by Jean Page
The trip to the restaurant went quickly for them both. She asked him about his life since high school and he asked about college. They laughed together and listened to music. In fact, by the time they reached the restaurant, Noelle thought that she would have been just as happy if the date was ending instead of beginning. She was having a wonderful time. She felt breathless and pretty and all the things she could hope for as he helped her out of the car and offered his arm to her to walk up the path to the door.
The place looked like an upscale log cabin. The trees were lit with strings of white lights and she could tell that this place was not some place she could ever afford on her own. As they stepped inside a pretty hostess greeted them. She took them to a waiting area next to a cozy fireplace, with the promise that their table was nearly ready. After taking their drink orders, she disappeared again.
“This place is...wow.” Noelle offered looking around. The rustic log cabin feel moved throughout the place.
“I’d hoped you’d like it.”
A cocktail waitress brought them their drinks while they talked. Noelle was quick to notice her eyes all over Cade and it made her feel predatory.
“How’s your wine?”
“Delicious.” Noelle smiled, giving the waitress a ‘Back Off’ stare. “How did things go with your mason?”
Cade gave her a confused look.
“You mentioned this morning that you had to show him to the site you’re working on.”
“Yes, of course, the hotel. It went well. I think he’ll get the job done for me.”
“It must be enjoyable work for you. Creating buildings like giant pieces of artwork that will be standing long after you.”
“It can be very rewarding, watching things I design come to life, yes. It can also be very frustrating at times. Clients don’t always understand how things work. They want a glass bottomed pool over their living room because they saw it in a movie once, but don’t understand what it takes to make it happen. That kind of thing.”
Noelle nodded, imagining what he was describing. “I don’t think I’d feel comfortable sitting under something like that to watch TV.”
Cade laughed aloud. “Safe enough, just expensive to construct.”
“Your table is ready now, if you’d like to follow me,” the hostess offered.
They wove their way through the restaurant and Noelle discreetly looked at the plates of other diners as they passed. Everything looked wonderful and rich. The hostess led them to a table closer to the back of the room where one wall was nothing but bookshelves covered with antiques and all kinds of books. She caught titles of classics among ones with which she was unfamiliar. If they weren’t here for dinner, she could make an evening just reading the titles along this lovely wall.
She sat and looked across the table at Cade, whose handsome face was now highlighted by the candle flickering between them on the table. He was watching her in return. She locked eyes with him and felt her cheeks grow warm. Her mahogany eyes darted down to the menu in front of her. This was the kind of place where they didn’t put prices on the menu, definitely outside her pay grade.
“Anything sound particularly good? They get the majority of their ingredients from local merchants.” Cade asked looking at his own menu.
“Everything sounds fantastic; I really have no idea what to order.”
“Would you allow me to order for you?”
Noelle looked across the table again, feeling relieved. She was afraid she’d inadvertently pick the most expensive thing on the menu. “Okay, surprise me then.”
***
Cade walked her to the door. The evening had gone well and she felt the anticipation of a second date. She unlocked the door and turned back to him. “Everything was wonderful Cade, thank you.” She smiled up into his deep green eyes and felt heat stain her cheeks again. Her heart leapt up into her throat and her eyes flickered down to his lips and back to his eyes. She really wanted him to kiss her.
“I’d like to do it again soon,” he answered watching her blush. So... she wasn’t completely oblivious to him. He thought that it was cute that he could make her blush so easily.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?” she asked just because she wasn’t ready to say goodnight.
“Yes, I think we can take the majority of the furniture.” He wanted her. He had wanted her for two years now, but here, right now he wanted to scoop her up into his arms, take her inside, and make love to her for the remainder of the night. It hit him like a whirlwind.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she whispered. She leaned up on her tiptoes and planted a quick soft kiss on his lips before darting inside. “Goodnight.”
Cade stared at the closed door in front of him for a moment feeling stunned. He grinned widely, “Goodnight Noelle” he called through the door and turned to head home.
CHAPTER FOUR
Noelle had a hard time sleeping after Cade left. She kept thinking about everything between them and what they had talked about through dinner. She had come to realize the boy her sister had dated in high school had been a stranger to her, a fantasy she had entertained through her adolescence.
He was so different from what she had expected and not in a bad way. He was independent, confident, and passionate about the things and people he loved. His work was very important to him, but what he wanted more than anything else, was to build his own home in the mountains and retire at an age early enough to still be able to enjoy life. He hadn’t said it directly but Noelle understood that to mean retired with a wife and children. He enjoyed literature and read in his free time, which pleased her to no end. He asked all the right questions and none of the hard ones like whether she would go back to college or not. In short, he was exactly the type of man she could fall head over heels for if she wasn’t careful.
Precious had curled up in a sunbeam on the carpet in the living room as Noelle closed up the last of the boxes she’d filled. She looked over at the clock, which told her it was not yet one in the afternoon and her stomach reminded her that she’s only had coffee since dinner with Cade. Deciding that a sandwich was in order, she walked into the kitchen. An easy smile brightened her face as the vase of yellow roses came into view. She stuck her nose into one of the buds and inhaled deeply. If Cade only knew how close she had come to inviting him in last night...
Her cell phone rang jarring her from her thoughts. “Hey sis! How’d it go?” Del asked excitedly on the other end.
Noelle laughed at her sister’s exuberance. “It went fine. It’s not like I’ve never been on a date before Del.”
“All you are going to give me is fine?”
“Why the fascination? It was just a date.”
“Oh come on Elle,” her sister whined, “Let me live a little vicariously through you. Do you know when the last time was that I went on a real date? It was before the twins were born.”
“Then Sam needs to fix that. Find a day you both have off and I’ll come into the city and watch my nephews for the night.”
“You’d do that? They can be a handful...”
“You are my sister and they are my family, so of course I’d do that for you. I’m surprised you haven’t asked before this. I can handle the terrible twins.”
“I’ll talk to Sam then.” Del answered. There was a slight pause in their conversation, “Nice try by the way, and I’m not letting you off the hook. I want to know everything so spill.”
Noelle shook her head and started in on the details with her sister. She leaned in, pulled some lunchmeat and cheese from the fridge, and made herself a sandwich while she answered all of Del’s questions. Finally satisfied, even though Noelle had left out a lot about the night, Del said she had to go and that she would call again later in the week after she had talked to her husband about a date night.
A couple hours later, there was a knock at her door and Noelle nearly jumped across the room to answer it. She pulled it open with a wide smile on her face to find someone com
pletely unexpected on her porch.
“Griffin?” Noelle asked incredulously.
“Noelle Fuchs. You are the last person I expected to find behind this door.” Griffin Andersen answered through her screen door.
“Come in please,” Noelle offered and gave him a big hug as he did. “It’s so good to see you. It’s been what five years? How have you been, what have you been up to?” Noelle let her eyes pour over the man in her living room. His sandy blonde hair was longer than she’d remembered and he was taller by several inches. His intense ice blue eyes still jumped out at you when he looked at you, but he no longer looked like the college freshman she knew. He’d filled out into a very handsome man.
“It’s been six. I was sorry to hear about your Mom. I would have come for the services but I was out of the country at the time.”
Noelle’s eyes dropped at the mention of her mother. She still didn’t know how to reply to people when they offered their condolences. “Out of the country sounds promising. Did you stick with the art major? I remember you were talking about all the things you wanted to do before you settled down. Are you married?”
They sat on the couch, Noelle forgetting that she was expecting Cade and his crew to move the furniture at any time. “No. I’m not married. I did get my degree in art, crammed it all into two years with night classes and online, but I apprenticed into masonry shortly after you had to leave. There are too many things I want out of life and painting landscapes for living wasn’t going to cut it for me. I made Journeyman last year. I found that working with stone was something I enjoyed and was good at, I still do a sculpture or an odd painting here and there, but mostly I’m in high end construction.”
Something clicked for Noelle. “You wouldn’t be working for Harden Construction would you?”
“Yeah, I just started yesterday morning in fact.”
“Well, that explains how you ended up on my doorstep then. The world really is a small place. Cade is collecting all Mom’s furniture to donate to her church, he was who I was expecting when you knocked.”
“Yep, he sent me over to meet the crew which, if I am hearing correctly, is just arriving outside.” They both stood and walked over to the front window to look out. A large moving van and two more trucks had pulled up along the street and several men including Cade were opening up the van and getting it ready for the furniture.
“Since you are going to be around for a while Griffin,” she said pulling on her coat and opening the front door again. “We should get coffee sometime.” Noelle grabbed a scrap of paper from the top of one of the boxes and wrote her cell number on it. “Give me a call.”
“...give me a call.” Cade heard her voice as he stepped up onto the porch.
“Afternoon Boss,” Griffin greeted Cade before grabbing an armchair and heading out the door with it.
Cade looked suspiciously between Griffin and Noelle. She was smiling and color flooded her cheeks as he caught her eye. “Good afternoon.”
“I have it all ready,” Noelle commented feeling more than a little nervous and breathless in Cade’s presence. Two more men came in behind Cade before he had a chance to say anything further and then in no time flat the house was devoid of furniture. She had hoped to get a chance to talk to Cade before everything was done but he was gone again just like that. Noelle closed the door as the last truck drove off, with a sigh of frustration. Had she misinterpreted his feelings last night? Maybe he didn’t have as good a time as he let on. Doubts flooded her head and to avoid them she grabbed that morning’s edition of the paper and started to look for an apartment she could afford and a job to pay for it. She grabbed her laptop from the bedroom and decided that she would look into the English program at University of Utah as well. Perhaps that would be her answer for now. If all her credits were still good, she only had a year left of study and then her student teaching. That way she could teach while she worked on her Master’s program. Of course, that plan all hinged on whether or not she could get financial aid. She had been on scholarship initially so she didn’t owe anything but she knew it’d be next fall before she’d be eligible for any of that again and Fall was still a long way off.
***
Griffin was smiling at his coworkers. “That was one sweet looking little lady.” Rick the electrician commented, “How’d you score her number?”
“What can I say?” Griffin answered as they set the couch down on the rec room floor. “Women just love me.”
“Back to work.” Cade called as the last of the furniture was brought in. He looked specifically at Griffin. “There’s a lot to be done and a short time to do it in.”
Griffin knew his new Boss was unhappy with him. He shrugged to himself and headed for his truck.
As Cade drove back to the site, he thought about calling Noelle, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to press her number into his phone. He’d thought their date had gone really well. He thought back over the evening and couldn’t find one moment that seemed anything but pleasant. But there she was this afternoon, only a day later giving her phone number to his marble guy.
“It was only one date,” he muttered to himself. “It’s not like you proposed.” he said but it didn’t help. The feeling of her lips brushing his own ever so briefly the night before still distracted him. For reasons unknown, he felt like she had betrayed him. It left him feeling hollow. He pulled into the hotel site and climbed out of his truck. He felt raw and frustrated, and his crew suffered the brunt of it for the rest of the day.
***
Noelle had been busy for the rest of the day cleaning up the living room and kitchen. All that was left was one set of dishes for her to eat off and the things in her bedroom. She had contacted several people advertising apartments in the city and arranged to view a couple of them tomorrow. The deposit, first and last month’s rent requirements would eat up the last of her savings. So, while she was in the city tomorrow, she would also be putting in for several different jobs.
The gap in her resume of paid work made her worry, but after spending several hours poring over the university website, she realized there just wasn’t any way she would be able to afford to go to school until the fall. She’d stop by admissions and get the financial aid forms as well as find out what the newest class catalog would require to finish her degree. It felt good to have forward momentum in her life again.
She yawned and stretched her muscles a bit, deciding a shower and bed sounded really good. She thought about Cade again and the way he had acted today. Her memories of him from her early years were so filled with hero worship that it was hard to incorporate the man she went to dinner last night with into the boy from school. However, the man from the reunion and this Cade were one and the same. He was alive and sexy as hell. Turning the water off, she dried off and wrapped up in her robe. She was just entering her bedroom when her phone rang. She dove for it with a hopeful smile on her face.
“Hello,” she answered, the smile ringing in her voice.
“Hey there,” Griffin smiled in return. “It’s Griffin. I wanted to call and see what you were doing tomorrow night.”
“Hey Griffin,” she replied holding back her disappointment. “I’m going into the city tomorrow to look for an apartment but I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow night. I suppose I could meet you after work.”
“How about the Bayou at six?”
“I haven’t been there in a while. That sounds great. I’ll meet you there.”
“Good, I look forward to getting to catch up with you. Goodnight Noelle.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The third apartment she viewed was the one for which she applied, and by afternoon the building manager had called to offer it to her. The price range was right and while it was only a small one bedroom, it had a nice view of the mountains out the bedroom window. She could picture where she would put the little bit of furniture she did have and what she liked most is that the living room had enough room for a reading chair a couch and a small d
esk to work at. She did spend a fair amount of time with her laptop in her bed, but when she needed to write something serious, she found she was much more productive if she was sitting at a proper desk.
Two more stops and she was walking out of a business building with an interview in two days for a copywriter job. She had also registered with a Temp agency just in case. Noelle stopped for lunch in a little deli and then headed for the University to see where her credits stood and fill out financial aid applications.
The woman behind the admissions counter was very helpful and set an appointment after lunch to talk with a degree specialist. While she waited, she began filling out the financial aid forms. Some of them could be done online and others still required her to fill in the blanks. As she looked around, she felt so much older than the students that were walking through the building. She knew many people that went back to school or started it for the first time after twenty-five but she hadn’t counted on how it would feel to be one of them. College had been such a social experience for her the first time around. She attended parties and dated a lot. Classes were important but so was her nightlife. And now...now she was twenty-seven and didn’t have a social life. Six years and she was a completely different person than she had been. It didn’t have to be that way, she reminded herself.
The meeting with the degree specialist was quicker than she thought. It turned out since she was returning to the same school that all but a few of her non-major classes still applied. She would be able to jump right back in where she had left off, though the degree specialist reminded her that if she were interested in teaching she would have to make some contacts in the community and find a school and teacher that would be a good fit. The University would be in charge of her placement but she had to have at least three teachers and schools to list as her preferred schools.
