Chapter 9 #2
His email is distant and professional. On one hand, that’s a relief. I don’t want someone hovering over me constantly. On the other, it’s going to be uncomfortable having an aloof conservator.
Before I can respond, the doorbell rings, and I snap my laptop closed. My phone says Noah’s right on time.
Nervous, I pause to look at my reflection in the hall tree mirror. I look okay…maybe even good. Feeling pretty, I test a smile. I’d probably have a little more color if I’d started taking my blood, but I had a steak for lunch. Baby steps, you know?
I swing the door open, catching myself before I beam at him.
This isn’t a date.
Noah turns from the baby petunias I recently replanted in the pot by the front door, his eyes sweeping over me.
I’m in jeans and a fitted T-shirt with my business logo. I also have my hair down, and I’m wearing a baseball cap because it’s still sunny.
He frowns. “It’s a little warm for a long sleeve, don’t you think?”
“It cools off in the evenings. And sometimes, the mosquitoes come out.”
Not that I have to worry about them anymore. That was another odd quirk covered in the pamphlets—mosquitoes won’t feed on blood tainted with Vampiria B. Professional courtesy and all that.
“I doubt they’ll mess with you now,” Noah says.
That catches me off guard. “What?”
“The mosquitoes.” He nods toward my fabric-covered arms. “Because you’re all covered up.”
“Oh.” I laugh a little, deciding this disease is making me paranoid. “Right.”
I step out the door and head around the back of the house, waving for him to follow me.
“I harvested everything this morning, so we just have to grab the buckets from the cellar.”
“You have a cellar?” Noah asks from behind me.
“My grandfather put it in for my grandmother. This place belongs to them. The area I use for my flowers used to be a huge vegetable garden. We’d stock the cellar every year.” I look over my shoulder, smiling. “I still do. But now I fill it with flowers instead of pumpkins and canned tomatoes.”
Noah’s bemused smile reaches his eyes. Distracted, I stumble on an uneven paver. Immediately, he reaches out, catching my arm. “Careful there.”
His eyes are muted honey—light brown, touched with shadows, and framed with dark lashes.
I swallow, clearing my throat as I pull my arm free. “I’ve been meaning to fix that.”
He looks around, frowning. “You take care of this place all on your own? It’s huge.”
“My brother helps, but mostly…yeah.” I laugh as I continue through the gate. “Don’t look at the flower beds. The weeds realized I was sick and are staging a coup.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what’s wrong, will you?”
I swallow again, my mouth suddenly dry. Keeping my eyes on my sunlit flowers all lined up in their tidy beds, I say, “That’s really more like friend-date number ten info.”
“Friend-date?”
I turn around, walking backward, feeling my cheeks getting red—a common side effect around the man.
“You know—an outing between friends? I guess it’s a little premature to call you a friend, but you did cook me a steak dinner and hold my hand at the doctor, so I thought it would be okay to skip ahead.
” I grin. “Besides, with the way you’re hanging around, I figured you’re a bit desperate. ”
“You’re going to trip again.”
He’s smiling. It’s just a little smile ghosting across his face—a hint and nothing more—but it feels like a win.
I laugh, shaking my head as I open the cellar.
“You appear to be feeling better, though,” he says.
“I am.”
“The prescription helped?”
I feel for the light and then walk down the creaking wooden stairs, into the cool underground storage area. Playing dumb, I say, “Prescription?”
“The one you were picking up at the pharmacy when you ran into me. Literally.”
“Oh, right—that.” I grab two of the waiting buckets, smiling at Noah when he picks up two more. “I, uh, haven’t actually worked up the nerve to take it yet.”
“Why?” he asks, his voice going stern.
“I…well…” I shrug, brushing off the question and hurrying back up the stairs. “Careful on that second-to-bottom step. It’s a bit wobbly.”
“If your doctor prescribed you medicine, you need to take it,” he says, proving to be as tenacious as Olivia.
“Tonight,” I promise, smiling like I’m not lying through my teeth.
Because he doesn’t know me well, Noah’s skeptical look eases, and he finally nods.
Even with the wagon I keep outside the cellar, it takes several trips to load all the buckets into the truck. Once they’re secure, I pull the retractable tonneau cover Max installed for me over the flowers to keep them safe on the drive.
Noah climbs into the passenger seat and hooks his seatbelt, looking mildly impressed when the old beast roars to life. “I don’t think that engine is stock.”
“My brother’s a mechanic. He did something that makes it louder and told me if I get pulled over because of it, I’m supposed to play dumb.”
“Straight-piped the exhaust?”
“Sure?”
“So, you’re playing dumb, or…”
I look over and laugh, startled by the teasing tone in his voice. “Hey.”
He shrugs, looking smug.
“How old are you?”
“Why?” he asks, startled by the abrupt question.
“Your family’s store has been here forever, which means you’ve probably been here forever, too. I wonder if we ever bumped into each other when we were younger.”
“You want to know if we went to school together?”
“We didn’t.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asks.
My eyes stray from the road to the man in my passenger seat. “I’d remember you.”
He looks over, his eyes meeting mine. “People change a lot in ten years.”
That makes me pause. “Did we go to school together?”
“No.”
“How can you be so sure?” I ask, parroting his question.
He waits a beat, staying quiet until I look back at him. “Because I’d remember you.”
My poor heart squeezes…and then I remember I’m a vampire. A pre-vampire, granted. But still…a vampire.
“I’m thirty-one,” he finally answers.
I rip my eyes back to the road. “How long have you been away from town?”
“I got a job right out of high school and worked here until I was twenty-three. I moved to Denver when I got promoted.”
“What were you doing?”
He thinks about that for a moment, like he’s trying to put his thoughts in order. “I work for an organization that specializes in pathogen research and public safety. I was a human resources officer…of sorts.”
“You worked in human resources?” I pause. “Like…with people?”
He snorts out a laugh. “I dealt with rule violators.”
“Ah. And why are you back here?”
“I stumbled across some corruption within the organization, followed it almost all the way to the top, and then mysteriously found myself demoted.”
“So, you quit and came back to work for your family’s grocery store?”
“That was just for a few weeks while paperwork was being processed. I’m still working for the organization. Supposedly, I can return to my old job in a year.”
“So, what are you doing now?” I park in my usual spot, noticing the street is already crowded.
“I’m in the training department.”
“You’re a trainer?”
“More like a babysitter.”
“Do you enjoy it?” I turn off the engine, angling to look at him when he doesn’t answer right away.
His eyes meet mine, molten honey. “It has its perks.”
And I don’t know why…but I think he means I’m one of them.