“Can’t wait.” Jake grinned.
Baxter nuzzled his head into Dean’s petting hand. “By the way…”
“What’s up?”
“Where are you living these days?” Dean smirked. I heard you burned Ally’s house down to the foundation.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Wow, the story continues to grow.”
“To the foundation?” Brian joked to Dean.
“I bet Coco told you that, huh?” Jake shook his head.
“You bet correctly, because nothing much changes around here.” Dean ruffled Baxter’s head.
They laughed. “Next thing you know,” Jake added. “Someone will ask me if Tidings still exists after the forest fire I caused.”
Brian snorted. “All because you tried to cook Lucy’s casserole.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nora glanced up from the papers strewn across her desk. The office secretary, Alexis, hovered by the doorjamb as though she had far more in mind than teacher-lounge gossip or carpool chitchat. With a small checkmark on her to-do list and a sticky note where she was leaving off in her pile of work, Nora eased back in her chair.
“So…” Alexis slinked around the open door and leaned back, her arms crossed to make her long, brilliantly colored sweater cocoon around her.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Nora twirled a pen between her fingers.
Alexis fanned herself. “So…”
The pen froze mid-bobble. “Yes?”
“There is a very thick, very rugged man sitting in the waiting room and making a few teachers thirsty.”
Nora blushed but offered nothing more than an “Oh” at what had to be Jake’s unexpected visit.
“He’s asked to see you.”
This was going to make Coco’s afternoon gossip report if Nora didn’t stop blushing. “Did he mention who his child—”
“He said nothing about a student and referenced a personal matter.” Alexis wriggled her eyebrows. “You’re not even asking who he is. I’m going to need the details.”
Well played, Alexis. “We’ll talk later, and I’ll be out in a minute.” Nora reached for her purse in the bottom drawer. It didn’t take long to throw on a fresh application of pale lipstick, run a brush through her hair, and tuck the bag away before she stood to nervously smooth her shirt and her skirt over her hips.
Freshening her face was silly. The butterflies somersaulting in her stomach were equally as ridiculous. Still, with every step forward, her anticipation grew. By the time she was ready to head around the corner to the waiting area, the easy walk made her feel breathless.
Jake sat on a bench in the main office, where Nora had met hundreds of parents before. A hundred fathers before. This was the first time her steps slowed when the man looked up.
Jake stood, and his greeting was warm yet reserved. His tense shoulders remained stiff as his jawline. “Sorry to drop in on you. I called, but you didn’t answer.”
Nora flipped her hand nervously. “Sorry, I only check my phone on breaks and lunch. Is everything okay?” Alexis would have notified her if a parent had requested an emergency meeting.
“Can we talk somewhere else?” He glanced about the open area where anyone could walk through.
“Sure. Come back to my office.” She retraced her steps with Jake following, and the excited bundle of nerves she felt on the way out had been replaced with unease. Had she been wrong to reach out to him, hoping that it was Jake in her backyard?
She could see why that might feel like a needy attempt for attention. Embarrassed warmth hit her cheeks at the thought that he might suspect a professional woman in her thirties of playing silly games. “This is my office.”
He followed her in and took a seat as she rounded the desk. A grim cast came over his handsome features, and she knew this conversation would be uncomfortable. He had come from work to make sure she understood where their boundaries were. It was definitely one of her more humiliating moments.
“About the call last night,” she started. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“Yes, you should.” Jake inched forward in his chair. “I want that to be clear before we say anything else.”
Nora swallowed over the knot in her throat. “Of course.”
He repositioned and straightened, as though he didn’t want to be there any more than she wanted to hear him call her out for an overactive imagination. “About last night…”
She couldn’t handle the thought that he might believe she’d placed that call because she couldn’t stay away from him or needed his attention. Embarrassed, she clasped her hands under her desk. “I know you think that I called you as though you were my knight in shining armor, but those noises were real, and I was worried—”
“Stop.”
She blinked rapidly, choking on her words.
“Nora, I know.” Jake pulled his chair closer to the desk. “But after what I’m going to tell you, I don’t know if you’ll ever call me again.”
###
Here went nothing. Jake pictured the best way to explain how he’d overstepped the bounds of a normal friendship last night. Nothing came to mind as his gaze drifted over her shoulder to a pennant from the homecoming football game.
That was an example he could work with. Maybe. “Have you ever taken the ball and…” Jake gripped an imaginary football, staring at his empty hands, then tucked it to his chest.
Nora obviously had not. He put one arm out, as if he was blocking and shielding, twisting and flexing the arm-carrying ball for emphasis. “And run with it?”
“Is that a football?” She gestured to the empty space under his armpit.
“Aren’t counselors trained to use their imagination?” He dropped his arm and let the football disappear from his thoughts.
With a gentle tilt of her head, Nora cast a sideways glance through her eyelashes. “I’m ninety-five percent sure that you didn’t come here to discuss football.”
He snickered despite what he had to tell her. “You’re giving me a five percent chance of cutting work and interrupting your day to talk about sports?”
“I think so, yes.”
He leaned back. “Do I come off as a sports guy?”
A flirtatious eyebrow lift teased him. “Jake, you come off as a do-whatever-you-want kind of guy.”
“Well…” He angled his head, losing his focus on why he was there.
“If sports were on your mind, and you wanted to discuss them.” She nodded. “Yes, I think we’d have that discussion.”
Wouldn’t be the first time his dominant nature had gotten him in a situation. “But not in a barbaric, caveman, ruin-your-job and interrupt-your-day kind of way,” he said. He wasn’t a Neanderthal, though he had shown up to discuss overstepping what some might call boundaries and was dropping football references. “Maybe you’re on to something.”
“I don’t doubt your best intentions,” she said. “But why won’t I call you again?”
Ugh. Again, here went nothing. “When you called me last night, I wasn’t comfortable with how you sounded.”
Nora’s sweet smile quickly sobered. “I called because I wasn’t comfortable.”
“I called my buddy, Matt. He knows people around town and connected with local PD.”
Nora’s eyes went wide. “You did what?”
Despite the shock on her face, Jake kept plowing. “I asked Matt to swing over to my place.”
“Last night?” Nora blinked rapidly, stammering. “Why?”
“Matt knows Charlotte, and if Charlotte woke up, he could easily explain that I had to run out.”
“Run out?” Her eyes stopped the rapid-fire blinks and froze. “Where did you run out to?”
Jake stifled an uncertain groan, staring at a crack in the ceiling. He might have overreacted, but he would do it over and over again, faced with the same situation. He faced her head-on. “Your place.”
“Mine?”
“I wanted to check it out.” Jake squared his shoulders
and would stand by every action he’d taken. “I know that sounds crazy. Overprotective. Overbearing. Even saying it aloud, it’s… a lot. But at the time, the way your voice shook, Nora, you sounded scared.”
Her lips parted before she closed them again. Not the best reaction, though it was better than her standing and screaming “stalker.”
“Thank you,” she whispered quietly. “I wanted to ask you to come over. But… Charlotte.” Her eyes went to her desk. “There was no one else I trusted enough, but I just turned the lights out.”
“I should’ve told you I was coming.” She would’ve felt better.
With a quick flick of her wrist, Nora downplayed the situation for his benefit. “Nothing came of it, so…”
“No, I should’ve told you.”
“Jake, really. That means a lot to me.”
He ran a hand over his chin. He didn’t have the best of news to follow up with. “I didn’t see anyone back there, but there was another issue.”
Nora crossed her arms, and worry marred her forehead. “What kind of issue?”
“I saw a pile of cigarette butts that struck me as out of place.”
“Really?”
“I mentioned it to Matt, he mentioned it to his friend at the police department, and they dropped by your place today while you were at school.”
Her eyes widened. “And?”
“I think we were all hoping your lawn guy ditched his cigarette butts in the same corner every week or something.” Jake shook his head. “The detective took a close look at them in the daylight, and they look smoked about the same time frame.”
Nora’s mouth gaped. “Someone sat outside my house, smoking?”
He nodded. “And your shed.”
“What about it?”
“On the inside, the insulation had been torn out. Does that make any sense?”
Her face skewed. “Like an animal got into the wall?”
That’d been his hope too. “Not so much. More like it was stripped out.”
Nora bit her lip. “I never use that old shed. There’s nothing in there. My ex-husband built it to store some equipment and gadgets. That’s why it was insulated, but I haven’t used it in years.” Her brow furrowed.
Interesting. “Last night, before I got home, I ran into your neighborhood watch.”
“We don’t have a neighborhood watch.” Her bottom lip trembled.
“Know anyone named Edward Lee?”
Nora shook her head. “No.”
Because Edward Lee of Tidings, Vermont didn’t exist, according to Talon and everything thing that Safehouse Security could search.
“But…” Panic set in on her face
Jake stiffened. “What is it?”
“Sir Edward Lee a screen name that my ex used.”
His brow furrowed. “What? Why?”
“It’s reminiscent of some guy famous, or infamous, underwater archaeologist.”
“A what?” he asked.
“That’s a fancy way of saying a professional treasure hunter.”
Had Jake run into Nora’s husband? Talked to the idiot? But why? What was going on?
“Was he at my house?” she asked.
“I don’t know what’s going on.” Jake’s mind couldn’t keep up, but he would loop the detective and Talon in on this new piece of information. “Does your ex smoke cigarettes?”
“No. He never did.” Nora shook her head. “Jake, really, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not making me feel better.”
He wished he knew how to make her worry disappear. “But awareness is half the battle. If there’s an issue, Tidings PD has been clued in and will be on the lookout now.”
Nora looked numb—or maybe shocked.
“Your street will be on their regular patrol.”
They sat in silence, and Jake waited. He could see that Nora was working through everything he had told her. He waited for her to flip out over what he had done, but she didn’t.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she finally asked.
There was a complicated question. The easiest answer was that she was gorgeous. Her expressive eyes made him react in half a dozen ways. She could curl her lips, and Jake would be dazzled or laughing. Looking at her was a top favorite pastime. The most concerning answer was because he didn’t fully understand the situation. He decided to give her something close to that truth. “I was worried.”
“About last night?”
“No.” He shifted. “That type of stuff doesn’t faze me.”
“Then what?” she asked.
He sighed. “I was worried because I wasn’t sure how you’d react to the steps I took.” He inched forward and watched as her chest rose and fell at a quicker pace more than when he first arrived. Anger? Attraction? Aggravation? Possibly, a combination of that and more. What he wouldn’t give to embrace her, to feel that she was safe. That was why he was staring, because he needed to protect her.
“I trust you,” Nora said in a much quieter, coarser voice. “I’m not going to react. But I do appreciate you.” She licked her bottom lip. “What you’ve done.”
He stood before he could say or do anything that would cross a clearly set line. Last night’s line was a guess. The line between them at the moment was clear, and she didn’t want it crossed. Their relationship was to remain as friends. That’s how he would leave it. “I have to go, but call if you need anything.”
Her eyes held his. It took every ounce of his strength not to embrace her. The longer they stared in silence, the stronger the urge became until he knew, without a doubt, she’d erase their line one day and only friends would turn into a lasting relationship.
Jake forced himself from her office, suddenly stronger with the knowledge that one day, they would be a couple. He just needed to let life move at its own pace and not force a connection that needed more time to grow.
CHAPTER TWENTY
A tower of Legos now rivaled Graham in height and spanned the length of his arms as Nora sat on the couch in an old pair of sweatpants and a Tidings track T-shirt. She watched one tower sway as her son quickly leaped into action to fortify the base. Only when she was sure that his hours of work wouldn’t crash did she go back to her review of IEPs.
Teachers were finishing interim reports, and she was keeping an eye on the progress of the new school year start of individual plans for students who needed special help with programs. There was never enough time and resources.
Knock, knock.
Graham jumped. “Someone’s at the door! Oh no!”
The tower of blocks, which he had just stabilized, toppled and crashed. Legos shot in every direction, and his cheeks flushed to a frustrated red. “They broke, Mama. I—”
“Don’t say anything you might regret, otherwise all the Legos go up.”
He swallowed what looked to be one hundred kindergarten versions of “shoot” and plopped to the ground to start rebuilding.
“Good decision.” She set her work on the coffee table and headed toward the door, hoping whoever it was had a fantastic reason that she could give Graham for the knocking. “Coming.”
Padding down the hallway barefoot, she rolled her pants once to keep them on her hips then opened the door. The world froze.
“Nora, it’s great to see you,” her ex-husband said on the front porch of the home they used to share before he so cavalierly walked out when she’d just shared they were pregnant.
How they had managed to avoid each other for five years, she had no idea. Even though Sean traveled almost constantly, he still called Tidings home. But this was not his house. “What are you doing here?”
“I was hoping to come in and chat.”
She inched out of the door, squeezing it almost shut behind her. “Are you out of your mind? You can’t come here.”
“I didn’t think we parted on those kinds of terms.”
“Were you in my neighborhood recently?” she snapped.
Sean shook his head. “I was in town a couple weeks ago but not over here. Why?”
“A friend thought he saw you.”
Sean took a step closer. “Did he? How would he know it was me?”
“Because of Edward Lee. Was that you?”
He pushed a hand against the door. “Let me in, Nora.”
She balked, bumping into the door and clattering for the handle to pull it back again. Graham didn’t need to see him. He’d never met his father, and right now wasn’t going to be the time that introduction took place, if ever. “No,” she hissed. “You walked away. Not even a fight for custody.”
The only thing he’d requested was that Nora notify him before she sold her house, which she’d owned before he moved in with her. If “moving in with” was even a correct description of their living arrangements, considering how often he’d been gone. The judge had given him the right to one final walk-through if she ever sold, for nostalgic purposes.
Her attorney told her to keep quiet, that it was one of the best divorce agreements he’d ever seen. That did nothing but make her mad, though.
Sean stepped back. “You’re making a scene.”
“I don’t think so.” Her spine straightened. “You need to leave.”
Graham called for her from the living room, and Nora’s blood formed icicles. “Go. Now.”
“That’s Graham, huh? He sounds like he’s grown up a lot.”
“Sean Cabot, get off my property, or I will call the police.”
Sean’s cocky smile hung smirked across his golden face. He pushed his sun-bleached hair from over his eyes. Clearly, he’d spent too much time on the beach lately. But she didn’t care. He could take his carefree, beach bum life and leave. Now.
“Hey, let use your bathroom before I go. If Graham asks who I am, just tell him I’m a salesperson or something.”
Salesperson or something. Her heart shattered. Sean didn’t care what she called him, but to Graham, it would. His heart would splinter, knowing that his long-lost father wanted to use the bathroom more than he wanted to meet his son.
Her eyelids burned with tears. She stumbled back and slammed the door shut, heartbroken for her little boy.
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