the stir-fry around in the
wok. "No, he suggested we go out to eat."

"Tell me you agreed. You need some hot sex
to loosen you up."

"Stop." Victoria shook her head. "I don't
have time for that right now. I need to focus on my girls and my
business. Not sexy men in butt hugging jeans and t-shirts. Do you
remember him from school? He may have already graduated already
when you started high school. He has a younger brother named
Luke."

"I think I vaguely remember Luke. They were
total cuties, but bad news from what I remember." Addie said.

"He's graduated from cutie to complete
hottie."

"I really need to accompany you to your
meeting." Addie drained the rest of her wine. "Make sure you two
accidentally fall into each other's arms or something."

"You're crazy."

"I volunteer for baby-sitting. Anytime."

Victoria laughed this time. "Quit. I'm not
interested in him. I've had enough of men for a while."

"I know a few cute girls who'd be interested
in you."

"You really are crazy."

During dinner Addie had the girls laughing
about her third graders. Helena pushed the food around on her plate
and didn't look at her mom the whole time. Victoria tried to get
her attention, but was mainly baffled as to why Helena treated her
that way.

After dinner, the girls went upstairs to
shower and get ready for bed. Addie went home, promising to watch
the girls again. Victoria shooed her out and settled down in her
bedroom at her small desk.

Looking at her calendar, she had several
appointments this week with real estate agents who wanted her to
stage their beach houses, apartments, and homes. She'd always had
an eye for dressing up rooms. It was a talent that she was lucky
she'd been able to turn into a business. Hopefully it would be a
lucrative one. Five years ago she started it, building it slowly,
networking, cultivating connections carefully. She did some
interior decorating for clients, looking for stuff they wanted at
flea markets and antique shops in nearby cities. It was a hobby she
adored and fit in whenever she could.

She never did anything rash, other than
marrying Roger, and look how that turned out.

"Mom?"

Victoria turned to see Helena standing in
the doorway. Ever day she worried about boys because of her
daughter's willowy bodies. She dreaded they day they would learn to
drive and their first dates. How was she going to deal with it?

"What is it, sweetie?" She coaxed Helena
into explaining what bothered her.

Helena sat on the edge of her mom's bed and
picked at the white duvet. "Lucia is going to try out for the
cheerleading team."

Victoria heard the hurt in her daughter's
voice, knew Helena wasn't trying to blame her sister, but something
about it obviously bothered her. Victoria moved to sit next to
Helena. "And you don't want to?"

Helena shrugged, a small pout on her lips.
"No, but this will be the first time we don't do something as
sisters."

Victoria's heart ached at the worry in
Helena's voice. "It doesn't mean that you two are going to grow
apart. You're best friends, and always will be. Like me, Addie, and
Halle. We are very different, but very close."

"Lucia said that trying out for the math
club at school made me a nerd. But I don't like dancing around, and
I love to solve problems. It makes me happy."

There it was. The real reason Helena's
feelings were hurt. She was the quiet one, the analytical one, who
wanted to be good and please everyone. Especially her twin, Lucia,
who on the other hand, was rash, impetuous and loud. Everyone
wanted to please her. It didn't surprise Victoria that the girls
were branching out, doing stuff on their own.

"Sweetie, your sister is probably sad that
you're wanting to do something else. You know how she can be. She
knows that you love brainy stuff."

Helena shrugged again, still picking at the
duvet. "I'm not a nerd, am I Mom?"

Victoria wished she could explain that being
a nerd didn't matter after school, that nerds actually became very
successful in life. Halle hadn't listened to it when their dad told
her; she knew her daughters wouldn't believe her either. "You're
not a nerd. Lucia knows that."

"I didn't mean it that way." Lucia bounded
into the room, her radar going off that her sister was in with her
mom. She stood at the foot of the bed, glaring at her sister, arms
crossed over her chest.

Victoria bemoaned the fact that her baby
girls needed bras. Real bras, not the training kind. Next year
they'd enter the seventh grade and she thought they were growing up
too fast. "Lucia, if Helena wants to be in the math club, it
doesn't make her a nerd. And you shouldn't tell your sister things
like that."

Lucia glared a moment longer, then sighed.
"I know. I just wanted her to be on the cheerleading team with
me."

"I don't want to. I don't like the other
girls, they're mean. And they kiss stupid boys and worry about
their looks."

Victoria's stomach clenched. She remembered
what it was like to be a cheerleader. She just didn't think that
sixth graders worried about that kind of thing.

Lucia sighed again. "We've never done
anything by ourselves before. I don't know how to do it without
you."

Jesus, a breakthrough. "You two can't do
everything together for the rest of your lives. What if you decide
to go to separate colleges? Move to different cities? Which you
better not do."

Helena smiled at her mother, then at her
sister who shared the joke. "Stop suffocating us."

Victoria laughed at them. "Look, why don't
you both try these things by yourselves. You may find that you
won't fight as much, and you might actually miss each other."

Both girls rolled their eyes, argument
forgotten. They left talking about cheerleading, math, about how
their mom was clueless.

These times were especially poignant to
Victoria. Not that she missed Roger, she just didn't know what to
do with herself now that she had no one to argue with. After the
girls settled down, she and Roger would argue about who would
clean, what they would watch on TV, or if they would have sex or
not.

Now that she had the evenings to herself,
even after a year, it was almost decadent to choose what she
wanted. Although most of the time she chose work. She changed into
boxers and an old t-shirt, switched her contacts for her glasses,
and settled into the bed with her laptop. It was time to catch up
on emails, update her website and social networking sites. She
loved the marketing side almost as much as decorating. Interacting
with peers, clients, and potential business partners excited
her.

By the time she finished, it was after
eleven. She put everything up, plugged her cell into the charger,
and got underneath the covers. When she shut her eyes, Nick's face
appeared in her mind. His gorgeous face, tanned with a hint of
scruff made her skin flush. She remembered how, from just a look,
she'd wanted to run her hands along his rigid muscles. The next few
months were going to be hard if she couldn't get a handle on her
hormones.

Nick's mouth
twisted while he looked over the blueprints. He stood with his
hands on either side of the paper, pencil tucked behind his ear and
black framed glasses on his face, which he only wore while
measuring and working on the blueprints. The smell of sawdust hung
in the air and it calmed him. Cold air from the window unit blew
over his knees, which were exposed from the holes in his favorite
work jeans. He didn't see any point in buying new pairs until the
ones he had were completely unwearable.

His mother hated that he never threw them
away. She bought him new pairs of jeans anyway, still able to
accurately guess his jean size. He had at least fifteen new pairs
in his closet at home that he'd yet to wear.

His brother, Luke, banged open the door to
his shop, carrying a box. "This is yours. Saw it out by the
mailbox."

Nick gestured in the direction of the other
boxes. "Ordered some materials."

Luke set it down with the others. "I'm
headed to the gym. Have some interviews with a new trainer." Luke
was an ex-MMA fighter, like Nick, although he had kept to that line
of work. While Nick had gone into contracting, Luke had opened his
own gym. "Nice glasses, nerd."

Nick flipped his brother off. "What are you
doing here?"

"Checking on my big brother. Heard you got a
job redoing something for one of Wes's daughters."

Knowing that his brother had always had a
crush on Halle in high school, he put Luke out of his misery. "It's
for Victoria."

Luke frowned. "Damn. Thought I could've
given you a hand. Would've been nice to set eyes on Halle."

"She's married." Nick decided the plans
looked great and rolled them up. "Besides, she's out of your
league." He had to tease his brother back, it's what they did.

"She's married to an ass." Luke's jaw
clenched. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair.

Nick frowned. "Did you hear something
new?"

"Heard from one of the guys that her husband
is banging one of the damn chicks at the office."

Nick tampered down the anger that rose at
the thought of any man cheating on a woman. He'd never understand
the need to lie to a woman, tell her that she was his one and only,
then ruin that trust by throwing every other woman they could get
their hands on in bed. He feared it was in his blood, since his
father had done the same thing to his mother, so he shied away from
commitment. He wouldn't cause a woman that same pain. "Maybe it's
time to let go of the crush, bro. There have to be other women that
interest you."

Luke shrugged. "Maybe. But I haven't been
able to get her out of my mind since high school. She never even
noticed me, her head always buried in a book, but there was just
something about her. Call it fate. I'm going to the gym. Call me if
you need me."

Nick waved his brother out, grabbed his
blueprints and materials, and walked out to his truck. The door
squeaked open, the truck almost the same age as him. But it was
reliable and that was all that mattered to him. The sun blared, the
beginning of the day surrounding him. It didn't matter where you
were in Sanctuary Bay, you could hear the call of the seagulls from
the beach. He'd spent some time chasing the MMA circuit all over
the country, but home had always stuck with him.

Anticipation coiled in his belly at the
thought of seeing Victoria again. Her silky hair, slumbered eyes,
and full lips crowded his mind. When they'd met a few days ago,
she'd looked like a librarian, but he'd sensed the interest in her
eyes. She held herself back, which only made him want to spark a
fire between them.

He wondered what she'd be like when she
loosened up and enjoyed herself. Laughed, maybe danced, then
later…his bed.

No, that thought pattern had to stop. He
couldn't get involved with a client and she looked like a woman who
wanted more than a one-night stand. From what he'd picked up from
conversations around town, she had twin daughters. Definitely not
someone who would want to fool around and then go their separate
ways.

He parked next to her shiny SUV. Through the
window of the office, he saw her. She stood in profile to him, all
her curves and legs easily seen, and he took a deep breath. His
fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Damn it, he wanted to dig
his hands through her silky hair and taste her lips.

"Okay, Nick." He said to himself. "You've
worked with sexy women before. You can do this."

Another look, and she stared at him through
the window.

"Oh man." He began to understand what Luke
meant about the sisters having a certain pull. There was no way he
was going to fall though. He was made of stronger stuff than his
brother.

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