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allow himself to be hurt that way again. But none of that seemed to matter now that
she
was back in town.
    Sam couldn’t imagine why Nicole had opted to move to Serendipity—but there was one way to find out. Raising his hand, he knocked on her door.

Two
    Nicole had spent the last couple of years—oh hell, why not admit it? She’d spent her entire life wearing, saying, and doing what was appropriate and expected of her. Not wanting to disappoint her parents, she’d always taken the path of least resistance, at least until she’d broken her engagement.
    Tonight was the first time she could wear exactly what she wanted and be true to herself. Yet instead of being downstairs meeting new friends, she stood in front of her closet, unsure of . . . everything.
    The good news was, although she’d spent her time in skirts and silk blouses, Chanel-style jackets, and pearls like her mother, that hadn’t stopped her from buying the kind of items she wished she could wear. On her way out of town, she’d dropped off all her Nicole Farnsworth, dutiful-daughter-appropriate items at the Manhattan branch ofDress for Success, where disadvantaged women would now have interview suits and clothing to start over.
    Now it was Nicole’s turn to live for herself. She was just about to reach into her closet and pick something when someone knocked on her door. She figured it was Macy, wondering what had happened to her since she was already twenty minutes late.
    She cinched the tie on her bathrobe. Used to being extra careful in Manhattan, she glanced into the peephole of her door.
    The unexpected visitor standing on the other side made her breath catch in her throat and her heart begin a steady gallop.
    “Sam,” she whispered, shocked right down to her toes.
    He knocked again, and she fumbled with the lock before opening the door.
    He braced one muscular arm on the door frame and grinned. “Hi.”
    “Hi,” she managed in return, her gaze steady on his.
    His smile deepened, revealing dimpled grooves in the sides of his mouth. “Welcome back.”
    “Thanks,” she said as his husky voice rippled through her.
    He hadn’t shaved, and with stubble and sexy messed hair, he looked even more delicious than she remembered. Her mouth ran dry and she ran her tongue over her lips in a desperate attempt to find moisture.
    “I wasn’t expecting you,” she said, wincing as the words came out not at all like she’d intended.
    “Disappointed?”
    Lord no,
she thought, and shook her head. “Of course not. Just surprised.”
    His heavy-lidded gaze met hers. “So was I when I heard you’d moved here.”
    “Ibet.”
    “Are you going to invite me in?” he asked.
    She clutched her bathrobe lapels together, torn between doing just that and doing the proper thing. “Umm, I’m not exactly dressed.”
    A grin lifted the corners of his mouth. “I don’t mind.” Those gorgeous eyes, green mixed with brown and rimmed by gold, traveled over her, from her bare legs to the short hem of the silk robe, up again to meet her gaze.
    Sweet heaven, this man was potent. Unable to resist him, she stepped aside. “I haven’t had a chance to do much with the apartment yet.” Though she’d unpacked her clothes, she still needed the accessories and personal touches that would make the place feel like home.
    He shrugged, obviously unconcerned. “I’m used to it. My brother lived here before you and he did nothing to it at all.”
    She raised an eyebrow, surprised. “I didn’t know that.”
    “Yep. Then he married Cara, bought himself a big house by the lake, and settled down.”
    “Do you like his wife?” she asked, because he didn’t sound happy about the settling-down part. His voice had turned grumbly over the words.
    “She’s great. You remember her, Cara Hartley? The police officer who arrested your . . .” His voice trailed off awkwardly.
    Nothing like the memory of Victoria to bring an abrupt end to any conversation, Nicole thought. “I