“Does Jake know you make meals like this?”
“Not yet.”
“He’ll learn.”
I lay some chive cream cheese onto a half of everything bagel. “We’ll see,” I say.
“We’re not seeing,” Hugo says. “We have evidential proof.”
“Do you really think it means forever?” I ask him.
The blank piece of paper has given me pause over the last day. Ever since Jake asked me what I’m looking for and we didn’t kiss. I know he’s a good person. It was obvious from my first time meeting him. But I’m not sure about myself. What if he wants something I can’t offer?
“Don’t you?”
I think about it. “Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, of course.”
“Well, then, there you go.”
Hugo offers to wash the dishes, and I let him while I put everything back in the fridge and wipe down the counter. I have to be at my parents’ house in an hour, and it’s going to take me forty-five minutes to get there.
“I need to meet this guy,” Hugo says as we’re saying goodbye. “Let’s lock it in.”
Murphy walks over to Hugo at the door. He looks up at him.
“Hello,” Hugo says. “I hope you’re having a pleasant day, Murphy.”
Murphy and Hugo get along mostly because they treat each other like polite strangers. Hugo gives Murphy all the space he requires and, in turn, Murphy doesn’t ask that Hugo treat him like a dog.
I open the latch and pull at the door. Hugo gives me a quick hug and then steps outside.
“You can’t use it to mark your territory, though,” I say.
Murphy stands next to me in the doorway. I bend down and scoop him up. He’s not particularly pleased, but he doesn’t struggle.
Hugo shakes his head. “That’s ridiculous,” he says. “You’re not my territory.”
I watch him pop in his earbuds.
“You never were.”
He waves and heads down the block toward Fountain. I want to know what he means, but he’s off and running before I can ask.
Chapter Thirteen
Noah, five weeks.
I heard his Southern drawl before I ever saw him.
“That’s herrr.”
He made thersound like it was a mile long. Waves rolling in.
“Hi,” I said. “Daphne. It’s nice to meet you.”
I was seated at the bar of Smuggler’s Cove—a tiki spot known for its rum drinks and sprawling floor plan.
“Noah,” he said. “Pleasure’s all mine.”
