The first bite is worth whatever diet plan I swore off this week.
The gingersnaps are soft and crack at the edge, the molasses and spice blooming on my tongue perfectly.
I hold the cookie in the center of my palm, soaking in the heat from it.
Callum swallows and nods toward Noelle’s shop.
“The girl next door. You seen her ex around at all?
Tall guy with blond hair. Looks a little…out of sorts?” he asks between mouthfuls, trying to sound casual when anything but that.
The woman’s face tightens instantly.
She wipes her hands on her apron then leans forward like she’s telling us something she’s been meaning to. “Oh, that boy. He’s trouble. Cheated on poor Noelle, broke her heart right good. Came by every day with flowers and apologies, but my girl wouldn’t have any of it. Kept throwing him out of her store.”
The corner of my mouth lifts, pride blooming in my chest at the image of Noelle standing her ground like that. “You have any idea where he lives? Or works?”
She shakes her head, then brightens like she’s suddenly remembering the town’s gossip map. “Last I knew, he lived with his mama up on Maple Street. Worked over at Milton’s Hardware. Used to spend most days loitering around there twiddling his thumbs. But, who knows? He’s always getting fired from somewhere. Can’t keep a job to save his life.”
That sounds about right.
A guy who sows trouble and can’t hold down a job is small-town nightmare formula on steroids.
Every place like this has one, always with a new excuse, a new story, and someone else footing his bills, and Jared fits the part to a damn T.
It doesn’t surprise me this guy has a reputation that precedes him.
What does surprise me, what bothers me the most, is wondering how in the hell Noelle ever got tangled up in his drama in the first place.
She was never naive.
Even six years ago, she carried herself with quiet caution. Smart, grounded, steady in a way that made you take her seriously even when she was teasing you.
So what happened?
Did the weight of everything that came after our weekend break her down enough that she started reaching for something reckless, even if it was all wrong?
The thought twists in my gut.
Had we left her so spun around that she went looking for comfort in the arms of the first guy who offered it?
The idea makes my stomach turn, but not because I’m angry with her. I’m angry at myself.
Because if Jared found her when she was at her lowest, when she was alone and scared and was still coming to terms with what happened between all of us…
Hell, I can see how it happened.
Guys like him have a sixth sense for women like Noelle: strong on the outside but bleeding quietly on the inside.
They swoop in with promises they don’t mean, offering warmth that turns cold the second they get what they want.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he followed her down from college after finding out she was expecting and decided to make himself the hero in a story he never deserved to be in.
Guys like Jared love that kind of redemption arc, the whole“father of the year”act while stealing cash from your purse and calling it a gift.
Noelle probably tried to believe him.
Tried to make it work for Eli’s sake because that’s who she is. Who she’salwaysbeen.
