Ivy and Jake had already ordered some appetizers. This was far from our first dinner together here, so they knew what I liked. It looked like they’d ordered up the usual: fried pickles, mac and cheese bites, and a beer for me plus their own drinks. I took a sip and relaxed, something I hadn’t been able to do fully since we arrived.
I found my gaze drifting to the table I’d just left only to find Lou had gone back to her friends and Jules and Maeve were whispering, heads close together. As I watched them, lost in thought, suddenly Jules looked up and her eyes found mine. Heat filled my gut as I watched her cheeks redden again.
“Interesting, very interesting. Don’t you think so, Jake?” Ivy said as she picked up a pickle and popped it in her mouth.
Jake had an arm around her shoulders and glanced over from their spot across from me on the couch. “Babe, I’m assuming you are alluding to the fact that our friend Noah here can’t seem to take his eyes off Lou’s niece.”
“What?” I began to protest, but Ivy held her hand up like she was waving away a bug.
“Oh no, my friend. Don’t even start with fibs over here. I’ve known you since we were young, and you, sweet Noah, have the signs of attraction.” Ivy leaned forward over the low table between us and beckoned me to come forward as well. Begrudgingly, I did so because I knew it would become a whole thing if I didn’t. “And I, my dear Noah, am going to nurture this little flame until it grows because it has been forever and a day since I’ve seen this look on your face.”
Fuck. That thought was internal because my daughter was here, of course, but it might bear repeating. Fuck. Ivy was a determined woman. Was I drawn to Jules? Of course. You’dhave to be dead or, like Jake, in a perfect relationship not to be. Did I want to pursue those feelings? In another lifetime, sure. In this one I had one goal—making up lost time with Addie. I was a dad. Period. End of story. Maybe one day in the future I could find someone. But right now friendship was all I had time for. So I could be friends with Jules, and she’d get my taxes done for me. Here’s to new friendships, right? It was a win-win scenario. No big deal.
I met Jake’s gaze once I settled that in my mind.
“You’re screwed, my friend,” he said before taking a swig of beer.
Truth.
Chapter 5
Just Being Neighborly
Jules
I was a chicken. A coward. Yellow-bellied, whatever that was. A fraidy-cat, a scaredy-cat, or both. Why? Because I was working from home so I wouldn’t be at the office if Noah called.
I was disgusted even with myself. And yet no part of me could get out of bed and go to work. I simply couldn’t. The mere thought of it had me wanting to upchuck. I would see the man again, I knew. This was a temporary, yet completely necessary, reprieve. Highland Falls was a small town, and that came with pros as well as cons. My rationale, however, was that if I wasn’t there when he called, I was giving him the out the only way I knew how in case he truly didn’t want an accountant. I felt horrid that Lou, in all of her conniving ways, had put the man on the spot the night before.
Maeve and Maggie had been sitting on either side of me, and they both told me I was overreacting, but it felt like Lou was setting me up with the guy. I mean, I know she’d said she just wanted to get my name out there as an accountant, but I wasn’t born yesterday. She could have worked to find me more clients with her friends, with the women I met last night, withany random person she knew at the brewery because it felt like she knew the whole town. But had she? Nope. Theonlyperson she suggested I help with their taxes was Noah, and that was mortifying. And hell, we were in tax season—it wasn’t like Sueneededmore clients right now. One of the reasons I’d been hired so quickly was to help alleviate the workload of others.
I woke up this morning at six, and my mind immediately began to spiral. Before it could get too out of control, I thought of a former therapist’s advice—you can only control what you can control.The fact of the matter was that I couldn’t control Lou. Hell, beyond Verdell, I doubted anyone could, and I didn’t know if even he was able to claim that ability.
Another thing that wasn’t changing? My overall nature. I was who I was and, frankly, at thirty years old, I was good with that. Did I wish I didn’t immediately become fire engine red when I was embarrassed? Sure. Was that also a bit of an overexaggeration? Yes, it was, but it felt true when my face was burning.
At any rate, when I woke up mired in some anxiety spiral about seeing and/or talking to Noah, I decided I had an out and I was going to use it. This was what Icouldcontrol, so that’s what I’d do. Sue had been after me to look after myself, and that was what I was doing. One call to her and I had her permission, no, her blessing, to stay home and work from here for the day.
She really was an amazing boss. I wondered once again how I could possibly keep two full-time jobs, because the more I worked for the lady, the more I wanted to. It was clear why her employees were so loyal. She created an amazing environment for her staff.
In the next five hours, my productivity soared. I tided the house, which likely hadn’t needed it, and watered the plants, which absolutely had. I managed to get a half day’s work done in three of those hours because I had zero interruptions like Imight have had at the office. Then I spent the last hour folding myself into pose after pose, using yoga to try to find my center. Unfortunately for me, none of it was distracting me from the cowardly decision that had me stuck at home.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh,” I growled to myself, coming out of downward dog. I moved to a seated position and put my hands on my knees, trying to let go and find some semblance of peace.
“Mwah?” O’Malley sat on the window seat, cleaning his long hair while he watched me with what amounted to not a small bit of disdain.
“I know, I know,” I muttered. With a glance at my phone, I debated what to do next. I could get some more work done, though I was pretty caught up, or I could make some lunch. I also considered moving my afternoon work to my back deck since it was in the sixties and in Illinois, you took advantage of the weather when you could. Maybe a change of location would do the trick?
Standing up, I reached for the doorjamb that framed the bump-out window seat my cat liked to lounge in. I’d never seen anything like it—it was as if the former owners had decided to build a hiding spot off the kitchen that was the best lounging nook ever. Frankly, if the house had a bathroom, kitchen, and the window seat, I could live happy. There were steps up to the raised platform with a thick cushion—kind of like a built-in bed, bookshelves around the perimeter above your head, a wall I had propped a pillow against to lean back on, and windows overlooking the backyard. So far it was my favorite spot in the house.
As I held on to the opening for balance and grabbed my right foot to stretch my quads since they were perennially tight, I caught a movement from my neighbor’s yard that had me diving back down to the floor.
Holy shit. Was that… I lifted back up and peered over the window seat and back out the window, looking at the man who had just walked into the yard behind my house.
Yep. That was Noah from the brewery because of course it is.Ahhhhh. Was he just visiting next door? I had met my neighbors on either side of me, but no one from behind my house yet. I took another glance. Yep, that was Noah pulling a mower out of a small shed. He lived there, right? That would make the most sense because unless he was just the kindest human ever, I doubted he’d just start randomly mowing yards.
Staying as far back from the window as I could—not that the man could see in, but still—I reached for my phone and texted the first person I could think of.
Me:Umm, Maeve, do you know if Noah lives behind me?
