Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Alexis leaned back in the kitchen chair she was sitting in, watching snowflakes tumble to the ground outside, lit faintly by the light coming from the windows of the house. She was wearing cozy flannel pajamas and a fleece bathrobe, and she was warm and comfortable. Usually, getting all ready for bed made her feel sleepy, but tonight she felt energetic and wide awake, even though it was getting late.
She glanced at the clock and shook her head.
I should go to sleep, she thought. I’ve finished all my work for the day, so I should get some rest.
She bit her lip, glancing down at the empty mug in front of her. She’d just finished her
fourth cup of peppermint tea for the day, and although it had been refreshing, she still felt as though she wanted something else.
She wondered if she was just missing Grayson, who had left for his camping trip with the guys. The house felt quiet and a little lonely without him. She looked down at her stomach and patted it gently, smiling. Well, not too lonely. At least she wasn’t all by herself.
In the next moment, she looked up eagerly, having realized exactly what it was she wanted. She stood up and hurried over to the cupboard and took out a box of peanut butter cookies. Then she went over to the refrigerator and got out a jar of peanut butter.
She sat back down at the kitchen table with the cookies, the peanut butter, and a spoon, and slathered a cookie with an enormous glob of peanut butter. She took a big bite out of it, sighing as she closed her eyes.
Yup, she thought. That was it.
She continued to eat for a while, sitting at the table and staring into space. She thought about the baby, and what it would be like to add a whole new person to her life with Grayson.
Then unexpectedly, her thoughts turned to Jacob and Hazel. She smiled as she thought about the way they’d been grinning at each other at the pub the day before. She sighed, thinking to herself that they would be such a great couple. If only he didn’t have a girlfriend!
She froze as an idea came to her, and she held her peanut-butter-covered cookie in mid-air. Her mother had said that she hadn’t seen Jacob with his girlfriend for a long time, and she hadn’t either. Was he really just busy or always visiting her in her hometown, or was it something else? Had they broken up?
I need to find out if he’s single , she thought with a grin. Hazel is in a great place right now, so it would be the perfect opportunity for her to have another shot with him.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a little after ten o’clock, but she felt as energetic as if it was three o’clock in the afternoon. She finished her cookie, her mind whirring with ideas. Finally, she decided that she could either sit there eating peanut butter or she could do something productive, and she decided to do something productive.
She hurried over to the coat closet and got out her coat and hat. She put them on, and then tugged on her boots at the back door. A few moments later, she was driving her car down the street in the direction of her mother’s house. She wanted to talk to Julia.
She arrived a few minutes later, and as she was hurrying up the driveway, she saw through the picture window that Cooper and Julia were having a movie night. She shook her head.
Poor Cooper , she thought. Too bad for him. This is more important!
She knocked on the front door with a flourish. Her excitement was growing, and by the time Julia opened the door, she had a big grin on her face.
Julia looked surprised. “Alexis! Is everything okay?”
“Yes, everything’s fine, but I need to talk to you.” Alexis bustled her way inside and waved to Julia’s boyfriend, who looked just as surprised to see her as Julia did. “Have you seen this movie before, Cooper?”
“Uh, what?” He blinked. “I mean, yes?—”
“Good, because I need you to leave. I’ve got to talk to Julia.”
“Right now? Can’t Cooper and I?—”
“Urgently.” Alexis shook her head. “Alone.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Julia sat down on the armrest of the couch, looking as though she was trying not to laugh. “You’re here in your pajamas.”
“It is okay, but it’s important. How much is left in this movie?”
“Like, seven minutes. Can you wait until it’s over?”
Alexis sighed. “Okay. Do you have any peanut butter here?”
A few minutes later, Alexis was eating a toasted English muffin smeared with peanut butter, and Cooper and Julia were sitting beside her on the couch, finishing the last few minutes of their movie. As soon as the credits began to roll, Alexis turned to Cooper.
“Cooper, it’s time to leave.”
Cooper threw his head back, laughing. “Right this second? Come on, Alexis, you’re interrupting our date night.”
“You see Julia every day. You’re paying your babysitter by the hour. Go home.”
Cooper and Julia walked to the door together, chuckling, where Cooper put on his hat and coat.
“Well, Alexis, I look forward to getting the full report of this tomorrow,” Cooper said. “Julia tells me everything, you know.”
“That’s what you think.” Julia winked at him.
She and Cooper exchanged one more kiss, and then he left, waving goodbye and still laughing.
“Okay.” Julia hurried back over to the couch and sat down cross-legged across from Alexis. “What do you need to talk with me about?”
“Hazel.”
“What about Hazel?”
“Hazel and Jacob.”
Julia leaned her face forward into a pillow, groaning. “Alexis! I’m going to call my boyfriend and tell him to come back. Hazel can’t be with Jacob, he’s dating someone else. We already knew that.”
Alexis shook her head. “We don’t know that. And I need you to help me figure it out.”
Julia’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we need to figure out if Jacob is single or not. Because I have reason to believe that he is.”
“What reason?” Julia hugged the pillow, looking interested.
“Well, for one, nobody’s seen him with his girlfriend in a long time.”
“Nobody? How many people have you asked?”
“Well, nobody as in me and Mom. But you haven’t seen them together lately either, have you?”
Julia shook her head laughing. “Oh my word, Alexis. But I have to admit, you’re right. I haven’t either. But I don’t like this idea. I don’t want to get Hazel’s hopes up about Jacob all over again. She’s been doing so well, enjoying being independent.”
“So we don’t tell her unless we know for sure. Or maybe we don’t tell her at all for a while, and let fate do its thing. But I need to know. Because I saw him smiling at her the other day, and I could have sworn there was a spark there.”
“That’s the other reason why you think he’s single, huh?”
“Mmhmm. The chemistry between the two of them was just gorgeous. Rom-com worthy. We need to find out if he is still with his girlfriend or not!”
Julia sighed. “I just don’t know that we should really be doing this. It’s none of our business.”
“Hey.” Alexis leaned forward and poked Julia in the shoulder. “You’ve been looking for valuable tasks to set your mind on. This is certainly a valuable task! Hazel finding a wonderful man she could grow old together with.”
“Slow down there, fearless leader.”
“I’m your leader, huh? So you’re in?”
Julia laughed and groaned. “Yes. Fine. Now you’ve got me all curious and invested too. I did always think that he and Hazel would be amazing together.”
“Perfect!” Alexis grinned and grabbed a fistful of popcorn from a half-eaten bowl that was resting on the coffee table. “Let’s stalk all his social media accounts.”
Laughing, the sisters flopped back on the couch and began to search through Jacob’s Instagram and Facebook.
“We need to check to see when the last time he posted a picture of the two of them was,” Alexis said.
“That’s not any kind of proof,” Julia said. “He might have just been too busy to post.”
“It’s not proof, but it’s evidence,” Alexis said, nodding eagerly. “What have you got on his Facebook?”
“Hmm, nothing since summer. I guess that is kind of odd, because she was posting pictures a lot and tagging him in them.”
“Ha! See? Evidence.”
“What about his Instagram?”
“Same thing. He doesn’t post much, but he did post a picture of them fishing together in the summer. And she looks totally grossed out and unhappy, I might add.”
“So obviously she’s bad for him and he should be with Hazel,” Julia said sarcastically, although Alexis noticed that she leaned forward to get a good look at the picture. “Oh, you’re right, she does look like she might be bad for Jacob. She’s too sophisticated. I mean—not that Jacob is sloppy or anything?—”
Alexis laughed. “I know what you mean. Jacob needs someone easygoing. She looks?—”
“Like how I used to be?” Julia laughed. “Like someone who spends too much time getting things to be just right?”
Alexis leaned over and kissed Julia’s cheek. “I wasn’t going to say that, but for the record, laid-back Julia is much more fun than super sophisticated Julia.”
Laughing, the sisters continued their search. Alexis was disappointed to find that Jacob posted mostly pictures of the work he’d completed, and even though she had to admit that it was clear he did a great job on all of his projects, repaired windows and new staircase railings didn’t have much to do with romance.
She was beginning to see a trend in the selfies he posted, however. Most of them were of him with a group of other guys, and there was one guy in particular who was showing up in most of the photos.
“Who is that?” she asked Julia, leaning closer to her sister and showing her a picture of just Jacob and the guy. “I have a hunch that’s Jacob’s best friend.”
Julia inspected the picture. “I’ve been noticing him in the Facebook pictures too. I don’t know him—he must have moved to Rosewood Beach after we graduated from high school.”
“Well, he could be the one to officially solve the mystery for us, whoever he is. He obviously knows Jacob better than we do. He can confirm whether Jacob has a girlfriend anymore or not.”
“But—we don’t even know this guy!”
“That’s okay! Click on one of the Facebook pictures, see if he’s tagged.”
Julia bit her lip and clicked on one of the pictures. Sure enough, the friend had been tagged and his name was Trevor Duncan, and Julia was on his Facebook profile a few seconds later.
“But we don’t have any way of contacting him,” Julia pointed out. “Neither of us know him.”
“Sure we do! We can message him on Facebook.”
“Oh, Alexis. No way. That would seem stalker-ish.”
“It would seem stalker-ish because we are being stalker-ish.” Alexis laughed. “Okay, who can we talk to who we actually know in person?”
“Dean doesn’t know Jacob that well, but maybe we can get him to ask him.”
“No, that won’t work.” Alexis shook her head. “Dean and Hazel tell each other everything. Just like you apparently tell Cooper everything.”
“Hey, I’m definitely telling him about this.” Julia laughed. “This is a night to remember.”
“It’ll be more of a night to remember if we find out for sure that Jacob’s single.” Alexis drummed her fingers against her lips, thinking. “I didn’t recognize most of the guys in those pictures, and even as far as the guys I do know are concerned, there’s no way of knowing if any of them are the kind of person Jacob would talk to about his personal life.”
“Hey!” Julia sat up straight, looking excited. “You know who probably would know? Cedric Turner!”
“Cedric Turner? As in, the old guy Cedric Turner who owns Turner’s Hardware?”
“Yes! He’s been Jacob’s mentor for years. The two of them are actually pretty close. Hazel told me that once.”
“Huh.” Alexis stared into space for a few moments, beginning to grin. “Yeah, that sounds like a great plan. We can trust Cedric to be discreet and not tell Jacob that we asked. I’m going to call him.”
“Do you have his number?”
“No, but you do. He’s in the pub’s contact booklet and I know you entered all those numbers into your personal phone because you’re you.” Alexis grabbed Julia’s phone out of her hands and verified her hunch in the next moment. “See? There he is!”
“Wait, wait, wait. Does Jacob talk to Cedric all that much, though? Just because Cedric is his mentor doesn’t mean he’s talked to him lately.”
“I’m sure he has. Jacob has to get all of his materials from Turner’s Hardware. He probably sees Cedric more often than he sees his own mother! Should I call him?”
Julia’s lips parted, but before she could say anything, Alexis was dialing the number. Julia groaned and buried her face in the couch cushions.
“You’re calling with my phone,” Julia complained.
“I doubt he has your number saved, I’ll tell him it’s me?—
“Hello?”
“Oh, hey, Mr. Turner!” As soon as she heard the gruff voice of the old man on the other line, Alexis felt as though she was suddenly back in high school. “Do you have a minute?”
“I suppose. Who is this?”
Alexis bit her lip. It was clear from Cedric’s tone of voice that she’d just woken him up. In her excitement, she’d completely forgotten how late it was. “Uh, don’t worry about that. I just have a really quick question for you. Is Jacob Dorsey single?”
There was a very long pause, so long that Alexis wondered if Cedric had hung up on her or maybe fallen back asleep on the phone.
“I don’t know that it’s any of your business,” Cedric said slowly, “but yes, he is single.”
Alexis snatched Julia’s hand and squeezed it tightly in excitement.
“What about that girl he was dating from another town? That really sophisticated-looking one?”
“No, they broke up a few months ago.” There was a short pause, and then Cedric said, “Who is this?”
“Just a local busybody. I need more things to gossip about. Thank you for your time. Goodnight!” Alexis hung up the phone in a hurry, and she and Julia burst into a fit of giggles.
“He’s single?” Julia gasped out a moment later when she’d finally caught her breath.
“Yes!” Alexis hugged her sister, thrilled. “He’s been single for a few months. I’m so excited! This is Hazel’s chance!”
Julia covered her mouth with her hands, but Alexis could tell her sister was smiling.
“So Jacob has been single this whole time,” Julia murmured. “I guess it’s for the best that Hazel didn’t know. This way she was able to take the time to invest in herself instead of in her crush on Jacob. She’s got a healthier perspective on him and on herself now. I think she’s more ready for a relationship than she was earlier this year.”
“And now—” Alexis gestured dramatically. “Now there’s nothing standing in her way!”