Sweet Spot by Susan Mallery Page A

smiled as she spoke, as if she were very sure of the fact. And why wouldn’t she be? “So is it okay? Helping me with dinner? I know you have a date with my dad tonight. I won’t make you late.”
    “Sure. Come on in.”
    After her talk with Jesse, Nicole welcomed the distraction.
    Brittany ran back to her car, then returned with a couple of grocery bags. “I wanted something special, you know. Raoul’s been in foster care for a long time. Ever since his brother went to jail. Not that his home life was all that great before. He’s been moving around a lot. I don’t know if anyone else even remembers it’s his birthday.”
    Brittany pulled items out of the bag as she spoke. Nicole looked over the contents.
    There was beef, noodles, carrots, a small package of beef Stroganoff mix, sour cream and premade cookie dough that just had to be heated in the oven.
    “Looks easy enough,” Nicole said.
    “Good. I brought casserole dishes and one of those insulated carriers to keep everything hot while I drive over to Raoul’s.”
    Nicole organized Brittany’s supplies, then turned on the oven to preheat and got the teenager set up with a cutting board and a knife.
    “I trim the meat, right?” Brittany asked.
    “Yes. Try to keep the pieces about the same size so they’ll cook at the same rate.”
    “Okay.”
    Brittany cut away. “Thanks for helping with this. I didn’t know where else to go. My friends’ moms would probably help, but I felt weird about that.”
    Nicole wasn’t sure why. “Have you two been going out a while?”
    “Five months. Raoul is so great. He’s really responsible and he loves me a lot.”
    An interesting combination. Nicole thought about the stolen doughnuts, then reminded herself that he’d more than made up for his actions. She was happy to have him working in the bakery.
    “Do you know where my dad is taking you?” Brittany asked.
    “No.”
    “I’m sure it will be really nice. He likes to take his girlfriends to nice places. A good quality in a boyfriend.”
    Nicole nodded because she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t actually think of Hawk as her boyfriend.
    “He dates a lot,” Brittany added. “Just so you know, he doesn’t get serious. Not that I mean anything bad by that. I’m sure he likes you a lot.”
    Nicole sensed that she was being sent a message—she just wasn’t sure what it was. Did Brittany want to warn her off or help her out?
    Rather than deal with the question, she dug out a big pot. “This,” she said, “we’ll use for boiling the pasta.”

    AFTER BRITTANY LEFT, Nicole headed upstairs to get ready for her date with Hawk. She was more nervous than she would have expected, even reminding herself it wasn’t a real date. This was him keeping his half of the bargain, nothing more.
    Still, she flipped through the contents of her closet, groaning when she realized she had nothing to wear. She decided to start at the beginning and try to figure out what was appropriate for a high-profile non-date possibly taking place somewhere nice.
    As it was still pretty warm, she settled on a sleeveless floral print dress with a narrow skirt. She’d been fake tanning for the past couple of days, so her legs looked decent. With dangly earrings and low-heeled sandals, she decided she wouldn’t look half-bad.
    Before dressing, she rolled her hair in hot curlers and put on makeup. She finished dressing, then got out the jumbo can of hairspray and prepared to spray her hair into submission.
    The curlers came out, she finger-combed her curls, then sprayed until she coughed. The dangly earrings completed the outfit.
    As she made her way downstairs, she found herself nervous about seeing Hawk again. The last time he’d been in this house, they’d been having hot monkey sex. She barely knew the man, but she’d already seen him naked. How strange was that?
    There was a knock at the front door. Her stomach immediately plunged to her feet. She felt like she was going to