She clenches her jaw and scowls at me. Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, she looks at me with sheer determination.
“Not at all. I have nothing to worry about so fine, I agree to your stupid rule.”
“Excellent. Then I think this will be a fine marriage if I do say so myself.” Reaching across the table, I offer her my hand to shake which she does.
Time to get you to break your rules, sugar. Because once you do, it’s game over for the both of us.
CHAPTER 14
Noelle
‘If you break any of your rules, even once, then I get to break them as many times as I want.’
I laugh at his rule as it tumbles around in my head, finding it completely ridiculous. The fact that he wants it to be a rule at all is ridiculous. I’m not going to break any of the rules I laid out. I mostly made them for him so he would stop acting all lovey dovey. I am in no way shape or form going to break any of our rules. Even thinking about breaking them makes me want to throw up.
If that were actually true then explain the dreams you’ve been having the past week, a voice in my head sneers.It’s a good thing you said no sleepovers or else you would have failed at following your precious rules days ago. No way to do what you were doing in your dreams without kissing, it continues.
I shake my head, trying to get the voice to shake itself loose from my mind. Blinking hard, I move from behind the check-in desk and walk towards the kitchen. Thanksgiving is only three days from now and I want to make sure Eve has everything she needs for dinner. Holly House always hosts a free Thanksgiving dinner for our guests and anyone in need who’sable to come. This year we’re expecting to have about fifty people joining us, Grams being one of them. She and I always celebrate the holidays here as per tradition.
“Eve, how are things going with—ope,” I stop short when I step into the kitchen and see her sitting on the prep table, mouth wide in a smile, talking to Jack. He’s leaning with his hand on the table, hovering only a few inches away from her with a matching smile of his own. Our delivery days are Tuesday which makes seeing him here now a little out of the ordinary.
When he sees me come in he nearly jumps away from her, banging into the pots and pans hanging from the ceiling above the sink before catching himself.
“Noey, hey,” Eve greets with a smile. She’s looking at me over her shoulder until I bring myself to stand next to her.
“Hey, you two, what’s going on?” My eyes flit between the two of them but only one seems like they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t be.
“Oh, we were just talking about the winter harvest season. Jack’s built a greenhouse on the farm so we can get fresh produce year round. Isn’t that exciting?” Her voice tips up in genuine excitement.
“Yeah, sure is,” I agree, trying to match her energy. While she’s excited about the abundance of year round produce, I’m sure Jack is excited because she’s paying attention to him.
“Probably won’t have anything worthwhile this year, but next year for sure. Gotta get through the trial year and all,” he comments, rubbing the back of his head.
Eve jumps off the counter and brushes his arm with her hand. “If anyone can do it, it’s you, Jack. You’ve always been a master of figuring things out like that.”
He watches her move into the pantry, his eyes following her like a dog watching its owner.
“How’s your head?” I whisper so she doesn’t hear.
“Huh? Oh, it’s fine,” he says, pulling his eyes from where she disappeared to look at me. “I guess I should be going.”
“Oh, don’t leave on my part. You should stay,” I say, feeling bad that I’ve made him uncomfortable.
“No, that’s alright. She’s busy and I should get back to the farm.” He drops his hand from the back of his head and cranes his neck to look into the pantry. “Eve, I have to get going,” he calls out.
She doesn’t come out to say goodbye. “Okay! I’ll see you later!”
His shoulders slump as defeat settles in on his face. He gives me a tight-lipped smile and moves towards the backdoor to leave.
“Hey, Jack,” I say before he’s too far away.
“Yeah?”
“Are you busy on Thanksgiving?” I ask, an idea forming in my mind.
He shakes his head. “Just the normal dinner with my parents.”
“You should come here, if you want of course. Eve has this amazing dinner she’s making and the place is going to be packed full of people. It’ll be fun and Eve will like seeing you.”
