Page 34 of Faith

“I’m sure you can,” she said. “But I want to get my hands on that beautiful baby. They always smell so good.”

“I didn’t know you liked babies,” Jensen said.

She looked at him. “Who doesn’t? Okay, maybe some people don’t, but I love babies. New life and all that.”

“Don’t let her fool you, Jensen,” Serenity said. “She just wants to buy clothes and toys for the baby.”

Nicola laughed. “That’s true. Plus, his or her first skates. That babyisgoing to skate.”

“See,” Serenity said with a laugh. “She wants a protégé.”

“Do not. Not really. But then, wouldn’t it be cool to have an Olympic ice skating champion from Hawaii?”

Serenity shook her head. “You think you’re going to get some kid to concentrate on skating when there are waves out there to ride?”

“Probably not, but it was worth a try.”

As the evening progressed, Nicola got a sense that Jensen was relaxing. Most people wouldn’t think the charmer of the Wulf family had such issues, but she knew better. When he was off kilter, she knew it was harder to deal with his addiction. As he talked soccer with the guys, she motioned to Serenity.

“If you gentlemen will excuse us,” she said with a smile. Serenity stood and followed her to the bathroom.

“Good God, I had no idea Mick and Adam knew that much about soccer,” Nicola said once they were in the bathroom.

“They really don’t, but they assumed that Jensen would, and they wanted to impress him.”

“That’s worse.”

“Yeah, it is,” she said with a laugh. She picked one of the stalls and went in. Nicola freshened up her makeup while she waited.

“Is something bothering you?” Serenity asked.

“No, why?”

“You just seem to be on edge.”

Since she was the second person to remark about her behavior, it gave Nicola pause. “Do I?”

“Only someone who knows you as well as I do would notice. What gives?”

Nicola waited for Serenity to come out of the stall. “Jensen thinks I’m jealous of your baby news.”

She frowned as she washed her hands. “What a load of shit. You aren’t jealous.”

“That’s what I said. Then he remarked that you were younger than I am?—”

“Oh, no he didn’t.” She grabbed a paper towel and dried her hands. “Let’s take him out back and beat the crap out of him.”

Nicola chuckled. “Good. I thought for a second he might be right.”

“Could it be the problem of finding a partner?”

Out of all of her friends, Serenity was the only one who knew of her lifestyle. Even before Serenity had met Mick and Adam, Nicola had confided in her. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t trust people. Okay, she didn’t trust people. She knew it had a lot to do with her life in the spotlight and how painful the fall from grace had been.

“It might be. I’ve not been with a Dom since…Jesus, I lost count. Tokyo?”

Serenity’s eyes widened. “That’s been over a year. What’s up?”

She opened her mouth, then shut it.