Evie’s lips twitched. “We live a wild, reckless life.”
Noah grinned at her, but then his smile slipped, almost like he was remembering something. “I should probably go check out,” he said, a little curter this time.
“Me too,” Evie agreed, wrangling her cart and falling into step beside him. “If I stay too much longer I’ll probably spend my entire redecorating budget on ornamental fountains. Something tells me Cooper wouldn’t be too impressed.”
“So, he took the job then?” Noah asked.
“How did you—” Evie gave him a sidelong look. “Wait, were you the one to tell him that I desperately needed help?”
Noah gave a shrug. “Maybe. I am supposed to be keeping an eye on you, after all. For Debra,” he added.
Evie’s shoulders settled.. She could hardly be mad at him for interfering when it had all turned out so well. “Thank you. Cooper is a godsend. I propose marriage to him daily.”
“And what does your husband think about that?” Noah asked lightly.
Evie froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just … I heard you talking about him to Louie,” Noah explained. He paused, giving her an inscrutable look. “You didn’t mention you were married.”
Evie blinked. “That’s because I’m not. Not anymore.” She paused. “He passed away, a couple of years ago,” she admitted quietly.
Noah cursed under his breath. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Evie nodded. She’d gotten used to accepting condolences by now. “We weren’t married long,” she added.
“I can’t imagine that makes much of a difference.”
Evie gave a rueful smile. “No, it doesn’t. Anyway, I’m here to start over, instead of staying trapped in all the memories and grief. That’s what the inn is all about—in case you were thinking I was just some reckless idiot, diving into chaos headfirst for the hell of it,” she added, joking to lift the mood.
“I didn’t—” Noah began to protest. Then he stopped and gave a grin. “Well, now that you mention it …”
Evie laughed, glad to have broken the tension. There was nothing like a dead husband to stop a conversation in its tracks. People suddenly started treating her with kid gloves, like she was about to break down in tears at any moment, and Evie always found herself wishing she’d never said anything at all.
Luckily, Noah didn’t dwell on it. He paused by a shelf of tools instead. “I should pick up one of these bench clamps for my dad,” he said. “He’s working on a new chest of drawers.”
“He makes furniture?” she asked. “If it’s any good, let me know. I need a ton of stuff for the inn.”
Noah snorted. “Not unless your guests are three inches tall. It’s dollhouse furniture,” he explained. “The man’s obsessed.”
“Oh,” Evie said, surprised. “That sounds … nice.”
Noah laughed. “I think you mean eccentric, but it keeps him occupied. After he retired, he had no idea what to do with himself,” he explained as they slowly strolled the aisle. “He was driving my mom crazy, just hanging around the house. But then this buddy of his had an old dollhouse he wanted fixing up, as a gift for his granddaughter. Dad took it on, and—well, it was a match made in heaven. He even sells some of it online. You wouldn’t believe what people will pay for a miniature dining table and eight tiny matching chairs.”
Evie laughed, throwing a couple of rolls of duct tape into her cart. If there was one thing she was learning about living on a construction site, it was that you couldn’t have too much duct tape. “My mom breeds ragdoll cats,” she confided. “They’re this special breed, extra docile and affectionate. Personally, I think they look creepy. Like the ghost of a spoiled prince got trapped in a cat’s body. But she loves it. She took it up after the divorce. Every time she’d get a little low, I’d come home to find another one of them glaring at me.”
Noah chuckled. “Whatever keeps them happy, right?”
“Right,” Evie agreed. “Although mine probably won’t be satisfied as long as I’m out here, trying to make a go of the inn. She means well,” she added. “She doesn’t think I’m ready for a big life change like this. You know, after everything.”
Her mom was just trying to look out for her, Evie knew. After Glen died, she had been in a pretty bleak place, and it had taken a ton of support from family and friends to pull herself back together. But even though Evie was just fine standing on her own two feet again, her mom worried that a big change like this would be too much, and no amount of reassurance would make her see otherwise.
“And are you?” Noah asked. “Ready, I mean.”
Evie gave a determined nod. “I can’t just stay spinning my wheels in one place forever. It’s time to move on. I just didn’t expect moving on to have quite so many damp patches,” she added, rueful. “Or dead racoons.”
Noah grinned. “You can handle it.”
Evie smiled back. “You sound pretty certain for a man who’s had to stop me from plummeting to my doom twice already.”
“Balance issues aside, I’m not worried,” Noah replied. “I have a feeling you can handle anything.”
When Evie glanced over, she found Noah looking at her with a strange, quiet intensity in his expression. His eyes locked on hers, and suddenly they were all she could see.
Ocean blue, she thought, in a daze. Not clear or sparkling, but something deeper, like the foam-tipped waves that rolled outside her windows. Always shifting as the sunlight moved across the bay, hinting at some unexpected depth …
“Excuse me?”
She startled. Another customer was trying to steer his cart past them. “Oh, sorry!” Evie leapt out of his way, still reeling from the moment.
What was she doing?
She looked around, disoriented by the too-bright fluorescent lights and aisles of cement mix—and Noah, standing there beside her like nothing was wrong, even as Evie’s heart pounded faster in her chest.
Ocean blue? She gulped. She must have been breathing in too much sawdust back at the inn—or else she was in serious danger of losing her mind.
“I, um, have to go!” she mumbled, backing away from him. “Thanks for—um … well, thanks!”
Noah looked puzzled. “What about your things?” he asked, nodding at her cart.
“I … changed my mind!” Maybe she was being ridiculous, but Evie just couldn’t risk another moment around this man. What was she going to do next, start comparing his body to Greek statues? Write poetry about his smile?
“Faucets are a big commitment,” she managed to blurt out, cheeks burning with embarrassment.
And with that witty parting comment, she turned on her heel and fled.
5
Noah may have just about gotten his imagination under control when it came to Evie Baxter-Jones, but his unconscious mind clearly wasn’t playing ball.
He dreamed about her.
Not just a casual glimpse in some general scene, either. Nope. He woke the morning after their most recent encounter in a hot sweat, the sheets tangled, his blood surging in his veins.