“It’s a flower, Hudson.” I chuckle as I wheel myself away. “Don’t get your panties in a twist.”
After the gym, I head to my physio session and am wheeling myself back to my room when I see Paige on the path ahead of me. I slow my pace to watch her. She’s got Noah tucked under one arm and her phone pressed to her ear with the other, the epitome of a working mom. It looks good on her. She wields both child and work with confidence.
I wheel up behind them, and Noah waves to me and smiles, causing my heart to lurch. The little guy has got to be the cutest kid I’ve ever seen.
“Yes, I know you won’t be able to do a discount on this one. I appreciate that.” She stops in the path, and I wheel up beside her, but she’s too engrossed in the call to notice.
“Is there any coating that can make the sign paint proof. Is that a thing? Like a protective coating so if it got vandalized, say, with paint, I’d be able to wipe it off?”
Why the hell is Paige worried about vandalism? Something isn’t right here.
“Yes!” She still hasn’t noticed me, and I don’t like eavesdropping, but this seems important. If something’shappened, then I need to know. “That sounds great, and it’s how much extra?”
Her shoulders slump, and she nods her head. “That’s fine. Email me the details, and I’ll send the payment when I’m back at my desk. Thank you.”
She pockets the phone and notices me for the first time.
“Ryan, I didn’t see you.” Her expression turns uneasy, as if she’s been caught.
“Everything okay?”
She smiles too brightly. “Yeah, just speaking with a client.”
I raise my eyebrows. We both know she wasn’t speaking with a client. “Did something get vandalized?”
Biting her lower lip, she glances at Noah. I can see her battling with herself. It’s not easy for her to accept help, but I’m not giving up easily.
“You don’t have to face everything alone, Paige.”
She looks at me for a long while, then seems to make up her mind. She sets Noah on the ground. “Go see how many ants you can find.”
He toddles off to the edge of the path, and she crouches down so we’re at eye level. I catch the scents of coffee and earth, and her proximity makes my head spin. She leans in so her words don’t travel, and if I leaned forward, I could brush her lips with mine. I wonder if they’re as soft as I remember and if she’d taste the same, like coffee and popcorn.
“Someone vandalized my sign.”
“What?” I slam back to reality. “What sign?”
Her gaze is on Noah as she speaks quietly, not wanting him to hear. “I run my business out of my home, and there’s a sign out front. Someone spray painted over it.”
Her focus remains on Noah, but she grips the edge of my chair, and her voice has an edge to it. She’s scared.
“Has anything else happened?”
She presses her lips together, and it’s the vulnerable side of her. The one I’m learning she doesn’t often show the world.
When I cover her hand with mine, she glances down at it and then up at me. Our eyes lock, and she looks surprised, as if she didn’t realize how close we are.
“I’m here to help. You don’t need to go through this on your own,” I promise her, my voice quiet and earnest.
Her gaze drops to Noah and back to me. “Someone stuck stones in my lawnmower and jammed the blade. That’s why I was sharpening it last week.”
“Does Hudson know about this?”
Her eyes go wide. “No, and you can’t tell him. He’ll camp out in the front yard with a shotgun.”
Someone’s been sabotaging her business, and she’s kept it to herself for a week. Anger spikes that she feels she has to keep it to herself. That she thinks she has to deal with all this alone. And that someone is deliberately targeting her business.
“They’ve come onto your property twice?”
