As if he’d needed the reminder about how much older he was than she. As if the fact that she was the nanny wasn’t reason enough he couldn’t be with her.
“No matter what you say,” he said, “I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be impressed with me.” Her voice sounded almost stern with disappointment. “I’m twenty-seven years old, and this is the longest I’ve ever lived away from home successfully in my life. I mean, I had a few live-in positions, but all within a few minutes of my parents’ house.”
He snagged on one word. “What do you mean, ‘successfully’?”
She returned her focus to Charlotte. Her profile glowed in the overhead string lights, her pert nose and straight chin, the hair falling out of her ponytail dancing in the slight breeze. Even seated on this uncomfortable plastic chair, her back was straight, her posture perfect. She was elegant and beautiful.
“I lived in Boston for a couple of months. Got a job and swore I was going to stay for a year, but…”
Emotion played across her face, but he couldn’t read it.
“I was lonely,” she finally said. “Like a little kid at summer camp, I was homesick. I couldn’t do it. I quit my job and moved back in with my parents.”
“And that made you feel like…a failure?” he guessed.
“Wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I’m almost forty, and I still live in my parents’ house.”
“It’s different. You inherited it.”
“It’s not different. I miss them every single day.”
She turned to him then, her gaze filled with sympathy and questions. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… Of course you miss them.”
“There’s nothing wrong with loving home and wanting your family. I think those are normal things. Anybody who made you feel like they aren’t didn’t know what they were talking about.”
She nodded slowly. “My dad. He thought my mom needed to”—she made air quotes—“‘cut the apron strings.’ Mom used to tell him to stay in his lane. I was one of the few things they argued about.”
“That sounds like athemproblem. You are who you are, and who you are is…”
Movement had Noah turning, then his words faltered.
He wasn’t ready for their conversation to end, and definitely not because his enemy had decided to interrupt.
Noah stood, not willing to let his former friend look down on him when he stopped beside their table. “Lowell.”
“Enjoying the festivities?” He wore a conservative navy blazer paired with crisp khaki chinos, overdressed for a festival, but he and his sister had that in common—the need to, as his mother would say, put on airs. Lowell’s balding head reflected the soft glow of the string lights, and his eyes held a hint of scrutiny as they took in Miss Wright.
Noah wasn’t going to pretend they were friends by engaging in small talk. “Did you need something?”
The man scanned the playground until it seemed he’d located what he was looking for. His gaze locked onto Charlotte. “If she’s not yours, then I assume she’s the spawn of your good-for-nothing brother.”
“Be very careful how you talk about my family, oldfriend.”
“After what you did to mine?”
“I did nothing to Marianne.” Noah didn’t even try to keep the anger out of his voice. “Your sister married me for one reason, and she took that reason with her—in the form of half my net worth—when she divorced me at the first hint of baseless rumors. She might as well have started the rumors herself. Looks like we both have good-for-nothing siblings.”
Lowell’s face turned deep red. “You have no right?—”
“She was my wife, so I think I do. And anyway, you should know me. You know I would never have stepped out. You know what kind of man I am.”
Lowell stared at him long enough that Noah started to hope he’d gotten through to his old friend.
But then he seemed to shake himself free of any doubts about his sister. He looked at Miss Wright, whose gaze bounced between them. Lowell focused back on Noah. “Are you going to introduce me to your new girlfriend?”
