She was checking the hitch one last time when she heard a vehicle drive up to the house and saw Nate’s truck pull in alongside hers.
Oh. If only she had left five minutes earlier, she could have missed him completely.
As soon as he stopped, Sophie rushed out of the passenger side of the vehicle. She wore a coral-colored dress with a white sweater and an expression of dismay.
“Your trailer is all hooked up.” She glared at Jess and then at the hitch.
“Yes. It’s time for me to go, especially since you and I finished everything at the house the other day.”
“Already? Can’t you stay a little longer?”
“I have a long drive and don’t want to arrive home too late. I thought you would be in school.”
“I came home after the awards ceremony so I could be with Gram this afternoon, since we weren’t really doing anything at school. You were going to leave without saying goodbye?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t get back from Redwood National Park with my sister until late last night. I didn’t want to wake you up last night. I tried to see you this morning but I waited too long and you were gone.”
Sophie looked as if she wanted to cry, ripping off a few more layers around Jess’s heart.
“I don’t want you to go.”
To her shock, Sophie threw her arms around her. As she hugged her back, Jess realized she hadn’t only fallen for Nate. She had fallen for Sophie, too. And of course, for Eleanor.
She loved all of them.
“It’s not forever,” she said gently. “My sister and her family still live in town. I’ll be through again. Next time I’m here in Cape Sanctuary to see them, I’ll call you and we can meet up. Maybe we can build another sandcastle or go beachcombing.”
Sophie sniffled and pulled away. “That would be good. It won’t be the same, though.”
“You have my phone and my email. You can reach out anytime. In fact, I insist you let me know if you ever get that delivery of postcards and the gift from Japan.”
“I will. I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you, too, Sophie. Take care of your grandmother for me, okay? And your dad.”
She hadn’t looked at Nate once. She couldn’t.
At that, Nate finally stepped forward. He had on a gray dress shirt and darker gray tie, which he must have worn for Sophie’s awards ceremony. It was the first time she had seen him dressed so formally and she had to swallow.
“Why don’t you go in and check on your grandmother?” Nate said to his daughter.
Sophie sighed. “Okay. Bye, Jess. Drive safe.”
“Goodbye, honey.”
The girl hurried into the house, leaving Jess and Nate alone. Jess wanted to call her back, needing the buffer. She hated having to say goodbye to Nate.
Why, oh why, hadn’t she left five minutes earlier? Was it possible she had been subconsciously dragging her feet so she could see them one more time?
“So where are you headed next?” he asked.
“Back to my place in Mission Hills for a few days to take care of administrative stuff before I drive to Las Vegas to help clean out a house for a couple who are going into assisted living.”
“Fun.”
“Not very. He has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t want to leave their house but she can’t care for him there anymore. I have to help her figure out how to condense a five-bedroom home where they have lived for decades to a two-bedroom assisted-living apartment.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks. After that, I’m going to St. George, Utah, where a widow is moving in with her son in Salt Lake City and needs help getting her house cleared out and staged to sell. I’ve got other jobs lined up all summer.”
She loved her job and knew she did important work, helping people. She still didn’t want to leave.
“They’re all lucky to have you,” Nate said gruffly.
“Thanks.”
“What you did for my mother. I still have no idea how to thank you.”
“It was my pleasure, Nate. Really. I loved working on Whitaker House.”
“I meant saving her life. But the work you did on the house was terrific, too.”
“I hope Eleanor is able to spend many more years enjoying it.”
“She will. I’m sure of it.”
He loved his mother, which was one of the things she found most endearing about him.
Okay, she found everything about him endearing.
“I will miss you.”
The words seemed to have been dragged out of him. They hovered between them, stark and honest.
Stunned by the intensity of them, she didn’t know how to answer.
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I wasn’t going to say anything. I figured I would stand here and keep my mouth shut and watch you walk away. But what the hell. Years from now, I don’t want to live with the regret of knowing that I stayed quiet when I should have spoken up.”
He stepped forward and gripped her hands tightly in his. “Is there any chance of persuading you to stay longer? Maybe you could do your administrative stuff here.”
She could. There was no real reason why she couldn’t stay a few more days and then drive straight to Las Vegas from here.
But that would only be delaying the inevitable, wouldn’t it?
“You said once that your apartment in the valley is mostly a convenient stopping place between jobs. What if you made Cape Sanctuary your home base?”
“I...what?” The suggestion was so unexpected that she could only stare at him.
“You have people who care about you here. Rachel, Cody, the kids.”
“Yes.”
“And now you have the Whitakers who all care about you, too. Sophie flat out adores you and of course my mom is crazy about you.”
What about you?
She wanted to ask but couldn’t seem to grab the scattered words together to form a sentence. “I know we’re not as centrally located as LA and you would have to drive a little farther to southern places. Or, you know, moving forward, you could take on more jobs in this area of the state to keep you busy or even up into Oregon and Washington.”
“What are you asking, Nate?”
“I’m making a mess of this, aren’t I? I’m sorry. I went over and over this in my head last night, trying to figure out the right words.” Before she realized what he intended, he pulled one of her hands to his mouth—the hand that was probably oily from hitching up her trailer—and kissed the back of it, just as if she were some kind of grand lady in a French chateau or something.