Tangling With Ty by Jill Shalvis Page A

you—”
    â€œOh, no. This is about you.” He lifted a brow. “Your mom is something.”
    Nicole stared at him. “You met her, too?”
    â€œDarlin’, the way she stormed the building, everyone met her. What a dynamo.” He smiled. “You’re like her.”
    â€œI am not.”
    His smile went to a full-fledged grin. “Are too.”
    She set down her fork. “She has a bazillion kids, a husband, two bazillion grandchildren and runs her world like Attila the Hun.”
    â€œYeah, you share that last part. So what was it like, growing up with such a large family?”
    He wasn’t just idly asking, he’d leaned forward, his entire attention on her face. He really wanted to know. “Well…” She thought about it. “I never had my own bed. And I had to wait hours for the bathroom. Oh, and I wore a lot of hand-me-downs.” She hesitated, then admitted, “But there was always someone around when I needed them.” Always. And, she also had to admit, she hadn’t thanked any of them enough for it. “What about you?”
    He suddenly didn’t look so open. “I already told you, I don’t have a family.”
    â€œWhat happened?” she asked quietly.
    â€œWell, I never knew my father, and let’s just say my mother is better off forgotten.” Expression closed, he reached for his iced tea. “Need a refill?”
    â€œNo, thank you.” Behind his nonchalance, she saw his regret, and a sadness she couldn’t reach. But more than that, pain. “Ty—”
    â€œDon’t,” he said softly. “Please, don’t.”
    Before she could respond, he tossed some money on the table and stood. “Let’s get you to work.”
    â€œAnd after that?”
    His light-blue eyes gave nothing of himself away now. “What do you want to happen after that?”
    â€œIf I said nothing?”
    â€œI’m not sure I’d believe it.”
    â€œTy—”
    â€œLook, Nicole…do we have to figure it out right now?” He touched her cheek, let out a smile that was short of his usual levity. “Do we really have to decide right this very minute?”
    With a shake of her head, she took his offered hand, and shocking herself, tipped her face up when he leaned in for a sweet kiss. Or what should have been a sweet kiss, but was instead only an appetizer.
    He pulled back, and she opened her eyes. There was a question in his, but she shook her head. “Work,” she said.
    â€œWork, then.” And he took her outside.
    Work would be good. At work she could bury her thoughts and concentrate on what mattered. Her job.
    Not the man who had unexpected depths and a touch she couldn’t seem to forget.
    Â 
    A ND SHE DID MANAGE to bury herself in work. The emergency department was overloaded due to astrange and violent outbreak of a flu, which had severely dehydrated an older woman to the point that her kidneys failed. After that, they’d taken out an appendix from a hockey player, and then sewn a finger back on a carpenter who’d managed to cut it off with his table saw.
    By the end of the shift she’d nearly managed to for get all about Ty. As she stood in front of a vending machine in the reception area of the hospital on her way out the door, her cell phone rang.
    â€œHoney, I dropped off some food for you. Your nice landlady let me in, so I stuck it in your fridge.”
    â€œMom.” Nicole had to laugh. “I have food.”
    â€œNo, you had a rotting head of lettuce and two sodas. Now you have food. Taylor is very beautiful, isn’t she? Is she married? I didn’t see a ring, but—”
    â€œMom—”
    â€œJust say thank you, Nicole.”
    â€œThank you, Nicole.”
    â€œFunny. Don’t forget to come to dinner this Sunday.”
    â€œI’ll try.”
    â€œTry harder than last Sunday. I’ll even